Displaying items by tag: Peter Goldsmith

Theatre 31 Productions’ Gus and Alice has returned to the Greenhouse Theater Center this month. Written by Chicago playwright Mike Rago, the light‑hearted slice‑of‑life comedy follows an elderly married couple whose days revolve around avoiding gluten and surviving a game of Trivial Pursuit. As they enter their next chapter, Alice wonders whether a retirement community might be the right move - though her curmudgeonly husband will need some convincing.

Gus and Alice made its debut in New York before heading to the Windy City earlier this year for a sold‑out run. Now the original cast returns for this limited engagement, greeted with an unmistakably warm welcome on opening night.

The one‑act play has the feel of a ’90s sitcom (albeit one with a few well‑placed expletives). It kicks off with snappy dialogue and brisk blackouts that introduce the couple and their marriage - full of the love and bickering reminiscent of The Honeymooners’ Ralph and Alice. These characters are familiar, but the timelessness of the humor still rings true.

Rago set out to write a show centered on aging parents, a group often sidelined in comedy. At the core of the production’s success is the chemistry between Al Lerner and Michelle McKenzie‑Voigt, who bring Gus and Alice to life with a dynamic ease that anchors every scene they share. McKenzie‑Voigt, a Chicago‑based theater actress, professional voice talent, and multiple Chicago Emmy Award‑nominee, gives Alice a warm, grounded presence that balances Lerner’s sharper edges. Chicagoans may recognize Lerner from his days as a sports reporter and radio talk show host - a career that includes his work as a Sports Anchor/Reporter for ABC’s WLS‑TV, a Feature Reporter for NBC’s WMAQ‑TV, and a major on‑air presence at WGN Radio, where his talk show was nationally syndicated. Together, Lerner and McKenzie‑Voigt play off each other beautifully, trading barbs or getting on each other’s nerves while keeping their characters rooted in an understanding of love. Lerner grounds the cantankerous Gus with a short‑tempered crankiness that somehow remains endearing, while McKenzie‑Voigt shines as the sensible, fun‑loving Alice who can keep her husband in check.

Supporting the central pair is Peter Goldsmith as their son. His relaxed, relatable persona fits the role naturally; he deftly portrays a son who understands his parents’ quirks and effortlessly lets it slide when his dad calls him by his brother’s name. He proves to be the perfect straight man, playing the role with an intelligent ease.

The small ensemble adds quirky flavor. Valerie O’Connor is especially funny as the neighbor who’s had a bit too much to drink. A few ensemble members lean into a heightened, overly silly style of comedy, but it mostly suits the material. The show caps off with a high‑energy curtain‑call dance to the Macarena, a playful final beat that even draws a few audience members to join in.

Gus and Alice delivers a warm, laughter‑filled evening. This breezy comedy may tread familiar territory, but it reminds us what truly makes a family: loving each other even when we drive each other crazy.

Runtime: 1 hour 5 minutes

Rating: PG‑13

No intermission

Remaining show dates and times: Saturday, August 15 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, August 22 at 3:00 PM, Sunday, August 23 at 3:00 PM

The Greenhouse Theater Center 2257 N Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60614 Up Main Stage

Tickets: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36644/production/1281986

I remember when my dad, then a much younger man than I am now, had just lost his first parent. Anything—a TV show or a song or a greeting card or something he’d read—that hinted at aging or mortality could be an emotional trigger and start him crying. Most of the triggers were personal, but I remember the time he rented On Golden Pond on VHS. I don’t remember a thing about the movie—it wasn’t about a time-traveling Delorean or a Christmas Eve skyscraper full of terrorists or a theme park full of velociraptors—except that it was about just those two things—aging and mortality—and that long before the movie was even over, my dad was weeping.

All these years later, with me being much older than my dad, who himself passed away a few months back, I guess I’m now the ideal audience, the prime candidate, the mark, for On Golden Pond. I’d forgotten all about that 1980s video store rental incident until I attended the Skokie Theatre’s current production of Ernest Thomson’s play, directed by Wayne Mell and produced by Wendy Kaplan. But as soon as the metaphorical curtain rose, the real-life waterworks began.

The source material, of course, has such heartstrings tugging as its intent, but it requires a talented and sympathetic cast to make it work. And this cast works.

Bernie Rice’s Norman Thayer is everybody’s aging father (or father-in-law)—that combination of commanding your compassion (pity?) or and respect (fear?) at the same time. Towering, but faltering. Loud, but hesitant. Right, but maybe not as right as he used to be. Henry Fonda might’ve been my grandpa—handsome as all get out, but almost too iconic, too on the nose. But Bernie Rice sure could’ve been my dad—real.

Judy Rossignuolo-Rice’s Ethel Thayer, while dwarfed by her husband, filled the stage whenever she was on it, and played a woman who could be, who should be, a grandma. Her Ethel is just right. Just the right amount of sweet when it’s needed. Just the right amount of wise when it’s warranted. And always the right bit of sass and spunk.

The rest of the cast also fits right in on Golden Pond. Karyn Louise Doerfler’s just the right mix for her role—Ethel and Norman’s somewhat-estranged adult daughter, Chelsea—too. She’s a grown woman, so she doesn’t need any love or validation from her folks. But she’s still their daughter, and still vulnerable enough that she wants it (and, who am I kidding, it doesn’t matter how old we are, we still need that, which is the whole point of the show in the first place).

Chelsea’s stepson-to-be, Billy Ray Jr. is played delightfully and exuberantly by AJ Carchi, themselves a teenager, and one who also convincingly plays a teenager—skulking one second, mischievous the next, and in the end, in need of that same love.

Part of the family for decades is Peter Goldsmith’s rural mailman, Charlie—as quirky and lovable and vulnerable as Norman and Ethel and the rest, but he’s also the heart of the whole thing. Not just because if Charlie loves the Thayers, then we ought to love them, too. But Goldsmith brings a heart and an innocence to Charlie that not only seemed real, but that lit up any scenes he wandered into.

But this cast, and this production, really do create a family—that nostalgic, heart-tugging, greeting card, Norman Rockwell sorta family that maybe only ever existed in our heads. But it exists right now, on the stage of the Skokie Theatre, during their run of On Golden Pond, from now until February 25.

And I’d be remiss to mention the Skokie Theatre, itself. A Skokian of some two decades now, my own self, I’ve visited the charming silent-film-era place during its incarnations through the years. From watching a daughter take part in the long-gone Gorilla Tango Theater to the old black-and-white movies they show in the air-conditioned cool during each August’s Backlot Bash (named for the theater’s surroundings being the location of Hollywood’s pre-Hollywood backlot), I’ve watched it change. The current incarnation—beautifully and lovingly making this theater a home—is celebrating 10 years of creating art, creating community, and creating family, and their current production of On Golden Pond couldn’t be a more fitting way to do it.

At Skokie Theatre through February 25^th.