Chicago is My Home

13
Dec

Voice of Homer Simpson Pedals With ‘The Bicycle Men’ For Chicago Tour de Force

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

CHICAGO – Frantic and fantastically funny, the musical-comedy play “The Bicycle Men” invades Chicago again for a limited run at the Lakeshore Theater this time featuring the man – Dan Castellaneta – who is best known as the voice of TV’s Homer Simpson.

“The Bicycle Men”.
Photo credit: The Lakeshore Theater

The show, which originated with Castellaneta’s co-stars (Mark Nutter, John Rubano and Joe Liss) as “Le Comedie du Bicyclette” at the Los Angeles ImprovOlympics in April 2003, had a long run in Chicago that same year.

Loosely structured around a nebbish American (Castellaneta) and his bicycle tour of the French countryside, Nutter, Rubano and Liss play multiple characters designed to insanely disrupt the journey.

Set in a bicycle shop, youth hostel, restaurant, movie theater and most weirdly a talent show cabaret, each location inspires another surreal sketch with a musical number. Accompanied on piano by the multi-talented Nutter, Castellaneta and company sing a “Cynic’s Lullaby” and odes to “Fake Breasts,” “White Guys” “Church Barn” and most succinctly “Musical Hetero”.

Castellaneta – with his everyman demeanor – is perfectly cast as the ugly American content to play the straight man around the mad swirl of the other three crazies. Liss shines especially as a Marcel Marceau-type mute (in a Dana Carvey wig), a Dutch traveler who sings himself to sleep and an expert in the subtleties of dog poop.

Rubano is the glue of the show as the metaphoric bicycle god, and with his other characters, he steals every scene he chews.

His Texan-American ways with a happy physical abnormality would make George Bush proud while his turn as a puppet competes with Pinocchio. Playing a force of nature named Chester Manchester, he had the audience in paralyzing laughter and produced more gales with each characteristic expression.

Dan Castellaneta.
Photo credit: IMDb

The songs and choreography have a valid musical theater quality with standouts being the “White Guys” number with a boogie-woogie movement that is best described as spastic.

The brilliant song “Musical Hetero” – in which Castellaneta pleads that he is a straight man in a gay song-and-dance world – farcically manages to skew both ends of the orientation spectrum with several high kicks thrown in for added measure.

For fans of “The Simpsons,” it was also interesting to listen to Castellaneta’s natural speaking and singing voice and detect the familiar rhythm behind so many voices in that legendary series.

This play is outrageously off-kilter even down to the scene transitions where the players use broad physical comedy to transcend time and space. The men on stage have great fun with a loose, improvisational style that buries the laugh meter in the red zone and takes the audience along on their audacious bicycle ride.

As Homer Simpson himself once said: “I love legitimate thee-ay-ter.”

By Patrick McDonald

11
Nov

Theater: Joyce Piven’s ‘What Dreams May Come’ a Mitzvah Lost in Adaptation

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

CHICAGO – Before you’re served this meal, you’re treated to a backstory of four integral ingredients that are three parts encouragement and one part concern.

The Piven Theatre, which is co-founded by Joyce Piven (the mother of Chicago film star Jeremy Piven), is kicking off its upcoming theater season by revisiting an acclaimed format that sold out shows throughout its run two years ago.

For more delectable buildup, a personal note from director Joyce Piven on this year’s “What Dreams May Come: American Visions Through Jewish Eyes” perfectly puts you in the storytelling mood.

The tale of her credulous and selfless grandfather, Jake, is one you’re inspired by and proud to tell about an elder you love and respect. Jake Piven ran a small grocery store off Roosevelt Road where he had a “credit record” of all things purchased to be paid without interest when the person could afford it.

For even more fodder to this looming feast, you learn its three stories are penned by one Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish author (Bernard Malamud) and another Nobel Prize-winning Jewish writer (Isaac Bashevis Singer).

Once you’re primed with encouragement of 2005’s success coupled with the vivid details of her grandfather and what must decisively be superlative writing, though, you dive into the performance with open-minded apprehension after reading the relatively lacking cast credits.

The three back-to-back stories all impart decidedly different lessons without any connection to one other. The first – wrapped in a woman’s dream of her parents – feels lost in its own melodrama.

You warm up to the second – on the thought-provoking concept of buying a miracle on faith for your terminally ill father – and especially the third, which centers around life and if you’d know you’re dead all wrapped in the paramount question of who a person should spend a life loving.

Once you’ve eaten the trio, you’re hesitant to feel entirely awed ultimately because of one overarching theme: you get the feeling brilliance is here but it’s partially lost in its adaptation and direction.

On opening night, Joyce emerged from the crowd with lukewarm and deservedly earned feedback. While changes were necessary and gaps needed filling, her good-deeded mitzvah is the gift of thought and discussion.

“What Dreams May Come: American Visions Through Jewish Eyes” runs through Dec. 16 at the Piven Theatre in Evanston. 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost $23-$25.

13
Oct

Theater: ‘Suddenly, Last Summer’ a Liberating Lesson in Hot-Blooded Grieving

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

CHICAGO – In my lifetime, Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride” has been one of the definitive films servicing the timeless romance and undying adventure in us all.

I haven’t felt actor Cary Elwes – and his indelible line “aaaas yoooou wiiiish” while tumbling down a hillside – in quite some time.

Catherine (Allison Batty) enjoys a rare afternoon of freedome under the
watchful eye of Sister Felicity (Tasha Ann James) in the Shattered Globe
Theatre’s production of “Suddenly, Last Summer” by Tennessee Williams.
Photo courtesy of the Shattered Globe Theatre

The character recently spoke to me again in an intimate, impeccably transformed Chicago playhouse amid Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly, Last Summer”.

Click here for the full review…

19
Sep

Theater: ‘Cymbeline’ a Priceless Stallion Amid Field of Praiseworthy Equestrians

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

CHICAGO – If you frequent Chicago performances with a typical ticket price between $10 and $30, “Cymbeline” at Chicago Shakes on Navy Pier is nothing short of a priceless stallion amid a field of praiseworthy equestrians.

For $54 to $70 per head, you’re instead deluged with an ocular and audible affair you won’t quickly convert into a “been there, done that” gig.

“Its adventurous nature and epic sweep capture the entirety of the human experience,” said Chicago Shakespeare Theater founder and “Cymbeline” artistic director Barbara Gaines.

The dark fairy tale of love, fidelity, deception, magic potions, second chances and unbridled jealousy packs an apt dosage of humor with a titular king, a defiant daughter, woodsy scenes and, of course, impersonating the opposite sex. It’s all tragically typical Bill.

One of Shakespeare’s late romances, what might be tagged a tragedy in actuality most certainly is a comedy. Said more modernly, “Cymbeline” is a “tragi-comedy”.

Those immersed in his legend are already well aware of the language that is entirely his own. Those unfamiliar might take until halfway through this 160-minute performance for Shakespearean words like “’twixt” to naturally translate into “between”.

Also, if it weren’t for exquisite vocal articulation, the beanstalk-tall stage would have surely posed much more of a problem in understanding the dialogue.

While a god descending from the heavens with a bolt of lightning certainly wouldn’t have been possible without such a stage’s grandeur, the king-size space comes at the cost of a loss of eye-locking intimacy.

Speckled from tip to toe with an elaborate sound, lighting and fly system, though, even from the back you’d be remiss to miss all the emotion-packed spitting.

With seven Chicago Shakespeare Theater performances between 2007 and 2008 and an approximate budget of $13 million, “Cymbeline” is a multimillion-dollar production delivering a first-rate performance of one of Shakespeare’s more predictable scripts.

While it was once deemed exceptionally laudable, the esteem for “Cymbeline” has floundered over the past century.

Some maintain that the play is an “instance of Shakespeare amusing himself and spinning absurd tales with no serious intent”. Be that or the contrary, Gaines and her crew deliver superlatively.

“Cymbeline” runs through Nov. 11 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at various times every day but Monday. Tickets cost $54 to $70.

By Adam Fendelman
Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com

13
Sep

How Much Can a Chicago Equity Theatre Actor Earn in 52 Weeks? Survey Says: $35,685

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

Chicagoans know this scene all too well: Your passion is acting, and to live it out, you sweat through some other job by day for the financial wherewithal to be able to act at night.

While this is a very common scenario, it’s just as common knowledge that theatre actors – like teachers – aren’t swimming in cash from their passion. Acting more often complements whatever the thing it is they do by day to pass time and pay the rent.

But at least teachers can make a living exclusively at their craft without having to hold down a second job or shack up with a sugar daddy or momma. Can Chicago actors?

To answer that question, I turn to the seventh edition of “The Book: An Actor’s Guide to Chicago”. Chicago actors know it as the bible.

Published by PerformInk Books on March 16, 2007 and edited by Carrie L. Kaufman (disclosure: Kaufman is my cousin), she writes an article below that sheds numerical light on this quandary.

While the answer is what you’d expect, it’s the first time I’ve seen it so clearly. Please note this information applies only to equity actors who have joined that double-edged sword of a union. She writes:

In [the summer of 2006], a bunch of people decided to calculate if a [Chicago] equity actor could actually make a living just on stage without having to tour outside the Chicagoland area.

Calculations were made based on the top Chicago-Area Theatre (CAT) contract – tier six – which pays $686.25 a week (not including overtime) to an actor.

[While] rehearsal times and runs of shows vary, let’s just say a lucky actor actually works all 52 weeks a year.

He earns a whopping salary of $35,685 without having to teach or wait tables or do voice or on-camera work. But how many actors work 52 weeks a year?

To be sure, it’s possible. Broadway and touring shows, which includes the Chicago sit-down production of “Wicked,” pay actors a minimum of $1,465 per week plus a $113 per diem for traveling.

Touring productions do often run 52 weeks a year and earn actors a pretty tidy sum.

An actor who works close to all year usually has agreements with theatres to pay him over equity minimum. An actor might do, say, four shows a year and take home about $30,000.

But when was the last time you were cast in four equity shows? And $30,000 is hardly enough to live on in Chicago.

“I don’t think you possibly can make a living [on stage],” said Mary Ann Thebus, who is one of the most prolific actors in Chicago.

[She added:] “Maybe if you work at the main stage at the Goodman all the time you can eke out some sort of living. But most people don’t do that.”

So, why go equity? That’s a tough question. Almost all theatre professionals in Chicago are in agreement that a young actor just starting out should not try to get into the union.

The aim is to get cast in as many shows as possible to get lots of experience and become a better actor.

We have 50 equity theatres listed in this book and 15 of those are only tier one (meaning the theatre only has to hire one equity actor). In contrast, we have 150 non-equity theatres listed.

Beyond waiting tables or being employed in other non-artistic roles, theatre actors also do commercials, industrial films, print ads and work as extras in films to make extra cash.

Actors should earn more. Teachers should earn more. Baseball players should earn less.

06
Sep

ChicagoActor.com Publishes Audition Listings For Chicago, Los Angeles, New York Actors

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

As many Chicago theatre actors know, Performink has a near monopoly on receiving audition listings for quality performances. The mostly print publication charges cash for access to these listings.

Though I’m not very close to her, I must fully disclose that Performink publisher Carrie Kaufman is my cousin. Beyond Performink, the question has been posed where else actors can go to find quality audition notices.

While Craig’s List has some listings that many actors consider to be lower-quality gigs, HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Dustin Levell pointed out to me today the Web site ChicagoActor.com.

ChicagoActor.com publishes Chicago, Los Angeles and New York audition listings for free. The site says ChicagoActor.com was orginally created and published as a magazine between 1992 and 1993.