Favorite plays of 2008

1. GATZ, Elevator Repair Service at the Museum of Contemporary Art: An ingenious, transcendent and strangely mesmerizing six-hour marathon of a play: a worker in a drab office reading The Great Gatsby aloud – every single word. A testament to the transformative powers of art and storytelling.

2. OUR TOWN, The Hypocrites at the Chopin Theatre: Thornton Wilder's classic play was not the least bit quaint or sentimental in this marvelous revival by director David Cromer. Coming very close to Wilder's original intentions, this bare-bones, street-clothes staging moved us and made us think about our place in the universe.

3. DUBLN CAROL, Steppenwolf: It was a superb year for seeing Conor McPherson plays in Chicago, and three of his plays deserve mention here. Some critics ranked Dublin Carol third out of the three plays, but I found it the purest and most direct expression of McPherson's spirit, with a top-notch performance by William Petersen.

4. AS YOU LIKE IT, Writers' Theatre: Directed by William Brown, Shakespeare's story was completely delightful. The play is not often mentioned as one of the Bard's best, but the production made a compelling case for it.

5. A STEADY RAIN, by Chicago Dramatists at Royal George Theatre: This cop drama by Keith Huff made some critics' lists for 2007; I did not see it until this year. It's one of the best recent plays about Chicago, capturing the lively, vulgar repartee of the city's finest.

6. PICNIC, Writers' Theatre: The space at Writers' Theatre was reconfigured to put the audience almost in the middle of the action, and director David Cromer surrounded us with believable human beings.

7. DRACULA, The Building Stage: The ending was flawed, but everything else about this adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel was amazing – a silent movie presented as a phantasmagoric tableau.

8. RUINED, Goodman Theatre: Lynn Nottage's play is marked with searing pain and trauma, but there's some joyful spirit, too – just enough to make it bearable.

9. THE SEAFARER, Steppenwolf: Another excellent Conor McPherson play, a devilish take on Christmas.

10. EURYDICE, Victory Gardens: Sarah Ruhl's magic-realist take on the Orpheus myth flowed with the logic of a dream.

Runners-up: 9 Parts of Desire, MCA/Next Theatre; Shining City, Goodman; Superior Donuts, Steppenwolf; The Brothers Karamazov, Lookingglass; Gas For Less, Goodman; Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Piven Theatre; Around the World in 80 Days, Lookingglass; Million Dollar Quartet, Apollo Theatre; Boneyard Prayer, Redmoon Theatre; Dead Man's Cell Phone, Steppenwolf; The Lion in Winter, Writers' Theatre.

The great 'Gatz'

When a book is adapted for the stage or screen, one of the hardest things to capture is the author's voice. Without a lot of narration, the way the author tells the story tends to disappear. So why not include the actual words on the page? How about every single word? As insane as that idea might sound, it's exactly what the New York theater company Elevator Repair Service has done with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

The group's play, called Gatz, is hardly a straightforward adaptation of The Great Gatsby, however. Performed three times this past weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the 6 1/2-hour Gatz presents the odd spectacle of an employee in a drab office who finds a copy of the novel in his desk and then proceeds to read it aloud. At first, the other employees around him seem to be aware of what he's doing, giving him odd looks. But after a while, they all begin providing the voices for the various characters within the novel. Don't worry about the logic of this. Of course, the actual office employees wouldn't know all of those lines without looking at the page. At this point, Gatz is becoming a weird little world with a logic of its own.

It's a highly conceptual piece of theater as well as a staged reading of the novel. It was a bit like hearing a book on tape mixed with performance art. The milieu of the office reminded me of Ben Katchor's comic strips, and some humor arose from the way the office workers perform Fitzgerald's great story. As unconventional as all of this was, it still managed to stay true to the novel. As the narrator, Scott Shephard achieved the Herculean task of reading the whole damn book. Halfway through the show, I marveled at seeing how many pages he had turned. And 45 minutes or so from the end, he set down the book and recited the rest from memory. A stillness descended on the theater for Fitzgerald's final elegiac passage. It had been a long haul for the audience, with two intermissions and a dinner break, but my attention never lagged, and by the exhausting end of the ordeal, the long standing ovation and three curtain calls felt like the least we could do to honor the amazing performance we'd just witnessed.

Stage notes

Notes on some plays I've seen recently in Chicago...

THE TROJAN CANDIDATE by Theater Oobleck – Last year's production of The Strangerer by Theater Oobleck was one of my favorite plays of 2007, one of those rare shows that take political satire to a higher artistic level, leaving haunting impressions in your mind. The latest election play by the Oobleck group, The Trojan Candidate, is no match for its predecessor, though it does have its moments. The premise this time is that an alien occupying the body and brain of Dick Cheney is looking for a vessel among this year's presidential candidates, in the hope of keeping control at the White House. Actor Jeff Dorchen looks remarkably like Cheney, and the rest of the cast has fun juggling a variety of roles; Danny Thompson is pretty amusing as John McCain. But pretty amusing is about as good at it gets in this intermittently funny show, which feels more like an extended comedy skit than a fully realized play. At times, The Trojan Candidate begins to move into deeper and more surreal territory, such as when Sati Word plays Barack Obama recounting various dreams he has had. The dreams are as absurd as dreams usually are, without any obvious punch lines. In these moments, one senses the more profound play that could emerge out of this material with more work. Continuing through Nov. 3 at the Neo-Futurarium. www.theateroobleck.com. (Photo by Kristin Basta.)

TURN OF THE CENTURY at the Goodman – Man, some of the reviews of this show have been harsh. I found some of the same flaws as did other critics, especially with the rather flimsy plot. It's a blockbuster premise – singer and piano player from 1999 travel back in time to 1899 and make a mint by selling all the great songs of the 20th century – but it doesn't really go places. In spite of the play's shortcomings, I found it fairly entertaining, however. That set wowed me, and the music and dancing were fine. Yes, I wanted more out of this show, but I came away thinking it could prove to be a popular hit. www.goodmantheatre.org. (Photo by Liz Lauren.)

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE at the Northlight – This one received some criticism for straying too much from the original Robert Louis Stevenson book. I found it quite enjoyable, with a great set and lighting, plus a sharp cast featuring four actors playing Mr. Hyde at various times. A few gruesome moments, a fair amount of theatrical razzle-dazzle, and an excellent turn by Nick Sandys at Dr. Jekyll. A good show to see during the Halloween season. www.northlight.org (Photo by Michael Brosilow.)

PICNIC at Writers' Theatre – Following up a superb production of another William Inge play, Bus Stop, Writers' Theatre in Glencoe has another winner. David Cromer, who did such a fine job with Our Town for the Hypocrites and Adding Machine for Next, once again shows a strong talent for bringing subtle performances out of his actors. And the reconfigured space at Writers' Theatre makes us feel like you're in the midst of the action. www.writerstheatre.org. (Photo by Janna Giacoppo.)

Kafka on the Shore

My feelings about Frank Galati's new play at Steppenwolf Theater, Kafka on the Shore, are not far off from my feelings about the book he adapted it from, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Both the book and the play have a wonderful sense of invention and however strange they get, they flow along with a casual but compelling sense of narrative.

But in both cases, I came away feeling a little unsatisfied. I love surrealism and magic realism, or whatever you want to call these sorts of stories where peculiar, unworldly things happen. And I don't feel a need to have everything explained to me. In fact, a nice, neat explanation can ruin a surreal story. But the problem with art based on random associations and non sequitors is that, well, sometimes it feels just random. At times, both versions of Kafka on the Shore are random in ways that seem silly and immature... or maybe not silly enough or immature enough. The reaction at the end is "Huh?"

As in the book, the central figure, a runaway teen who calls himself Kafka (Christopher Larkin), is a fairly empty character. The character who calls himself an empty shell, the mentally slow man capable of speaking to cats, Nakata (David Rhee), somehow feels more fully developed. And the truck-driver who helps Nakata in his mysterious quest, Hoshino (Andrew Pang), is a delightfully mundane counterpoint to all of the peculiar goings-on in Murakami's story. I was skeptical that the parts of the book featuring supernatural characters in the guise of Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders would translate to the stage, but they turned out to be a humorous highlight of the play, with Francis Guinan portraying the roles with relish. Aiko Nakasone is fresh and funny as the girl Kafka befriends on his runaway odyssey. Despite some comic moments, the human actors playing cats never feel quite right, however.

It is impressive that Galati managed to cram so many details of the book into a faithful stage adaptation. In spite of its flaws, Steppenwolf's Kafka on the Shore is a fascinating journey – fascinating enough that I'd recommend seeing this play if you have a taste for the bizarre.

Through Nov. 16. www.steppenwolf.org

(Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Building a new 'Dracula'

The Building Stage takes on familiar topics and makes them feel new. The three-year-old theater group has already reinterpreted Hamlet and Moby-Dick into its own stage language, which founder Blake Montgomery calls "physical theater." On Friday night, a remarkable rendition of Bram Stoker's classic horror novel Dracula opened at the Near West Side theater.

This is Dracula told as a silent film, but with live actors instead of celluloid. The play, "conceived and directed" by Montgomery and "created and performed" by a cast of eight, contains virtually no spoken dialogue. The actors silently mouth their lines to one another and wave their arms with the sorts of big gestures seen in 1920s movies, pausing occasionally for titles spelling out their words to appear on a screen above the stage. The lighting cues in this show are amazingly specific and precise (kudos to lighting designer Aaron Weissman), making it look easy as the cast pulls off a marathon feat of strange miming. With gauzy curtains frequently being flung back and forth, the set (designed by Jessica Kuehnau and Brandon Wardell) allows a fluid sense of changing scenes. All the while, Shostakovich music sets the mood perfectly.

Before starting the Building Stage, Montgomery worked with Redmoon Theatre, and the two companies share a similar vibe. Dracula includes at least one stroke of theatrical genius, the sort of device you expect in a Redmoon show: At various times, cast members display pictures. They're almost like cinematic close-up shots, or the two-dimensional equivalents of props. When Renfield hears flies buzzing, an actor standing nearby flashes a picture of a fly. When a doctor examines Lucy's neck, another actor holds up a picture of two bite marks on a neck.

If my memory of Stoker's novel is correct, this is a pretty faithful adaptation. It's certainly a lot closer to the flow of Stoker's story than most of the films based on it. As Montgomery notes in a press release, one of the interesting things about the original 1897 novel is how little Dracula actually appears in it. The vampire constantly lurks in the fears of the main characters, but he's almost always off-stage. The same is true in the Building Stage's version, which follows the structure of Stoker's book. A considerable amount of time passes before the characters even figure out that vampires are afoot, explaining the mysterious events they've been puzzling over throughout Act 1.

The cast is strong, making the characters seem just real enough behind all of that artifice. Ned Record is particularly impressive as Renfield, bringing humor and pathos to this legendarily pathetic lunatic.

Without revealing the play's ending, I will quibble with the way it wraps up. After sticking with Stoker's story for almost its entire duration, the play steps away from the original Dracula at the very end, changing in tone and offering an alternative theory to explain all of the events we've just seen. It's an intriguing idea, but once the play veers off in this new direction, it doesn't seem to know exactly how to end. In spite of that, this Dracula is a feast for the eyes and ears.

Dracula continues through Oct. 18 at the Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter St., Chicago. www.buildingstage.com

Boneyard Prayer at Redmoon

Some Redmoon Theater shows are outdoor spectacles, some are cloistered dioramas. Even on a smaller scale, Redmoon shows always feel like a spectacle. The latest, Frank Maugeri's Boneyard Prayer, is more of a poem than a story, more of a sketch than a painting. At an hour long, with a spare story, it's a show that's almost entirely emotion and mood with little in the way of characterization or plot. And boy, is it grim – right from the first moment, when we see a woman laying a dead infant in a grave. The story of how that baby died is revealed later, a gut-wrenching tragedy.

Like many Redmoon shows, Boneyard Prayer stars puppets alongside the human actors. In this case, the puppet of a man seems to be a surrogate of sorts for one of the actors, who stays close to it throughout the show. The same goes for the female puppet and actress. It was somewhat confusing at first. Do the puppets represent the same people embodied by the actors or another set of characters? The literal meaning proves to be unimportant, however.

Charles Kim's original music is lovely, a good fit for the play's melancholy mood. The final moments of Boneyard Prayer include a beautiful scene of hopefulness, achieved by a trick of the scenery that I won't spoil. Sitting through Boneyard Prayer is a little like attending a wake. The play will send your thoughts drifting off toward the loved ones you've lost in your own life. It's not a deep play (and it is certainly not a show that everyone will enjoy), but it is an affecting one.

Boneyard Prayer runs through May 11 at Redmoon Central, 1463 W. Hubbard St., Chicago (the only theater I know that must be entered through an industrial parking lot). www.redmoon.org

Best Chicago plays of 2007

1. THE STRANGERER – Mickle Maher’s play – which combines a 2004 debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry with Albert Camus’ The Stranger – sounds a little bit like a stunt, but it was deeply profound, funny and often disturbing. Of all the plays I saw in 2007, this is the one that lives on in my dreams. Theater Oobleck is bringing back The Strangerer in April. Don’t miss it.

2. AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY – Tracy Letts’ play at Steppenwolf (now on Broadway) won lots of critical praise, and it deserved it. What an epic of domestic dysfunction and black comedy. Great script, even better cast.

3. I SAILED WITH MAGELLAN – Stuart Dybek’s wonderful collection of connected short stories seemed like an unlikely book to adapt for the stage, but playwright Claudia Allen really got it right with this enchanting show at Victory Gardens.

4. THE ADDING MACHINE - This world premiere at Next Theatre (Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith's new musical version of Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist drama) was surreal and nightmarish, not your typical musical-theater fare. A superb work of art.

5. DEFIANCE – John Patrick Shanley’s military drama at Next Theatre was so good because it’s such a tight, compact play, exploring ethical issues without ever getting didactic.

6. THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION – The Writers’ Theatre production of Evan Smith’s new script was the best play of the year on the topic of religion, a topic that popped up a lot on stages in 2007.

7. HUNCHBACK – I missed this show when Redmoon first staged it in 2000, so I can’t say how the new production compared with the original, but it was a marvelously inventive and self-reflexive show.

8. THE TURN OF THE SCREW - Like a magic show, this Henry James adaptation at Writers’ Theatre toyed with our senses and raised more than a few goose bumps.

9. THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN OF JENNY CHOW — Wacky fun with some emotional depth, Rolin Jones’ play was an unexpected hit for Collaboraction, and it deserved all its success.

10. OTHELLO – An excellent and intimate version of the Shakespeare classic, directed by Michael Halberstam at Writers’ Theatre, with a fabulous turn by John Judd as Iago.

Runners-up:
The Wooden Breeks at Lookingglass
Doubt (touring production)
Frozen at Next
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (touring production)
Mirror of the Invisible World at the Goodman
Fire on the Mountain at Northlight
The Crucible at Steppenwolf
Betrayal at Steppenwolf
Lady at Northlight
Bach at Leipzig at Writers’ Theatre

Writing about music, Part 1

From time to time, I'd like to point out some passages of writing about music that I especially like. Here's one from Stuart Dybek's superb short-story collection (more of a novel told in stories), I Sailed With Magellan. A stage adaptation of the book will run June 8-July 15 at Victory Gardens Theater, which I wrote about for the June issue of Playbill's Chicago edition. The wistful final story in Dybek's book, "Je Reviens," includes this wonderful description of the protagonist's uncle performing with a wedding band:

I walked thinking about Uncle Lefty, my godfather. When I was little and he was just back from the POW camp in Korea, he used to take me along on his rounds of the neighborhod taverns. I was considered good therapy for him back then. Later, after he started playing in public again, I'd sometimes go to hear the Gents play wedding receptions held in the back halls of corner taverns. I'd wait for the moment when Lefty switched from his cheap metal clarinet to the tarnished tenor sax that had spent the evening on the bandstand, armed with a number 4 1/2 Rico reed and draped with a white towel Lefty called his spit rag. Swaying drunkenly at the edge of the bandstand, Lefty would launch into a solo with the Bruiser behind him slamming the foot pedal of the bass drum as if flooring the gas and driving his red sparkle Ludwig kit over the edge of the stage, taking the rest of the Gents with him. The dancers whooped and whirled and stomped, but finally were defeated by the tempo and stood on the dance floor gaping and panting while the bridesmaids stumbled dizzily in their disheveled taffeta like deposed prom queens. Lefty blew, possessed and oblivious to the rising imprecations of the wedding guests, who stood on their folding chairs shouting for dance music. Even the pleas of his fellow Gents, all of whom with the exception of the Bruiser had stopped playing, couldn't silence him, leaving them no recourse but to drag Lefty, still wailing on his horn, off the stage.

Recent Chicago theater

Chicago's theater season "starts" in the fall, if you pay attention to most of the schedules put out by theaters, but in truth, it runs all year-round without much of a pause. However you look at the calendar, Chicago has a bounty of good to great plays this fall.

ARGONAUTIKA
Director Mary Zimmerman's latest adaptation of a Greek mythology (following such marvelous productions as "Metamorphoses" and "The Odyssey") is another wonder to behold. Watching a Zimmerman production is like seeing a bunch of talented actors and designers truly at play — playing with all of the toys at their disposal. There's an infectious sense of fun about the stagecraft of Zimmerman and her collaborators. It's amazing to watch how the seemingly simple stage is used to achieve different settings during the course of the show, and Michael Montenegro's puppets are an especially fascinating addition.

Of course, this is the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Like some of Zimmerman's earlier plays, it injects modern vernacular and humor into an ancient story. At times, the changes in tone can be a little jarring, but once you accept the self-reflexive nature of the play, the tale unfolds with ease. A few of the performances were top-notch, including Glenn Fleshler as Hercules, Atley Loughridge as Medea and Mariann Mayberry as Athena.

The last part of the story, more famously told in "Medea," is summarized fairly abruptly. As a result, the motivations of Jason (Ryan Artzburger) get a little bit lost in Act 2. But then comes a closing scene involving the constellations that was almost breathtaking in its beauty. "Argonautika" continues through Dec. 23. See www.lookingglasstheatre.org. MY RATING: 3.5 out of 5.

HAMLET
This is one stark "Hamlet." The set is basically a big, black slab of a floor. The backdrop is sometimes just a black wall, sometimes a big mirror. Lots of fog wafts down. All of the actors are dressed either in white or black — until the acting troupe within the story shows up. They're clad first in grad overcoats, and then they perform all in red. In this almost existential setting, Ben Carlson gives a powerful performance as the famous Danish prince, particularly in the way he brings out the humor — the sardonic, bitter humor — in so many of Hamlet's lines. Also noteworthy: Mike Nussbaum as Polonius, and Lindsay Gould, who really plays up Ophelia's nutso scene. "Hamlet," directed by Terry Hands, director emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company, continues through Nov. 18. See www.chicagoshakes.com. MY RATING: 4 out of 5.

KING LEAR
The Goodman Theatre's production of "King Lear," directed by Robert Falls and starring Stacey Keach, has closed, but it's worth mentioning again. This show really polarized critics and audiences. I've heard as many people say they loved it as I've heard people saying they reviled it. I count myself in the first camp. Yes, it was nasty, modernized, sexualized and Balkanized (literally). No, this isn't the "definitive" version of "King Lear" you'll ever see. It's just one interpretation — and a damn interesting one. And it was exciting to see something this provocative on the stage at one of Chicago's most prominent theaters. MY RATING: 4 out of 5.

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST
Lllian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest" was the prequel to her best-known play "Little Foxes." This production by Writers' Theatre in Glencoe is filled with nearly perfect acting performances, including superb turns by some local regulars, Joel Hatch and Penny Slusher. It's the drama of a dysfunctional Southern family in the late 1800s, with every dysfunction malfunctioning more as the play goes on. It's a story that gradually builds in power. Even the characters who behave immorally have their reasons and a certain amount of symptahy. Now, if only some theater group were performing "Little Foxes" — that would be a great double bill. "Another Part of the Forest" continues through Nov. 26. See www.writerstheatre.org. MY RATING: 3.5 out of 5.

DENMARK
Victory Gardens Theatre has a glorious new home — inside a classic old theater, the Biograph. The last time I was in the place was to see "Pulp Fiction" on the big screen. Of course, it looks entirely different after all of the renovations. It's an almost luxurious place to see a play, with comfy seats and great sight lines. And Charles Smith's "Denmark" is an excellent show to break the place in. The play has nothing to do with the nation of Denmark, but rather is named for a freed slave in pre-Civil War South Carolina named Denmark Vesey. This is a drama that presents historical data and ethical dilemmas in way that's both very natural and very clear — it never feels like a history lesson or an ethics lecture, but it gets across its points with just as much clarity. Anthony Fleming III brings a great deal of intelligence as well as emotion to his role as the title character. And there are quite a few other actors who shine in "Denmark" as well, with special kudos to A.C. Smith as Reverand Brown. "Denmark" continues through Nov. 12. See www.victorygardens.org. MY RATING: 3.5 out of 5.

THE PILLOWMAN
Of all the plays I've seen this fall, the most memorable — and the most powerful — is Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman," directed by Amy Morton at Steppenwolf Theatre. The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones has an advantage over me, in that he saw "The Pillowman" in its earlier New York production. And he says that one was even more terrifying and disturbing. It's hard for me to imagine it being much more upsetting than it already is without becoming too much to stomach.
But it's not just an unsettling story about people committing unspeakable acts (people torturing children, murdering your parents, murdering children, police torturing people during interrogations) — it's also a deep examination of the creative process. The channeling of violence into creativity is a key theme, and despite everything, there is a slight glimmer of humanity in all of this, even as the play takes us to bleak places. The cast is fabulous, including Jim True-Frost (who's also so good on HBO's "The Wire") and Michael Shannon (who gave one of the best performances I've seen this year, in the earlier play "Grace" at Northlight, and then turned up in a so-so role in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center").
"The Pillowman" continues through Nov. 12. See www.steppenwolf.org. MY RATING: 5 out of 5.

INHERIT THE WIND
Northlight Theatre's production of "Inherit the Wind" is a mixed success. The scenes that set up the story — and the ones that end it — are stilted, an awkward mix of old-fashioned script writing and contemporary stage tricks that make it all seem rather artificial. But the courtroom scenes are really compelling, with two rousing performances: Tony Mockus as Matthew Harrison Brady, a character modeled after William Jennings Bryan, and Scott Jaeck as Henry Drummond, the surrogate for Clarence Darrow. Watching these two guys go at it in the courtroom battle over evolution and creationism is a hoot. But with this play being a fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial, it just whets the appetite for a more authentic telling of the true story. "Inherit the Wind" continues through Nov. 12. See www.northlight.org. MY RATING: 3 out of 5.

VIGILS
Something odd happens early on in this new play by Noah Hindle at the Goodman Theatre. The main character, a widow having trouble getting on with her life, is talking with her late husband's soul, who is right there in the room with her, played by an actor. Just a figment of her imagination? Well, no, not exactly, because then it turns out that other people can see and hear this "soul" as well. And so "Vigils" takes place in a sort of metaphysical universe, not quite real. It alternates between comedy and some fairly serious topics with surprising grace. Certain memories play out repeatedly, with video projection providing the sort of special effects this play would probably not receive in a typical small production. Not all of it works, but overall, it's a worthwhile and intriguing play. "Vigils" continues through Nov. 12. See www.goodmantheatre.org. MY RATING: 3 out of 5.

ENDGAME and PANTOMIME
A couple of plays that just closed still deserve some belated praise. Curious Theatre Branch's performance of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame," part of the Rhinoceros Theatre Festival at Prop Thtr, captured the absurdity of the strange world that Beckett created in that script, making it all seem like an alternate world that operates by its own set of rules. And Pegasus Players' production of Derek Walcott's "Pantomime" was a low-key but engaging dialogue about race. ENDGAME RATING: 3 out of 5. PANTOMIME RATING: 3 out of 5.