I had never been to Marriott Theatre when I headed out to see Once On This Island, but I had consistently heard good things about their work, so I was looking forward to the experience. People just don’t stage musicals in the round that often. They’re not designed for it, it’s hard on the singers. But somehow Marriott has made that their calling card. Gary Griffin made a name for himself by stripping down musicals to their essence so we can focus on the characters and the relationships. Marriot, because of their unusual stage layout, has been doing this for years.

Not that Once On This Island calls for the visual excesses that have been associated with Broadway musicals for years. It’s a simple story about a peasant girl, Ti Moune (Chasten Harmon) who falls in love with the son of the wealthy aristocrats who, for all practical purposes, run the entire island. When Daniel (Brandon Koller) crashes his car near Ti Moune’s village, she becomes his caregiver until his father’s men come to take him back. But she follows and nurses him back to health. Unfortunately, despite the love that grows between them, Daniel follows the dictates of his family to marry the woman to whom he has been promised since childhood. Her journey, success, and eventual failure is overseen by the four gods of the villages, including Papa Ge, the god of death, who acts as the main antagonist in the story.

All this is told very much as a story. There’s a lot of direct address and relatively few actual scenes. This gives many opportunities to story tell through the music, but creates some distance that, for me at any rate, kept the piece from landing fully. But director/choreographer David H. Bell has assembled a veteran cast who throws themselves into this material. Joslyn Jones and Michael James Leslie bring some appreciated nuance to Mama and Tonton, Ti Moune’s adopted parents. Bell pulls out all his tricks to keep Once On This Island visually interesting. The cast becomes birds, trees and various other denizens of the world. Fabric acts as the main design element, along with Diane Ferry Williams’ excellent lighting, effectively changing the stage from a hotel ballroom, to a forest, to the world of the gods.

There’s nothing revisionist about this production, so it’s as straight up a production of Once On This Island as you’re likely to see, aside from being staged in the round. There is something a little odd (and unfortunate) about watching a cast of African-American actors tell this particular story before an all-white (99 percent anyway) audience. But those are the demographics of the North Shore for you. For me it was a nice introduction to Marriot’s work. And certainly if you enjoy this piece of musical theatre, it’s a worthwhile trip.

Once On This Island, Marriott Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Other productions of this oft-revived piece have done a better job of explaining the matter of where we are and why these characters have suddenly decided to tell us this story. That context is never clear here, not least because the opening is wobbly. But this is mostly a show that requires one to relax into the music and the timeless truths of the storytelling. And there’s no question that Bell manages to elevate what can come off as a minor piece into an evening with plenty of emotional heft. By the end of the show (which features an appealingly extensive setting from Thomas M. Ryan and some truly vibrant costumes from Nancy Missimi), the benevolent island gods give the long-suffering Ti Moune what she deserves. For all time. And I had a few tears glistening on my cheek.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The latest proof is director-choreographer David Bell’s deeply insightful, beautifully realized production now at the Marriott Theatre, where Chasten Harmon, an easily commanding, dreamily gifted actress-singer-dancer (who recently appeared in the Broadway revival of Hair) is giving a stellar central performance.”

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald—“Prettily sung and exuberantly performed by a small but mighty ensemble, director/choreographer David H. Bell’s lovely, lilting revival is as refreshing as a fruit smoothie on a summer day… Bell’s casting is as expert as his staging which concludes with a bit of whimsy that suits perfectly the musical’s breezy style. The honey-voiced ensemble, under music director Ryan T. Nelson, is first-rate. Leslie and Jones offer an achingly honest expression of parental love in ‘Ti Moune,’ a bittersweet paean to letting a child pursue her own dreams. Melinda Wakefield Alberty’s love goddess Erzulie hits all the right notes in her silken performance of the poignant ‘The Human Heart’ and Melody Betts stops the show with her volcanic performance as the earth goddess Asaka.”

Keith Griffith, Reader—“David Bell’s fluid choreography and Thomas Ryan’s cool, gauzy set design preserve an aquatic atmosphere. Chasten Harmon sparkles as the peasant girl, Ti Moune, and Michael James Leslie plays her father with leonine grandeur. Aside from the fact that Ahrens preserved Andersen’s sappy, tack-on happy ending, the only problem I had was a tinny, solo-ruining, and—in the Marriott’s intimate, in-the-round space—unnecessary sound system.”

Late: A Cowboy Song, Piven Theatre Workshop

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Late: A Cowboy Song might well be the best show I’ve ever seen at Piven. Certainly, it’s the best directed piece. The staging of what is, fundamentally, a play about all manner of uncertainties is gentle and knowing. [Jessica] Thebus has crafted a very careful blend of the abstract and the real and, in doing so, she takes a minor [Sarah] Ruhl play and treats it warmly, gently, kindly, teasing out its youthful truths and covering up its flaws. It’s probably true to say that Late would be less interesting if Ruhl were not now one of America’s most important contemporary playwrights. But she is. And you can’t separate that from how this work now plays. This is Ruhl raw, young, unplugged, and, for those of us who find her current mind a fascinating place, it reveals much.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Ruhl, the Wilmette-bred playwright who has penned many quirky, intriguing dramas and picked up a MacArthur ‘genius’ Award, is entitled to her failed efforts. Late—a deadly mix of political correctness and warped feminism that reunites three Piven alums—Ruhl, [Polly] Noonan and director Jessica Thebus—easily qualifies. Ruhl’s writing here is painfully precious and irritating (if occasionally funny), as is Noonan’s character and the actress’ thin, reedy voice. [Lawrence] Grimm, a fine actor, has the grimmest of tasks. [Kelli] Simpkins is spot-on in her chaps and cowboy hat. Designers John Dalton, Janice Pytel, JR Lederle and Stephan Mazurek get things just right. But this play should have been allowed to ride off into the sunset.”

John Beer, Time Out—“This early effort by MacArthur winner Ruhl has had only a scattering of student and community productions since its 2005 Houston debut. Watching Late dispels any puzzlement about this production history: It is a wretched play. The plot, encapsulated, may sound intriguing: A woman, trapped in a relationship with a needy, modernism-obsessed museum guard, finds freedom in an erotically tinged friendship with a female singing cowboy. But at every turn in her execution of this tale, Ruhl opts for precious sentimentality and whimsical abstraction at the expense of anything like recognizable human thought or emotion.”

Fabrizio O. Almeida , New City—“Considered intellectually, it’s brilliant. Considered emotionally, it’s human. These are the marks of a great play, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Late: A Cowboy Song quickly becomes a modern classic. In Piven Theatre Workshop’s production, under the flawless direction of Jessica Thebus, and boasting three amazing performances, it already feels like one… Late: A Cowboy Song is an artistic triumph for everyone involved, easily one of the best adult playgoing experiences around, and in the postage-stamp-sized Piven Theatre Workshop, it makes the case for the power of the great play in a tiny space.

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“Jessica Thebus’ direction deftly skirts the potential mawkishness inherent in Wild West metaphors (did I mention that Red also plays guitar and sings quasi-cowboy songs?) and reduces, insofar as possible, the annoyingly heavy-handed feminism underlying Ruhl’s trademark enigmatic motifs—fortune cookies with blank messages, the similarities between training horses and husbands, etc. Polly Noonan does her reliable Baby Alice turn again, while Lawrence Grimm lends a refreshing sensitivity to another of his likewise familiar jugheads. The scenes we await eagerly, however, are those where Kelli Simpkins’ charismatic Red appears, bathed in the glow befitting a cultural icon with whom you might, yourself, find comfort in a shared late-night Chinese restaurant meal.”

The Philadelphia Story, Circle Theatre

Nina Metz, Tribune—“[W]hile there may be hiccups in Circle Theatre ’s production (set designer Bob Knuth’s hyper-elaborate drawing room is literal to the extreme yet lacking a sense of style), the play itself is heaven to the ears. That’s especially true when Jhenai Mootz’s lady photog is around. Mootz, who can reveal rivers of suppressed emotion on that face, has just the right period look and sound, and knows how to lend her lines a 1930s rat-a-tat sound that could give Rosalind Russell a run for her money.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Among the supporting characters who inject big bursts of comic energy here are Katelyn Smith, who plays Dinah, Tracy’s sly, self-dramatizing younger sister who brings the house down with an absolutely hilarious song, ‘I wanna play piano in a whorehouse.’…At times the overall pitch of the acting can grow a bit too broad. But they don’t make plays like this anymore, and a romp with the rich and witty is a good tonic for economically sapped times.”

Keith Griffith, Reader—“And do the comic twists turn. Fresh-faced [Kevin] Anderson channels the comic hero of Philip Barry’s classic 1939 play with ease, and [Laura] McClain steps into the role written for Katherine Hepburn with fitting poise and self-awareness. No wet-eared tyro, director Jim Schneider nonetheless stumbles with a rushed first act, and his supporting cast is uneven.”

John Beer, Time Out—“Circle’s Philadelphia Story is straightforward, unashamed to conjure memories of George Cukor’s potent film adaptation. McClain often seems to be channeling Hepburn in her performance, and the tall, slender Hambrock has the bearing of a young Jimmy Stewart, while adding his own note of impetuosity to the gossip writer who yearns for artistic respectability. As Lord’s ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven, whose role in the play is rather more circumscribed than in the film, Anderson has a casual assurance, although his relatively bland take on the part leaves Lord’s ultimate decision looking a little more mysterious than perhaps it should be. Designer Bob Knuth has created a lush, overstuffed drawing room to contain these convoluted nuptials, evoking exactly the right blend of discomfort and ease.”

Dennis Polkow, New City—“That 1940 film is so iconic that it is hard to put aside when seeing The Philadelphia Story as a play, not helped by the fact that some of the current Circle Theatre cast seem as if they had been watching it a bit too closely in putting together their portrayals. Laura McClain’s Tracy Lord seemed to be virtually a caricature of Hepburn in the early part of the opening act, which was toned down a bit as the evening progressed. Likewise, Josh Hambrock’s Macaulay Connor was gawkishly suggestive of James Stewart; only Kevin Anderson’s C.K. Dexter Haven, the Cary Grant part, seemed to escape the film influence completely but was so uninteresting that there were moments when you began to cheer for his competing suitors. Even so, the quality of the material and the comedic high jinks are executed with enough flair here that this makes for a fun evening nonetheless.”

Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“What’s sure to rub modern audiences the wrong way is the forced scene where Tracy is shamed into forgiving her father’s extramarital transgressions. It doesn’t help that Tom Viskocil’s weak fatherly performance gives almost nothing for Laura McClain’s sharp-eyed Tracy to play off of. But other than this galling moment (and the fact that Tracy ends up with a known domestic abuser), most everything else about this period piece revival sparkles under Jim Schneider’s direction. Aside from the elder male roles, the cast is uniformly polished in delivering the necessary screwball style. Once again, Bob Knuth has come up trumps with his gorgeous drawing room set that screams wealth, while Elizabeth Wislar’s period costumes are sumptuous.”