Despite the fact that I am in no way a fan of musical theatre, as a child one of my favorite albums was the soundtrack to Godspell. I enjoyed the songs, although I didn’t get most of the Biblical references (growing up Unitarian doesn’t guarantee familiarity with the Bible). But I had not seen the musical itself since attending a college production of it when I was 10 or so.

Godspell was never heavy in the book area. Existing mainly as a vehicle to tell several well-known parables, it never explicitly gives a location. In Provision Theater Company’s production, the chorus escapes from a storm into an abandoned warehouse. There they find abandoned merchandise including several books and, finally, a Bible. Opening it apparently summons John the Baptist who begins the show.

It’s unclear what this beginning accomplishes, except to justify a location that is never referenced again. Since the cast runs offstage as John appears, only to return in brightly colored outfits, we don’t know whether the followers of Jesus are supposed to be the same young people who escaped from the storm or not. And the warehouse setting doesn’t add anything new to the production.

This brief, improvised prologue is only the first of several moments that will be new to anyone familiar with Godspell. There are several contemporary references to Facebook, Reebok and the like. And a couple of sections are rapped. On the whole, director Tim Gregory has made some conceptual choices that were clearly intended the contemporize the piece, but because they don’t connect to each other they feel like so much noise.

For Godspell to succeed, we need to see this fractious group of people brought together by Jesus’ teachings and then devastated by his arrest and crucifixion (which isn’t even brought up until the second act). And here Gregory’s production doesn’t deliver. There’s no doubt he has found an energetic group of young actors who throw themselves into the material with abandon. And, for the most part, they have above average to excellent voices. But there’s a bond here from the beginning, so rather than see a growing community (I’ve always seen Godspell as the story of the disciples becoming…well…disciples), we are simply left with the parables. Those are entertaining and well told, but it’s not enough. Or at least it’s not everything there could be.

As Jesus, Syler Thomas has an affable energy, that is in keeping with a slightly dorky Sunday School Teacher. It’s not the most charismatic performance you’ll see, but it works well enough. He’s overshadowed by Justin Berkobien as Judas, at least when they appear together. The chorus, brings great energy, and if their improvised give and take doesn’t always serve the show, that should be lain at the director’s feet.

For fans of this particular sort of pop-religious material, Provision’s Godspell will probably be a satisfying experience. But I think Gregory and company were going for something more, and there the production falls short. It’s well sung, and reasonably entertaining, but there’s no oof. And without that, the greatest story ever told comes back down to earth.

Godspell, Provision Theater Company

Nina Metz, Tribune—“Director Tim Gregory has scuttled the flower power, yet hasn’t settled on a workable alternative. His young cast resembles Cabbage Patch kids dolled up in magical bandannas and a candy-colored wardrobe from the Gap, and what any of it has to do with the show’s concept is beyond me. I’m betting committed fans of this 1971 musical won’t care one bit, but for the rest of us … well, consider it one of the longer nights of theater you’re likely to encounter.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/stage/ct-live-0817-godspell-review-20100817,0,957675.story

Justin Hayford, Reader—“Director Tim Gregory tries to pep up this 40-year-old musical—a ragtag collection of parables and melodrama based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew—by throwing in a lot of novelties: puppets, charades, hip hop, vaudeville, a live version of a dubbed martial arts movie. But since he offers no discernible point of view on the show’s hippy-dippy religiosity, his inventiveness comes across as nothing more than indiscriminate horseplay. Gregory pushes his cast to mug, robbing act one of its sincerity and act two—when Jesus has to face the music--of its tragedy. Still, the cast deliver the goods when singing Stephen Schwartz’s effective and affecting score.”

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/godspell/Event?oid=2182982

Zac Thompson, Time Out—“Gregory sets his staging in an abandoned warehouse full of books and novelty toys, where a group of 11 preternaturally perky young people dressed like Punky Brewster takes refuge during a thunderstorm. After somebody opens what appears to be an enchanted Bible, they act out the Gospel of Matthew, using songs, magic tricks, vaudeville routines and frequent interpolations—all performed with so much relentless enthusiasm that even the kids from Barney and Friends might recommend dialing it back a bit. Among the cast members who manage to cut through all the sickly sweetness are Sarah Grant, who has a facility for Borscht Belt gags, and Tiffany Yvonne Cox, who injects some slinkiness and sass.”

http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/88242/godspell-at-provision-theatre-company-theater-review

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“Ultimately, the play’s episodic conceit cannot help but reduce to a series of cleverly executed classroom-games—Did I mention the hand-puppet Good Samaritan scene?—led by Syler Thomas as a suitably junkie-gaunt messiah, clad in "Lifeguard on Duty" T-shirt and muffled enunciation. Still, the exuberance displayed by the ensemble is infectious, notably, Tiffany Yvonne Cox’s in-your-face rendition of the soulful ‘Turn Back, O Man’ and Maxwell Burnham’s revivalist ‘We Beseech Thee.’ But it’s the charismatic Justin Berkobien who dominates the stage in the dual role of John the Baptist/Judas, along with the heavy-lifting five-piece band, to make joyful noise from that old-time religion.”

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=28069

Equus, Redtwist Theatre

Nina Metz, Tribune—“Funny, for a play as muddle-headed as Peter Shaffer’s Equus, I have yet to see a production that fails to elevate the 1973 drama’s idiotic postulations into something worth watching. And so it goes with Redtwist Theatre ’s revival, which is just stylized and grounded enough in emotional truth to work. This is Redtwist’s second go with the material (the first was a 2007 staging), but the current version is entirely rethought. As was the case with the company’s recent, long-running hit The Pillowman, the audience is seated almost on top of the action. Once again Redtwist is doing something interesting with the constraints of its cramped, narrow space — limitations that artistic director Michael Colucci seems committed to using to his advantage going forward.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-29/entertainment/ct-live-0629-equus-review-20100629_1_equus-redtwist-theatre-andrew-jessop

Zac Thompson, Reader—“Where the earlier production honed in on the script’s erotic elements, this one focuses on its preoccupation with spirituality. So much so, in fact, that it looks and feels like a pagan ritual. The result is a little overheated, but also eerie and mesmerizing—particularly the unsettling performance by Andrew Jessop, who plays Alan as an unpredictable, raw-eyed fanatic. Redtwist’s first Equus may’ve been sexier, but this one is certainly scarier.”

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/equus/Event?oid=1959218

John Beer, Time Out—“This creepily effective, ritualistic design is by Jessop, who turns in a commanding performance as Strang: Whether sparring with the doctor or exultantly worshipping his horse-god, he memorably conveys the currents of emotion that seethe beneath the stable-hand’s repressed exterior. As Dysart, Parry has much more to say and less to do, but he effectively inhabits the doctor’s probing, skeptical mind. Uneven supporting performances help make the play’s first act at times a slog, but physically and emotionally exposed work by Bittinger and Jessop in the piece’s second half transmutes Shaffer’s dusty text into galloping life.
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/87029/equus-at-redtwist-theatre-theater-review

Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“ Redtwist Theatre ’s aggressively intimate space means that the audience can hear and cling to every subversive line in the play. In fact, the performing area is so surprisingly constrictive that many times the performers can do little but stand and deliver their lines, a storefront handicap that works well for a Shaffer play in which language dazzles as brightly as the debatable ideas. As Alan, Andrew Jessop is the dramatic anchor of this production. His boyish good looks, aquiline nose and fair complexion make for a physical tabula rasa against which a complex and deeply layered psychological performance makes all the more of an impression.”

http://newcitystage.com/2010/06/28/review-equusredtwist-theatre/

Lookingglass Alice, Lookingglass Theatre Company

Marissa Oberlander, Reader—“Lauren Hirte’s Alice flies, spins, and leaps through the stages of growing up in this acrobatic conflation of two classic fantasies by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Lookingglass Theatre ’s latest iteration--the fourth since the show debuted in 2005—demands audience participation as the cast creeps through aisles, climbs into seats, and soars to dizzying heights. Molly Brennan is both playful and terrifying as a ceiling-high Red Queen with a penchant for decapitation. From an unbalanced Humpty Dumpty to the tangoing Tweedles, Dee and Dum, Lookingglass Alice is intoxicating.”

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/lookingglass-alice/Event?oid=1932042

Marissa Oberlander, New City—“The constantly shifting stage pieces and quick costume changes leave the set barren one second and done up like a Lady Gaga concert the next. Under David Catlin’s watchful eye, no audience member is allowed to feel bored. What Lookingglass Alice lacks in cohesive storytelling it more than makes up for in spectacle, surprise and, most importantly, heart. Though there were plenty of children in the audience enjoying the absurdity the night I was there, the true magic of the show is that it lets adults feel like children as well as we too indulge in the nonsensical. This is the fourth time Lookingglass Alice has been produced by Lookingglass since the show’s origin in 2005. For those who missed Alice the last three times, try not to be late for this very important date.”

http://newcitystage.com/2010/07/12/review-lookingglass-alicelookingglass-theatre/

Quote of the Fortnight:

“No sooner do three plays exhibit similar structures than a fourth comes along to mock their stylistic elements.”—Mary Shen Barnidge reviewing Signal Ensemble’s production of The Real Inspector Hound in Windy City.