The Elephant Man (Bohemian Theatre Company)

My friend Anita and I went to see The Elephant Man at the new Theater Wit space, but first we stopped off at The Gondola. The Gondola is the new restaurant across the street there, where Joey's Brickhouse used to be, and let me tell you, it was hoppin'!
We didn't have tons of time, so we settled on an order of baked clams and a conversation about our lives.
When the food came out, Anita put a whole clam in her mouth. She bit down and with shock and despair in her voice she shouted "They left half the goddammed shell on this thing!"

Yes, Country Mouse, they sure did.

After we figured who to blame for leaving the shells on the bottom of these baked clams, we told the waitress we would only be paying half price, because you could only eat the top half of these things and we also suggested that the chef should, perhaps return to cooking school and take a class on mollusks.

After dinner, we wandered over to Theater Wit. What a great new theater! The box office was friendly and the concessions area was clean and bright!
I ordered a ginger ale with some ice for the show. I saw that it was about 1:45 without an intermission and I knew I would be thirsty.
Why do shows go that long without intermissions? Can they not afford one?
I wanted to let them know that over at Steppenwolf they have a show with 2 intermissions, and maybe they would be willing to donate one. This seemed like it might come off as a little sarcastic, so I just let things be and found our seats.

What do you know about the play "The Elephant Man"?
Here's what I knew.
John Merrick was this real dude that had some crazy weird growths all over him. I had also surmised from this that the play was about acceptance of others no matter what their appearance is and that people would probably have accents.

I was right about both of those things.
The play is directed by June Eubanks, and one of the tricks she uses is, she projects the scene number and name up across the stage (like Frazier), and then an actor comes out and reads it. This device is used sometimes to make scene changes seem less utilitarian and add a touch of whimsy to the thing. Now, there are like 57 scenes in this play, so needless to say some of the scenes are very short, so sometimes it would go like this:
A scene would end, and a new scene would flash across the stage. For example:

Scene XIVX
There Is Only Darkness In This Room

and then here's the scene...

Doctor: What are you doing here?
Merrick: Catching lightning bugs. I use this for light.
Doctor: What for?
Merrick: There is only darkness in this room.

And that's the whole scene.

So there were like, 80 scenes like that. Now, to the directors credit, it was easy to follow everything, and you were always rooting for the Elephant guy. You want him to live or whatever he wants to do, and he also builds little cardboard houses or something, they never really got into that, but I bet that's what it was because once he was taken into captivity, he was probably pretty bored, just like elephants at the zoo.

Well at about scene 37, I was running out of ginger ale and so when I put the cup to my mouth, the ice would slide all the way down and when I put the cup back, the ice would crash at the bottom of the cup. At first I didn't notice, but as I kept doing it, I started to notice a certain set of eyes on me. Those eyes belong to a certain reviewer in town with a name that rhymes with Rom Rilliams. He was looking at me like he wanted to rape me in the alley. Well, you can bet that that was the last time I tried to drink any ginger ale!

Anyway, the acting is pretty good I guess. Here's the thing. Remember when you where in high school and everyone made fun of you for doing faggoty plays with British accents? This is one of those plays. The guy who plays the Elephant man is named Mike Tepeli. He's pretty new I think, but he's good. He's sort of like Will Allan I think.
Then there is Cameron Feagin who plays a whore with a heart of gold. She is REALLY good, but they don't do the topless scene for everyone to see boobs, only the Elephant Man gets to see them. Feagin has been doing a lot of plays lately and you can see why. She's very natural and has a nice speaking voice.
Zach Bloomfield is this guy who plays weirdos and he doesn't disappoint here. He plays a really creepy dude that ends up looking for some forgiveness, but is really just a douche.
But I think the BEST performance of the night goes to Steve O'Connell. He was great as the doctor on the edge and I have high hopes of never auditioning against him. That will be hard, since we are both tall and handsome leading men.

Go see this play, it's got a minimal set but I hear Bohemian Theatre is a great company to watch in the future, so get in on the ground floor!




B+

-Anderson Lawfer, Eric Roach

P.S. After the play, I saw Rom Rilliams order a ginger ale, so maybe he was just looking at me like that because he was jealous.

Striking 12- Boho Theatre (Guest reviewer Dyan Flores)

I know you're dubious. You're thinking, "Who the hell is Dyan Flores and what gives her the right to review Striking Twelve, Boho Theatre's latest production?" I don't blame you for thinking this. You're weary of an outsider coming and sullying the hallowed ground of theatrical criticism that is "Eric and Andy's Reviews You Can Iews." Well you can calm down, because I have a degree in dramatic literature, theatre history, and the cinema from New York F-ing University. You know who else went to NYFU? Tony Kushner. Also, Haley Joel Osment. None of this matters when I'm temping or doing psych studies for cash at UIC, but here, on this site, it's important.

So...Striking 12...The show took place in a theater in Rogers Park that was very very warm. In the summer this would have been super obnoxious, but it was much appreciated because it was maybe 15 degrees outside. Guess who sat in the row in front of me...Chris Jones! He's the theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune. He once described an actor as having a pleasantly scrunched-up face. Naturally I wanted to lean over his shoulder and observe him in action as he took notes during the show, but a man and a woman in sequins arrived late and I had to scoot down a seat. That annoyed me, but because I am a professional, I did not let that resentment color my perception of the show.

I think the form of a compliment sandwich will best serve this review, so to start, the fact that the actors also sang and played their own instruments was impressive. That conceit isn't all that unusual these days, but it's still really kick-ass when done well. Towards the top of the show the performers played/sang/acted this song about New Years Eve in 7/4 time, which knocked my socks off. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THAT IS?!?! I can't even chew gum and cross the street at the same time, so the fact that they did this and did this well is rad.

I hope that last paragraph will sufficiently ease us all into the unpleasant middle of the compliment sandwich. At times the sound was kind of meh. Sorry, someone had to say it. The performers were crooning and emoting and playing their little hearts out, but it was occasionally overwhelming for the small space. Even with mics, there were spots where it was difficult to hear what was going on. Striking Twelve mixes a modern New Years tale with the story of the little match girl, so while the plot was simple enough to follow, you unfortunately missed out on some of the clever lyrics and underscored dialogue.

How did I know that the lyrics and underscored dialogue were clever if I couldn't hear them all? (Here comes the second piece of compliment bread on our sandwich...) I assumed they were, based on the parts of the book and lyrics that I could hear. Starting with the overture and throughout the show the cast made a lot of self-referential jokes which landed quite well with the audience. Sometimes you can come off as a real asshole if you're too self-referential in a show, but the book was smart and the performers were likable enough that it worked. Speaking of the likable performers, one of them (Mallory Nees) played the guitar, bass, and concertina, and she had on a super cute outfit. She also had a great singing voice and seemed like the kind of person I'd be friends with in real life.

Chris Jones said this was a musical for people who hate holiday musicals, but I think there's enough gooey holiday sentiment for even the "White Christmas" and "Holiday Inn" loving crowd. If you like toasty theaters and musicals that both entertain and warm the heart, this one fits the bill. Trust me, I have a degree from NYFU and an obscene amount of student loan debt to back me up.

A

-Dyan Flores