Oakbrook's 'Curtains' Adds Show Solidly to the Repertoire

Two important post-Broadway mountings of 21st-century musicals opened in the Chicago area this week. One, "Mary Poppins," has had a great deal of attention. Now you can forget about it. This review concerns itself with the other one! "Curtains," the exemplary 2007 Kander and Ebb post-modern musical comedy, is now receiving its first post-Broadway mounting anywhere at our very own west suburban Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace. That's right! This major coup for Oakbrook continues the very high standards for musicals that the theatre set last year, with no end in sight.

I saw the Broadway production with its original cast, and I liked it a lot. It's a fun show, especially for those in the audience with a knowledge of and appreciation for the Golden Age of Broadway musicals, and the out-of-town try-out that most musicals went through then while finding their way to the Great White Way. Set in 1955 at the Colonial Theatre in Boston (one of the top two legendary try-out locations, along with the Shubert Theatre in New Haven), "Curtains" depicts with love and a little bit of satire the world in which young John Kander, Fred Ebb and bookwriter Peter Stone wanted to work, and in which they eventually made their mark. (Alas, Ebb and Stone didn't live to see the completed "Curtains," so their work was finished by Kander and by multi-talented writer Rupert Holmes, he of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" for the theatre, "Remember WENN" for television and "Escape [The Pina Colada Song]" for radio).

David Hyde Pierce won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his Broadway portrayal of Lt. Frank Cioffi, the Boston detective with a love of theatre and a knack for show-doctoring in the best traditions of show business. That role is essayed here by Sean Fortunato, one of Chicago's very best character leading men, and he certainly does not disappoint. With impeccable comic technique, natural aw-shucks charm and a thoroughly-schooled command of the stage, of the other characters and of the knowledgeable opening night Drury Lane audience, Fortunato was outstanding. (A minor quibble is that his Boston accent drifted at times toward the Bronx, at least to this reviewer's ear, and in fact an accent is not really required-just a hint of one would be fine. But I'm sure it will smooth out quickly.) He is wonderful in this role.

Lt. Cioffi's leading lady, ingénue Niki Harris, is played at Drury Lane by Jessie Mueller, one of Chicago's best soubrettes du jour and a charming presence as Niki.

I must mention here, in reference to the above sentence, that one of the post-modern delights of "Curtains" as written is that the onstage and offstage roles that characters play do not coincide as neatly as they do in "Kiss Me, Kate," that other great musical theatre try-out musical (which in fact is referenced briefly in "Curtains"). In "Kate," the onstage leads Petruchio and Kate are played by the offstage leads FrEd Graham and Lili Vanessi. But in "Curtains," the leading man of the onstage musical, "Robbin' Hood of the Old West," is Bobby Pepper (the young and charismatic Michael Parker Ayers), a secondary lead to the offstage drama. Onstage leading lady Jessica Cranshaw (the first to die in this murder mystery musical) only appears in "Curtains"'s first scene! But in a master stroke of casting, none other than Chicago leading lady royalty Paula Scrofano plays Cranshaw here, in what is likely to be the first of many times that this role will be played by a legitimate local theatrical legend, given how well the idea actually comes off. Scrofano is a hoot, and latecomers will miss out on seeing her play a satirical version of herself!

The real leading lady of the offstage story of "Curtains" is either "Robbin' Hood"'s producer Carmen Bernstein (played by Nancy Voigts with all the gusto of her Broadway counterpart, Debra Monk) or the actress-turned-lyricist-turned-actress Georgia Hendricks (Christine Sherrill, displaying a fine big Broadway voice, fine enough dancing skills and a lot of acting chops).

On the male side, Cioffi is certainly the lead, but an unconventional one at that. Composer Aaron Fox has a nice romantic sub-plot, enacted by the intense James Rank, nicely acting behind the piano keyboard and definitely singing for real. The brilliant John Reeger is worth the price of admission alone for his fey, zinger-laden turn as director Christopher Belling. Eric Parks is a memorable stage manager, and Mark David Kaplan and Jim Corti turn in reliable character performances as money man and producer, respectively.

In this uniformly fine cast, Nicole Hren and Jeff Cummings very nearly steal the moments they pop up in, and most of the ensemble members shine memorably-all are attractive and talented and make the most of the show's big production numbers, "Show People," "Thataway" and the final version of "In the Same Boat," not to mention the "Oklahoma!" homage that is "Kansasland," with its "K-A-N-S-A-S-U-S-A" lyric.

Did I mention that there are three murders in the show? And it all takes place on or slightly above the stage of the Colonial Theatre-that is, there are no scene changes, per se, only sets that move in and out as they would on a theatre's stage. This honoring of one of the classic Greek unities is in fact another of this show's post-modern touches. If this show had actually been written in 1955, we would have seen dressing rooms, lobbies, alleys, etc., and every detail of verisimilitude would have been vitally important. But we all know that we are in musical comedy heaven here, so the fact that key criminal evidence is passed around, that crime scenes are trampled and altered, and that suspects are questioned in all sorts of scenarios without a "Miranda" warning in sight-well, just forget about all that. Whether or not there was time for everything to occur offstage that is described as having occurred there, while we were just standing here talking-well, never you mind. Forget those conventions of ancient Greek drama! And the action that occurs in front of the main curtain actually does occur in front of the main curtain. It's not a cover for a scene change, it's a curtain!

And the fact of the matter is, when Fortunato's Cioffi sings his reflective "Coffee Shop Nights," describing his lonely life as a hard-working single detective, you fall in love with him. When Sherrill's Hendricks sings "Thinking of Him," and you don't know whether she means her ex-husband (composer Fox) or her current young leading man (Pepper), your heart breaks. When Cioffi solves the problem of the musical's climactic number ("In the Same Boat") and the mystery of its opening night murder (you will never guess it) practically simultaneously, it all seems deliciously right. And when Fortunato and Mueller express through song and dance that their characters' pairing would be "A Tough Act to Follow," complete with a stairway to paradise and some truly magical choreography (courtesy of choreographer Linda Fortunato), they produce a twin-combustion explosion of musical comedy joy! It is a transporting moment, so perfectly right and with pitch-perfect emotion to boot. The sparks really do fly. This may be the best musical theatre moment of the year, anywhere.

Director William Brown, in his first outing at the Oakbrook Theatre, had hired Chicago's top talent onstage and off, and in the process of doing so has proven to the New York interests in "Curtains" that their show can and should and will have a life beyond the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on 45th Street.  Musical Director Doug Peck leads the orchestra and cast with aplomb, and makes a droll Sascha ("Robbin' Hood"'s conductor) as well. The scenic designs of Keith Pitts realistically bring the flat and drop world of the 1950s into contemporary musical theatre with flair and ingenuity, and Charlie Cooper's lighting seems ever so right in guiding the eye and setting the mood. Debbie Baer provides the "Wild West meets the West 40s" costumes without breaking the budget, Dan Mead makes sure we hear everything we're supposed to, and Gregory Isaac designed the fun props.

"Curtains" is perhaps not the best musical comedy of all time-most certainly it is not. But it is highly entertaining, quite clever, moving and interesting, and it makes a most agreeable night out for adults and teenagers who like theatrical lore, a good mystery, some well-choreographed eye candy, catchy tunes and witty words. The Drury Lane's large cast of distinctive triple-threat performers never disappoints.

If you like musicals like they used to be, you owe it to yourself to come and see how they're up-to-date. No, the music isn't rock or hip-hop, and the human insights aren't earth-shattering. But the score is solidly in the Times Square vein, and the emotions and relationships of the characters ring true. This "Curtains" is a welcome addition to Chicago's spring theatre scene, and I hope that it spawns many future productions of this show at professional, amateur and school theatres across the country. We've added a show to the repertoire! Don't you deserve to see it before your less-informed friends and neighbors???

"Curtains" at the Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace plays Wednesdays through Sundays at 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. Tickets are $29-$35. Dinner packages available. For reservations, phone 630-530-1111 or call Ticketmaster at 312-599-1212. You may also visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.drurylaneoakbrook.com.

Photo: Sean Fortunato and Jessie Mueller

 

 

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