24601derful: Drury Lane Oakbrook Stages a Fully Masterful 'Les Misérables' -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

Les Misérables
Drury Lane Oakbrook
Thru June 8
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"It's as good as Broadway," was the first thing I heard when the lights came up at Intermission, from the woman sitting next to me, although she was actually speaking to her two companions.

So I turned to her and said, "I saw it last year in London and this is every bit as good."

When I returned to my seat for the start of Act 2, the man sitting on the other side of me asked, "Did you say you saw it in London and this is just as good?"

To which I explained that there was something really cool about seeing Les Misérables in London, where the original production has been running since 1985, and that there--as on Broadway and in downtown Chicago theaters on multiple tours--it can be presented on a considerably grander scale.

But without being able to recall with any exactitude the vocal timbre or acting quality from character to character, I don't think that had I seen the Oakbrook performance in London I would have loved it any less--or vice-versa any more.

And it--my pick for the best musical of all-time, but my second favorite (behind The Producers)--was absolutely fantastic in London, as well the last time I saw it in Chicago, in a revamped, slightly smaller version for the 25th Anniversary U.S. Tour. I have also seen the show on Broadway and several other times in Chicago.

So it is really saying something to note how thoroughly terrific it is at the Drury Lane Oakbrook.

Not this should sound all that surprising to those--including a large subscriber base--who have patronized (in a good way) the venerable venue now in its 30th year in operation, or those who know that Drury Lane Theatres have been part of the Chicagoland scene since 1949.

Although DRO has a smaller proscenium stage than at large Broadway, West End or Chicago theaters, it has a capacity around 950, which is more than several official Broadway theaters and within 150 seats of many others. All the seats for Les Miz looked filled on Sunday evening, and extrapolated over 80 performances, that's up to 76,000 people who may see this show, many more than a typical 2-week downtown run of a non-blockbuster Broadway tour reels in.

So the stellar work regularly being presented at Drury Lane Oakbrook under the auspices of Kyle DeSantis, who took over after his legendary grandfather Tony passed away in 2007, shouldn't shock those who have paid attention.

Over the past few seasons, I have seen sublime, world-class renditions of Ragtime, Cabaret, Singin' in the Rain, Sweeney Todd, Hairspray, The Sound of Music and Next To Normal, and I no longer live 15 minutes away, as I did when I first went to DRO in 2001.

Yet something about the suburban location, the theater being housed within a multi-use banquet facility and the reasonable ticket prices may prompt some incredulity about Drury Lane staging Broadway-quality productions. (Though prices have increased with the quality of the shows, Les Misérables can be seen for $45 through the DRO box office and considerably less on Goldstar, my option.)

I am sure there are many avid musical theater lovers in Chicago who will go to New York--where Les Miz has been remounted--or London before they even contemplate heading to Oakbrook Terrace.

That's their loss.

And while I hope those attending the four parties simultaneously taking place at Drury Lane--on arriving, I saw many dressed to the nines--had the time of their lives, I feel a bit bad that they were oblivious to the magnificence taking place just a few yards away.

Though spatial restrictions didn't allow the scenery to quite match that of Les Miz in London, on Broadway or on tour, it the best and most elaborate set I've every seen at DRO. The staging didn't need to be quite as inventive as at Marriott Lincolnshire--where I saw a spectacular in-the-round production in 2008--but it's nonetheless rather brilliant.

Rachel Rockwell is probably Chicago's best musical theater director this side of Gary Griffin and she makes several clever choices I don't recall being previously incorporated into Les Misérables, which only adds to the emotional heft of Victor Hugo's famed storyline and Claude-Michel Schonberg's astonishing musical score. (Alain Boublil is credited as the original musical's co-creator, with Herbert Kretzmer writing the English lyrics.)

Though I always innately admire the work of set and lighting designers, here it was so good as for me to make a point of noting and citing Scott Davis and Greg Hoffman, respectively. Video projections to support the set, created by Sage Marie Carter, were also superb, as was the costuming by Erika Senase and Maggie Hoffman.

The 16-member orchestra, under the musical director of Roberta Duchak and conducted by Ben Johnson sounded strong if--likely due to spatial limitations--not as robust as larger ones in bigger venues.

Yet while all the people behind the scenes and in the pit undoubtedly contribute greatly to just how great this production is, it is the cast and their vocal prowess that most acutely renders apt the comparison to London and Broadway.

Ivan Rutherford, who plays Jean Valjean here, has played the role on Broadway, as well as on tour and at other regional theaters, more than 2,000 times in total.

He is terrific, and delivers "Bring Him Home" as well as I can recall.

Only devout Les Miz lovers may truly get this, but a large part of how I perceive any production of the show--from Broadway to high schools, where I've also seen it--is in how well the spotlight numbers are delivered.

And every one at Drury Lane is excellent, including Jennie Sophia (Fantine) singing "I Dreamed a Dream," Mark David Kaplan and Sharon Sachs (the Thernadiers) on "Master of the House," Quentin Earl Darrington's (Javert) "Stars," Skyler Adams and Emily Rohm (Marius and Cosette) dueting on "In My Life/A Heart Full of Love" and Christina Nieves (Eponine) emoting "On My Own."

This doesn't even include the best voice of the whole bunch, Travis Taylor as Enjolras, who spearheads the trio of great choral numbers at the end of Act I. Though I've only seen Taylor in supporting roles around Chicago--Sweeney Todd at DRO, Now and Forever, an Andrew Lloyd Webber revue at the Marriott Lincolnshire--each time he has demonstrably stood out enough for me to remember his name and wonder why he isn't a leading man on Broadway.

The child actors rotate performances, but the ones I saw--Charlie Babbo as Gavroche, Ava Morse as Young Cosette--were also splendid.

I'm running out of unused adjectives, but I think I've made my point.

Les Misérables is one of the greatest artistic works of both the 19th and 20th century--the 2012 movie is also wonderful--and while I suspect the musical will play grand opera houses in years to come, it is now being licensed to regional theaters.

It cannot be an easy musical to do justice, but the Drury Lane Oakbrook more than does.

If you love Les Miz, it is well-worth the $36 (incl. fees) I paid to see how well it translates here.

And if you've never seen the show--like the guy next to me, who loved it but wondered if he was seeing it in representative form--this is a truly marvelous introduction.

Either way, you'd be folly to "Miz" it. 

For "at the end of the day," culture and community are what will save us from artifice and avarice. Les Misérables not only promotes this notion, but when staged terrifically--as here--best exemplifies it.

You Can't Stop the Beat: 10 Years On, 'Hairspray' Still Holds Its Frizz at Drury Lane Oakbrook -- Theater Review

Theater Review

Hairspray
Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook
Thru June 17
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In addition to finding it a fantastic musical, I've had a special affinity for Hairspray since the first time I saw it on stage.

Not because of the John Waters movie that inspired the adaptation; for no good reason, I've never seen it.

But because back in June 2002, already with a voracious appetite for musicals, I happened to be go on a trip to Seattle with no awareness that Hairspray was even being turned into a stage musical, let alone having a pre-Broadway tryout at the 5th Avenue Theater.

Despite already having tickets to a Mariners game and a play, and intending to drive to Vancouver, Victoria, Olympic National Park and Aberdeen, a newspaper ad in the dear departed Seattle Post-Intelligencer excited me enough that I used a computer at the company store of Microsoft's headquarters to buy a ticket for Saturday night--and then made sure I got back to Seattle in time.

I thought the show--music, lyrics, storyline, book, dialogue, message, humor, all of it--was phenomenal and before I even left the balcony, I called my mom and told her that Hairspray would win the Tony for Best New Musical the following June (after it had moved to Broadway).

It did.

So although I've since seen the show on early tours in Chicago and Milwaukee, and its first local staging at Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire in 2009, given the wonderful productions I've seen of late at Drury Lane Oakbrook--including The Sound of Music and Sweeney Todd last year--and the confluence of an 11am job interview in Naperville and a half-price ticket through Goldstar.com, I decided to check out how Hairspray was holding up ten years after I first caught a strand.

I'm happy to report--as attested to by an auditorium full of dancing octogenarians--that it remains a robustly bouffant delight. Even if the DRO rendition was a tad less ebullient than I recall the pre-Broadway version, and a few roles weren't performed quite as flavorfully as I've seen before, it's quite possible that Chicago area residents will never again have a chance to see a production of Hairspray this good again, especially for so little money.

I paid just $17.50 before fees for a show that had 17 Equity contracts--including Felicia Fields, Tim Kazurinsky and Michae-Aaron Lindner--among a cast of 33.

With the Broadway run over and the original national touring cycle long completed, any future national tours are likely to be fully non-Equity and even if another stellar local troupe--Light Opera Works, Paramount Theatre Aurora, Marriott again, etc.--stages Hairspray, tickets won't be any less expensive and it'd be hard for the quality to be significantly better.

Tracy Turnblad can't be that easy a role to cast, but Lillian Castillo was perfectly sung as the little big girl who wants to dance and change the world at the same time. As Edna, the role originated by Divine (in the non-musical movie) and Harvey Fierstein on-stage, Michael-Aaron Lindner was dramatically and vocally stellar, even if not as humorous as past Ednas. SNL vet Kazurinsky was fun as Wilbur and Felicia Fields sounded typically great as Motormouth Maybelle.

Without having seen the Waters movie, I don't know how much credit he deserves for how well the musical's civil rights storyline works, but with music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (also responsible for such on TV's Smash) and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, Hairspray is more effective in covering socially-conscious ground that Memphis would later traipse.

Given this week's news about gay marriage being rejected by North Carolina and endorsed by President Obama, and the high school bullying incident for which Mitt Romney apologized, the set-in-1962 scenario of Hairspray seems as relevant as ever, as does the musical 10 years down its road. (This seems like a good place to reference my previous post, about bullying.)

Drury Lane Oakbrook deserves much praise for the level at which its shows now regularly seem to reside. I've enjoyed going there for years, but in the past few DRO has noticeably stepped up its game, including large casts, first-rate performers & directors and impressive scenery on a relatively small stage.

Understandably given the weekday matinee, there was a large motorcoach crowd of seniors, a group every local theater should pray stays alive forever.

But there was also a surprising number of empty seats. Hopefully this isn't the case at evening and weekend shows, especially with free, easy parking making the Goldstar discount pricing even more of a bargain.

Hairspray stands as one of the best musicals of the 21st century and Drury Lane Oakbrook is presenting it at near-Broadway quality for--particularly with readily available discounts--very reasonable prices. If you love musicals, want to see the art form remain commercially viable on a local level and especially if you have never seen this show, there's no reason you shouldn't catch Hairspray while you "can."

Ragtime Resplendent at Drury Lane Oakbrook

Theater Review

Ragtime: the Musical
Drury Lane Oakbrook
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 
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Originating shortly before my musical awakening (as detailed in this post), I was oblivious to Ragtime: the Musical--based on E.L. Doctorow's famed book that I've never read--when it bowed on Broadway in 1998.

Even when a Chicago production re-opened the beautiful Oriental Theatre (officially dubbed the Ford Center for the Performing Arts) later that same year and stayed through much of 1999, I never bothered to see what it is was all about.

Silly me.

For now, long after I introduced myself to the Original Cast Recording and have seen the show about America in the early 1900s in productions around Chicago, I consider it the third best musical of the 1990s, behind only Rent and The Lion King, which beat out Ragtime for the 1998 Best Musical Tony Award.

That said, and with high praise fully intended, Ragtime isn't one of my very tip-top favorite musicals, and I would rate its content--music, lyrics, story--@@@@1/2 out of 5. But then, I would--perhaps somewhat curmudgeonly--give only about 10 musicals ever perfect marks for content.

Although the content of a show obviously impacts how much I might enjoy seeing it in any incarnation, only the original creators can truly be held responsible for the songs, dialogue, etc. and anyone who presents a show subsequent to its Broadway run (or other initial staging) is to be judged largely on the relative quality of their production (while taking into account the confinements often dictated by economics, venue size, etc.).

In that regard, but also factoring in my strong enjoyment of the source material, the rendition of Ragtime now running at Drury Lane Oakbrook until May 23 clearly deserves @@@@@. From the imaginative scenery, to a robust orchestra, to the performances and singing throughout (including by a couple actors who came from the recent Broadway revival), this is a magnificent production.

Below, I will post a video of the opening number from the original Broadway production of Ragtime (directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Frank Galati). Although--or perhaps because--the stage is much smaller at Drury Lane, its handling of the opening number, entitled Ragtime, is more inventive and richer than the Broadway version (as far as I could tell from a YouTube video).

Director Rachel Rockwell and Scenic Designer Kevin Depinet devised a set that looks fantastic, the music (composed by Stephen Flaherty, directed here by Roberta Duchak, who performed in the original Broadway edition) sounded great and both the acting and vocal delivery (of Lynn Ahrens' lyrics) by a 33-member cast were incredibly impressive.

I've enjoyed Larry Adams and Cory Goodrich (left) in several past performances on Chicago area stages, and their work here as Mother and Father was excellent, as was that of Broadway revival cast veterans Quentin Earl Darrington (as Coalhouse Walker, center in the photo above) and Valisia LeKae (as his beloved Sarah).

Drury Lane--now run by Kyle DeSantis, who seems to be infusing the Oakbrook Terrace shows with larger budgets than did his late grandfather Tony (Drury Lane's founder)--has much to be proud of. While I've seen and enjoyed several shows at DRO over the last decade, and have found its quality somewhat akin to that at two other suburban musical theater venues--Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire and Theatre at the Center in Munster--of the three, I've always considered Marriott to be the best with DRO a step below, only slightly above TATC.

But with the sublime Ragtime coming after stellar productions of Cabaret and Curtains in 2009, Drury Lane Oakbrook now seems to be clearly as good if not better than Marriott Lincolnshire (though mind you, I certainly don't see every production at any of the three).

And while I've enjoyed every production I've seen of Ragtime, including a free Wilmette Park District version, I can assure you that even if a touring edition of the Broadway revival comes to Chicago in the next few years--which seems doubtful--it will not be any better than what you can see at Drury Lane right now. (And for those like me, who always appreciate a good discount, check Goldstar.com; free registration required.)


(As mentioned above, this is the opening number from the 1998 Broadway cast. You can also see some short clips from the Drury Lane production here. Lovers of ragtime music should also check out this post.)