Articles by Lawrence B. Johnson
David Afkham, a young conductor ascending, scores triple triumph with Chicago Symphony
Review: David Afkham, German born and 36 years old, has the look of a conductor on a straight line to an eminent place in the world. He just wrapped up his second visit in three years with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, this time a program of core orchestral repertoire: Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E minor (“Mourning”), Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. Whatever questions might have lingered about this young conductor were answered in spades. Together, Afkham and the CSO were spectacular.
In separate recitals – and worlds – two singers explore rich realms of Mahler and early music
Review: It was as near the alpha and omega of voice recitals as might be encountered in a span of less than two days: baritone Christian Gerhaher in an all-Mahler program with pianist Gerold Huber, followed by countertenor Iestyn Davies singing mainly Renaissance and Baroque fare with the British viol consort Fretwork, both at the University of Chicago. Though worlds apart by any reckoning, the one was as magical as the other.
‘Sunset Boulevard’ at Porchlight: Sun has set
on silent-film star lost in melodramatic dream
Review: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Sunset Boulevard” won a slew of Tony Awards when it was rolled out on Broadway in 1995, some 45 years after the Billy Wilder film on which it is based had captured a bunch of Academy Award nominations and claimed a few minor ones. I acknowledge these aging triumphs up front because, to my mind, this show, now rather curiously revisited by Porchlight Music Theatre, has come to look as quaint and limited as the silent-film era that its faded, tragic star yearns to relive. ★★
Music of the Baroque puts on hunting weeds for romp over 18th-century fields and streams
Review: The only thing lacking in Music of the Baroque’s clever and far-bounding concert pitched around the hunt Oct. 22 at the Harris Theater was the valkyrie Brünnhilde’s lusty “Hojotoho!” It would have fit right in with this celebration of the thrill and glory of pursuit.
‘Mosquitoes’ at Steep: Physics’ great mystery and the subatomic particles that bind sisters
Review: Alice and Jenny are sisters in name only, or so it might seem, in Lucy Kirkwood’s play “Mosquitoes,” now on fascinating exhibit at Steep Theatre. Alice is a physicist, an acorn fallen not far from the twin oaks of her father (deceased) and her mother (still living). Jenny is not a physicist; she probably couldn’t spell the word. Funny, the binding power of blood. ★★★★
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, playing
in several perfect accents, delivers a thriller
Review: It was quite some display of virtuosity, of sure-fire musical panache, that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and music director Kent Nagano offered Oct. 15 at Orchestra Hall. With a sumptuous encore of Ravel’s grandly wrought “La valse,” the visitors might have been saying, “We can do this all night.” But by that point, after a sterling account of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Nagano’s splendid ensemble was beyond needing to prove anything. “La valse,” opulent and sensuous and undulating, wasn’t so much a statement as a gift.
‘The Brothers Size’ at Steppenwolf: The lyrical storm, and heartache, of unconditional love
Review: The sleeper don’t-miss show of Chicago’s autumn theater season falls under the perhaps inauspicious heading of Steppenwolf’s Young Adult series. Make no mistake, the emphasis here is on “adult,” and Steppenwolf’s superbly cast and directed – indeed, choreographed – staging of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “The Brothers Size” is exquisite theater that will reward the most experienced drama buff. ★★★★★
‘Luisa Miller’ at Lyric Opera of Chicago: Verdi rarity is a happy augury for Mazzola era
Review: We shall see whether Lyric Opera of Chicago, when it comes under the musical leadership of Enrique Mazzola in 2021, pursues the plan of departing music director Andrew Davis to explore the early, less familiar operas of Giuseppe Verdi. The idea has merit, and I think Mazzola will stick with it. There are signs to support that probability in the example immediately at hand: Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” which Mazzola himself conducts with spirit, insight and evident belief in the opera’s worth. ★★★
Pianist Kirill Gerstein, launching Beethoven sonata cycle, sees works as mirror of struggle
Interview: Pianist Kirill Gerstein, who leads off a season-long excursion through Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas to be performed by a parade of virtuosos at Orchestra Hall, views the sonatas not only as the composer’s most personal medium but also as an inventive progression sometimes skewed in modern reckoning – and sometimes unduly sanctified.
‘A Doll’s House’ at Writers: Ibsen condensed
to a suffocating essence, bursting with breath
Review: The 90-minute distillation of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” now on display at Writers Theatre is a fast ride to a shattering finish – an emotional grinder that goes instantly and unflinchingly to the core of this still-remarkable story of a woman’s painful self-discovery, and it never lets up. ★★★★★
‘Oslo’ musters two fiercely opposing forces
in throes of history. Theater, yes… but drama?
Review: One might describe J.T. Rogers’ “Oslo” as a historical feel-good play, the historical happy outcome of which didn’t last very long. It’s a process drama that depicts the secret (verbal) slug-out in 1993 between representatives of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in a valiant effort to bring peace to the Middle East. The production created by TimeLine Theatre and co-produced by Broadway in Chicago is tightly wound and well acted, but it cannot escape the play’s strait-jacketed narrative or rise above the fact that none of this feels especially compelling a quarter-century on. ★★
‘Bernhardt/Hamlet’ at Goodman: Actress dons breeches to play a prince, sans all that poetry
Review: In early 1899, at the heady height of her dizzying fame, the French actress Sarah Bernhardt reopened a Paris theater she had acquired and renamed after herself. Almost immediately, this ever controversial star was upsetting norms again by playing the title role in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” That audacious gambit reimagined is the stuff of Theresa Rebeck’s plainly titled play “Bernhardt/Hamlet,” now on semi-satisfying view at Goodman Theatre. ★★
Muti and CSO begin Beethoven cycle with leap from alpha to titanic ‘Eroica’ as the true omega
Review: When the Chicago Symphony Orchestra had sounded the last blazing notes of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony to end the first concert in a season-long traversal of the nine symphonies with music director Riccardo Muti, I found myself wondering: Where do we go from here? Onward, of course. But upward? In this most universally embracing and aspiring of musical forms, did Beethoven ever actually transcend the “Eroica,” mind you, his third symphony? What Muti and this virtuoso orchestra did with the monumental “Eroica,” on Sept. 26 at Orchestra Hall, was exhilarating to witness.
‘King Hedley II’ at Court: Peripheral Wilson propelled to center stage with bruising force
Review: Of the 10 plays that make up August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, a decade by decade series of tableaux depicting the African American experience through the 20th century, “King Hedley II” may be the least familiar to theater audiences. But this grim, ultimately crushing drama is by no means the least potent. Witness Court Theatre’s knock-out production featuring a stellar cast under the wise direction of Ron OJ Parson. ★★★★★
CSO names Esteban Batallán as first trumpet; Spanish virtuoso assumes new post Sept. 30
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to and edited by Chicago On the Aisle.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti has announced the appointment of Esteban …
‘The King’s Speech’ at Chicago Shakespeare: In his personal storm, a monarch finds a port
Review: It’s the most improbable of buddy plays, David Seidler’s “The King’s Speech.” It just happens to be true, and its essential humanity is on captivating display in a masterful production at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The most common of commoners, an obscure Australian speech therapist on an extended visit to London, is confronted by the most regal of royals: the soon to be crowned George VI of England, who suffers from a lifelong stutter and will find himself thrust into the roiling vortex of a world on the brink of war. ★★★★★
Theater 2019-20: Court begins Oedipus cycle, continues Wilson, reframes ‘Iliad’ in a museum
Seventh in a series of season previews: Ask Court Theatre artistic director Charles Newell to sum up the company’s coming season, and he could begin with quite a list of projects, and he does – eventually. But at the top of Newell’s mind is the big, one might say really big, picture. “Artistically, financially, any way you might want to measure it,” he says, “this is the most ambitious season in Court’s history, and the riskiest.” The season opener is August Wilson’s “King Hedley II,” with Kelvin Roston, Jr., in the title role.
Theater 2019-20: Move to a new home in view as Northlight dots 45th season with premieres
Sixth in a series of season previews: With one world premiere looming up, only to be followed immediately by another, Northlight Theatre artistic director BJ Jones’ hands and plate and time are pretty well filled. But in the cracks he’s also planning ahead to 2021-22, when Northlight expects to relocate from Skokie to a brand-new building in Evanston. This season’s opener, Jane Anderson’s “Mother of the Maid,” about that visionary girl Joan of Arc and her mom, runs through Oct. 20.
Theater 2019-20: Steppenwolf leaps into a year filled with rivalries, yearnings, truths and bugs
Fifth in a series of season previews: Sport meets dreams in multi-cultural America in a Steppenwolf Theatre season that bounces across continents and generations, sometimes in the same show. The lineup includes two world premieres. Or, as associate artistic director Leelai Demoz puts it, the Steppenwolf prospectus is dotted with “entry points” for self-discovery, self-realization and the painful embrace of hard truths.
Theater 2019-20: Goodman turns its spotlight on women in themes personal, social, funny
Fourth in a series of season previews: It wasn’t exactly planned that way, says Goodman Theatre managing producer Adam Belcuore, but when all the pieces were in place for 2019-20, the company had settled on a season dominated by women and women’s issues. “Whether consciously or unconsciously, we arrived at a female-centric season,” says Belcuore. Goodman opens Sept. 16 with the world premiere of Lucas Hnath’s “Dana H.,” essentially a one-woman play about the real-life abduction of his mother.
Davis to step down as Lyric’s music director; Italian Enrique Mazzola will take reins in 2021
Report: Andrew Davis will step down as music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago at the end of the 2020-21 season, to be succeeded by Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola, the company announced on Sept. 12. Mazzola, principal guest conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and until recently artistic and music director of the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France in Paris, made his Lyric debut in 2016 with Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” He returned in 2018 to lead Bellini’s “I Puritani.” He will conduct Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” at the Lyric in October.
At Stratford Festival, veteran struts his comic stuff as Falstaff and madcap Coward character
Review: It isn’t exactly a double-header, but it surely is a Wyn-Wyn for the Stratford Festival’s versatile star actor Geraint Wyn Davies. His delightful romps as Shakespeare’s roguish Sir John Falstaff in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and as Noel Coward’s do-over divorcee in “Private Lives” are reason enough to make the Ontario festival trek from just about any distance. ★★★★/★★★★
Theater 2019-20: Victory Gardens will churn American melting pot, the stuff of our totality
Third in a series of season previews: “Diversity is what makes this country unique,” says Victory Gardens Theatre artistic director Chay Yew. “As Americans, we inherit all American histories. Our coming season is about our diversity – the differences that represent our totality.” The season opens with Janet Ulrich Brooks playing a personal advice columnist in an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s book “Tiny Beautiful Things.”
Theater 2019-20: Shattered Globe cues plays bringing new perspectives on this old world
Second in a series of season previews: Sandy Shinner, in her sixth season as artistic director of Shattered Globe Theatre, describes a common thread running through the company’s new season of three plays as “seeing the world in a new way.” One’s personal world, she means, of course: “You think you know where you stand, then something happens and you have to recalibrate.” Shattered Globe opens with Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “Be Here Now,” an edgy comedy about a confirmed nihilist whose peculiar crisis is finding happiness.
‘The Glass Menagerie’ at the Shaw Festival: In a broken world, illusion collides with reality
Review: Before the scripted play begins in the Shaw Festival’s searing production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the actor who will play the trapped, desperately yearning Tom Wingfield performs magic tricks for the audience. Wearing a knitted cap, he looks like a street person. Maybe we aren’t looking at a prelude at all; perhaps this is the epilogue – the fate of an aspiring poet who ultimately flees from his dead-end life as sole provider for his domineering, erstwhile Southern belle of a mother and his crippled, withdrawn, psychologically damaged sister. ★★★★★
‘Into the Woods’ at Writers: Fairy-tale delights spun on life’s loom – fantasy and hard lessons
Review: The woods are as menacing as ever, but the production of “Into the Woods,” the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical fairy tale currently running at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, is utterly luminous. Sondheim and Lapine pulled off a miracle with their 1986 show, deftly exploring the deep philosophical and moral questions lurking below the surface of a seemingly frothy mashup of fairy tales featuring, among others, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack (of beanstalk fame) and a wily witch. ★★★★★
Theater 2019-20: From woods to tennis court and date with Death, Writers plots a fresh trek
First in a series of season previews: Contemplating the diverse and intriguing 2019-20 series of plays underway at Writers Theatre Artistic director Michael Halberstam sums up the challenge of programming and its progression from year to year. “I’d like to think we learn something every season,” he offers with unembroidered simplicity. “We want to be in tune with the times, to reflect the moment – to present a genuinely diverse season.”
Stratford Festival: Othello may be no match for Iago, but these two actors go toe to toe
Review: When the full, remorseless malevolence of Shakespeare’s villain Iago spills across the stage, it can be hard to find the title character in “Othello.” But even pitted against Gordon S. Miller’s sinister nemesis in the Stratford Festival’s current production, Michael Blake brings front and center both the heroic stature and the tragic vulnerability of a great general brought down by a handkerchief. ★★★★★
Romp in the woods at American Players: A lusty, stylish go at ‘She Stoops To Conquer’
Review: Oliver Goldsmith’s broad comedy “She Stoops to Conquer” has been around for nearly 250 years, one of the few 18th-century British plays to hold the stage in this country despite the great displacement of time and place. Charming, LOL funny and warm-hearted, “She Stoops to Conquer” is a smashing success at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wis. It’s an ensemble coup but also a particular triumph for Laura Rook as an aristocratic girl who sheds her fine mantle to win the heart of a hopelessly shy peer. ★★★★
Tennessee Williams’ rare gem ‘Creve Coeur’ gets a lyrical polishing at American Players
Review: “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,” an obscure play by Tennessee Williams from late in his life, serves up a touching, trenchant, typically insightful and empathic look at aging womanhood – four women in this instance – in a production at American Players Theatre that reveals a hidden gem by the incomparable singer of America’s Southern song. ★★★★★
