Spunk
Playwright: George C. Woolf adapted from Zora Neale Hurston
At: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis. Phone: 773-753-4472; $40-$60. Runs through: Oct. 9
Violet
Composer: Jeanine Tesori; book/lyrics: Brian Crawley
At: Bailiwick Chicago at Mercury Theatre, 3745 N. Southport. Phone: 773-325-1700; $27.50-$32.50. Runs through: Oct. 16
As the days grow colder, Court Theatre and Bailiwick Chicago are offering welcome blasts of Southern heat with respective (and very respectable) productions of Spunk and Violet.
Spunk is George C. Wolfe's 1990 adaptation of three fictional stories by Harlem Renaissance chronicler Zora Neale Hurston. Two are dramas based upon Hurston's own anthropological studies of Deep South African-Americans, while sandwiched in between is a stylish Harlem comic episode. Hurston felt that the page couldn't truly capture the audible rhythms of African-Americans, so it's appropriate that Wolfe wanted to bring the tales to life on stage.
The second you hear music director Kelvyn Bell expertly strumming his guitar with Alexis J. Rogers' powerful vocalizing as the "Blues Speak Woman," you understand how fun it can be to have Hurston's characters speak and sing via Charles "Chic" Street Man's blues score. Director Seret Scott helps to facilitate her fine cast to flesh out Hurston's vivid characters.
Kenn E. Head has a ball as one vicious adulterous husband and two overly stylish ne'er-do-wells. Michael Pogue also gets plenty of laughs throughout (although his outrageous wigs also deserve credit).
Also giving great performances are Chris Boykin and Patrese D. McClain (particularly when they portray a young husband and wife facing an adulterous crisis).
Spunk is entertaining from start to finish, even if you wish there was some way to tie the show's three separate parts into a more cohesive whole.
Violet was the 1997 off-Broadway show that put composer Jeanine Tesori on the map before her acclaimed Broadway work (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline, Or Change). Bailiwick Chicago offers a handsome staging of this early Tesori work co-created with librettist Brian Crawley at the Mercury Theatre, featuring a vocally and dramatically strong ensemble assembled by director Elizabeth Magolius.
Harmony France plays the show's motivated title character, a woman from Spruce Pine, N.C., taking a western bus journey to see a televangelist in hopes that he will be able to cure a horrific facial scar from an axe accident she suffered as a young teenager. Along the way, Violet befriends two soldiers: an African-American nicknamed Flick (Evan Tyrone Martin) and a Caucasian guy named Monty (Courtney Crouse).
Since it's 1964 in the South, Violet's friendship with the soldiers does bring up some conflicts. We also get an insight into Violet's background with vivid flashbacks involving her father (John B. Leen) and her younger self (Glynis Gilio).
All the performances are top-notch, as is the small orchestra under music director Andra Velis Simon.
The only flaw with Violet is in its rushed and not-entirely-earned happy ending. But the rest of the show's journey is so compelling that it makes Violet extremely worthwhile to see.