Playwright: The ensemble; Composer: John Fournier . At: 500 Clown at Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted. Phone: 312-335-1650; $20-$28. Runs through: July 11.
One in the professionally printed program ( filled whimsical scribbles and clip art ) comically details the elephant exchange plot of Bertolt Brecht's Man is Man, which inspired the show. The second is a photocopied insert detailing a conversation with her young son. It's cute, but it's really owning up to the fact that preview audiences weren't getting the company's Brecht tie-in, or just what the show was supposed to mean. So Danzig gives permission for you to make what you will of the show.
Danzig needn't have worried, since it's generally known that you're not in for a literal adaptation of a classic with 500 Clown ( just look at their previous deconstructions of Macbeth, Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol ) . And besides, the red pre-show lighting in the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre makes it a chore to actually read the program notes.
All that really matters with 500 Clown is that you're in for an evening of great clowning fun—the kind of fourth-wall-smashing and extremely physically frantic kind that 500 Clown is an expert at. The artsy Brechtian overlays about self and identity turn out to be really immaterial ( or just a really great starting point ) .
The setting and premise of this 500 Clown go round is a cabaret concert with a demanding diva named Madame Barker ( a wonderfully self-deprecating and childlike Molly Brennan ) . She sings funny innuendo-filled songs whilst terrorizing her antic and incompetent stage hands ( Adrian Danzig as Bruce, Paul Kalina as Shank, Matt Hawkins as Cheetah and Jessica Hudson as Viola ) . The expanded 500 Clown ensemble also includes a magnificent jazz band led by the show's co-creator John Fournier ( piano, saxophone and vocals ) , Gerald Dowd on percussion and Matt Thompson strumming both the bass and ukulele.
Coordinating the wacky spotlight, diva star door entrances and exits and stage props turns out to be a major chore for this gang of four black-clad stage crew clowns. They pull ropes, scamper up and down the lighting grid and take in audience perspectives of the show. But when the diva gets injured, the stage hands alternately don't know what to do, or they grapple for their own spotlight as themselves or in the guise of characters like Sergeant Bloody Five ( who is in the Brecht play ) .
Though it may overstay its welcome a bit, 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal is essentially a non-stop laugh-a-thon filled with mounds of music and cartoonish pratfalls. If you want, the show can be over contextualized in relation to Brecht, but it's really more fun just to sit back, dodge the red-eared clowns and laugh at all the amazing antics.