Playwright: music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice. At: Theo Ubique at the No Exit Café,6970 N. Glenwood. Phone: 773-347-1109; $30. Runs through: April 19
Andrew Lloyd Webber wasn't always the Liberace of musical comedy, you know. His early works were conceived for the smallest of venues—recording studios. It was the popularity of his then-innovative blend of pop and classical motifs that spurred Broadway to inflate them into the elephant ballets we now associate with their composer ( who eventually fell prey to his own press, but that's a Faustian fable for another time ) .
Theo Ubique operates in a small universe, too—the lane outside the No Exit Café is paved with cobblestones; the seating inside composed of a few cabaret-style tables and chairs; and a stage barely bigger than a McMansion bathtub. Playgoers searching for eye-popping spectacle won't encounter it here. What awaits them, however, is every word of every lyric, and every thread of Webber's intricate ( and largely unappreciated ) harmonies, rendered clearly audible—audible because the unmiked vocalists are so close that audience members inclined to lip-sync along with the major songs may find themselves locked into sustained eye contact with the onstage personnel. Likewise, Brenda Didier's sizzling dances spark sensory empathy kept safely distant in larger forums—Argentina invented the tango, remember? Here, we can almost smell the performers' sweat.
But how about the heroine who shrugs with ( false ) modesty, "My story's quite usual—local girl makes good, weds famous man?'" Instead of the patrician ice princess often cast as the international gold-digger, director Fred Anzevino has chosen Maggie Portman, whose firm jaw and sturdy physique convey, with a seductiveness at once steely and vulnerable, the roots of her persona's tenacious ambitions. In the role of Peron, Jeremy Trager mutes his familiar mannerisms to project machismo befitting the cultural expectations of a South American military dictator, while Chris Damiano, also playing against type as the sardonic Ché, dispenses ringside commentary—and plays his own guitar, augmenting the efforts of the hard-working three-piece orchestra and seven-member ensemble.
You can't get farther "off-Loop" than Rogers Park—on the North Side, anyway—but those seeking an adventurous night out would do well to take advantage of Theo Ubique's package of a $20 pre-show dinner and shuttle service to the free parking lot. Where downtown can you have an aproned server pour wine at your table only minutes before stepping into the spotlight and warbling a "Night of a Thousand Stars" to send chills up your spine?