Playwright: music by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens and Terrence McNally [ correction ] , book by David Lindsay-Abaire. At: Route 66 Theatre Company at Pipers Alley, 1608 N. Wells. Phone: 312-664-8844; $29.50-$39.50 Runs through: Oct. 11
Pity the rock-pop musical with the misfortune to open on Broadway within three days of Spring Awakening. Tom Kitt, Amanda Green and David Lindsay-Abaire's adaptation of the 2000 film, based on the 1995 Nick Hornby novel, boasted catchy Top 40-inspired warbles featuring electric bass and hand-held microphones, but no prettified Great White Way pageant could have matched the take-no-prisoners fury of Duncan Sheiks's anthem for Victorian teenage rebels. Route 66 Theatre Company, however, thinks High Fidelity deserves a second chance and, to that end, has revived it in the cozy Pipers Alley space occupied for the last 15 years by Tony n' Tina's nuptials.
Our heroes are three schleps united by their obsessive love of music. It is Dick's refuge from a boisterous world, Barry's bludgeon for defending his superior artistic judgment and, for Rob, the owner of "the last real record store on earth" where they congregate, his armor against the female rejection he feels is his inevitable lota self-fulfilling prophesy that has sent his latest girl friend fleeing to the arms of a New Age sybarite. But at what stage of maturity does adolescent anomie evolve into creepy-old-guy regret?
All right, so it's not Chekhov. What Kitt and Green offer us are on-target replicas of popular music as defined by those who live for, with, and by the artificially-amplified sound track to their empty days: a Springsteen impression, of course, and a country honker extolling Lyle Lovett, but sharp-eared listeners will also detect melodic references to ( among others ) Elton John, Pat Benatar, Kenny G., Aretha Franklin, Melissa Manchester, punk, rap and heavy metal. There's even a Jim Morrison-styled poem that abruptly segues into a mellow Philly-soul benediction.
Stef Tovar, Michael Mahler and Jonathan Wagner, playing the socially inept comrades, lead a 15-member cast fitting snugly on the former T&T bandstand, navigating amplifiers, instruments and sound equipment with feline grace under the deft direction of Peter Amster, most of the actors doubling as session performers to facilitate a flow of scene changes bringing the evening home in a brisk two and a half hours ( with a break for refueling at the on-site bar ) . If you ever rocked out on air-guitar or crooned to your hairbrush in the privacy of your own roomand who hasn't?this show's for you.
CORRECTION
In last week's issue of Windy City Times, there was an extra paragraph attached to the end of the review of My Fair Lady. The review should have concluded with the sentence "But the chemistry between Sandys and Ford is reason alone to make your way to this woefully short-running show."