Score: Tom Kitt; Book and lyrics: Brian Yorkey. At: Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St. Tickets: 800-775-2000 or www.broadwayinchicago.com; $25-$98. Runs through: March 6
A number of questions swirl around the 2014 Broadway musical If/Then, now on tour at Chicago's Oriental Theatre.
Can a star vehicle written for Idina Menzel survive without its original star? Is the musical a disappointing follow-up for the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning writers of the 2009 hit Next to Normal? Is the show really as confusing as some critics and audiences claim it to be?
Turns out the yes and no answers are truly subjective in the case of If/Then, a daringly conceptual and emotional "what if?" musical that I feel entertains and fascinates more than its structural potential to frustrate.
Composer Tom Kitt and librettist Brian Yorkey are certainly to be commended for creating an original, contemporary and thought-provoking musical that isn't an adaptation of a pre-existing moviethough it may help to better understand the show's alternating realities concept if you're familiar with the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow flick Sliding Doors.
If/Then also deserves diversity kudos for exploring the ordinary and extraordinary work/family struggles of a divorced 38-year-old named Elizabeth ( the powerhouse vocalist Jackie Burns ) who reinvents her life in New York. While there, she cultivates a large network of lesbian, gay and bisexual friends, engagingly played by the likes of original Rent star Anthony Rapp as Lucas and Tamyra Gray of American Idol fame as Kate.
It's apparent that director Michael Greif and his top-notch design team ( particularly lighting designer Kenneth Posner and projection designers Peter Nigrini and Dan Scully ) have done all they can to illustrate and decode the switching stories of If/Thenthough I was shocked to learn that some of my friends still failed to catch on.
Everything is highlighted in reddish hues whenever the teacher "Liz" purses a romance and family life with the hunky doctor and military reservist Josh ( Matthew Hydzik ). But when the glasses-wearing "Beth" strives to get ahead as a high-powered city planner while also confronting her feelings for her married boss, Stephen ( Darren A. Herbert ), her environs are tinged in moody blues.
For all its adventurousness, If/Then does suffer some missteps. The minimal moments of dance by choreographer Larry Keigwin feel tacked on. And often the songs devoted to Elizabeth's friends can come off as bland tangents, though the decision to depict the ordinariness of lesbian and gay romantic lives can be argued as daring in of itself.
So although If/Then on tour may lack its original leading lady, Burns' powerful performance shows that the musical survives as a strong piece of theater in its own right. And any boundary-pushing musical that so thoroughly and thoughtfully raises questions of its audience to ponder the randomness and significance of their own existence certainly deserves high marks in my book.