Playwright: Jeffrey Lunden and Arthur Perlman. At: Apple Tree Theatre, 1850 Green Bay, Highland Park. Phone: 847-432-4335; $38-$48. Runs through: April 5
A stroke patient is an unusual subject for a musical but a surprisingly good one in Wings, a successful adaptation of Arthur Kopit's equally surprising play of the same title. If someone you love has had to learn again how to speak, eat or walk as a result of illness or injury, and if you helped feed him or her, or helped with speech or physical therapy, then you can relate to Wings and its central figure, Emily.
In her youth, Emily was an aviation daredevil who walked on wings in barn-storming exhibits with her family. Now, after suffering a stroke in late middle age, Emily is nearly helpless in a wheelchair as Wings opens, unable to speak, unable to remember words, fighting back from paralysis and aphasia. "Am I awake? Am I alive? Am I alone?" are her first thoughts. Even as she recovers, she finds herself repeatedly tapping her often-inexpressible internal sense memories and feelings—flying in her own inner space—in a journey that becomes joyously liberating in a surprising conclusion.
With just five performers and a four-piece orchestra ( woodwinds, cello, flute and percussion ) , Wings retains the tremendous intimacy and directness of the Kopit play to which it is so faithful. Composer Jeffrey Lunden and lyricist Arthur Perlman convey the dissassociative nature of aphasia—think of a jumble of jigsaw puzzle pieces—through music that frequently is dissonant, angular and truncated at first. As Emily recovers her communications skills and the puzzle pieces fall back into place, the musical phrases gradually lengthen into melodies and the harmonies sweeten.
Wings is meant to be simply staged and director Mark. E. Lococo respects the need. There's neither elaborate scenery and lighting nor extravagant musical staging. The four supporting players wheel a few items of furniture and hospital equipment on and off as needed, with a painted floor and a few gauzy curtains the main items in Tim Morrison's scenery ( lit by Gina Patterson ) . Musical Director Doug Peck—Chicago's go-to man for small-scale musicals requiring taste—is up to his usual standards, weaving together the chamber music quartet of nearly classical instrumentation and the quintet of voices, both sung and spoken.
Veteran musical leading lady Mary Ernster is a natural for the role of Emily, which fits her like a glove. It's almost too easy to empathize with her, as well as with her caring therapist so capably played by Anne Sheridan Smith. Completing the ensemble as various other medical professionals and patients are John B. Leen, Rob Lindley and Heather Townsend, all of whom are warm and strong performers. As another aphasia patient who used to make cheesecake, Lindley has the pleasure of selling the most traditional "showbiz" number in Wings and makes the most of it.