The Cousins Grimm
Playwright: Ted Sod; Lyrics: Michael Biello; Music: Dan Martin . At: Bailiwick Repertory at Hoover-Leppen Theatre, 3656 N. Halsted. Contact: 773-883-1090; $20-$25. Runs through Aug. 23. Photo courtesy of Bailiwick Repertory
Two Spoons Playwright: Peter Mercurio
At: Bailiwick Repertory at. Hoover-Leppen Theatre, 3656 N. Halsted. Contact: 773-883-1090; $20-$25. Runs through Aug. 23
Can you get any more self-reflectively meta than in the new LGBTQ musical The Cousins Grimm? And surely syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage would wholeheartedly approve of the message in the new gay marriage comedy Two Spoons, right?
The answer to both questions is "probably, yes." Yet that's not exactly a ringing endorsement for these two shows in Bailiwick Repertory's summer Pride Series.
The scripts of both shows aren't perfect, nor do they arrive in productions that would encourage critics to use superlatives on the "must-see" scale.
But as entertaining summer trifles with interesting talking points, both The Cousins Grimm and Two Spoons ultimately succeed.
The Cousins Grimm is a fun, but odd creature of a show. It's about theater-obsessed gay New Yorker Leon ( the singularly named actor Chad ) and his lesbian performance artist cousin Jackie ( Danni Smith ) .
Leon and Jackie attempt to write a musical that queers up Grimm Brothers fairytales, initially as a way to appropriately expose kids to LGBT characters. But instead of offering clever queer slants on tales like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, authors Ted Sod ( book ) , Dan Martin ( score ) and Michael Biello ( lyrics ) opt for more obscure stories.
Then the show takes a not-entirely convincing turn toward questions of artistic posterity and death as Jackie falls in love with one of her creations, Leon reveals a shocking secret and the characters come to life.
If the navel-gazing topics of The Cousins Grimm don't entirely progress naturally, at least the show receives a peppy production by director/chorographer Scott Ferguson with strong musical direction by Robert Ollis. The cast, which includes Harmony France, Christopher Slavik and Kate Andrulis, all also look like they're having a ball ( particularly Chad ) .
Also enlivening the production is a series of projection designs by Frank Mares on Rebecca Hamlin's platform set. Mares' projections also amusingly punctuate Peter Mercurio's very talky and sometimes meandering comedy Two Spoons.
Two Spoons concerns Steve ( Kevin M. Grubb ) and Larry ( Kevin Bishop ) , a gay couple raising a three-year-old ( one of many roles played by Evan Absher ) . Steve and Larry are planning to get married soon, but a vacation they share in Philadelphia throws them for a loop when they get involved in a three-way with a guy they call "Butt Boy" ( Maxwell Burnham ) .
Two Spoons ultimately questions whether or not gay men have to duplicate heterosexual marriages or opt for more sexual freedom. For Steve and Larry, it's all about second thoughts and lots and lots of negotiation about their commitment to each other.
Unfortunately, Mercurio doesn't raise the stakes enough to create a really compelling drama, nor does he edit out some really superfluous dialogue ( anything involving actress Susie Griffith's characters could be trimmed ) .
Two Spoons' cast does well enough under Patrick Walsh's steady direction, though they don't always make Mercurio's self-analyzing dialogue flow convincingly.
While Bailiwick's The Cousins Grimm and Two Spoons are far from perfect, these new-to-Chicago LGBTQ works should to inspire some thought and dialogue among audiences. ( And yes, there is some typical Bailiwick full-frontal male nudity involved in one of the shows, but I won't divulge which one because that would spoil the surprise ) .
