'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.'—Macbeth
So says Shakespeare's murderous Scottish king as he faces the inevitable regime change. As the new theater columnist usurping Stage Door Johnny, let me assure you that I have no ill will toward my extremely intelligent and eloquent predecessor, Jonathan Abarbanel.
So welcome to my new theater column, called Scottish Play Scott. Those of you who follow theater superstitions will note how I've chosen that euphemistic expression for Macbeth, which has been blamed for numerous mishaps when the play's name is spoken in a theater.
When I've said the name of Shakespeare's Scottish play by mistake, I've been known to follow a procedure practiced by superstitious actors to reverse any potential mishaps from the verbal slip-up. The remedy: Rush outside, spit, curse, turn around three times and knock on wood.
And appropriately, I do actually have Scottish blood in my family on my father's side, so I this column's moniker is apt.
Rent due
Chris Columbus' 2005 film version of the 1996 Jonathan Larson musical Rent is generally agreed upon to be a leaden experience. Even with most of the original—and aging—Broadway cast reassembled for it, the film failed at capturing the exuberance, daring and poignancy of the stage production.
Since the Broadway show just closed earlier this month, it would be depressing to think that the only document of Rent would be the film and pirate videos on YouTube.com .
Fear not, Rentheads! The final live performance of Rent on Broadway was taped by Sony for posterity ( and to cash in on people's affection for the show, no doubt ) . This taped staging of Rent hits the big screen in four high-definition movie-theater screenings this week.
True, it's not live like the Metropolitan Opera high-definition simulcasts. Nor is the footage entirely from the last performance ( previous taping was also done for backup, just in case anybody really screwed up on closing night ) .
Yet it's a godsend to have this musical that serves as a document of how artists were coping with love, loss and artistic creation at the height of the AIDS crisis in New York City. Even if the gritty East Village that Rent depicted has become gentrified, at least there's Larson's much-beloved musical to keep it romantically alive in the hearts of musical theater lovers everywhere. Visit thehotticket.net/rent to buy tickets and find out which movie theaters are screening Rent.
And don't forget, original stars Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp headline the upcoming Equity Rent tour. It hits Chicago in March 2009.
Put another dime in the jukebox, baby
Everywhere you look, jukebox musicals are playing the pop-music nostalgia card around Chicago.
Jersey Boys is already set to be the next big Broadway musical in Chicago with long-running legs, like Wicked. Audiences who grew up with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons continue to crowd the Bank of America Theatre.
The tour of Mamma Mia is back yet again to shakedown disco-loving women and gay men who need to get their ABBA fix. Over at Drury Lane Water Tower Place, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story is boasting how it's the 'most successful rock and roll musical' ( though that has to do with the fact that it's been around longer than others when it debuted in London in the late 1980s ) .
If that isn't enough, get ready for even more actors singing pop hit singles of a recent vintage.
Dirty Dancing starts previews this week at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Though it's actually a screen-to-stage transfer, it satisfies a lot of jukebox musical criteria by using pop hits from the 1960s, and those film songs like 'Hungry Eyes' and 'I've Had the Time of My Life' that your sister wore down on cassette as a teenager.
Then there's the Chicago premiere of Million Dollar Quartet, a show starting previews this week in the Goodman Theatre's Owen space. It documents that famed night when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins got together to jam in a 1956 recording session.
While many of these jukebox shows provide a great night out for nostalgic audiences, it's a trend I'm not keen on.
We already have enough cover bands playing second-tier bars without having talented actors performing the same duties on stage. Sure, the performers also have to act as well, but in many cases what they're doing isn't far off from the tasks of celebrity impersonators in Las Vegas.
Besides, these jukebox musicals crowd out stages that could be doing new music theater works or Chicago premieres. I'd take the Court Theatre's wonderful Caroline, or Change over a show featuring exhumed pop stars any day.