Steve Key ( left ) and Michael Dailey in Hyde in Hollywood. Photo by Janna Giacoppo
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Playwright: Peter Parnell
At: Shattered Globe Theatre at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln
Tickets: $27-$35; 773-871-3000
Runs through: July 7
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Before Shattered Globe Theatre's ambitious production of Hyde in Hollywood begins, the audience is greeted by a series of very politically incorrect Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1930s. Not only does it revive old movie-going conventions of shorts before the main feature, but it gives a taste of the cartoonish nature of Hyde in Hollywood itself.
Peter Parnell's 1989 playwriting concoction slavishly worships all things Hollywood in its Golden Age, aping its stylistic Cracker-Jack sound, ultra-glamorous costumes and over-the-top climaxes. If Hyde in Hollywood itself was released in 1939, the year the play is set, most film historians would write it off as a solid 'film noir B-picture.'
But since Hyde in Hollywood can deal with topics not allowed by the censorious Hays Production Code ( largely the discussion and depiction of homosexuality ) , the play is of its time. Though fictional and blatantly derivative of film classics like Sweet Smell of Success and Citizen Kane, Hyde in Hollywood does its part to show that many gays were crucial to the success of Hollywood's halcyon days and were also in perpetual fear of being outed.
High art it ain't, but Hyde in Hollywood definitely makes for a great stylistic theatrical experience ( even if its tone vacillates between serious drama and high camp ) . It's also a great guilty pleasure, especially to cineastes who get all the name-dropping ( Hedda Hopper, anyone? ) .
Shattered Globe Theatre's Hyde in Hollywood is a dazzler, especially since the company has the chutzpah to creatively fit this sprawling back-lot epic into the tiny confines of a black box theater. Who would have though you could cram a climactic fight scene atop the iconic Hollywoodland sign here?
Director Andrea J. Dymond and her enormously talented production team and cast each lovingly scale the challenging heights of this play with plenty of style and panache. Sound and video designer Mike Tutaj is particularly noteworthy, since his sound-scape conjures the glamour of Hollywood high society while his video projections stunningly capture the silver screen look of the era.
As Julian Hyde, the Orson Wells-type actor/director genius who not only passes for straight but as a Gentile, Steve Key makes a wonderful screen idol who becomes undone by his obsession to bring down the blackmailing gossip columnist 'Hollywood Confidential.'
Key is pitted against the sit-up-and-take-notice performance of Brian McCaskill, who lashes into the role of that destructive gossip columnist whose moralizing and fear-mongering sits frighteningly close to that of Fox News celebrity Bill O'Reilly.
Parnell never fully fleshes out his many characters, but the large acting company fill in the blanks with all the detail and style of designers Kevin Hagan ( sets and lighting ) and Brenda Winstead ( costumes ) .
So go ahead and savor all the theatrical and Hollywood hoopla to be found in Shattered Globe's Hyde in Hollywood. Its generous doses of history and stylistic camp are to be deliciously lapped up.
REVIEW
Othello
Playwright: William Shakespeare
At: Writers' Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Phone: 847-242-6000; $40-$58
Runs through: July 15
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Shakespeare's tragedy of lovers crossed by both the configuration of their stars and the color of their skin may present greater problems for modern audiences than even The Merchant of Venice, engendered in part by our nation's long and shameful history of African slavery, but also by the extravagant license permitted European playwrights in portraying 'exotic' characters. ( Venetian gentlemen may rant and rave, but how many are driven by their emotions to paralytic 'epilepsies?' )
The play's military setting today lends added dimension to intrigue usually centered solely on marital dynamics: Our story begins with General Othello choosing Cassio over Iago for promotion to lieutenant. So incensed is the latter by this slight that he swears revenge. In other armies, this would be a set-up for a fragging, but Iago's spleen is also directed at the white women who lavish attention on the Moorish war hero—chiefly Othello's wife, Desdemona. By the time the disgruntled schemer's ire has run its course, several innocent people have been duped into murdering one another, leaving only the law to deal with the instigator of the bloodshed.
John Judd, an actor celebrated for his work in plays within the genre of American Realism, is certainly to be commended for taking on Shakespeare's longest scripted role, that of the ruthless Iago. But when classic oratory meets contemporary vernacular, jarring contradictions sometimes result: Director Michael Halberstam's decision to have Iago execute his perfidy with poker-faced sincerity, rather than tip us a wink to remind us of his villainy, is based in impeccable logic, but tends to pull the less experienced cast members toward quotidian phrasing and inflections, diminishing the stakes in the deadly game.
James Vincent Meredith's performance in the title role never allows us to doubt for an instant that we are witnessing a life-or-death duel of convictions, however, while Judd delivers a meticulously-crafted, if controversial, rendering of his complex persona. And if the other players ( with the exception of Kevin Gudahl's lofty Brabantio ) look to be more at home on a television screen than a full-sized stage, they acquit themselves with capability worthy of academic honors to do ample justice to the multiple dimensions imposed on this Writers' Theatre production. However its uneven tone may affect audiences in 2007, there is no denying its making for an Othello unlike any other in recently memory.
