Playwright: Frank Farrell
Equity Library Theatre Chicago at North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan Rd.
Phone: ( 773 ) 293-1358; $15
Through June 4
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Frank Farrell had better watch his back. Otherwise he might be hit with a Mickey Mouse-sized lawsuit.
Farrell is the writer and performer of Storyteller, a one-man play depicting native Chicagoan Walt Disney in 1946 on the day of the Los Angeles premiere of the live-action/animation feature Song of the South.
By daring to portray the visionary founder of a corporate media giant, Farrell could be tempting the wrath of the Walt Disney Co. Even more perilous is the fact that Farrell sings a cache of song standards ( owned by Disney and others ) throughout Storyteller without any visible acknowledgement of permission from the rights holders in the program. [ Or have the rights gone into the public domain? It would be good to say so. ]
If lawyers do descend upon Farrell and Equity Library Theatre, many would support him and the show as a case of the little guy standing up to big corporate bullies. But Farrell's Storyteller is such a meandering disappointment that you'd be hard-pressed to get many troops to rally behind it.
Farrell's choice of time to dramatize Walt Disney's life is much more controversial today than it would have been in his day. Thanks to its depiction of a former slave's friendship with a young white boy, Song of the South has become a liability for the Walt Disney Co. in these days of heavy-handed political correctness ( Disney hasn't re-released the film in the United States since its 1980s re-issue and it is only available on video as a bootleg ) .
Yet in Storyteller, the only drama Farrell wrings out of Song of the South is a single phone call Disney gets from his lawyer reporting that the NAACP is unhappy with the film's portrayal of Uncle Remus. Other phone calls ( hinting at domestic troubles at home and problems with child star Bobby Driscoll ) provide the only other conflict in Storyteller.
This lack of drama makes the rest of Storyteller fairly tedious as Farrell traces Disney's life as if reading off a timeline. Farrell throws in some amusing anecdotes, but it's nothing that could be gleaned from numerous biographies about Disney's life and work. One bit, Disney describing the entire plot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to his staff, goes on far too long.
Sporting Disney's trademark moustache and well-groomed suit, Farrell does bear a passing resemblance to Uncle Walt himself. But Farrell never delves beneath the TV persona Disney created as host to his shows like Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. And unlike Disney himself, Farrell doesn't step aside to let the more entertaining work speak for itself.
Storyteller is also hampered by a 'surprise' ending that is a dramaturgical misfire. At this point, you wonder where director Linda LeVeque was to intervene.
But what really sticks out as incongruous in Storyteller is Farrell's Disney, who bursts into song at the drop of a hat. Whether Disney really was such a big show tune queen remains unclear. I suppose it's something the lawyers will have to sort out.