I was unsure exactly what to expect going into PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL, but I knew that I was excited to see Samantha Barks make her Chicago theater debut in this pre-Broadway try out. I was not disappointed. Barks’s performance as Hollywood Boulevard street walker Vivian Ward, made famous by Julia Roberts in the 1990 film, exudes radiance and effortless command. Barks has a thrillingly magnetic presence as Vivian. She nails the character’s signature charm and candor, and Barks elevates those qualities further with her winsome delivery. Of course, she is also an outstanding vocalist and milks many of PRETTY WOMAN’S mostly bland lyrics for all they are worth. If you’re a fan of the original film and are looking to see a star turn, PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL has those areas covered in spades. Barks’s performance is by far the most compelling reason to see this entertaining—though uneven—new musical.

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Watching Artistic Director Robert Falls’ production of Henrik Ibsen’s play AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is an eerily prescient experience. Though Ibsen wrote ENEMY in 1882, much of the dialogue (adapted by Falls from a translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling) feels like it is purely 2018 parlance. And, of course, the issue at the play’s heart (really, the only issue in the piece) is a bitter battle between Dr. Thomas Stockmann, who discovers the town’s water is poisonous, and his brother Mayor Peter Stockmann, who wishes to hide that truth at all costs. ENEMY’s script is undeniably pointed—among others, the phrase “fake facts” is used. Yet that seems to be precisely the argument that Falls is making: this is an on the nose production for an equally pointed moment in time.

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Under the taut direction of David Schwimmer, Kevin Douglas’s new comedy PLANTATION! succeeds in making audiences both laugh out loud and cringe. In PLANTATION!, Douglas explores one wealthy white woman’s attempt to make reparations for the benefits her family reaped from slavery. Douglas does so by posing the question: Does making amends actually work? And for whom does making amends actually benefit? The twist in PLANTATION!, however, is that these serious questions are explored almost entirely through the lens of broad, dramatic, zinger-filled satire. The all-female cast succeeds in landing each and every joke in this production, which brings the broadly comic nature of Douglas’s writing to the forefront.

Continue reading “PLANTATION! at Lookingglass Theatre Company” →