Displaying items by tag: Ned Noyes

Sometimes when something goes bad, it goes really bad. And that can be a good thing. In fact, that is truly the case in ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ now playing at Oriental Theatre. Revolving around a disastrous opening night of Drama Society’s largest production to date, ‘The Murder at Haversham Manor’, a handful of actors are at the mercy of one mishap after another. From faulty props to mispronounced words to incorrect sound cues to cheesy stage effects, this Monty Python-esque play is one madcap adventure even before it begins to its final calamity.

“We apologize for the box office mix up and hope that the one-thousand-seven-hundred of you enjoy this show as much as you would have enjoyed ‘Hamilton’,” says cast member Chris Bean to the audience just prior to the beginning of the show.

Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ is a comedy about theatre – or to put it more accurately, the things that can go wrong during a production. And this one has a lot of wrong.

Once the murder mystery begins the poor cast is subject to a series of hilarious misfortunes – even as the opening curtain is raised to soon and we see the cast scurrying to find their positions - though in an attempt to be consummate professionals, the actors try their best not to break character – and that is not so easily done as we find out.

Charles Haversham is dead (kind of) and it’s up to Inspector Carter to solve the crime. Taking place in living room of a mansion, everyone is a suspect – Perkins the butler, Thomas Colleymoore, Charles’ fiancé Sandra Colleymoore and Cecil Haversham, Sandra’s lover on the side. But getting through the mystery is no easy task when props are misplaced or falling of the walls of the set, lines are exchanged in reverse order and the show’s starring actress gets knocked out only to be replaced by a shell-shocked stage manager – and that not the half of it. Laughs come rapid fire like bullets from a Tommy Gun, as the actors are put in one compromising position after another each funnier than the last. And though most of the actors try their damnedest to be as professional as possible, Max Bennet who play Cecil, seems to be getting quite the kick out of each mishap and uses those many moments to thrust himself into the spotlight.

Perhaps a bit confusing since we’re talking actors playing actors, but Evan Alexander Smith, who recently wowed audiences in Drury Lane’s ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, stars as Chris Bean – who stars as Inspector Carter. Smith rolls with his chance to show off his comedic acting chops and puts forth a stellar performance in the Inspector Clouseau-like part. The play is filled to the brim with standout performances as Peyton Crim as Robert Grove who plays Thomas Colleymoore is sensational as the actor’s actor who refuses to fall victim to one calamity after another. Colorful characters fill this story, thanks to a very strong ensemble comprised of such talents as Ned Noyes (Max Bennett who plays Cecil Haversham), Jamie Ann Romero (Sandra Wilkinson who plays Florence Colleymoore), Yaegel T. Welch (Johnathan Harris who plays our victim Charles Haversham), Angela Grovey as our stage manager, Brandon J. Ellis the head-in-the-clouds lighting and sound operator and last, but certainly not least Scott Cote who is incredibly funny as Dennis Tyde who plays Perkins the butler.

In all, this comedic masterpiece of a staged whodunnit that goes terribly wrong delivers big laughs and plenty of them. This is perhaps the funniest play to hit the Chicago stage since Steppenwolf’s farce comedy “The Doppleganger” had us laughing all Spring.

Wonderfully directed by Matt DiCarlo with original Broadway direction by Mark Bell, ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ is only here for a two-week limited engagement at the Oriental Theatre through Sunday, December 16th. For more information, visit www.BroadwayGoesWrong.com.

How do you categorize a musical that is part comedy, part drama, and part burlesque? The answer is: you don't need you. Like Kander and Ebb's later popular Broadway hit Chicago, Cabaret uses flashy and often funny nightclub performance as a device to embellish and expound upon the more serious and sometimes grim events of the story. In Chicago, shameless homicide by two murderesses is explored through jazzy nightclub acts, while in Cabaret, the grisly beginnings of WWII and the anxious pall it casts over the characters' lives is explored through fearless, garter-brimming club performances.

Cabaret is a unique musical, one that will sneak up on you and knock you in the chin if you try to pigeonhole it. The songs are inordinately catchy and the story turns unpredictably. On opening night at the inaugural show of the newly named Private Bank Theatre, I was surprised to hear so many shocked reactions from the audience around me. Every Nazi reference was met with gasps, one short scene of drug use left the audience deadly silent, the never-even-mentioned-by-name subject briefly implied by Sally's doctor visit caused an audible "Oh my God!", and Cliff's apparent bisexuality was received with total confusion. "But he kissed a boy. How could he fall in love with a girl?" Please. If audiences could survive it in 1962, they should certainly be able to handle it now. The reactions only serve to prove that Cabaret has a timeless impact.

When American self-described "starving novelist" Cliff (a capable if slightly bland Lee Aaron Rosen) travels to Berlin in pursuit of literary inspiration, he discovers it in the form of the buoyant and provocative English cabaret dancer Sally Bowles (a character brilliantly committed to by Andrea Goss) and the seedy nightclub crowd with which she surrounds herself. They soon begin living together and befriend landlady Fraulein Schneider (a subduedly wise Shannon Cochran) and fellow tenant, the Jewish Herr Schultz (a cute and gentle Mark Nelson), the latter of whom begin a sweet but eventually controversial romance. Sally and Cliff's lives are an ecstatic chaos of gin and sexual liberation until Cliff's friend and confidante Herr Ludwig (flawlessly portrayed by Ned Noyes) reveals his disturbing true colors, triggering the destruction that floods the characters' lives from that point on and effectively bursting their bubble of delusion. The omniscient Emcee of Berlin's sordid Kit Kat Club (a delightfully snarky Randy Harrison) guides the viewer between the actual plot events and their corresponding cabaret acts.

My favorite of the over-the-top club performances cleverly mirroring the real life drama is the titular showstopper "Cabaret." Many folks, likely many of the shocked theatre-goers seated around me, may associate this song with a charismatic, triumphant Liza Minnelli from the 1972 film (or even an older, sequined-out Liza cheerily vamping her way through a showtune medley) and thus were not expecting the heavier tone rendered in the stage version. At this point, Sally has lost everything. She's alone, she's ill, she's broke, she is out of a job after this final performance. Her life has spiraled into a living hell. Goss made a powerful impression as Sally throughout and nothing showcased her acting talents more than her raw, enraged delivery of this song. The eerie juxtaposition of Sally's unabashed ruin with jaunty lyrics celebrating a wildly fun, carefree lifestyle gave me chills, the last line all but screamed at the audience before she knocks down the mike stand in her fury.

This is a musical that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. It will not meet your expectations, in the best way possible.

Cabaret is playing at the Private Bank Theatre at 18 W Monroe now through February 21st. Tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster or by going to BroadwayInChicago.