Cinematic turnarounds: “Amélie” thru Kokandy Productions and “TL;DR” at Theo
Aurora Penepacker and The Company. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
I cannot say for sure whether the producers behind “Amélie” were trying to pull off the “Once” trick again—that is, adapt a foreign-film critical darling with a gossamer-thin boy-meets-girl story—but times were nevertheless hard for the musical on Broadway. Hard to imagine, given its apparent resurrection across Europe.
But Chicagoland theater has made a minor-league sport out of turning around the fortunes of Broadway flops, so director-choreographer Derek Van Barham’s touch for Kokandy’s production of the musical—as well as that of his designers—is not to be understated.
Essentially an opera in jazz manouche, it is a sort-of “Once”, but also a sort-of “Amour”—an actor-muso tale of anonymous do-goodery and unexpected romance, led by an impeccably bobbed Aurora Penepacker doing her gosh-darndest to brighten up her little corner of fin-de-twentieth-siècle Paris.
Daniel Messé’s music is the sort of thrumming and supple stuff to which one can provide balletic movement to a story-theatre narrrative. He and bookwriter Craig Lucas clearly have simpatico; Messé even eventually musicalized Lucas’s flagship play “Prelude to a Kiss”. Simpatico or not, whether their sung-through approach comes from Continental operatic affinity or because they can’t quite nail down what’s worth singing about—well, that may be a matter of taste, just as one’s taste for indie film-style “quirk” may dictate how much once warms to the tale.
Even in the Chopin’s basement space, I was sufficiently warmed.
Amélie runs through Oct. 19 at 1543 W. Division St. For tickets or more information, please visit kokandyproductions.com.
Carolyn Waldee and Claire Guthrie. Photo by Elizabeth Stenholt Photography.
Singer-songwriter Neko Case is supposed to be working on a musical adaptation of “Thelma & Louise”, but EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn have beaten her to the punch, or at least can claim punk-ish cred for getting there first with their unsanctioned adaptation “TL;DR”, or “Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix” for short.
Effectively, to coin a phrase, a lesbian fantasia on representational themes, a very Sapphic garage-punk band freezes Thelma and Lou—ahem, T and L—in their Ford Thunderbird mid-leap over the Grand Canyon and sets the pair free from the nasty circumstances that put them in mid-air to live happily ever after. The question is, what is “happily ever after” for the pair? Sure, they “don’t gotta die” like just about every other queer-coded cinematic character, but what is a happy ending for Nineties characters who were at least subtextually queer in relation to a merry band of out-and-proud Twenties queers? Is it living peacefully on some idyllic beach, or is it getting involved with the larger community they find themselves involved with, with all the vocabulary, manifestos, and spreadsheets that that implies? Chary and Gwinn (and director Claire DiVizio) don’t have a firm answer, and the result makes for the liveliest breakout discussion in a Queer Theory 201 (at least) classroom you’re likely to find in these parts.
Though garage-punk, earplugs are not required to ride out the score in the intimate confines of Rose Johnson’s bric-a-brac’d set. What the lack of decibels may affect in sheer energy, it makes up for in appreciation for Gwinn’s music, which often includes modal choices that aren’t often found in this three-chord context. (“Stuck”, as sung by Claire Guthrie, is especially striking, and appropriately marks the first serious note in what is for all its weighty themes an otherwise giddy evening.)
Though flippant about copyright law and though performed in part with Barbie and sundry toys, “TL;DR” is nonetheless talking about serious stuff. They just have a spoonful of sugar to send it all down. Or Pabst. Whatever that band is chugging.
TL;DR runs through Oct. 12 at 721 Howard St, Evanston. For tickets or more information, please theo-u.com/tldr.
For more reviews on this or other shows, please visit theatreinchicago.com.