march #1: rich & famous

friday night i saw my first show of my four in four series: jackalope theatre's RICH AND FAMOUS.

what: rich and famous by john guare

where: the den theatre, wicker park

accompaniment: my multi-talented fiance, dustin

drinkability: awesome. there's a bar in the den with affordable drinks. for him: pbr. for me: red wine.

show length: no intermission, 90 minutes (give/take)

out of four: three/four

now, simply put: i'm a big fan of the people over at jackalope. i met a good handful of them shortly after i moved to chicago in the summer of 2009 and we were in a production of baal together at the ep theatre (rip). i've been following their work from afar for the last couple of years and have recently made the decision to not miss a thing these incredibly nice and talented people do because...well, anything they put on always leaves me with just a good feeling. plus, these folks are damn good at giving hugs.

rich and famous is no exception to my enjoyment of jackalope's work. i didn't really know what i was coming in to, and i don't know quite what to qualify this production as (musical? musical comedy? comedy with music?) but either way, it was fun.

we walk in to a preshow that extends rather seamlessly into the opening of the play. pre-show performances are hard to do, and if you have one that relies on the audience its even worse! (try doing a pre show when there's only 5 people in the audience that you're supposed to interact with...for minutes and minutes on end....say it ain't so!). lucky for the r&f cast, no direct audience communication was needed...but it still didn't relieve them of the awkward tension you could feel between the actors not-really-acting while the audience isn't-really-watching. while it was a clever set up with the actors setting up all set pieces in preparation for the show, i found myself cringing for the actors needing to fill the time and look totally natural.

once the show opened all of that flew out the window. the cast of four (andrew burden swanson, baize buzan [sorry, coolest name ever? i think so.], bernard balbot [again, with the cool names, come on guys] and torian miller) had a nice chemistry and interaction with each other throughout the entirety of the show. all but swanson boasted of their 'jackalope debuts' in the programs, and will be, i expect, on the jackalope stage again in the future.

swanson stars as bing ringaling, a playwright on his verge of success (or is he?). he's charming and funny and experiences all of the emotions we humans experience in this gem. it was so fun getting to watch this challenge come alive in him.

my favorite scene in the show (also the longest. like, so long. but luckily it was my favorite, so. i got to enjoy it) was the interaction between swanson and balbot in this scene:

seriously. i don't laugh very hard at much and balbot had me in some uncontrollable giggles. dustin later described it as me "kind of losing it". yeah, i'll admit it. see this show for this scene alone.

overall, jackalope made me laugh and smile with this one. while the script itself is a little wiley and can get out of hand (see: funniest scene also feeling uncomfortably long after a while), the actors were charming and changed seamlessly between the different character challenges that they faced. go see this show for a nice night out. biggest post-show drawback? having to tip toe around between the den's other shows simultaneously happening. so remember to be quiet and hug those jackalope's goodbye.

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upcoming march shows:

sunday the 17th 3pm: babes with blade's (all female) julius caesar

tuesday the 26th 8pm: lights out theatre company's skin!

saturday the 30th 8pm: right brain project's the bacchae

join me, will you?