Tracy Letts

Slideshow: Chicago Play ‘Superior Donuts’ From Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Tracy Letts

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:14:40 -0700

CHICAGO – This seven-image slideshow is for production stills from “Superior Donuts,” which is a new Chicago play from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts. Our full review of the play by critic Alissa Norby can be found here. All photo credits go to Michael Brosilow.

superiordonuts1.jpg: Ensemble member Jon Michael Hill (left) and Michael McKean in “Superior Donuts”
superiordonuts2.jpg: Jon Michael Hill (left) and Michael McKean
superiordonuts3.jpg: Jon Michael Hill (left) and Michael McKean
superiordonuts4.jpg: Michael McKean (left) and Jon Michael Hill
superiordonuts5.jpg: Ensemble members Yasen Peyankov (left) and James Vincent Meredith
superiordonuts6.jpg: Michael McKean
superiordonuts7.jpg: Jon Michael Hill (left), Cliff Chamberlain (middle) and Robert Maffia

‘Superior Donuts’ From Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Tracy Letts a Chicago Dish, Albeit a Stale One

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:06:25 -0700

CHICAGO – I wouldn’t have wanted to be Tracy Letts on Saturday afternoon. After winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for his opus “August: Osage County,” he had to have been feeling the tremendous pressure being placed on his newest work and first comedy “Superior Donuts”.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

With a slew of Chicago critics, New York critics and high-end producers in attendance, the audience expectations on June 28, 2008 before the lights went down on the Steppenwolf Theatre’s main Chicago stage were almost palpable.

This begs the question: What happens when a celebrated playwright who has swept almost every theatre award imaginable for his famous family drama attempts a follow up to his artistic breakthrough?

Well, if you’re looking to catch another pre-Broadway hit, you may want to look elsewhere. For one thing, “Superior Donuts” is self-aware, unambitious and almost lackadaisical. “August: Osage County,” on the other hand, delved into the meat and potatoes of the human experience, this one merely attempts to scratch its sugary surface.

Ensemble member Jon Michael Hill (left) and Michael McKean in “Superior Donuts,” which is written by ensemble member Tracy Letts and directed by ensemble member Tina Landau.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

Having just finished the script in Jan. 2008, Letts describes “Superior Donuts” as his “love letter to Chicago”. As an Oklahoma native, Letts was encouraged by the ethnic diversity and pride that filled the city’s streets to tell a story reflecting this culture.

Though his abilities as an artist and playwright are almost inarguable, Letts’ “love letter to Chicago” seems to begin with the phrase “roses are red, violets are blue”. It’s too derivative to be substantial.

Ensemble members Yasen Peyankov (left) and James Vincent Meredith in “Superior Donuts”.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

The story takes place at the establishment of the piece’s title. Superior Donuts is an Uptown Chicago donut shop that seems to be home to more decrepit furniture, grease and graffiti (the main wall reads “pussy” in spray paint) than tasty pastries.

Michael McKean plays a schmucky owner named Arthur Przbyszewski. He’s a passive and unobservant yet lovable, ex-1960s war protester who halfheartedly runs the shop he inherited from his Polish father.

Citing Starbucks as the monstrous evil villain, Arthur laments the oncoming gentrification of a part of Chicago that was once rich with diversity and vibrant with the hope of a better future for its inhabitants. McKean portrays Arthur with respectable subtlety and charm.

He also manages to ease through Brechtian monologues that had the potential to muddle and halt the action.

Just when Arthur is pondering selling the shop to Max Tarasov – a stout Russian immigrant with his eye on business expansion (played charmingly by Yasen Peyankov) – in walks catalytic Franco Wicks to assist him in the fry shop.

Wicks is a young, bright and energetic African-American boy who plans to make a name for himself with his own opus: his great American novel. Almost a direct metaphor for “August: Osage County,” Wicks sees his own story (“America Will Be”) as his one-way ticket out of a lackluster town.

It’s also his payback ticket for the whopping debt that needs to be paid due to a few rather unbelievable dealings with loan sharks. New ensemble member Jon Michael Hill is a lightning bolt on stage in this role. Supremely gifted and energetic, he brings a fresh air not only to the piece but to the entire Steppenwolf stage.

After some frustration, Franco and Arthur soon develop a sweet yet painfully contrived friendship that’s all-too reminiscent of movies like “Dangerous Minds” and “Finding Forrester”. Here we see the typical relationship between the white elder in desperate need of a new breath of life and the tenacious yet troubled, inner-city teenager who will be doing the breathing.

“I hate to break it to you, but the Grateful Dead ain’t gonna hire another guitar player,” Franco spews before a trite, dopey, guy-gets-a-makeover scene that’s more Disney gimmick than literary device. Franco also helps Arthur learn to be more romantically assertive with a harsh yet coquettish cop (Randy Osteen) who’s blatantly more interested in the shop’s owner than its oily delicacies.

It is scenes and structures like these that lead to the déjà-vu feeling of the show.

It’s a story that’d ring true for many audience members: a tale of a beloved but rough town whose very soulfulness is being lost to big business. Still, it’s chock full of the absurd: campy bad guys clad in overcoats, overused “Star Trek” nerds-are-funny jokes, jabs at Starbucks and even some unsettling jeers at the gay community.

The second act falls victim to an ineffective stage combat scene, after-school special dialogue and a predictable ending.

RELATED SLIDESHOW
See our seven-slide slideshow of “Superior Donuts” production stills.

RELATED READING
More theater reviews from critic Alissa Norby.

The acting is proficient, though, and the set, lighting and directing are all more than pleasing to the mind. While unexpected, it’s ultimately the script that leaves the piece feeling vapid. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen this same show many, many times before.

But for all its cliché silliness, “Superior Donuts” delivers a treat to the proud Chicagoan. The script is infused with gleeful references to Roscoe Village, Old Town, Jefferson Park and even the loose cougar that recently made its way through our neighborhood streets. Letts clearly loves this town and he knows his audience does, too.

With Chi-town quips that would make you just as proud of our hot dogs and deep-dish pizza as it would our rich history, the show really does feel like our city’s story. That would ultimately do well for anyone’s palate.

“Superior Donuts” runs every day of the week except Monday at various times through Aug. 24, 2008 (extended from Aug. 17) at the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. For tickets or more information, visit this special link for free to half-price tickets!

For a complete listing of all shows and reviews in Chicago, visit our partner TheatreInChicago.com. For half-price Chicago theater tickets, visit our partner Goldstar.

By ALISSA NORBY
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
alissa@hollywoodchicago.com

Chicago’s ‘Relatively Close’ is Concrete Proof That Death is Easy, Comedy is Hard

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:30:51 -0700

CHICAGO – Forget the Year of the Rat. This is the year of the dysfunctional family reunion.

With Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “August: Osage County,” the Broadway remounting of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and the Tony-sweeping revival of “Gypsy,” 2008 has been saturated with some of the finest performances of relational drama that theatre has seen in years.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

Now comes “Relatively Close,” which is a new work by Chicago playwright James Sherman that has just as great of aspirations as the previous three yet is too convoluted to achieve any of them.

The show, which is a Victory Gardens co-world premiere with Illinois State University, tells the story of the Levy sisters from Chicago. They are three women who set out (with bitter spouses in tow) to the Michigan lake house of their recently deceased parents to settle the affairs of the estate.

From left: Dexter Zollicoffer plays Arthur, Usman Ally is Yousef, Laura T. Fisher plays Beth and Penny Slusher is Jan in Chicago playwright James Sherman’s newest family comedy “Relatively Close”.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren

We are told (but never shown) that the sisters are radically different from each another despite having supposedly been close in their youth. This proves to be the first pitfall in Sherman’s script.

The eldest sister, Jan, represents your typical money-hungry, pompous and greedy Republican. She’s running for alderman of the 46th Ward. This is a character development that clearly proved to Sherman that his script should be replete with cliché “Chicago-is-a-dirty-politics-city” jokes.

Jan’s husband, Yousef, is unfortunately about as identical to Jan as Mary-Kate Olsen is to Ashley Olsen. Next we have the middle sister, Beth, who’s a promiscuous librarian who has had more husbands than Elizabeth Taylor. The youngest sister, Marlene, is by far the most enjoyably nuanced character to watch.

From left: Wendi Weber is Marlene, Penny Slusher plays Jan and Laura T. Fisher plays Beth in “Relatively Close”.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren

Renting her body as host to almost every psychotic drug on the market, Marlene is a lovable albeit socially inept and precocious young woman. She even goes so far as to use a puppet – Lucy the Slut (wait, I mean Lilly) – as a means to become acquainted with new faces.

The plot’s central conflict revolves around the sisters’ inability to decide on a fate for their not-always-beloved lake house. Focused on the monetary value, Jan wants to sell it and horde the commission.

Beth yearns to turn it into an artist colony (though we are never told why) and Marlene – overwhelmed by its sentimental value – wants it to stay in the family.

After this somewhat ambiguous and underdeveloped central plot point gets established, the next two hours of the show run amok with stereotypical sisterly grudges, paper-thin jokes and inter-family affairs. Even the setup of the family is formulaic: a Jewish family who spends more time in therapy than it does at Shabbat dinner. Woody Allen made that work with wit.

Unfortunately, Sherman chooses to spend more of his time on hackneyed jokes than on plot and character development. That’s a shame, too, because the issue of siblings dealing with a parent’s death and leftover affairs has the potential to lead to great storytelling.

From left: Wendi Weber plays Marlene, Laura T. Fisher is Beth, Daniel Cantor plays Ron, Dexter Zollicoffer is Arthur, Penny Slusher plays Jan and Usman Ally porrays Yousef in “Relatively Close”.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren

The biggest issue with the script – aside from Sherman’s seemingly never-ending supply of stock characters – is its jokes. That’s a problem because it’s supposed to be a comedy. With typical “white-guy-trying-to-be-black” lines, jeers at “Brokeback Mountain” and jabs at Yiddish grandmothers, all of the jokes almost seem to be taken from a recent “Saturday Night Live” episode.

Beth’s husband (an African-American scholar) at one point tells Marlene’s adulterous spouse: “I’m black enough to kick your ass!” Lines like these were not only flat but they were uncomfortable.

In addition to Marlene’s husband (Ron), Beth’s teenage son (Dylan) is another character of a “white guy trying to be black”. When not frequently bustin’ out with the latest Kanye West lyrics, he is whining his emo way through the lack of Internet access and iPod accommodations at the cabin.

These are the type of punch lines and characters that would ring true to a community theatre audience rather than a Chicago theatre audience.

However, despite Sherman’s struggling book, the actors give more-than-admirable performances. Wendi Weber valiantly stands out as Marlene: the cute and awkward ventriloquist sister. Though having much more to work with than her co-stars, Weber portrays Marlene with the proper and endearing idiosyncrasies her character necessitates.

She is a breath of fresh air to the piece, and even when dealing with sometimes mechanical scenes, she knocks every line out of the ballpark. Dennis Zacek’s directing and John Stark’s set design are also commendable. They both work in tight harmony to evoke a natural feel and setting that serve as a perfect vessel through which the Levy family dismantles.

Ultimately, however, the “Relatively Close” strong points can’t overcome its floundering writing. As much as I would like to, this is one family vacation on which I would rather not embark.

“Relatively Close” runs every day of the week except for Mondays at various times through July 13, 2008 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre at 2433 N Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. For tickets or more information, visit here or call 773-871-3000.

For a complete listing of all shows and reviews in Chicago, visit our partner TheatreInChicago.com. For half-price Chicago theater tickets, visit our partner Goldstar.

By ALISSA NORBY
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
alissa@hollywoodchicago.com