A musical theater grudge match on Chicago’s North Side has 1967’s “Hair” and 2003’s “Avenue Q” doing battle less than a mile apart.
Smart money is on Gary Coleman, and he’s been dead four years.
Yes, somehow a living, adult version of diminutive Arnold Jackson from TV’s “Diff’rent Strokes” still narrates the naughty puppets of “Avenue Q” in Mercury Theater’s current production. Talented Donterrio Johnson does the “Whatchu talkin’ about Willis” honors.
While the character is dated, along with several pieces of the clever and catchy songbook, the first-rate, professional staging from Director L. Walter Stearns is sure to please fans of this R-rated “Sesame Street.”
With a gifted ensemble cast and terrific orchestra led by Eugene Dizon, Stearns’ puppeteers, led by the lovely and talented Leah Morrow as Kate Monster, Jackson Evans as Princeton and Christine Bunuan as Christmas Eve, take the audience through a comic love story between young adults making their way in the world. Morrow’s “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” is genuinely touching, and the vocals throughout are topnotch.
The story itself is punctuated with shock-value songs and references, often hilarious, touching on racism (“Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”), homophobia (“My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada”), sex (“You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want…”) and whose life is hardest (“It Sucks to Be Me”). A full synopsis and history may be read here.
Limited laughter aside, unless the “Avenue Q” book is freshened up with, say, a Justin Bieber replacing Coleman and new lyrics like, “If you were gay, that’d be OK…we can still marry in most states anyway,” even top-shelf productions like Mercury’s can feel so last decade. There’s good reason, besides puppet sex, this title isn’t found on many professional marquees.
And while “Avenue Q” could have the intangibles to enjoy a certain cult following, true fans of the book by Jeff Whitty and music and lyrics by Jeff Marx ought to see this terrific, Equity production while they can.
The same suggestion cannot be made for American Theater Company’s staging of “Hair.”
There’s simply not much to like about this three-hour homage to the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll counterculture of a Greenwich Village hippie tribe amidst the angst of the Vietnam War. A full history and synopsis may be read here.
The 2009 Broadway staging of “Hair” took home the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical; but Director P.J. Paparelli’s American Theater version is truer to the 1967 original. However, stripped down to its simpler state, and with the benefit of comparison to as-edgy, more entertaining shows staged in the 45 years since (“Rent,” “Book of Mormon,” and even “Avenue Q”) leaves even an audience of family and friends on opening night longing for the show to end.
While it could be interesting to see members of this young, energetic ensemble in other roles, overall vocal quality, especially for an Equity production, is inconsistent and underwhelming. Notable exceptions are Rachael Smith as shy Crissy singing “Frank Mills,” and the powerful Camille Robinson as Dionne, particularly in “White Boys.”
Kudos too, go to Broadway vet Jane Strauss, who commands the show’s best scene as cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead interviewing the tribe.
But beyond these few highlights, and with an unfocused second act dominated by a variety of narcotic hallucinations, there is so little to let the sun shine into the production. This “Hair” only makes the cramped, uncomfortable seating of American Theater Company feel ever more so.
Performances for “Avenue Q” at Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, run Wednesdays through Sundays through June 29. Tickets are $20-59 and are available online, by phone at 773-325-1700 or in person. Ticket discounts are available for groups of 10 or more.
“Hair” performs Thursdays through Sundays through June 29 at American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron St., Chicago. Tickets are $38-43 and available in person at the box office, online or by phone at 773-409-4125.
