Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Watching a full-fledged production of Porgy and Bess feels like a very special thing. The Lyric Opera of Chicago said they’ve tried to put one together year after year after year and could never get everything to work out right.

But now, they have a gorgeous run going. Five of the remaining eleven performances are sold out. The newly added December 16 show has the widest range of tickets available.

I was lucky enough to see it last Friday. For me, it was a very uneven experience. Overall, you could tell that this isn’t a traditional opera (as in a classic Mozart or Rossini one). It has many of the same elements, but they are just different enough for you to know that this is of a more modern school.

This isn’t to say that a different presentation is bad, but some of the choices did affect my overall enjoyment of it.

In a more traditional opera, a character’s entry song is very important. It’s what you hear when you first encounter the person and that sets the stage for your feelings about him/her. Two of the most famous entry songs are for Figaro in The Barber of Seville and for Musetta in La Boheme.

Rather than introducing characters in this manner, Porgy and Bess starts off with an extended mood and atmosphere setting sequence. We’ll meet all the main characters, but they are mixed in with all the other inhabitants of Catfish Row.

This was not fun for me.

I understand why they created this structure, but it made the beginning twenty to thirty minutes very dull. It is a world of poverty and desperation. The music doesn’t do much changing within this setting. The pacing of every phrase in every song by every character seemed to be the same.

As I sat there in a bit of confusion, I started to dread the next three hours.

Luckily, the opera doesn’t stay in this mode. After this beginning, the characters started getting their dues. All in a row, there came some great character arias that I couldn’t help but wish were mixed in at the beginning. Storywise, the opera began to portray that there is life and joy with this harsh environment.

The songs did start to sound a bit more traditional too. When Bess was singing about her need to sacrifice her personal happiness for the good of everyone, she could have been any number of operatic heroines out there. For me though, after this pick-up, the show started to go down again.

This time, my main issue was with the inconsistency of the musical style. I think this is a taste issue and is probably more about my preferences than anything tangible in the score. I found the jumps between a more traditional operatic sound and a more modern jazz presentation to be jarring and unpalatable.

Still, the overall strength and rarity of the production are plenty to recommend it. The cast is great, especially Jonita Lattimore as Serena. Morenike Fadayomi’s Bess is annoying sometimes with her failing arms and stamping feet, but when she can stand still and sing, it is a lovely moment.

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I was scared going into Kafka on the Shore at the Steppenwolf Theatre two weeks ago. I had read a handful of reviews, both professional and personal, that were very mixed about the production. From these write-ups, I knew it wasn’t going to be a standard theater-going experience.

I knew it was going to be dreamlike and surreal and influenced by the subconscious. “Oh boy,” I thought, “pretentious art can go wrong very quickly.”

As it turned out, I loved the play. It definitely helped that I knew not to look too hard for conclusions or tidy endings. The human brain will do that just naturally so I let mine run on neutral and tried to focus the rest of me on each moment. I tried to take in what was on stage in front of me at every moment.

Those moments are great. The cast really impressed me with their abilities. If you see the play, you’ll see how many monologues, often disconnected ones, each actor has to present and make them compelling. There are enough posing and stylistic stances to put a cast of A Chorus Line to shame.

Yet all night long, every cue was hit and all the timings were spotless.

I was surprised that my least favorite aspects of the show were the self-referential winks. In the first half, the play couldn’t help but laugh at itself. There were lines about how tiresome post-modern theater productions were and other lines of that nature. Coming so early, it felt as if Frank Galati had to pre-apologize for what was to come. He was already hedging the experience. (To be fair, I have no idea if any of this is in the original Murakami novel.)

I resented that. I felt that if he was going to create this experience, especially one that I thought came off so successfully, then do it. Don’t apologize for it.

As I said, this reaction of mine surprised me because usually, I’m all about the meta.

I haven’t said anything about the plot because I don’t think the plot is going to be a deciding factor on whether or not you’ll go see a production of this play in the future. It’s an experience of the mind, of moods, and of moments.

After the play was over, Steppenwolf offered a post-show discussion. I didn’t want to discuss it. I was still nicely wrapped up in the world created by the play. I was still fuzzy from the fanciful elements. So we stood in the lobby for a bit and then walked out into the cold.

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to predict whether or not another person is going to enjoy this play. But if you like theater and are not afraid of non-linear art, I would say to go and give it a chance.

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I attended this evening’s performance of Kafka on the Shore at the Steppenwolf Theatre and loved it. My reaction surprised me since I’m such a stickler for character and plot.

I think the key is to just let your expectations and desires go. Focus on what is happening at each moment in front of you on the stage and immerse in it.

I plan to have more on this production later, but there are only seven performances left. If you are on the fence about whether or not to go see it, my suggestion is to take on the challenge. If your experience turns out like mine did, it will totally be worth the ticket.

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