“Burnham’s Dream : The White City”

[rating=2]There is a World Premiere of a new musical at Theater Wit in the Belmont Theatre District. The play is called “Burnham’s Dream: The White City” with a book and lyrics by  June Finfer and Music and lyrics by Elizabeth Doyle. The story is about some true history of Chicago and the World’s Fair that was to be the start of the rebuilding of Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire had destroyed most of what already had become Chicago.  Daniel Burnham ( a familiar name in the re-building of Chicago and Lake Shore Drive) was the young man who won the job of building it along with architect  John Root. This new musical, a sort of chamber musical tells us the story of the building of the great White City, Burnham’s Dream to make Chicago whole again.  Pavi Proczko as Burnham is decent, but his voice , both singing and speaking is not strong enough to “reach the back row”. Even with my hearing-aids turned up, there were times that he was difficult to hear. I blame director Erik Wagner for all of the actors being drowned out by the onstage musicians. Where were the microphones?

While this is a story about a dream, it is not just Burham’s. There are the dreams of the immigrant workers , in particular, the young Irishman, Michael O’Malley ( Chase Wheaton-Werle is probably the strongest performer in this production) looking to become an American and have a skill. There is also Ida B. Wells ( some of you may recognize the name from the “projects” in the city that bear that name) deftly handled by Arielle Leverett, who is dreaming of the African-Americans being allowed to be a part of the proceedings, both as laborers and visitors at the Fair, and finally,  Bertha Palmer ( wife of Potter Palmer- The Palmer House Hotel and most of the landfill that became North Lake Shore Drive) played by Genevieve Thiers, who is into the early “Women’s Movement”. Laura Degrenia does a solid job as Margaret Burnham, but again, her voice never even got close to the last row ( and this is a 99 seat venue).

The ensemble- rest of the cast, some taking on many roles is composed of Daniel Leahy as Louis Sullivan, the architect who built The Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University. Leahy played some other roles, but due to his stature and mannerisms, could not hide the fact that he was playing multi roles. Jacob Fjare does a nice job with his roles and Michael Kingston and Robert J. Brady are the shining moments with their characters, they do several and we are never confused as to which one is in the scene. Sam Massye, who takes on John Root probably has the strongest voice , but to be honest, the music is nothing special and the choreography (Jessica Texidor) very bland.

I do think this play, with some tweaking here and there, and a more experienced director ( of musicals), could probably be more than this production allowed for. The technical aspects of the show ( except the use of microphones, or lack of) was pretty decent. The set designed by Jose Manuel Diaz-Soto was a clever use of the limited space, and the use of the cast members to make modifications was well designed. The costumes by Alaina Moore were  terrific, the lighting ( Joseph Burke, who also did the projections-some great Chicago scenes and buildings) good and I believe that Tim McNulty was limited by not having a sound system so the actors were competing with the musicians ( who always seem to win these battles).

I do thank Lost and Found Productions for taking this script and putting it on the stage , so that young theater-goers can get a little history on what made Chicago what it is. The show, as I said earlier, with a little nurturing might come back and be stronger. See for yourself, but you only have thru July 1st at Theater Wit at 1229 West Belmont. Performances are as follows:

Thursdays  7: 30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Tickets are $42  OPEN SEATING ( students and Seniors save $5) and can be purchased at the box office, by calling 773-975-8150 or online at www.theaterwit.org

Running time: 2 hours-thirty-minutes including one 15 minute intermission.

Parking is on the street, some metered, some not and zoned. Check signs and meter boxes. Valet parking is available

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Burnham’s Dream: The White City”