*** Watching a new musical, for the very first time, is a unique experience. The audience has only a glimmer of what the writer or writers are thinking, and the music is nothing ever heard before, so there is absolutely nothing to make your senses come alive. The beauty of doing this though is being in on the ground floor and having the opportunity to see it grow and flourish.
TheoUbique, (THEO as it is referred to), the “cabaret” theater, that moved from Rogers Park to Evanston during the pandemic is now doing what I might call “a work in progress”. We saw the second or third performance with an audience, and based on what we saw, the show will tighten up and get stronger with time. Yes, often a play is like a fine wine, it gets better with age. In other words, the audience and its reactions will help the play grow stronger.
The show itself is a touching story about a family. In this case, the family is Asian. They own a bakery and have a daughter who is expected to get into one of the top schools on a scholarship. She can’t hurt her parent’s dreams by telling them that she did not get the scholarship, so she lies and then must come up with a plan to raise the dollars needed to help her parents get through this ordeal. By the way: business is also not up to par, causing other financial hardships for the family. I do not want to give away the plot or subplots, but will tell you that Jane ( a bubbly Sunnie Eraso) and her friend Kasey (played to perfection by Devon Hayakawa) with the aid of Z ( deftly handled by Reilly Oh) do their own little bakery business. One that gets the police involved and almost ends the relationship in total.
Again, the basic story is about family relationships, the relationship between friends lies and drugs. That should be enough to spur your curiosity. The play runs about 2 hours and 14 minutes with one 15 minute intermission. I found Act One more musical that Act Two -10 musical numbers in the first and 5 in the second. A few standout numbers that truly helped propel the storyline were “Best In The Room”, “Follow The Recipe”, “Get Backed”, “Two Worlds Collide” ( to end Act One) and a beautiful piece that ends the play, “That’s It”.
The ensemble is solid: Nick Joe as Jane’s dad, Mariel Saavedro as mom, Bryce Ancil, Joselle Reyes,Peter Ruger, Maiko Terazawa, and RJ Silva ( who does a comic bit about being “high” that will break you up. He is hysterical.
Smoothly directed by Grace Dolezal-Ng, the production sweeps around the theater. If you have never been to THEO, it is a cabaret style venue with tables and chairs on the stage area and seats along the outer walls. There are times as a patron you believe that the action might just get you “into” the lay, but they don’t do that ( thank the lord).
The set by Maria Ishihara Zinky, is primarily a bakery/kitchen and off to the side other areas of interest. The costumes(Steph Taylor) work as do the lights(Josiah Croegaert) and sound (Matthew R. Chase). The props were handled by Isa Noe and the choreography by Shanna VanDerwerker. I will tell you that the dancing is limited.
The script was written by Deepak Kumar and Jord Liu who also write the lyrics and music. One can see that a lot of effort has been placed in this project and that it is headed in a direction that could make it a musical for all people ( although I do not see it as the new “World of Susie Wong” or “Flower Drum Song”). Tyler Miles is the musical director.
“Baked! The Musical” will continue at Theo Ubique located at 721 West Howard Street through October 8th with performances as follows:
Show Type: Musical
Box Office: 773-939-4101
Parking is available on the street and one needs to check the meters first. For example, on Sunday the Chicago side is not required. Read first.
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com,http://www.theatreinchicago.com go to Review Round-Up and click at “Baked! The Musical”.
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