” Do Re Mi” Porchlight REVISITS

[rating=4] Ever since Michael Weber took on the position of Artistic Director at Porchlight, he has brought new ideas to this company. One of those is the amazing Porchlight REVISITS, where they take a walk down memory lane to bring us not only a staged reading of an old -fashioned musical, but the history of the show itself. Musical theater lovers, THIS IS FOR YOU! Learning about the oldies, but goodies, and then watching take place on the stage is an amazing evening of entertainment ( and educational). Under usual circumstances, Michael Weber is our host and takes us through the historical portion of the evening. Tonight, however, it was the director of the show, “Do Re Mi”, Christopher Padzernik, that did this job. Why? Because Michael Weber took on the role of Hubie ( a part that was written for Phil Silvers, one of the greatest comic actors of my day) so he needed to prepare for a role that placed him on stage for almost the entire production. I must tell you, Weber was magnificent! It is a role that any actor would relish and although they call this a staged reading, very seldom  did anyone even glance at their script ( if they even had it with them).

PLaying his wife, Kay, a role played in the original by Nancy Walker ( another famous name from the past, who most of you might recognize from her role as Rhoda’s mother Ida on the “Rhoda”  TV series) is handled to perfection by one of my favorite musical comedy actresses, Nancy Voigts. Weber and Voigts are an amazing couple to watch. In fact, the entire ensemble was amazing. One must understand that they ONLY do three performances ( limiting you, the potential audience) so the fact that they learn an entire script and music and lyrics quickly with few rehearsals is on its own merit, a miracle, but the performance we saw was as good as it gets. There is also no set. They are using whatever happens to be there form the current show. In this case “Memphis” ( a glorious production that should garner several Jeff Awards), and just make it work!

Let’s hear it for a great cast of players: Tommy Bullington, William Dwyer ( what a voice), Gabriel Fries, Steve Kimbrough, The lovely Molly Kral as Tilda, Tommy Novak, Aaron Reese Boseman, andAnastasia Arnold, Desiree Gonzalez, Maria Montero and  Jenna Schoppe. While the numbers are small, the talent is humongous! The choreography was handled by Pazdernik in addition to the direction and he did a splendid job. David Fiorello is the musical director, dishing out some of the oldies. You might recall hearing “Make Someone Happy” over the years- this is where it came from.

“Do Re Mi” was written by Garson Kanin with music by Julie Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green ( they were one of the special TEAMS of their era), the story is about a would be con-man ( Hubie) who decides to do something special to make his wife happy. To go straight, or legit. His cronies and he decide to go into the Juke Box business and end up switching gears to making music when they discover a great singer, Tilda ( you will not believe the range that Molly Kral has ). This is  two-hours-thirty-five minutes of education and entertainment that you will be sorry to have missed ( so try to see the last performance).

One night remains at the Ruth Page Center For The Arts, located at 1016 N. Dearborn ( valet parking is available). Tickets are a mere $35 each and can be ordered by calling 773-777-9884 or by visiting www.porchlightmusictheatre.org

A lot of work, love and desire are put into bringing these special productions to the theater audiences of Chicago, so I for one want to thank Porchlight for their hard work and energy to continue the process.

Maybe they can find a way to offer more opportunities for more people to see this program. It is one heck of a night!

To see what others said- visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and hit “Do Re Mi”.