“Missed Connections”

[rating=4] This is always a tough choice. Is “Magic” theater ? Or is it Cabaret? Is it even “theater”?  Chicago audiences are very used to the amazing Dennis Watkins and now his virtual show. It turns out, he is not alone!

Tonight, I was witness to  “Missed Connections” , a live, interactive virtual magical experience presented by A Red Orchid Theatre Company. for a little over one hour, a group of viewers from Atlanta, Brooklyn and the Chicago metro area watched the amazing Jon Tai ( in Pittsburgh) written by Tai and Alex Gruhin and produced by Gruhin. As we all joined in on zoom, Jon greeted us learned a little about each and made us very comfortable. Tai is a masterful story-teller , weaving his illusions into the stories he tells.

The show, albeit only an hour is scripted and therefore follows the same pattern every performance. There are variations of course due to a different and unique audience each performance.

The difficult part about reviewing a show like this is being careful not to say more than they want said. However, each performance has a different set of viewers, so should have different pieces of the equations and a unique ending. Please understand what I am describing are “general ideas”. With a different audience, many things will change and no two shows will ever be the same. That is the “magic of a show like this”. I hope you understand the mystery in this review, but I would never want to tell you more than you need to know, and that is that this is a fabulous one hour of entertainment.

That is my thought and I am sticking with it.

To give you an idea, in tonight’s audience, 16th Street Theatre’s Artistic Director Ann Filmer was involved in one of the tricks. She and her partner picked a specific item as we witnessed Jon take them through a story of his own and intertwine his story with theirs. It was special and filled with surprises.seemed like a typical magic trick. That is where we went off to other universes and stayed on that course. We were able to see some true mind over matter. Tai  even sent us a text message during the show that came in use later. I think you should have your smart phone handy as there will be a need later in the show..

One of the audience members was to think of a memory, and use one word to describe it. Then we all tossed numbers at Tai, and as he added them and multiplied them we witnessed a phone number created by us, 25 viewers.. The audience member called that number ,and you will not believe what happened next!

At the very end, Jerry was asked to pick a number from a list of numbers and then read what it said to us. He earned this honor by playing a game with several others in the “crowd” . If you love illusion/magic, this is another great one to watch. You will be amazed a the results. You can catch this wonderful experience thru the end of the month ( 2/28). This show is different than many others out there as things imagined become real and connection is possible thru the shared experience and wonder of Jon Tai and the audience.

I know this is not my typical review format, but understand A Red Orchid wanting me to keep you in mystery mode!  ENJOY!

Performances are as follows:

Tuesdays  7 p.m.   ( all times are Central Standard)

Thursdays  7 p.m.

Fridays  7 p.m.

Saturdays  5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays   7 p.m.  Valentines Day 2/14   5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Tickets are $25 Only 25 households per performance and can be ordered at www.aredorchidtheatre.org

Once you purchase your “seat” you will get an e-mail confirmation along with full instructions. ENJOY!

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Missed Connections”.