“Sons of Hollywood”

[rating=2] From day one, I have been impressed with the Windy City Playhouse and their concept. This is a true “Black Box Theater”, where they can rearrange their venue for the production they are doing. While I do not always agree with the play selections they offer, I am always impressed with what they do with the design, not only of the theater, but the set they create to make the play work. Their current production ( at the original Irving Park Road stage) is “Sons of Hollywood” and has an amazing set designed by Lauren Nigri. It is masterful with amazing levels and solid creativity. The props and set dressing is done by Foiles ( which I think is a company, not an individual).

The play is written by Barry Ball and Carl Menninger with the music by Barry Ball. The music adds a nice touch to this two hour  story based on actual facts about Hollywood during its hey dey. For those of you old enough to recall “Ben Hur” and the stardom that it brought Charlton Heston, I need to tell you that there was another version of this film- before actors spoke on film. It starred Ramon Novarro ( played in this production by Trey DeLuna, who has the look of a Latin Lover) and his sexuality during a time where studios “owned” the actors and did what they were told to do.

It turns out that homosexuality is not a 1950’s “thing”, but in fact was in the industry back in the silent film days. Since the studios were concerned about how this would appear to those who buy the tickets, they made sure that nothing leaked and that these actors married up. Yes, men who loved men, married women and women who loved women, married men. What went on behind closed doors stayed behind those doors, but if found out, that actor’s career would be destroyed.

This play is indeed the story of not only Navarro, but that of Billy Haines ( Adam Jennings) and his boy toy with whom he stayed with for forty years Jimmie Shields (deftly handled by Kyle Patrick), and of course Lucille LeSueue a/k/a Joan Crawford played by Abby Lee , who is terrific.

The ensemble does most of the heavy lifting in this show, handling most of the music/songs and a myriad of characters that enter into the story. They are: Adrian Irizarry, Ben Dow, Jonathan Connolly and Max Stewart. There were a few scenes where I could not keep up with the changes of characters, but as it turned out, they didn’t alter the story at all. The show is directed by David H. Bell who has done some great things for this theater as well as many others in our Chicago area ( and others everywhere).

I am one for detail in a play. In this production the props people have brought in a wonderful camera that is being used to do a photo layout of Mr. Navarro. This type of camera did not use film on rolls, but instead had 4 x 5 film sheets and they would be on a plate where there was one on each side. The photographer would take a slide out, snap the shot, put the slide back in, reverse the  tray and do it again. After using that plate, they would replace it with another. The photographer on stage did not do this. Not important to most, but for me it was a loss of credibility on the production staff.

Sydney Moore’s costumes were perfect and fitting and the lighting (Anthony Forchielli) and sound (Willow James) were right on. I will say that during our performance the rain beating on the roof was a bit distracting, but with twenty minutes to go, there was little that could be done. As far as sound, if actors are to sing with taped music, perhaps microphones so we can hear the words would be helpful.

This is a piece that could be much stronger and tell us a story that needs to be told. I congratulate Windy City for taking on a project like this during a period as we have just been witness to over the last two years. I would love to hear what you, my readers think about the production.

“Sons of Hollywood” will continue at Windy City Playhouse located at 3014 West Irving Park Rd in Chicago   thru  April 17th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  8 p.m.

Sundays  2 p.m.

Running time two hours including a 15 minute intermission.

Tickets range from $55-$85

discount Senior, military personnel, teachers, students and members of the theater industry- $15 off ( excluding Saturday)

Box office  773-891-8985

www.windycityplayhouse.com

There is metered parking on Irving Park and unlike other parts of the city, the side streets are NOT zoned ( yet).

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