“Life and love and luck may be changed / Hope renewed and fate rearranged”. That’s the promise contained in the title track of 1978’s On the Twentieth Century, a grand old school musical comedy. I was fortunately in Chicago this past week and decided to pop in to one of my favorite shows visiting a company I had not yet seen before.
The pedigree of this show is impressive (and I wrote about it six years ago in my Retrospective Series). Three of us headed to the Andersonville neighborhood and the welcoming venue of the Bramble Arts Loft to jump aboard this Art Deco masterpiece to “ride that mighty miracle of engineering trains”.
How would this modestly sized, non-equity theater company manage to sing this fairly difficult score with its oversized operetta-like bombast? Happy to report that this cast was completely up to that task. The band led by Musical Director Aaron Kaplan nicely performed the memorable train-rollicking score.
The staging occurs in a small black box theater within the Loft complex. I was drawn to see how this behemoth of a musical could be staged on a smaller scale. I’ve seen this show five times on Broadway (twice in its original run) and my memories of the “She’s A Nut” still rank high for its jaw-dropping set design.
The good news is that the enterprising Blank Theatre Company makes a case for downsizing this farce and allowing the madcap hijinks to shine up close and personal. Using suitcases and trunks set the tone and framed the location nicely. Movable chairs here and there were the other major props (although a few more would be welcome).
Since one of us was a newbie to 20th Century (and two were musical theater actors), we had some lively discussion during intermission and afterwards. Given the minimalist staging by Director Danny Kapinos, could the story be understood?
The answer is not always. An example is the duet between Lily Garland’s (Karilyn Veres) two self-absorbed suitors Oscar Jaffe (Maxwell J DeTogne) and Bruce Granit (Christopher Johnson). They are singing “Mine” in competition with each other in adjoining drawing rooms on the train. There is no way to clearly see that in this “buddy song” presentation. The side by side train rooms “A” and “B” are not delineated strongly enough and the song loses bit of its witty bite when less aggressively competitive.
In addition to the occasionally hazy locales, the show hurtles through its plot at breakneck speed. That is understandable given the storyline lunacy. All three of us felt the show could slow down a minute here and there to breathe and let the comedic shenanigans sink in even further. Movement on stage, especially down front, was a bit hectic. “Babette” was far too rushed to land its “gin is never strong enough” asides.
Our unanimously favorite performance was by Nick Arceo as Oliver Webb, one of Oscar Jaffe’s alcoholic henchmen. Alicia Berneche had a blast stopping the show in her character’s “Repent” classic. Everyone had their moments, however, and the ensemble in particular worked as if three times their number.
Now for the great news. A top ticket price of $35 guarantees exceptional value. Here is a chance to pop into one of the last American book musicals of the era prior to the British invasion of kicking felines and falling chandeliers. For my money On the Twentieth Century is a luxury liner train ride worth taking. The ambitious Blank Theatre Company makes a good case for a smaller scale interpretation in this most intimate setting.
All aboard! On the Twentieth Century is running through June 9, 2024.
www.brambletheatre.org/arts-loft
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/onthetwentiethcentury/retrospectiveseries