This 1986 aging-dueling-divas play by late “A Chorus Line” coauthor James Kirkwood was conceived as a comic comeback vehicle for Mary Martin and Carol Channing but was a poorly written play then (did its original stars have too much creative control?) and adding a couple of decades along with featuring former “Dynasty” divas Joan Collins and Linda Evans has unfortunately not helped matters. The idea is obviously to take advantage of the classic catfight reputation that Collins and Evans developed on television, but there isn’t enough material here for the two to really sink their teeth into and the static staging reduces the play’s one largely offstage catfight to a few jousts from a distance, a couple of tossed pieces of furniture and some sound effects with the characters emerging with their wigs torn off. No attempt was made to update material set in the 1980s that contained outdated gimmicks that would be shopworn even then, such as the aging stars accidentally consuming some hashish-laced brownies as the mechanism for them to become superficially reflective about their fictional careers. The one thing you can say for the evening is that Collins and Evans both look and sound great, and are costumed as if they are going to Cinderella’s ball, but far better if the two were allowed to wing their way through an evening of their own reminiscences than have to go through the motions of a bad play. (Dennis Polkow)
Tue & Thu/7:30pm, Wed/2pm & 7:30pm, Fri/8pm, Sat/2pm & 8pm, Sun/2pm. LaSalle Bank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe, (312)902-1400. $20-$75. Through Mar 4. This production is now closed.
A Story for Everyone: A Review of "1776" at Broadway in Chicago “1776” took our Founding Fathers off their pedestals and revealed them as clay-footed human beings who passionately squabbled over something as fundamental as American independence. Directors Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page have a fresh take.
