Nathan Gunn, Mark Delavan and Marc Kudisch/Photo: Chuck Osgood
RECOMMENDED
Public safety announcement: baritones are endangered! Or maybe you, yourself, are a baritone and already knew that baritones have been relegated to revival shows as their contemporary roles dwindle? If you didn’t know this, you would do well to catch up on your musical history with “Baritones Unbound,” a show that covers approximately thirteen-hundred years of musical history, focusing on the baritone, in a little less than two-and-a-half hours.
I promise this won’t feel like history class. Instead, it’s like hanging out with a few of the guys waxing poetic about the good ‘ole baritone times while intermittently blasting you with overwhelming snippets of famous baritone roles from operas, musicals and pop music.
These baritones are such bros that they bust out an everlasting bucket of brews to nurse at the start of the second half of the show which begins with “Soliloquy” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel.” The set even looks like someone’s man-cave, albeit one of a well traveled, highly cultivated gentledude. Along with an array of curiosities like a standing tube radio, allusions are strewn about the stage: there are wagon wheels from “Oklahoma!,” a pirate hat from Penzance and a carousel horse from, well… you know.
But as much as Mark Delavan, Nathan Gunn and Marc Kudisch succeed in appearing as common men with their joviality and agile physical humor, the instant they open their mouths to sing—whether it’s Verdi, Gilbert and Sullivan or Elvis Presley—the concept of common disappears. Instead these gentlemen transport us, with their barreling voices, to the lofty space between heaven and earth, where they claim the baritone resides.
This is all highly entertaining, sure. But to be totally honest, my eyes involuntarily rolled in the first few minutes of the show when I thought, “Great. Another show with an all-male cast.” The recent shortage of baritones in pop culture seems to coincide with significantly shifted concepts of gender—smooth, womanizing Sinatra no longer being the pinnacle of manhood. But this show proves that there is still plenty of room for gushing and unabashed celebration of the male (baritone) voice. (Joy Miller)
The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted, (312)988-9000, theroyalgeorgetheatre.com, $60. Through January 3.
Related Stories
One Ghost Will Do: A Review of The Woman in Black at Royal George Theatre There's no moral message or social insight to bog down this heart-pounding holiday journey at The Royal George Theatre.- The Passion of Lenny Bruce: A Review of I’m Not a Comedian… I’m Lenny Bruce at the Royal George This one-man show is Lenny Bruce in his truest form, his provocations from beyond the grave like pleas for decency in an increasingly indecent world.
- A Royal Delight: A Review of Sylvester at Lifeline Theatre Georgette Heyer's beloved novel receives a lively adaptation at Lifeline Theatre.
- Whole and Connected: The Joffrey Ballet presents Justin Peck's "The Times Are Racing" Youth culture is at the heart of Peck’s ballet, which is danced in sneakers and streetwear to the second half of electronic musician Dan Deacon’s “America” album.
- Remix: Lucky Plush Presents New Short Work and Reimagined Old in Tab Show The wildly witty and inquisitive company presents two reimagined shorter works: an expanded riff on a short piece created for Hubbard Street last year and a mashup of memorable moments from past Plush shows.
- A Glocal Celebration: Red Clay Dance Company presents La Femme Dance Festival at the Green Line Performing Arts Center This biennial festival celebrates dancemakers whose work is grounded in African and African Diasporic forms and provides presentation and professional development opportunities for this historically underrepresented group in concert dance.
