Porchlight Music Theatre has long been an excellent contributor to Chicago’s performing arts community. In its production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, the Porchlight ensemble meets some of the challenges of this complex and dense work, but misses others. In large part due to vocal gifts, Brandon Dahlquist, playing tortured artist Georges Seurat, is the better of the two lead actors. In “The Day Off,” he has fun assuming the persona of the dog, and finds some tender moments in the show’s ballads, such as “Move On.” Jess Godwin misses layers as Georges’s lover, Dot. She comes across as whiny. There is no hint of the passion underlying this relationship. When Dot heads to America, ultimately leaving Georges forever, we do not get the full sense of what is truly lost. Her vocal problems were a bigger issue. Despite her mellifluous soprano, the small orchestra seemed to drown her out again and again (although that didn’t happen to other singers). In duets with Dahlquist, it was difficult to hear her. With the noteworthy exception of Sara Stern, the ensemble acting seemed to resort to a lot of mugging. Stern, in a clean, understated performance both in dialogue and in the song “Beautiful,” communicated well the tender, challenging emotions of one who deeply loves a square peg.
(Pictured: Brandon Dahlquist, Jess Godwin; Photo by Johnny Knight)
Carla Gordon
Cabaret Scenes
September 14, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org
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