I'm so curious about this new musical from Mark Hollerman (Urinetown) coming to the Goodman in a few months. The plot sounds bonkers, but I'm here for it. Has anyone heard anything about this show yet?
A musical 40,000 years in the making.
Broadway’s brightest star of 1938, Vera Vimm (Megan Mullally/Will & Grace), is at the top of her game. But when she adopts a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal discovered frozen in the Arctic, the spotlight begins to shift. As Iceboy thaws, he unexpectedly becomes a theatrical sensation, inspiring the “father of the American drama” Eugene O’Neill (Nick Offerman/Parks and Recreation) and challenging his legendary mother for center stage. It’s All About Eve…if only Eve was a caveman.
To accommodate Nick Offerman’s schedule, the performance schedule was moved to 2 weeks or so later. Subscribers were notified, and the Goodman box office is allowing all subscribers to select ANY night of the run - if the reassigned night offered by the box office ain’t ideal.
My night was moved to two weeks later - which is fine - no need to reschedule.
Not sure when, but gonna keep an eye on HotTix and catch a performance at some point before 8/9. (Offerman is scheduled to be out of a few shows, so gonna try and avoid those.)
As mentioned above, they already changed the production schedule to accommodate Offerman, but he's out the first four performances. It seems like if they were going to push the schedule back they could've pushed it back an additional weekend. He's also out 7/30-8/1. He does bear, pun intended, a striking resemblance to Eugene O'Neill, who he plays in the show. I wonder if he was always supposed to be a part of this production or if he was added in after the fact replacing another actor? I realize he's married to the leading lady.
I also noticed that Linda Muggleston, an amazing Broadway performer is in the ensemble and Megan Mullally's understudy.
I'll be seeing the first preview this Saturday. Such an interesting cast! Disappointed to hear that Nick will be out. I'll be returning later in the run, so hopefully I won't miss him again.
If you’re interested in the backstory of the production of Iceboy, as well as A LOT of Chicago storefront theatre history, this is a fascinating article from the Chicago Reader
The initial preview on Saturday, June 20 featured a quartet of standout performances by Sarah Stiles as maid Lambert, Grey Henson as Iceboy, Megan Mullally as Vera Vimm, and Shawn Pfautsch as Eugene O’Neill.
I was worried going in that I would need to know more about Eugene O’Neill and The Iceman Cometh, but the script (O’Neill) asks the audience early on about our familiarity. O’Neill wins us over quickly: “If you hear someone talking nearby, Ssshhh the talkers!”
The Goodman audience roared at Vera Vimm’s first appearance, regally dressed by costumer Linda Cho.
The two Detroit women sitting next to me were dismayed to see the Playbill slip about Nick Offerman’s planned absence, but understudy Shawn Pfautsch nailed the role.
A brief overture begins the performance with a pit orchestra of piano, 2 reeds, trumpet, trombone, bass, and drumset/percussion.
Act one includes an instant, new showtune classic: FM.
BalconyClub said: "The initial preview on Saturday, June 20 featureda quartet ofstandout performances by Sarah Stiles as maid Lambert, Grey Henson as Iceboy, Megan Mullally as Vera Vimm, and Shawn Pfautsch as Eugene O’Neill.
I was worried going in that I would need to know more about Eugene O’Neill and The Iceman Cometh, but the script (O’Neill)asks the audience early on about our familiarity. O’Neill wins us over quickly: “If you hear someone talking nearby, Ssshhh the talkers!”
The Goodman audience roared at Vera Vimm’s first appearance, regally dressed by costumer Linda Cho.
The two Detroit women sitting next to me were dismayed to see the Playbill slip aboutNick Offerman’s planned absence, but understudy Shawn Pfautsch nailed the role.
A brief overture begins the performance with a pit orchestra of piano, 2 reeds, trumpet, trombone, bass, and drumset/percussion.
Act one includes an instant, new showtuneclassic: FM."
I would describe this show as "wacky." A nutso plot and crazy characters, thrown together with a somewhat confusing book and middling songs. It was a little off-putting seeing a show like this at the Goodman, since it definitely seemed like an off-Loop/off-Broadway show. Yes, there were many laughs - mostly from Vera (Megan) and Eugene O'Neill (understudy Shawn Pfautsch). Megan was in full Elizabeth mode from Young Frankenstein (which was driven home by the fact that there is a "Frankenstein" with her in the show), but her heavy accent made some of her dialogue indecipherable. In fact, the overall sound design made it difficult to understand about half the dialogue and lyrics throughout the show. I thought the O'Neill character had the funniest material, narrating the show in a kind of Man in Chair or Officer Lockstock manner, while also being self-deprecating and cynical. I'm anxious to return and see how Nick Offerman delivers on that material.
Sarah Stiles was also a stand-out, but was saddled with some of the baffling book, and had an out-of-nowhere song about her "forever menopause" in act one. Grey Henson was Grey Henson, and the part of Iceboy and his performance seemed to mirror what I just recently saw in Bigfoot the Musical.
The basic plot is that Vera purchased a frozen caveman at auction for some reason. She was an orphan, and he was an orphan, and so it makes sense. She also wants the publicity for doing that. But he unfreezes, then eventually takes over her part in a Broadway musical a la All About Eve. End of act one. Act Two - Vera's in a coma and a lot of other silliness happens. (Act Two could use some work.)
So much of the show reminded me of other shows that I actually started to think it was a Schmigadoon style homage. Young Frankenstein, Bat Boy, The Producers, Drowsy Chaperone to name a few. Act two really lost me on the plot, but by then I was just enjoying the fantastic cast and occasional ridiculous comic moment.
We're fortunate to get these kind of premieres in Chicago, and I'm looking forward to returning later in the run to see if and how it changes.
DaveyG said: "How was the rest of the book and score?"
The book is weak in parts - "sleeping in my feces" in POOR LITTLE ORPHAN GIRL, and the too long Guess the First Letter scene in Act 2, but the story shines in other moments: Vera's reaction to receiving a bad review, Vera's brief exchanges with Katherine Hepburn, and O'Neill's constant struggle with writer's block.
O'Neill serves as Narrator as well as a participant in key scenes - this works very well.
The Act One ending needs fleshed out a bit more.
Though the musician count is only 7, the orchestrations are effective. CAN YOU CALL ME "MAMA"? and THE BALLAD OF ICE BOY and character Floyd Richards' YOU’LL NEVER SAY YES are three beauties.
Sets include Vera's home, backstage at the Morosco Theatre, and a seedy hotel room. Throughout the entirety of the show: O'Neill's writing desk is on one side, and O'Neill's bar on the other.
This show started its development in 2001 as a play and then 2012 as a musical. It's probably difficult to be objective when it's been in the works for so long.
Nothing major to report after viewing the evening performances on Wednesday and Thursday.
Just a few tweaks.
In one moment, Vera Vimm had called “Music” to erupt from the pit. Her short “Music” command has been changed to “Scene change”.
In the Act 2 Guess the Letter Game, the game now ends with punctuation guesses instead of letters. Colon, comma, parentheses …
In the hotel scene, O’Neill had been drunkenly falling flat onto the bed twice, once abruptly on his back, then the second time flat out face first. On Thursday, the face fall was axed, and O’Neill fell twice, back first.
The theatre banner announcing the Morosco Theatre’s THE GARMENT GIRL has caught itself in its encasement on two consecutive nights instead of dropping to the stage. The banner hangs above center stage, but during its Wednesday drop, was caught towards stage left, then on Thursday, caught towards stage right.
Balcony seats are great for this production, though you can easily miss the small, elegant EA lapel stitching on the Ensemble’s costumes in the Elizabeth Arden salon scene.
And it’s difficult to make out Lambert’s brand of peanut butter - Peter Pan.
The muted trumpet played during the climax of FM is a perfect fit, as is bathing the set in soft pink at the end of the number.
I saw this show on Saturday night and I think the best way to describe is just...silly. This is a silly show, it's just ridculous which is not a bad thing. I laughed a ton in the first act, not so much in the second. The second act does feel pretty laborious, if they could find a way to tighten this show and possibly make it a one act, I think you'll have something that is a hell of a lot of fun.
Like a previous poster said, Megan Mullally is basically doing her Elizabeth from "Young Frankenstein" writ large. But she's such a gifted comedian it didn't bother me, and the scene where she reacts to her bad review is hysterical. (I have to say seeing her in period clothing, prancing around a very fun art deco mansion, we were really deprived of her in Mame)
Nick Offerman is great, he's mostly on the sides as the narrator Eugene O'Neil, until the second act where he is brought into the story. And yes he does sing, not well, but he sings.
For me the MVP is Sarah Stiles as Lambert, Vera's assistant. This woman has the best comedic delivery of some of the best comedy stage stars. Also, kind of like "Tootsie" she has the best song in the show "Forever Menopause" which left me dying.
The actual production is very well done, the sets are great (bravo to the team for not using any digital or AI pieces), amazing costumes. The ensemble is really strong, although there were some numbers where it kind of felt unpopulated. I wonder if this was intended to be a much larger production, maybe when Susan Stroman was attached to direct.
The score definitely had some highs, most of Vera's numbers were really well done, and some lows. (was not a fan of the love song in the second act and the number with Eugene O'Neil and the hookers, yes that is a thing) The book for the most part is quite funny, especially the first act.
So all in all and fun time at the Goodman Theater. I do recommend it and if you come to Chicago to see it come between July 15 - 26, so you can also check out the incredible production of Raven Theater's Octet that is being transferred to their smaller theater.
"What needs to be done? Well, there are not enough full-on songs. Aside from said ode to menopause, and another dedicated to the timeless practice of taking someone from behind (you have to hear it for yourself), they’re thin on the ground. O’Neill, whose name is on the marquee, does not have enough to do beyond a self-described One Big Scene, and there is a big chunk of Act 1 where Mullally’s Vera totally disappears from the show, which is weird. She also needs another musical number, ideally a big, gimme-a-Tony shebang in Act 2. Stiles, though, gets one gift after another here and accepts all of them with glee, her hair being a show unto itself. Goodrich, who mostly gets grunts, is very funny too, and Henson is anything but icy as Iceboy. Director Marc Bruni has shrewdly cast the piece, and most of his staging works nicely, modest of scale as it prefers to be.
Some of the material is theater inside-baseball; the obsession with critics might well be a play for good reviews from the fickle, LOL. Either way, general audiences will need more context in places. And any gag not landing — and there are a few — needs to go.
Most importantly, though, attention must be paid to the emotional content of the show, the heart factor, if you will."
BalconyClub said: In one moment, (last week) Vera Vimm had called “Music” to erupt from the pit. Her short “Music” command has been changed to “Scene change”.
The production has changed this again, Vera Vimm now barks "I'm closer."
On Wednesday evening, July 1, the upstairs audience was QUIET. Several lines landed with no response. Not sure what was in air.
Was it Mullally's eyeglasses? She usually has no eyeglasses.
Mullally sported thin, silver-frame eyeware for the entire Wednesday night performance.
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