Steadstyle Chicago
	February 2010 Theatre Review by Alan Bresloff
	The 101 Dalmatians Musical It must be difficult to take a classic children's story from a book to a cartoon, to a movie and then to the live stage and keep the story as it was written.  The new musical onstage at The Cadillac Palace Theatre, "101 Dalmatians" is based on the book by Dodie Smith and follows the path of the original but with some wonderful music by Dennis DeYoung, who also co-wrote the lyrics with BT McNicholl.  McNicholl is the writer who transformed the story to fit into a rousing musical.  The story is written so that the audience gets to see the world from a dog's point of view. We have a family, the Dearly's who have a lovely home and two Dalmatian dogs, Pongo and Missus (powerful performances by James Ludwig and Catia Ojeda).  The story is narrated by Prince, another Dalmatian played by Chick Ragsdale.  Pongo and Missus, who have had no success with having puppies and have resigned themselves to the fact that they won't, find themselves with pups and happiness reigns in the household.  But as the story goes, they have a neighbor who is in the fur business, one Cruela De Vil, who wants to create a line of "Dalmatian merchandise".  Cruela is given a powerful and nasty performance by Sara Gettelfinger, who has a gigantic voice.  She has her henchmen steal the pups and take them to her hideout far from London. Pongo and Missus decide to track them down and the story takes us through many areas meeting many other dogs and a cat or two along the way as they search for their pups.  When they do find them, it turns out that there are far more than the 8 we see on stage (all solid child actors/singers/dancers) although it seems they mentioned 10 puppies earlier.  There are a total of 97 and they agree to bring them all back to the Dearly home, so now they have 99.  We join with them as they evade the evil De Vil and her two nutty henchmen, Jasper (Michael Thomas Holmes) and Jinx (Robert Anthony Jones) and make it back home for Christmas.  The other two Dalmatians who make the total 101 are Perdita (who had lost her pups and husband) helping Missus in the early days as a sort of pup-nanny and Prince, who it turns out is her husband. The cast is well balanced and the dogs (the real ones) that do run through the scenes from time to time are fun to watch.  More than ever in the final scene when they do some magic of their own.  By the way, there are 15 in the cast list, but under Dalmatian union rules, I understand they cannot work two shows in a row so they get more days off than the actors.  The sets by Heidi Ettenger are very cartoonish but workable and the use of some puppetry gets the little ones into it.  The costumes are bright and colorful, again very fitting with the story, and Director Jerry Zaks and Choreographer Warren Carlyle have done some clever things to keep the pace just right for kids.  The actors, those who do not play dogs or cats, are all on a special stilt system so that they appear much taller than the dogs.  This is a clever little trick, but after awhile, the novelty wore off and as some of them moved and danced around the stage, I had my fears that an actor or two might hit the ground.  Thank the Lord, this did not happen and perhaps as they do more performances, this will become second nature and easier to navigate for them. On the whole, I would not call this a Broadway type of show, but as they work the show and get audience reactions, changes will be made.  I am sure that will tighten up the script and make the characters more memorable.  In speaking with some of the kids I found that they enjoyed the music the most and the dancing, but they liked the cartoon version better for the story and even though it was a cartoon, they felt it was "more real".  This was from a 6 year old!  DeYoung, a local talent has some songs that could be stand alone hits and once again shows his talent in the music he creates.  The cast, as I said earlier is very talented with a very hard working ensemble, in particular one Joel Blum who makes each of his characters stand out and Kevin C. Loomis whose Sheepdog is a scene-stealer if ever I have seen one, along with the delightful Madeleine Doherty as Tabby Cat.  I also applaud the work of Erin Maguire as Nanny Cook and her partner Ms. Doherty as Nanny Butler. While "The 101 Dalmatians Musical" is not typical of what Broadway in Chicago brings in, it is family fun and at affordable ticket prices ($18-$85).  The show will continue through February 28, 2010 at The Cadillac Palace located at 151 W. Randolph Street (between LaSalle and Wells).  For tickets you can call the Broadway in Chicago Ticketline at  800-775-2000 or you can visit any of the Broadway in Chicago box offices, all Ticketmaster locations or online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com where you can also find the schedule.  For more info on the show and its journey to New York visit www.The101DalmatiansMusical.com.   About Alan Bresloff Alan Bresloff, once an actor himself, has been covering the Chicago Theater Scene since 1993, first as the Theater and Arts critic for LaRaza newspaper, then with Salsachicago.com and then onto Extra Newspaper and The Epoch Times.  He also writes for ElImparcial and TeleGuia.  His reviews can also be seen on www.theatreinchicago.com.  Alan does not call himself a "critic" but a "reviewer" as he tries to educate the reader about theater itself, what is a good value, what to look for in a play or musical and more.  "Exposure to theater is a very important part of a young person's life" he says. "Learning about the arts and culture is in fact learning about life" and he tries to explain more in his reviews than just if it is good or bad.  Even some of the poor productions have some value, he often says and he would love your feedback on shows that you have seen.  You can write him here or at albresloff@sbcglobal.net.