Steadstyle Chicago
	April 2010 Theatre Review by Alan Bresloff
	Hello Again "Creating theatre that incorporates the arts as a whole -- Art for art's sake".  This is the mission statement of  Bohemian Theatre Ensemble aka BoHo Theatre, one of our storefronts in the Rogers Park neighborhood.  I have enjoyed some of the creativity of this troupe in the past and was looking forward to viewing their new production, a musical by Michael John LaChiusa entitled " Hello Again". The concept of this musical is very adventurous in that it involves love and sex of all types and in each of the scenes, one of the lovers exits to enter another scene, a different time and place. While the concept is strong, the time sequences became a little confusing.  For example the first of the ten scenes takes place in 1900 as The Soldier meets a Whore, they have sex and he leaves only to enter the next scene with the Nurse, but in the 1940's.  She then leaves their scene to enter a new scene in the 1960's but then we go back to the 1930's and then up and down again.  The only time sequence which might make sense are the last two, with the actress and the Senator and back to the Senator and The Whore, but guess what?  The Whore is The Whore of 1900 taking us back around again and thus the title song "Hello Again". For those of you unfamiliar with The BoHo Theatre, it is a small storefront located at  7016 N. Glenwood in Rogers Park, an area that has lots of smaller theaters, all of which have given Chicago theater audiences some quality work.  LaChiusa has a decent concept, but perhaps the same point could be made without so much sex on the stage.  This is a ninety minute production that has 10 sex scenes, so someone has sex every nine minutes. The characters all have special needs as they move from one time period to another and a new lover, male or female.  It deals with prostitution, sympathy sex, dominatrix sex, impotency, affairs, and women who need to have sex in places that are seedy.  The same woman, who sees herself with this boy as seedy, sees herself above her husband.  It turns out he is a closet homosexual who attempts to steal the heart of a young man, who then gets into a relationship with a bi-sexual director.  The director then goes after an actress and the actress takes a Senator, who then takes on the Whore.  It's sort of like an Old McDonald had a ----, but it certainly ain't no farm! The BoHo is a small intimate space so they have to be very clever.  The set by Steven M. Genovese is a half-circular wall with squares that turn and spin, which is clever and easy to move from scene to scene.  The only problem with this is if the actors are deep into the arc of the curve, their voices do not carry out to the back of the audience, making words difficult to understand, the first scene in particular.  The directors of this production, Michael Ryczek and Stephen Rader use the limited space to their best advantage and Christine Ferriter's lighting hits the mark.  Genny Perrino's choreography is somewhat limited by the space she has to work with and so I commend her for not having dancers who bump into things.  Nick Sula handles the musical direction.  By the way, the songs are not memorable but they do fit in with the style of the work. Tom McGunn (Soldier), Christina Hall (Whore), Adrianna Parson (Nurse), Sean Knight (College Boy), Erin Creighton (Young Wife), Kevin Bishop (The Husband), Adam Fane (Young Thing), Ben Burke (The Writer) Heather Townsend (The Actress) and Robert Whorton (The Senator) are all solid.  Creighton has a great set of pipes, and this is musical, not sexual.  Fane does a superb job as the lost soul hustler taking advantage of his prey.  These are people who could easily be in one of the big musicals in the area and do solos or blend into an ensemble.  Love is out there somewhere for all to find, or so they say!  This little story deals more with sex being out there than love, but could easily be toned down to make this a production that would be enjoyable for all.  I urge you not to bring any children or prim and proper types to the BoHo for this one.  Although simulated, there is a movie theater scene (one of the funniest in the show) that will make you blush while you are laughing your head off. "Hello Again" will run through May 1, 2010 at BoHo.  The performance schedule is Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.  Tickets are  $22 and can be purchased  by calling 866-811-4111 or visit the BoHo at www.BoHoTheatre.com.  Parking is available at Morse and Ravenswood lot and the theater is convenient to the Red Line Morse Avenue stop.     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.