Steadstyle Chicago
	March 2010 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	Street Scene Elmer Rice's 1929 Pulitzer Prize winner "Street Scene" is the kind of ambitious drama even major companies like the Goodman and Steppenwolf rarely touch.  The cast requirements alone are huge as is the sprawling canvas of ideas posed by this powerful and provocative piece of writing.  Fortunately for us, the adventurous National Pastime Theater has not only had the guts to tackle it, but to render it with such brilliance.  This is an enormously affecting piece and one of the finest storefront productions I have seen in some time.  We can certainly see from the original play where Kurt Weill was inspired to write his 1947 "American opera" interpretation.  At first co-directors Laurence Bryan and Keely Haddad-Null's unusual expressionistic flourishes and accents seem jarring set against the gritty realism of Rice's pre-Depression world.  Indeed, the stylized makeup, flashing red light (a visual warning metaphor, perhaps?), exaggerated movement and sound effects initially felt a little hokey and meta-theatrical.  But by the end of the second act when the play's tragic events begin to unfurl, those "grotesque" accents feel not only justified but an original creative response to this depiction of a multicultural tenement community and its assorted inhabitants.  And the former Speakeasy is the perfect space for this highly imaginative and powerhouse production. Just as the play's setting teeters on the dawning of the stock market crash and the resulting Great Depression, the characters that inhabit this world stand at the precipice of change.  Jews, Protestants, Italians, Irish and Blacks all stake their share of the crumbling New York tenement building.  Regardless of race or religious differences, they all feel the sweltering humidity of the summer heat, as well as the oppressive hand of poverty.  As one of the characters wonders, "What is there in life to compensate for the pain of living?"  Sam has a fundamentally dark view of humanity, whereas his neighbor Rose is not prepared to give up on the small beauties of living, such as the fragrant waft of a lilac bush or a great piece of music.  Sam's elderly grandfather Abraham is an old style Jewish Bolshevik, who argues for putting the tools of industry into the hands of the workers.  It is the Capitalist greed, he believes, that is destroying the spirit of the poor, and a social revolution is just around the corner.  Rose and her mother, Mrs. Maurrant both wonder why people cannot live together in peace and harmony.  Lippo, on the other hand, is an Italian immigrant musician who is living the dream.  Things may not be that beautiful in this country, but having money is a good thing to him and at least here there is more opportunity to earn it.  One woman, abandoned by her husband, faces imminent eviction while another experiences a difficult childbirth and another yearns for the child she cannot conceive.  Adultery, anti-Semitism, violence and murder all play a part in this gritty but still hopeful portrayal of a real life community. I was extremely impressed with the work of the entire cast, several of whom are enormously intelligent and engaging.  Is it any wonder Rose has so many admirers with such a bright and appealing actress as Melinda Ryba playing her?  Rose may be an optimist, but she's no Pollyanna.  Indeed, Ms. Ryba's fully dimensional portrayal has bite and verve born of an inner strength and survivor's independence.  She is splendid, as is Steve Wisegarver as her sensitive, fatalistic young admirer Sam.  I fully expect to see great things from these two in the years to come. Michael Solomon is a delightfully jovial Lippo and displays a beautiful tenor voice that makes you yearn to hear more.  Fred A. Wellisch has all the fervor and conviction one could want from the elderly socialist Abraham Kaplan, while Rebekka James is eerily poignant as Mrs. Maurrant, feeling the loneliness of being unappreciated by her jealous, hot-tempered husband.  You can genuinely relate to these people through their struggles, adversities and dreams.  It was a nice touch to find composer and pianist Zoya Fuchs providing pre-show accompaniment in the theatre lobby, and her lovely original compositions set the perfect tone.  I would like to have seen her integrated more into the performance itself, but that's a minor criticism in looking at this production as a whole.  I know it will stay with me for some time and I hope that adventure-loving Chicago theatre-goers will give this production a chance.  There are definite rewards to be gleaned on this "Scene". "Street Scene" plays through May 8, 2010 at National Pastime Theater, located at 4139 N. Broadway in Chicago.  The play runs 2 hours 20 minutes with two intermissions.  Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets are $25.  Date night stimulus Thursdays are two for one.  Call 773-327-7077 or visit www.npt2.com.    About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).