Opening Statement: A modern-day passion play

By Julian Frazin
Michael Best & Friedrich • Entertainment Critic

May it please the court…

“The Ballad of Emmett Till,” written by Ifa Bayeza and directed by Oz Scott, made its world premiere recently at the Goodman Theatre. It stars the exceptionally talented Joseph Anthony Byrd in his Goodman debut as the ill-fated, 14-year-old, African-American boy from Chicago who was abducted, tortured, and brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi during the summer of 1955.

Staged simply on a set with few props flanked by huge panels evoking corrugated metal shantytowns, the powerful production is augmented by the dream-like projections of designer John Boesche. The first act is beautifully performed, almost as a poem, depicting the depressing, yet spirited life of black Americans in Chicago, as well as in the South. It ends with Emmett’s abduction and a foreboding, middle-of-the-night phone call to his mother.

The second act may be a little harder to take. It portrays the horrible tortures that the young man endured, turning this work into what I believe to be a modern-day passion play. We see Emmett being brutally beaten. At one point he turns to one of his tormentors and tells him, “I remember you. You gave me water.” At another point, some terrible instrument stabs him, leaving a ghastly wound in his side. And finally, there he stands, atop a raised platform, clothed in a dirty blanket, arms outstretched, pleading for help from his “father,” as he defiantly shouts over and over, “I shall rise again. I shall rise again,” before disappearing from the scene.

Just as the New Testament tells us that Jesus died for all our sins, I have no doubt that playwright Bayeza is telling us that Emmett Till died for our nation’s sins in tolerating the brutality and savagery of racial injustice.

On a lighter note… In 1941, “Tchaikowsky (And Other Russians),” a nonsense patter song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Kurt Weill, launched the career of Danny Kaye. Featured in the Broadway musical, “Lady in the Dark,” the show-stopping number, which mentions 50 Russian composers, was a masterpiece not only in its construction, but also in its performance - the indefatigable Mr. Kaye managed to get all the names out in rapid succession with hardly a breath in 39 seconds.

Now along comes multi-talented singer/pianist/writer Mark Nadler, who brought his one-man show, “Russian on the Side,” in a pre-Broadway run to the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St. Nadler tries to “one-up” the original by not only performing “Tchaikowsky,” but also by making it the basis of his 90-minute entertainment. He describes each composer with an interesting biographical anecdote and with a brief piano sample of each person’s work. All this is interspersed with sensitive and clever performances of works by contemporary American songwriters- including Gershwin, Sondheim, and Bernstein.

Now, I knew Danny Kaye. I saw him in movies and on television, where he performed his musical signature “Tchaikowsky,” many times. And I must say - Mark Nadler is no Danny Kaye. He is, however, the perfect Mark Nadler.

Whether he’s bouncing across the stage, cajoling the audience to love him, singing a classic show tune with a powerful stage voice, teasing the audience with a little piano shtick, a la Victor Borge, pounding furiously away like Liberace, or accompanying himself on the keys as he performs a soft-shoe from the bench - Nadler is the consummate entertainer.

Second City, Chicago’s most revered comedy institution, at 1616 N. Wells St., opened it 95th Revue, “No Country For Old White Men.” An obvious twist on this year’s Academy Award winner, it captured the essence of a presidential race in which John McCain is pitted against either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. With a title like that and all the political and social news swirling around us, how could Second City, known for its biting satire, possibly miss in its opening run-up through the November election?

But miss it did! With all that is going on - the campaigns, the war, the economy, the high price of gas, this production chooses to direct its attention to such topics as women being overcharged and bamboozled by a unscrupulous pair of car mechanics; a son confessing to his gay parents that he is Republican; a homeowner threatening to throw his realtor off a bridge because she refuses to take back his overpriced house; and, of course, the annual rant about the Cubs, who haven’t won a World Series in 100 years.

Hopefully, the cast will watch the news over the next few months and use their imaginations and improvisational skills to come up with some much more significant material as we approach what may be the most important election of our lifetimes.

I rest my case.

Verdict:
The Ballad of Emmett Till — 3 gavels
Russian on the Side — 21⁄2 gavels
No Country for Old White Men — 2 gavels