Chicago July 2013 - first up: The Jungle Book

I spent 2 weeks in Chicago this summer, packed with mostly great Theater, good food, many drinks and most importantly in the company of the best friends one can have.

This blog however is limited to plays :) so no personal stories beyond the theatre or food recommendations, if you're still interested... read on.

I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday July 16th, touch down 2:10 pm... first curtain of this trip at 7:30 pm, The Jungle Book had the dubious honor of trying to impress and at the same time keep me awake (there's a 7 hr time difference to home).

It passed with flying colors.

This play had such energy!
Managed to get great seats, the seats generally considered best in the house, (always around 4th/5th row middle section). The Goodman, but really most Chicago theaters, has excellent seating, lots of legroom and accommodates the bigger people among us with a bit more ease than a random UK theater. One negative about the Goodman... they are somewhere in between Chicago average and Broadway price-wise... at least for their bigger shows (Iceman Cometh last year was even steeper). Really not an attractive feature of an otherwise perfectly pleasant theater. Chicago is my theatre city #1 because of it's variety, the many many storefront theaters that can absolutely compete with the established bigger ones and one of it's great features is the overall reasonable prices... one can actually see 11 shows in two weeks here without going bankrupt... I wouldn't dare try that on Broadway.

Rant over, back to The Jungle Book.

It's a 2 part play, one intermission, the transition from book/disney movie to the stage was beautifully done for me... it's been years since I last saw the movie and I've never read the book I think, but everything was familiar. Mary Zimmerman's The Jungle Book was quite elaborate, had lots of music and song, and (for me) great costumes, without turning into a sort of Broadway Musical spectacle.

Akash Chopra (Mowgli) and Kevin Carolan (Baloo)

The costumes were remarkable, only little things added to human figures to make us see in an instant what animal they were supposed to be, Baloo the bear was definitely not in bear costume, but the tiny things added to the human really projected a bear.

The best scene of the play was King Louie's song "I want to be like you" it's the finale of the first act, which goes out with a bang. André De Shields, double cast as Akela and King Louie has a fabulous scene, singing this landmark song of the play and with a presence on stage that was breathtaking.

André De Shields (King Louie) and Akash Chopra (Mowgli)

After that explosive finale of act one, act two fell a little flat, never reaching that same level of intensity or excitement, but overall this was a wonderful, entertaining play. My favorite moments of the play were (obviously) King Louie's song in act 1 and the elephants of act 2, they were highly entertaining and spot on... also the vultures need special mention as the comedy act of Act 2.

(front row, from left to right) Monique Haley (Elephant), Akash Chopra (Mowgli), Ed Kross (Colonel Hathi),
and Anjali Bhimani (Baby Elephant) with the rest of Colonel Hathi’s elephant army

(from left to right) Vultures Govind Kumar, Ed Kross, Nehal Joshi, and Geoff Packard 

on a side note:
Before this play even opened there was a bit of a discussion about racist implications... I have to say, as a kid watching the disney movie, no racist implication registered with me at all... it was just a fun movie to watch, as an adult I can see the issues. In the play I don't think it was an explored theme, good or bad, to me it was simply a translation of the story to the stage without taking a stance either way.

look here for some of that discussion:
http://www.silkroadrising.org/news/the-trouble-with-mary
http://www.silkroadrising.org/news/mary-responds-my-interview-with-mary-zimmerman

from the official website:

The jungle springs to life in a music-filled spectacle that chronicles young Mowgli’s adventures growing up in the animal kingdom. Based both on Rudyard Kipling’s time-honored children’s tales and the classic Disney film—and with a score featuring the movie’s best-loved songs and original Indian-inspired music and dance—this spellbinding world premiere is the theatrical event of the season. 

For adults and families with children ages 6+.