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Steppenwolf Merle Reskin Garage
Theater
Fall 2008
 Graney's
Threepenny One Brecht Would Like
September 26, 2008
by Kevin Heckman
You always know what to expect from a Sean Graney directed show.
For the past decade and change he—and by extension the company
he founded, The Hypocrites—have brought big visual ideas to
classic texts. Graney’s work, at its most successful, pulls
the play to a level that matches his conceptual approach. If his
ideas work against the text, well those productions crash and burn
a little bit. But Graney tends to be very smart about the plays
he attacks—choosing those that support his unique approach.
"...Lise “Kat” Evans, in the two-song role
of Lucy Brown (Macheath’s other wife) knocks her scene and
song out of the park."
>> read
the full review
 A
'Threepenny' worth every cent
September 4, 2008
by Hedy Weiss
"The powerful of the Earth can CREATE poverty, but can't stand
to look at it." Hardly the sort of proclamation you would expect
to hear in a musical. But then "The Threepenny Opera,"
that brashly satirical masterwork by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht
that captured the dark, unsettled essence of 1920s Germany, is unique.
Working in the vast open space of the Steppenwolf Garage, director
Sean Graney and his troupe, the Hypocrites, have devised a tremendously
bold, musically lush, physically ferocious revival of "Threepenny."
"The show's songs—about immorality, sexual jealousy,
the bond of army pals, revenge and death—are delivered with
great zest, with particularly striking work by Jennifer Coombs
as the mock-bourgeois Polly Peachum; Kurt Ehrmann and Sara Sevigny
as her dysfunctional parents; Lise “Kat” Evans as
Lucy Brown, fiery schoolgirl daughter of police commissioner Tiger
Brown (Robert McLean), and Alex Balestrieri as the ballad
singer."
>> read
the full review
>> photo
from the print edition
A 'Threepenny Opera' is worth more
September 4, 2008
by Chris Jones
The grills from Labor Day were still smoldering and the air was
thick with lethargy. But the fearless Hypocrites actors bounced
out of the autumnal starting gate in the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre
on Tuesday night, sending a thrilling rush of passionate, Brechtian,
Chicago-style energy through a soul weary from summer distractions,
depressions and trivialities.
>> read
the full review
Additional Reviews:
>> Centerstage
>> Edge
Chicago
>> Windy
City Times
Appolo Theater
Summer 2008
‘Aladdin’
entertains despite some missteps
May 5, 2008
By Chris Jones
For years, Disney has jealously guarded its iconic animated
movies. If alocal children’s theater tried, say, sticking
“The Colors of the Wind” in themiddle of its own live
version of “Pocahontas,” a cease-and-desist letterwould
arrive at the door. Just the same as if a day-care center created
anunauthorized Mickey Mouse mural.
"Evans makes a very pretty, sweet-voiced Jasmine."
>> read
the full review
Winter 2008
 Acting
the questions
By Gayle Boss
Actress Lise “Kat” Evans ’01 doesn’t
have to put on her costume to feel like Annie Oakley. The sharpshooter
and Wild West Show performer of the late 1800s was “feisty,
a take-the-world-by-storm sort of person,” Evans said. “And,
like me, she also had a strong moral center.”
>> read
the full profile |
