Double Trouble
Written by Bob Walton and Jim Walton
Directed and Choreographed by Matthew Crowle
at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map)
thru Oct 6 | tickets: $39 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Song and dance, with a double serving of corn
Porchlight Music Theatre presents
Double Trouble
Review by John Olson
After he broke out of ensemble roles at the Marriott Theatre and played Danny Zuko in American Theater Company’s 2011 The Original Grease (our review), Adrian Aguilar became the go-to guy for young male leads in Chicago musical theater, winning starring roles in Equity productions of tick, tick…BOOM, Hair and Pal Joey along with supporting parts in such prestige productions as Chicago Shakespeare’s Follies and Drury Lane’s Sunset Boulevard. Who knew he had a kid brother that was just as sensational a singer and dancer? Alexander Aguilar was in the ensemble of Marriott Theatre’s The Drowsy Chaperone’s with Adrian, but got gigs in Broadway’s Lysistrata Jones and the national tour of Memphis while bigger brother Adrian was taking Chicago
Double Trouble is an original book musical by the Walton brothers, both Broadway song and dance men who originally wrote the piece for themselves and premiered it under the auspices of Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House in 2001. It’s a two-man (sort of) homage to the movie musicals of the 1940’s and earlier. The Aguilars play Jimmy and Bob Martin, a brother and brother songwriting team newly arrived in Hollywood to craft songs for a movie musical. Jimmy and Bob must write a song in one afternoon that will meet the approval of Merwyn M. Garner, the megalomaniac head of MMG films (MGM, get it?). Their efforts are impeded by a host of characters, all of whom are also played by the Aguilars. The brothers Martin are meant to remind us of characters played by the likes of Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, but the book the Waltons created is more crass than class, filled with puns, double-entendres and crude physical humor that seems more out of vaudeville or burlesque than MGM musicals. The farcical set pieces that Jimmy and Bob deal with as they try to write their song are reminiscent of the Marx Brothers, though not nearly as funny.
In playing seven characters in addition to their two lead roles, the Aguilars and their dressers perform some quick changes of costumes and wigs that are pretty magical. Director Matthew Crowle plays with Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s gorgeously detailed set of a studio bungalow by deftly moving the actors in and out of a bathroom, a closet, a recording control booth and a corridor with astonishing speed. The effect, with special credit to Alexia Rutherford’s bright period costumes which are not only fun to look at but must be constructed to allow for rapid in and out access, is ultimately undermined’ The Waltons’ insistence on overplaying the running gag of the two-man cast playing all the roles is milked beyond its sell-by date. A line like “I’m not the same woman I was 10 minutes ago,” when spoken by a conniving starlet who was played in Milton Berle-esque by a different Aguilar during her last entrance, is not so funny after hearing 4 or 5 similarly self-aware jokes before it. To be fair, among the intentional groaners like “I’m so old, when I was a boy the Dead Sea wasn’t even sick yet,” there are some winners, like an old man explaining why he and his wife waited until recently to get divorced (“We wanted to wait until the children were dead.”), but not enough. It may have been the Waltons’ intention to parody the bad, broad jokes of the era, but it seems they could have done so with more wit. Similarly, there’s nothing especially clever about the seven character roles the Aguilars have to play. These roles are familiar archetypes (an infirm elderly man, a nerdy intern, the blustery studio head, his Jane Hathaway-like secretary, a fast talking agent and a flamboyant director) that have all been done better before.
It’s not, but Porchlight gives it a physical production that is way beyond what we’re used to seeing in a “mid-size” musical production. In addition to the realistic set and the snappy costumes, there’s a clever film by Chris Gekas that combines archival and new footage to make a most believable newsreel of Bob and Jimmy’s return to New York CIRCA 1940.
It is fun to watch and listen to the brothers sing and hoof their way through the show’s eleven original songs. Pastiches of the songs of the era, the numbers are mostly at the same tempo and energy level. This gets a little tiresome, but the Aguilars’ charm, vocal skills, and precise, graceful execution of Crowle’s affectionate recreation of the era’s dance styles keep us with it regardless. We love watching these guys – and we’ll certainly get more chances to do so, But for their next show together, may I suggest The Boys from Syracuse or City of Angels?
Rating: ★★½
Double Trouble continues through October 6th at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map), with performances Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets are $39, and are available by phone (773-327-5252) or online through Vendini.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. (Running time: 2 hours, includes an intermission)
Photos by Kelsey Jorissen
artists
cast
Adrian Aguilar (Jimmy), Alexander Aguilar (Bobby), Chad Michael Innis, Andrew Lund (understudies), Gordon Gyzbowski (swing)
behind the scenes
Matthew Crowle (director and choreographer), Jeffrey D. Kmiec (scenic design), Alexis Rutherford (costume design), William Kirkham (lighting design), Jack Hawkins (sound design), Angela M. Campos (props design), Chris Gekas (projections, video), Kevin Barthel (wig design), Aaron Shapiro (production manager), Tom Van Ermen (stage manager), Andrew Glasenhardt (technical direction), Kelsey Jorissen (photos)
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