Review: The Life and Death of Madam Barker (Red Tape Theatre)

  
  
The Life and Death
   of Madam Barker 

Written by Brooke Allen
Music and Lyrics by John Fournier 
Directed by Eric Hoff
at Red Tape Theatre, 621 W. Belmont (map)
thru Nov 10  |  tickets: $25   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
   Read review
  

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Go for the spectacle, stay for the songs

Red Tape Theatre presents

The Life and Death of Madam Barker

Review by Lawrence Bommer

Go for the spectacle but stay for the songs. Despite some clunky lyrics, these engaging tunes by piano-player John Fournier stand out in Red Tape Theatre’s world-premiere showcase for the irrepressible Molly Brennan, title star of The Life and Death of Madam Barker. The hoopla consists of 80 exuberant minutes of burlesque, vaudeville and music hall tomfoolery, created under Eric Hoff’s steady direction of 14 zanies whose energy could light up a five-block radius. At the epicenter is Brennan, a rubber-faced comedienne of the Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett persuasion. She loves to stoop to conquer.

Billed as “a raucous Steam-Punk cabaret of music and comedy,” Brooke Allen’s tumultuous concoction celebrates the self-made legend of Brennan’s all-aggrandizing Madam Barker. With appropriate fanfare, the show begins with Madam Barker emerging from a showbiz trunk, fully formed like Venus from the half-shell. This cult-of-personality pageant is here to reveal unto us the Madam’s sublime conception (we see the sperm and egg!), her miraculous nativity (a ripoff of an earlier one), her meeting with a Genii from a lamp, her star-crossed love affair with “Roaming Joe,” her heroic stint as Joan of Arc, her prison sentence in 1921 Chicago for defying Prohibition (“I’m a Chicago Girl!”), and her career as the captain of a whaling ship (“Good Times Are Killing Me”), followed by the cynical “Bullshit” anthem that says it all. This onslaught of winning melodies is meant, it seems, to demonstrate M.B.’s credo that “Nothing Good Ever Goes Away.”

It’s a bit too much solipsistic indulgence for the hard-pressed, tap-dancing cast who irritate this dominatrix-tough taskmistress. She suddenly fires them (and much of the audience), thus allowing an inarticulate ingénue to try to take her place. But M.B. soon returns from the dreaded “outside” and the romp concludes, not with her vaunted death, but a Technicolor finale for this glorious goulash.

If it were any longer, Life and Death would soon wear out its welcome. (As it is, the pre-show in the lobby with the band playing to an empty stage behind a black curtain feels interminable.) But, as cited before, these unlisted songs are wonders in their own right: Several deserve a life outside this show.

Rating: ★★★

The Life and Death of Madam Barker continues through November 10th at Red Tape Theatre at St. Peter’s Church, 621 W. Belmont (map), with performances Thursdays through Mondays at 8pm.  Tickets are $25, and are available online through Tix.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at RedTapeTheatre.org.  (Running time: 80 minutes, NO intermission)

Photos by Bridget Schultz

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artists

cast

Molly Brennan (Madam Barker), John Fournier (John the Piano Player), Michaela Petro (Madam Barker understudy), Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel (Olive), Derek Van Barham (Sam), Donnell Williams (Frank), Carrie Drapac (George), Steve Lovek, Elise Mayfield, Ricky Harris, Havalah Grace (Dames), Andres Enriquez, Alex Grelle, Todd Michael Kiech, Elizabeth Levy (Porters)

musicians

Shay Norman, Rawson Vint

behind the scenes

Eric Hoff (director), Emily Guthrie (scenic design), Izumi Inaba (costume design), Steve Labedz (sound design), Kyle Land (lighting design, production manager), John Fornier (composer/lyricist, music director), Jarrod Bainter (technical director), Bridget Schultz (photos)

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