Review: The Twelve Tenors (Riverfront Theater)

  
  
The Twelve Tenors  

Created and Directed by the Ensemble
at Riverfront Theater, 650 W. Chicago (map)
thru June 3  |  tickets: $35-$90   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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Riverfront Theater opens new space on many high notes

Riverfront Theater presents

The Twelve Tenors

Review by Lawrence Bommer

Only two performances remain of the opening act for Chicago’s new summer venue—and a river runs by it! Seventy-feet tall, with 22,000 square feet of unheated but cooled tentage, this blue and gold big top first debuted as the home of 2011’s pageant Peter Pan (when it was all white). Now it’s playing a summer-long series of tribute acts—Dancing Queen, an Abba revival; Spirit of the Dance, a world tour of dance; La Soiree, an adults-only cocktail of cabaret, new burlesque, circus, sideshow and contemporary variety; Rocket Man, a salute to Elton John; and ending with Man in the Mirror, a multimedia homage to Michael Jackson.

Direct from Dublin and concluding this weekend is the two-hour entertainment The Twelve Tenors, which features a wicked combination of high notes and good looks from a dozen mostly Irish tenors, each of whom is as much pleasure to see as to hear. And they know it.

Unlike “The Three Tenors” (Placido Domingo, the late Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carrera), whose repertory strayed from opera only to popular folk songs, this concoction features only two oversung arias: “Nessun Dorma,” which lives up to its name because, with these guys competing for the high notes, no one could sleep through it. “Toreador” also lets Bizet make them as macho as they choose.

But the main emphasis of these dudes in gray suits (and later Las Vegas casino costumes) is pop—jig-dancing Irish classics and favorites (“Danny Boy,” “Phil the Fluter’s Ball”), medleys celebrating the Rat Pack, Queen, Barry Manilow, the Beatles, Bette Midler, or “Les Miserables,” the obligatory “O Sole Mio,” and male-bonding drinking songs like “Finiculi, Funicula” and “Drink, Drink, Drink” from “The Student Prince.” A very peppy version of “The Rhythm of Life” shows off their harmonies and rhythms and a jubilant “My Kind of Town” (happily replacing “New York, New York”) brings the boys down to Chicago.

Connecting the songs is the considerable charm of these handsome devils with their jaunty byplay and playful exchanges. A cross between a boys’ band, glee club and men’s choir, the 12 tenors seem born to serenade a captivated audience. Did I also mention that they’re very easy on the eyes? Mission accomplished.

Rating: ★★★