Woody Sez
Devised by David M. Lutken and Nick Corley
Directed by Nick Corley
North Shore Center for the Arts, Skokie (map)
thru Oct 21 | tickets: $25-$72 | more info
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Perfect fodder for an election year
Northlight Theatre presents
Woody Sez – The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
Review by Lawrence Bommer
Here—quoted from Woody Guthrie’s radio show of 1944–is the credo behind over 1,000 songs written by this populist troubadour from Oklahoma: “I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built…And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.”
In 90 minutes devisor/music director David M. Lutken plays Woody with communal charisma: He gets abundant help from the voices and musicianship of the equally versatile Darcie Deaville, Helen Jean Russell and David Finch, adept on the guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and other folk instruments. (At show’s start their instrumental “Woody’s Rag” is musical heaven.) They recreate Woody’s original Corncob Trio and the Almanac Singers for whom he wrote enduring anthems. Perfect fodder for an election year, this train is indeed bound for glory.
What also helps is how ripe our time is for an unashamed crusader and liberal patriot like Woody. You hear it in his sardonic “Jolly Banker”: “When money you’re needing and mouths you are feeding I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I”—and, suddenly, we’re in Bedford Falls where it’s not always a wonderful life. “Pastures of Plenty” both celebrates and decries America’s abundance and how poorly it’s shared. The mortgage crisis is new again in “I Ain’t Got No Home.” Our supremacist/survivalist nutsos are anticipated in “Vigilante Man.” The power of the 99% is lauded in the achievements catalogued in “Biggest Thing that Man Has Ever Done.”
Guthrie could also just write for fun, like the endearing “Riding in My Car” songs he composed for his little girl and the lullaby “Curly Headed Baby.” His own childhood was far from benign: We learn about his very disturbed mother, an arsonist who created only one of several terrible fires that would repeatedly mar Woody’s happiness. This “homegrown hillbilly” also fought censorship on his radio show when his anti-capitalist lyrics upset the sponsors.
Finch brings vivid testimony to the once and future weather lament, “Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues.” Helen and Darcie exploit the lovely harmonies in “Columbus Stockade.” And Lutken, as sympathetic in his downhome decency and grass-roots purity as his inspiration, colors all the warm notes in Woody’s haunting call to arms, “Why Do You Stand There in the Rain?” It’s an odyssey of a hootenanny, as unflinchingly sincere as Garrison Keillor in front of a mike or Woody’s pals Pete Seeger and Leadbelly singing up a storm just by “always going on.”
Rating: ★★★½
Woody Sez continues through October 21st at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie (map), with performances Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Wednesdays 1pm and 7:30pm, Thursdays 7:30pm, Fridays 8pm, Saturdays 2:30pm and 8pm, Sundays 2:30pm and 7pm. Tickets are $25-$72, and are available by phone (847.673.6300) or online through Tickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at Northlight.org. (Running time: 90 minutes)
artists
cast
Darcie Deaville, David Finch, David M. Lutken, and Helen Jean Russell
behind the scenes
Nick Corley (director); Sherry Lutken (asst director); David M. Lutken (music director); Luke Hegel-Cantarella (set); Jeffrey Meek (costumes); Chris Binder (lighting); Rick Sims (sound design); Rita Vreeland (stage manager); Kristin Leahey (dramaturg)
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