|
Carter’s Way
Written & Directed by Eric Simonson
At Steppenwolf Theatre
1650 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL
Call 312-335-1650, tickets $20 - $68
Tuesday thru Sunday at 7:30 pm
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 pm
Wednesday matinees on April 9, 16 & 23 at 2 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 15 minutes with intermission
Through April 27, 2008
Intoxicating jazz music fuels Carter’s Way
Steppenwolf ensemble member, Eric Simonson has revised his tragedy with music, Carter’s Way, first produced at Kansas City Rep in 2005 for its Steppenwolf debut. With original music by Darrell Leonard, Carter’s Way is a story about black jazz musicians in 1935 Kansas City. Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Count Basie influenced Simonson who wanted to chronicle the distinct swing-jazz Kansas City sound with unique fiercely independent black musicians of that place and era. Simonson’s character, Oriole Carter (James Vincent Meredith) is modeled on pure artists like Charlie Parker whose dedication to his music defined him.
 |
Carter’s Way is a dazzling expert production featuring a wonderful two-level set (design by Neil Patel) depicting a 1935 jazz club, Planet Mars. Filled with much smooth swing-jazz music of the era (by Darrell Leonard), Carter’s Way is portrait of race/power and gender dynamic together with the unique power of the artistic urge to shame a person’s life. Based on the Orpheus myth, Simonson offers a telling look at the history of the jazz scene in 1930’s Kansas City where the white gangsters controlled the black clubs and most of the musicians. The black musicians developed the music that the whites exploited for  profits.
Oriole Carter, a pure artist (saxophonist), lives only for his music until Eunice Fey (Anne Adams), a white woman and girlfriend of a mobster enters his life. When the Planet Mars owner, Pewee Abernathy (K. Todd Freeman) and gangster Johnny Russo (Keith Kupferer) concoct a scheme to put Carter’s band on live nationwide radio to create a demand for the subsequent recording, Oriole Carter rejects the idea. His loyal pianist and ex-lover Marilyn Stokes (Ora Jones) backs Carter while advising him to expand his art. The dynamic of being involved with a white girl as a black man in 1935 and bucking the wishes of a mob boss is ingredient for a disaster.
Carter’s Way is filled with scenes of cool jazz and a sizzling romance in a compelling story of a subculture where musicians, club owners and mobsters interplay in a dynamic ruled by power and profits. Simonson’s tragedy is a first-rate production with a tragic ending that just had to be yet realistic given the era. James Vincent Meredith’s Carter, K. Todd Freemen’s Pewee and Anne Adams’ Eunice together with Keith Kupferer’s Johnny Russo people this drama effectively. Carter’s Way entertains with loads of jazz music as well as a story of determined yet self-destructive musician. It is an excellent production that delivers.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 8, 2008
|
