|
Hats!
Book by Marcia Milgrom Dodge & Anthony Dodge
Songs by 18 songwriters
Directed & Choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
At the Royal George Main Stage Theatre
1641 N. Halsted Street
Chicago, IL
Call 312-988-9000, tickets $49.50
Tuesdays thru Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 85 minutes with no intermission
Through September 2, 2007
Hats is a cliché-ridden bore
When there is so much hype over a show, one would reasonably expect a decent production. Too bad, this Chicago opening of Hats is such a disappointment. Well, Hats is inspired by The Red Hat Society, a group of over fifty women determined to get together and have a lady’s night out. They were present in full force dressed in red hats and purple. Too bad they had to witness such a terrible show.
Melissa Manchester is the star and driving force behind this unoriginal whinny take aging woman. The lame story involves Manchester’s character who cries about turning fifty. She thinks her life will change for the worse as she approaches fifty years. A slim premise that become beaten to death for an entire show. This bland show features each of the seven woman complaining about aging and the effects of being over fifty. I felt like shouting out “get over it!” They act as if turning fifty means your life is about over. Da! To listen to this amazingly insulting show to women, one wonders who the audience is for dreck like this? Educated woman will find the portrayal of fifty plus women as brainless, whiny characters without any sense of politics, religion and social awareness completely offensive and untrue.
Sophisticated women who enjoy musical theatre will find this show filled with poor singers doing lame tunes filled with ersatz unmemorable and unoriginal tunes that remind one of a senior cruise ship act. There is nothing smart, sassy or musically interesting in this whiny one theme show. It isn’t much of a “girls night out” show since it degrades women. I found the voices and the dancing uninspired and flat. Melissa Manchester tried too hard to make this show work. If she had better material, she wouldn’t have to push so hard. Despite my observations (from a 63 year old man), some seem to enjoy Hats. I didn’t and neither did my 60 something girl friend—she felt that women don’t worry about turning fifty anymore. She also thought the songs were forgettable and hackneyed. If I were a member of the Red Hat Society, I’d pull it over my face in embarrassment for this show.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: April 29, 2007
HATS -- a second, feminist reaction
By Beverly Friend
Most of the time, theater critics, or at least Chicago theater critics
tend to agree in their assessment of plays. Rarely do they offer vastly
opposing views. However, I find myself at opposite ends of the spectrum
from what Tom Williams has said about the musical HATS on this -- his
celebrated review web site. What he finds whiney, I find assertive. What
he finds trite, I find echoing my own, personal experiences as an aging
female in our society.
Perhaps the reason for our different responses is that he is male and I
am female. Perhaps it is because I am older, have been a wife and mother
and am now a widow. I have been -- and am -- in the same spot as the
women on that stage, looking at what life offers after 50, or 60, or
more. The play speaks to me in ways that it doesn't appear to speak to
him, ways he has never had to suffer or examine.
The positive, upbeat message that "The American Girl" show offers to
little girls, is the same message offered to here to Elders. "The
American Girl Review" belts out the words, "Be all that you can be."
Hats, cries out: "If you settle for what you've got, you will deserve
what you get."
The show's premise is clear and direct. MaryAnne (Betsy Rogers) is only
hours away from her 50th birthday and is horrified at the prospect. In a
series of vignettes she is persuaded that "the older the fiddle the
sweeter the tune," that she deserves to be more than "invisible" and that
life should be celebrated. She can take up tap dancing, or golf, or any
other challenge and enjoy what lies ahead. She can do more than sit in
her empty nest and suffer. There may be "snow on her roof," but there is
still "fire in her belly."
A cast of fine singers and dancers surround her, belting out the songs
with verve and creativity: Marilyn Bogetich, Vickie Daignault, Elizabeth
Gelman, Rosalyn Rahn Kerins, Laura Walls and Kate Young. While all are
excellent Walls nearly steals the show with her strong delivery and
performance.
The Hats of the title take inspiration from the Red Hat clubs which have
sprung up all over the United States. These, in turn, formed in response
to a wonderful poem that deserves quotation here.
To understand and resonate to this poem is to understand and resonate to
the play.
I wonder if Tom ever read it?
Warning -When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
by Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Date Reviewed: July 12, 2007
|
