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Saul Reichlin has been appointed  London correspondent for Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show and  London theatre critic for ChicagoCritic.com.

Saul will submit reviews of  current stage  productions,  plus live phone-in show reports, and  his Letter from London giving fascinating insights into the London theatre scene and the British theatre experience,  for ChicagoCritic.com.

Saul Reichlin brings a wealth of theatre knowledge and experience to Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show. His thirty plus years in theatre as an actor, director and playwright give him a wide perspective that, together with his world travels, he will share with our listeners.

Welcome aboard, Saul!

Tom Williams

Executive Producer

Chicago Stage Talk         Radio Show

Sholom Aleichem

Now You’reTalking

Saul Reichlin’s dramatization of the stories

Of Sholom Aleichem

At Chicago Jewish Theatre

5123 N. Clark St.

Chicago, IL

Wednesdays at 2PM and 8PM, Thursdays at 8PM, Saturdays at 8PM

and Sundays at 1PM and 5PM

 Tickets $25, Through July 4, 2004

 Saul Reichlin is fantastic!

 I love storytellers and Saul Reichlin is the most electrifying storyteller I’ve ever heard. No one can give life to multiple characters like Reichlin and he makes clever complicated stories crystal clear. I’m of Irish heritage and I’ve heard several seanchaih’s (Irish Storytellers) weave yarns from the Celtic tradition, but I’ve never heard anyone like Saul Reichlin. He’s so natural, I thought Sholom Aleichem came to life! Reichlin uses Yiddish terms and smoothly explains each without missing a beat allowing all to understand both his literal and figurative meanings. This show has as much universal appeal as Fiddler on the Roof.

 What gives this storytelling event its appeal is Aleichem’s hopefulness and humanity as he tells heart-warming, often funny, and always entertaining stories that, while distinctly Jewish shtetl (small town) in flavor, are really universal European folklore. Traditions are traditions and as the Russian Jews always ask, “Do you want to earn eternal life?” Enriched with ironic humor, Aleichem’s stories are essentially a celebration of life in spite of all the persecution suffered.

 I particularly enjoyed the story of how Tevye, the milkman from Fiddler on the Roof, became a milkman. After all, Sholom Aleichem did write the stories that the hit Broadway musical was based on. It doesn’t change a thing, but it’s nice to know!

 I congratulate Elayne LeTraunik for bring this world-class show to Chicago. It’s amazing that the Chicagoland Jewish community isn’t packing the house each performance at Chicago Jewish Theatre. Each group must pass along their traditions to the next generation and I’d advise every Jewish reader to take your entire family (especially the children) to see this amazing show. Saul Reichlin is a fabulous talent and is equal to the task of reliving Sholom Aleichem’s legacy.

 Lovers of storytelling, lovers of one-person shows and lovers of marvelous theatre need to get to Chicago Jewish Theatre to become enchanted with Saul Reichlin’s performance.

 Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

 Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments

 Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show

June 16, 2004

Letter from London    

 From Saul Reichlin     23 Oct 2005

Hello, and warmest greetings in this, my first Letter from London.

This afternoon the TV in the corner of Mr. Espresso’s was showing pictures of the goings on in Trafalgar Square today. London was turning out in big numbers to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, on this day in 1805. 47,000 men fought that battle, and against great odds, Admiral Lord Nelson vanquished the entire navies of Spain and France. Guarded by two massive lions, he now looks down on London from high atop his column, accompanied only by the Trafalgar Square pigeons, no respecters of dignity. This nostalgia is partly the reason why plays such as ‘Longitude’ (see review) by one of Britain’s favourite sons, Arnold Wesker, are enjoying strong support. There’s nothing like timing in this business!

Mr. Espresso’s is a pleasant coffee shop (comfortable armchair by the window, good coffee, no smoking, Dean Martin singing) in the North London suburb of Crouch End, where I live. I was reading through the listings to choose the week’s shows for Chicago Stage Talk and ChicagoCritic.com, and was about to doze off (they don’t mind in Mr. Espresso’s) when a familiar face popped around the door, and said a cheery ‘hello!’. I waved, and an actor friend, Niall Buggy, stopped, asked me how my show was going, and told me that sadly, Jasper, the dog, had died aged 19. I had walked Jasper on the grounds of nearby Alexandra Palace on and off for 15 years, and we were good friends. 

Niall frequently draws reviews such as ‘Majestic’ from the critics. He’s in ‘Guys and Dolls’ in the West End at the moment. We worked together at the National Theatre some years ago in ‘The Threepenny Opera’, and ‘Love for Love’, which visited Austria. A side effect of these ‘A’ tours is that you meet all sorts of famous people. After the show in Vienna, Prince Charles and Princess Diana did their ‘walkabout’ thing, meeting the company, asking questions such as ‘And do you enjoy working in the wardrobe department?’ and ‘And what do you do?’, while trying to look as if they could care less. The buffet was good, though, which is very important to actors.

I was waiting my turn to meet ‘n greet, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned, and the elegantly dressed, caped figure with flowing grey hair said ‘Hello, I’m Leonard Bernstein, I would like to meet your director and Sir Peter Hall’ (director of the National Theatre). I went over to Peter Wood, the director, who was talking to Sir Peter Hall. ‘Leonard Bernstein wants to meet you’, I said. He turned to me and in a big self important voice said ‘Tell him I’ll see him later, we’re waiting for the Royals’. I went back to Leonard Bernstein and said, ‘I’m sorry Mr. Bernstein, but you’ve been outranked by the Royals. ‘That’s OK’, he said, ‘and call me Lenny’.  A touch of class.

‘Guys and Dolls’ is only one of 21 big musicals in the West End at the moment, and I will get along to see what I can for Chicago Stage Talk (they don’t fall over themselves to give press tickets away if they are full). There are more musicals off-West End and on the fringe too. On Friday I was intrigued by the ‘Concert Performance’ description of ‘Porgy & Bess’ at the wonderful Hackney Empire, a grand dowager duchess of a building in one of the most multi-cultural parts of London. This is possibly the most exuberant and enjoyable Edwardian theatre in the Capital.  Built in 1901 and recently restored, it mixes elements of art nouveau, rococo, baroque and Islamic decoration with ease and complete lack of discrimination or taste. The result is spectacular, sculpted angels, gilded cherubs, marble columns and even a pink marble bench, a gift from Queen Victoria who was given it by the Shah of Persia. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, W.C. Fields, the Beatles and countless others have performed there, and the huge tiered auditorium is a pleasure to look at.

‘Porgy & Bess’, with its New York cast, has been touring the world for 14 years, and is not the full opera, but a dramatization of the songs, with only a skeleton of story.  Still, it was a joy to hear great voices giving it all in the fabulous Gershwin numbers, ‘Summertime’,  ‘I Got Plenty of Nothin’  and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’, among the many others. Some of the performances, notably Porgy and Sportin’ Life really gave one a taste for the full blooded version. As the players rotate performances, I am unable to say who I saw on the night, as the list read out was too quick for me to note down, but there wasn’t a poor performance to be found, so I would be happy to see any of the cast working.

My companion, Rose Sawkins, is promoting a series of concerts at the Shaw Theatre, in Euston Road, and a new pop comedy, ‘The Next Big Thing’ (to be reviewed) at the New Players Theatre, Charing Cross. Both theatres are less well known to visiting theatregoers, but worth keeping an eye on. Another is the Rosemary Branch, a small pub theatre in Islington, North London. Rose and I saw a production of Peer Gynt there this week and were a bit blasted by the volume and energy of the 14 strong company. I will catch a more intimate show there soon, ‘Forgotten Woman’, written and performed by Cleo Sylvestre, as part of the Black History Month in London.

David Mamet has two shows in London at the moment, a revival of ‘Sexual Perversity in Chicago’ at the Greenwich Playhouse, and his new play, ‘Romance’ at the Almeida Theatre. It will be interesting to see how Mamet’s work has changed over the years. Arnold Wesker’s golden oldie, ‘Chicken Soup with Barley’ is revived at The Tricycle Theatre in North London. I hope to visit that soon, and see how it has stood the test of time.

And I haven’t even mentioned what’s on at the National Theatre (which I can’t get into) or The Royal Shakespeare Company! The latter’s new London season starts in December, and the cycle of the complete works of Shakespeare begins early next year. If I find myself in New York in December I will report on the US launch of this impressive venture. Any excuse to visit the USA.

Till next time…love from London.

Saul Reichlin

 

     Saul Reichlin’s

Letter from London

2 Nov 2005  

Hello again.

Go White Sox! Go Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show!

Congratulations on the successful debut of the annual Chicago Stage Talk Awards. I was so pleased to see that my friend Renee Matthews was honoured for her role in The Full Monty.  I wasn’t in town to see that, but I did see her super Mollie Pecon at the Chicago Jewish Theatre, where our host, Tom Williams, found my show Sholom Aleichem ~ Now You’re Talking! He is still trying to find a way to get Renee and me working together. Good luck for the Jeffs, Renee.

The words Mollie Picon and Jacob Kalish might not have meant as much to me as they did when Rose suggested to me that we might see East and West, the 1923 ‘silent Yiddish’ film, had I not seen Renee Matthews and Gerry Bailey playing those two legendary figures in their show. East and West is a treasured relic of the rich Yiddish theatre scene in New York at the time. The movie acting is very much in the style of the Yiddish expressionist theatre, and features the much loved Mollie Picon and her husband/writer/mentor/Svengali, Jacob Kalish, a dashing and charismatic actor in his own right, fully capable of leading Mollie. The movie was accompanied by the live music of the superb London Klezmer group, Oi Va Voi. The calls for ‘more’ were well deserved.

Cooking with Elvis, the excellent Hull Truck company’s show at the Hackney Empire (see review and last week’s letter) was my next stop this week, and it took me back to my first job as an actor in the UK, in Hull, in the north of England.

At the time, Hull was a smelly fishing and industrial town, and just the place to pay your dues as a young hopeful. Unemployed and recently out of drama school, I was asked to replace an actor who, unable to confront his emerging sexuality, and frustrated in his development as an actor, had committed suicide at the Hull Repertory Company in Spring Street, now the home of Hull Truck. The theatre was across the road from the crematorium, and the company apartment was across the road from the cemetery, none of which helped if you were feeling depressed!

I remember my three months there well for, among other things, meeting a beautiful Anglo-Indian actress, Shirin Taylor, who became a close friend, and who went on to star in the West End; a dizzy blonde, Viv McKee, who also became a good friend, married a Dane and went on to found the award winning English Theatre of Denmark; Anthony Minghella, who won an Oscar for The English Patient, was teaching there, and had written Two Planks and a Passion, which he asked me to appear in; and my first Pantomime, Aladdin, in which I discovered comedy.

Shirin and Viv, with whom I shared the apartment, had just discovered Playgirl magazine, and often pored over the photos with hoots of laughter, partly at the couples in the pictures, and partly at my discomfort. They were the most liberated girls I had ever met. Money was tight though. Actor’s wages were $25 - $30 per week, depending on whether you had a full Equity card or not. I was one of the fortunate ones, but still had to be satisfied with a 20c bowl of soup for lunch, and finding a way of ‘fixing’ the gas meter so we could afford heating in the snow bound winter of ‘72. Of course, we look back with affection on those days.

Songs and sounds of that era are well represented in the new musical The Next Big Thing (to be reviewed). In another glance at that age of Aquarius, a time of pop music and protest theatre, a performance Not In My Name (also to be reviewed) targeting death row in the US, has surfaced on the London fringe. The sixties weren’t the same for everyone, is the message, I suppose!

Till next time.

Love from London

Saul Reichlin

 

                         Saul Reichlin’s

           Letter from London

Sunday 20th November 2005

Hello again!

Memories crowded me on Thursday night as I walked into the Olivier Theatre to review Coram Boy for ChicagoCritic.com. I found myself standing, staring at this massive, most imposing stage in the world.

It seemed so long since I opened the production of The Threepenny Opera there (in 1987, with Tim Curry as a devilish MacHeath). I was playing my understudy role as narrator, and going out alone to make the punchy opening speech, with a company of stars waiting to come on, was a big thrill for a young actor. My day revolved around that moment. It climaxed by my throwing the three new (antique) pennies that I had spent an hour every day polishing, into the air (never to be seen again) with all the panache I could muster.

The job at The National Theatre was a year’s contract as acting ASM (assistant stage manager) understudy for director Peter Wood’s season of plays, Love for Love, The Threepenny Opera, and Dalliance, Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Schnitzler’s Liebelei. Tom, as we were encouraged to call him, used to sit in on rehearsals, and I marvelled at the preposterous luxury the director had of being able to say ‘Tom, we need something here’, and Tom Stoppard would oblige, discussing, in his quaint, gutteral, Czechoslovak accent the nuances of his superb English text.

At the understudy auditions Peter Wood himself was handling the readings. He had taken me through a half an hour of intensive work, when he suddenly became very insulting about my efforts. I stood up and said ‘Well, I’m sorry it’s taken so long to achieve so little’, and started to leave. ‘Sit down, he said, ‘that’s the best I’ve heard today’, and hired me. He was famous for being cruel when he perceived insecurity in someone. I came out of the year relatively unscathed, but I know that’s because I gave as good as I got on many occasions. It was the only way.

On my first day at the theatre for the start of rehearsals, the stage manager welcomed me ‘to The National’, and I said how great that sounded. He smiled and said ‘Well, there is an indefinable feeling, when you work here, that ‘you are where it matters’’. He was right. Every time  I walked out on stage I felt that nowhere in the world mattered more.

Between my scenes in Love for Love at the Lyttleton, I dashed over to The Olivier to watch Anthony Hopkins from the wings whenever I could. He was giving the magnetic, compelling performance in Pravda all London was talking about. I watched in awe. Not since Olivier’s Dance of Death in the 60s, had I seen such domination. I used to share a few minutes with Tony (he was not yet ‘Sir Anthony’) in the green room after the show sometimes, and found this master of the stage to be a quiet, humble actor off it, drinking Coca Cola (he had given up alcohol). He went on to do Anthony in Anthony and Cleopatra and then Lear in the same season. Perhaps that was an impossible ‘ask’, for he stopped working in the theatre after that. Maybe he discovered that these milestone roles need to be spread over a longer period than one year. The cinema gained a superstar.

Back in the present, I stood looking at the immense and powerful open stage, and thought of the advice that Laurence Olivier delivered about how to use the impossibly demanding space named to honour him. The ‘point of command’, he explained, ‘is not downstage centre, as you might be tempted to think, but about 10 feet back from there’. The only way to find out for yourself was to try it, which I did. The great actor knew how to use his space all right, and loved sharing his discovery. The Oliver

Both the Olivier and the proscenium arch Lyttleton seem to demand vast productions, and both Coram Boy and Pillars of the Community duly delivered. I don’t think bigger is better, and the productions seemed to be filling the space simply because it was there, and not because the writer, the actor or the director needed it, or because their art was better served thus. Not everything is a Lion King-sized affair. The director that achieves intimacy in this place will achieve something much greater than size.

I notice, with a smile of my own, that Peter Shaffer’s magnificent Royal Hunt of the Sun is soon to be revived at the Olivier. There never was a more perfect candidate for the National Theatre treatment than this spectacular piece, saturated as it is with opportunities for visual extravagance. I once played the Inca god-king, Atahualpa in a production of Royal Hunt, and I fully expect that, before long, another slice of my past will come rushing at me in this great theatre once again.

Till next time…love from London.

Saul Reichlin

 

      Saul Reichlin’s

       Letter from London

27th November 2005

Hello again!

From last week’s posh productions of Pillars of the Community and Coram Boy at the National Theatre, and Mary Stuart, freshly transferred to the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue, (see reviews) to the tiny Rosemary Branch pub theatre in Islington, North London, that I told you about in my first letter. The 35 minute one-woman show there, Forgotten Woman, was written and performed by Cleo Sylvestre, as part of the Black History Month in London. It was an engaging introduction to the life and times of Mary Seacole, self taught Jamaican nurse, teacher and believer in the spices of food and of life. Miss Sylvestre showed glimpses of a rich talent, and I took the liberty of suggesting to her after the show that she develop the piece into something fuller. Watch this space.

Still tour-guiding you in the direction of off-the-beaten-track theatres, I should include one that’s right in the middle of the bustling West End! The wandering Players Theatre, founded in 1936, has had various homes in and around London’s theatreland, over the years. Now, tucked into The Arches behind Charing Cross Station, it has become The New Players Theatre, sporting a new venue, a new auditorium and new seating. Same old cigarette smoke in the bar, though.

The brash new musical, The Next Big Thing, is at The New Players now, belting out some great rock, and poking much fun at the music scene with some delicious characterisations, notably by Jon Boydon, Glenn Chapman, Kieron Crook and Anna Carmichael. A major achievement by creators, Mark Burton and Pete Sinclair. Appealing to those whose ears are made of sterner stuff than mine, and to whom the insider references meant anything, this could be truly big, but for weak central performances by Jon-Paul Hevey, unable to avoid being boring playing boredom, and Melissa Lloyd, who, without humour or pazzazz, wasted a gift of a role as Fender, his guitar’s soul. Take the show on the road, boys, and bring The NEW Next Big Thing into town.

My old friend and collaborator, Avi Nassa, visited London (from Italy) this week. He, like me, has specialized in his own one-man shows. He gave an unsuspecting public an exotic Salvador Dali in Hello Dali, and some of his own creations, in London and at the Edinburgh Festival over the years. We were thus really fascinated by I Am My Own Wife, just arrived from its Broadway triumph (reviewed), and by Forgotten Woman, both one-person plays. The laboratory effect of watching someone do what we do gives us plenty to say about the performances, as you might expect.

A very British trait is to celebrate the eccentric. Sometimes it becomes infectious enough for much of the world to fall for it, like cricket and parliamentary democracy.  I think something of the sort has led to the transfer to the London Riverside Studios, from Edinburgh this year, of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, who continue to disarm and entertain audiences all over the world. Some virtuoso Ukulele playing and some gentle clowning made up an evening of musical fun, somehow out of a more innocent time than this. 

It’s almost December and suddenly cold. This tells us we are about to indulge in another, uniquely British eccentricity – the traditional Christmas Pantomime season, and very close to our hearts it is, too. Theatres up and down the country are gearing up for their productions of the famous ‘pantos’, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington and his Cat, and many more, some especially written. The convention that most bewilders newcomers to the genre is that the leading character, ‘Principal Boy’ is played by a girl, and his mother, the famous ‘Pantomime Dame’ is played by a man.

Currently enjoying Dame fame, is none other than Sir Ian McKellen, Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Such distinguished actors don’t often bother with panto, but he has a ball, and so do his audiences. This year he’s giving us his Widow Twanky, the most famous Dame of all, in Aladdin, at The Old Vic, to whose stage he is no stranger – it was the first home of The National Theatre. 

The panto has lodged in the very being of our culture, and we love the old routines. Like when the villain hides behind the hero, prompting screaming from children and adults alike of ‘He’s behind you!’… ‘Oh no he isn’t!’…from the villain. Oh yes he is!’…from the audience, and so on. This brings ridiculous amounts of mirth, and love of a couple of hours of fantasy. It’s a time to laugh and a time to be silly, if being silly means all you want is a life of goodwill, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. After all, it’s your constitutional right. Well…there’ll be time enough for reality later. Usually starting 2 January.

Till next time…love from London.

  Saul Reichlin

         London correspondent

         Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show  

           www.ChicagoCritic.com

 

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