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Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Gertrude Stein
Adapted and Directed by Frank Galati
Musical Direction by Tom Murray
Choreographed by Liza Gennaro
Produced in a co-production with About Face Theatre and the Museum of Contemporary Art
At the Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL
Call 312-397-3868, tickets $20 - $40
Wednesday thru Fridays at 7:30 PM
Saturdays at 3 & 7:30 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 75 minutes without intermission
Through March 12, 2006
“Rose is a rose is a rose…”
“How prettily we swim.
Not in water. Not on land.
But in love.”
“Very fine is my valentine, very fine and very mine.
Very mine is my valentine very mine and very fine.
Very fine is my valentine and mine, very fine mine and mine is my valentine.”
----Gertrude Stein
Loving Repeating is an exquisite theatrical love song to Gertrude Stein.
Enchanting, charming, warm and pleasant describe the World Premiere of Loving Repeating now playing at the Museum of Contemporary Art in a co-production with About Face Theatre. Frank Galati is obsessed with the wit and provocative writings of Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). Together with Ragtime’s composer Steven Flaherty, Galati has written and directed an engrossingly charming chamber musical with a gorgeous feel and a fine melodious sound in an ode to influential 20th Century feminist.
I liked this 75-minute show better than the original show (then know as A Long Gay Book produced at Northwestern University a couple of years ago). Loving Repeating is a look into the world of the elite intellectuals from the Victorian Era to the Lost Generation of Picasso, Matisse, T.S. Eliot, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Gertrude Stein, the acclaimed American expatriate modernist was an intellectual, prolific writer and feminist whose love affair with Alice B. Toklas was well known and accepted. She lived in Paris for more than 40 years and her residence at 27 Rue de Fleurus, became a well-know ‘salon for artists.’
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Director/Adapter Frank Galati and composer Stephan Flaherty brilliantly make Stein’s words, rhymes and repetitions sing in harmonies smoothly played by a five member chamber orchestra conducted by Tom Murray with orchestrations by Flaherty and Brad Haak . Murray’s piano underscored and dominated the show’s haunting sound. A flute, piccolo, clarinet, soprano saxophone, cello, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, keyboard and percussion contributed to give the score a melodic, serious tone. The music has a seamlessness that properly shapes the romantic feel of the show. Flaherty’s score has ragtime, jazz, ballads and some light operatic tones done with fine harmonies with lyrical Victorian parlor tunes and vaudeville songs sung in duets, trios, quartets and quintets by the ensemble.
There is a positive, even reverent tone to the music that pays homage to the Stein’s zest for life, language and love. This show is a subtle, nuanced, yet passionate show, filled with drollery, humor and insight. We experience the joys and ardor that Stein and her companion, Alice B. Toklas felt through the diverse songs and dances.
The show’s lyrics are taken from Stein’s writings and work well to capture her essence. Tunes like engaging “Loving Repeating,” “My Wife is My Life” and “A Bun For My Bunny” demonstrate Stein’s genius with language and double meanings.
Choreographer Liza Gennaro gets everything from the vaudeville and jazz numbers using the five dancers (three boys and two girls) in 1890’s style soft shoe and tango rhythms together with straw hats and wooden canes for the vaudevillian routines. These clever dance sequences gave depth to the show. Bernie Yvon anchors the ensemble with help from Travis Turner and Zach Ford. Harriet Nzinga Plumpp and Cristen Paige sang and dance deftly while producing fine harmonies.
Stage veteran Cindy Gold, who plays Gertrude Stein at age 60 when she lectured at the University of Chicago (1934), anchors the eight-member cast. Gold was terrific as the senior Stein and the show’s narrator. Her timing was perfect as she eloquently landed Stein’s tongue-twisters. Cindy Gold’s recitation of Stein’s speeches and witticism dominated as the glue holding this tribute together.
However, the show properly belongs to Christine Mild (young Stein) and Jenny Powers (Alice B Toklas). They sing and convey the love and affection as a celebration to their life-long relationship. Jenny Powers has a wonderful voice and a presence that exudes charm and warmth. Christine Mild confidently, in rich voice, lands the opening “A Sonatina Song” and “A History of One” with genuine magnetism aptly reminiscent of the youthful Gertrude Stein.
Loving Repeating is a commemoration of Stein’s influence on language, thought and feminism and an acknowledgment of a lifetime lesbian love affair. Stein’s poetic texts beg for music and Flaherty invokes her mood, her nuance and her depth of meaning. The outstanding voices, smooth movement and lush, haunting score all contribute to make Loving Repeating a memorable theatrical experience. Galati has mounted a slick, smart, superb production. Sophisticated people who like chamber musicals containing witty, modernistic language will enjoy this gratifying musical. Its brevity works well; too many shows these days suffer from overproduction.
“Loving repeating is one way of being.” Stein’s words beg the show’s remounting. Can Broadway be in the picture as “a way of repeating?”
Not To Be Missed
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio Show
February 18, 2006
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