Ten Strings at Friday at the Ford

Violinist Sherri Deroche and guitarist Jason Deroche, a duo who call themselves Ten Strings, drew an overflow crowd on Friday to our Friday at the Ford concert at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. Hailing from La Grange, Illinois (a neighboring suburb), they attracted family and friends, fans of classical music, and many of our concert series regulars, who remember when Jason played solo guitar for us in November 2011. He amazed us then. He and Sherri equaled our high expectations in 2015.

Ten Strings played from many periods and tradition in their approximately 80 minute concert. They started with "Spanish Dance, no. 5" by Enrique Granados and "Melodie from Orfeo ed Euridice" by Christoph Willibald Gluck. If you know much about classical music, you will realize that neither of those pieces were scored for violin and guitar. According to Jason, there is relatively little original music for the two instruments together, so they make their own arrangements.

After beautiful duo pieces based on music by Bach, Jason played solos of "Cordoba" by Isaac Albeniz and "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tarrega. Sherri rejoined Jason then for a Latin grouping featuring pieces by South American composers.

I was then pleased by their lovely interpretation of "Here, There, and Everywhere" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A surprise to me was that some Baby Boomers in the audience did not recognize the song's origin. I guess it is a lesser known Beatles song.

They played "Cantilena,"a piece originally written for guitar and flute by Tom Febonio. The composer is living, unlike most of the night's composers, and Jason has spoken with him.

Ten Strings finished the evening with music by Niccolo Pagannini that was actually written for violin and guitar. These were probably my favorites of the night, for the the interplay between instruments was exciting. I heard many compliments as the audience left and received numerous thanks for booking the duo to play at the library.

Our next concert is Friday, March 13 when folksingers/songwriters Dana and Susan Robinson return to our library. The concerts are free thanks to the generous support of the Western Springs Library Friends.

Mearra, Selkie from the Sea by Linda Marie Smith

Chicago singer/songwriter Linda Marie Smith seems to think big. When she writes songs, she write song cycles. On her 2006 album Artemisia, she performed 14 songs that she wrote for a show about the 17th century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, a rare woman among the men of Renaissance art. Her show was filled with music and images from the paintings by the artist. We had the show at our library. It was mesmerizing.

Now she has a new album and show, which we will present at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library in May. I have been listening to the album Mearra, Selkie from the Sea as we prepare to write our library newsletter and plan other publicity. There are 11 beautiful and varied songs about a magical seal who longs for love and life as a human. The show promises to have a mixture of live music, lights, and animation. I am sure it will be a special evening, if the wonderfully melodic songs of the album are evidence.

Smith says that she was influence by the music of Carole King and Carly Simon, and she has been compared with Lucinda Williams, Sarah McLachlan, and Natalie Merchant. She has won a Billboard songwriting award and recognition from the Illinois Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music.

I am amazed that we can offer music of this caliber at the library. There is so much talent in the Chicago area, and Smith is on a roll.

Smith, Linda Marie. Mearra, Selkie from the Sea. 2014.

Mark Dvorak at Friday at the Ford

Friday night of September 19 was a joyous occasion as singer-songwriter Mark Dvorak returned to my library to perform original songs and beloved folk classics. I had been looking forward to the concert for months, and over 50 people came to hear Dvorak, who grew up in the western suburbs and now teaches at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. No one was disappointed.

Mark began with "Every Step of the Way," a sort of folk anthem that also starts his CD of the same title. He followed with other songs of his own writing, "God Bless the Open Road and You" and "The Middle Years." He also played an old blues piece that he learned from an old musician in a senior center in Dallas, but I did not catch the name.

Five songs into the set, Mark asked the audience to sing along with the chorus of the humorous 19th century real estate promotional song "El-a-noy," They did joyously and continued singing along with most songs through the concert, including his encore "The Glory of Love." We were practically a choir singing Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" I heard from many people afterwards about how much fun they had. That's exactly why we have our concerts.

The Second City Guide to the Opera

Being on the stage of the Civic Opera House in Chicago is not an experience I expected, but I have now been up there twice this year. The first was to take the Lyric Opera tour last February. Since many public buildings now give tours, it is not a rare privilege, but it was a great tour. On Sunday night I returned for a less likely event, The Second Guide Guide to the Opera, a melding of talent from two famous Chicago institutions from very different pages of the weekly entertainment guide.

Bonnie, our mastermind of fun, told me that the audience would sit on the stage, but I had not grasped the meaning of this detail. I just expected folding chairs around the performance area. To my surprise, the stage was turned into a comedy club just like the Second City home. We sat in cafe chairs around a little table, while some people who paid top price had couches or easy chairs. Our party of four ordered drinks, a hummus plate, and a cheese and cracker platter. I tried to spread crumbly cheese on a fragile cracker and littered the floor of the stage of the Civic Opera House! They'll never ask me back. 

On reflection, I see that a joint Second City-Lyric Opera venture is a logical merger. Both comics and opera singers find themselves in ridiculous situations. They also share a love of outrageous costumes. We only knew the actual opera singers because they each sang solos. I especially enjoyed Bernard Holcolm singing a piece from the American opera A View from the Bridge. 

Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune reviewed the revue, indicating that he wanted a bit more edge to the performance. He thought the comics were really too kind to the hosting institution. I enjoyed the performance just as it was and laughed heartily. My favorite section was the improv opera based on the lives of a couple from the audience.

The Second City Guide to the Opera runs through the month. The website video for the production shows the original one-time show with a mostly different cast in more formal attire playing to the real theater, unlike what is running this summer. No Patrick Stewart or Rene Fleming this month. Still, the songs and stunts are the same. Get your tickets soon.

National Geographic Live: Birds of Paradise

Over the course of ten years, Cornell ornithologist Edwin Scholes and biologist/photographer Tim Laman trekked through the least accessible forests of New Guinea 18 times in search of all 39 species of birds of paradise. After spending thousands of hours in blinds, they have over 39,000 photographs documenting the resplendent colors and courting behaviors of the earth's most strikingly unusual birds. Bonnie and I saw some of the shots and a few amazing videos at their National Geographic Live presentation at the Goodman Theater in Chicago this week.

You may also see these birds in their article in the December 2012 issue of National Geographic, starting with an impressive greater bird of paradise on page 70. You will then want to get their new book Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds. I await the book to learn more than Laman and Scholes were able to say and show in a short hour and 45 minutes. I suspect Bonnie and I will have dueling bookmarks when we get it.

The Goodman was a wonderful place to attend National Geographic Live. The seats were really comfortable and a brilliant screen mostly hid the set of a current play. We were close - no need for binoculars. I also enjoyed eavesdropping on conversations before the lecture. We were among an interesting crowd full of world travelers. I suspect keepers from both of Chicago's zoos and members of the Chicago Geographical Society were there. It did not look like the opera crowd.

I enjoyed the question period at the end also. Someone asked if there might be more than 39 species of birds of paradise. Scholes said there might be and explained how museum collections had been studied to arrive at the current number. He and Laman hope to return to New Guinea to seek out any proposed candidates.

National Geographic Live appears in over a dozen American cities, including Austin, Phoenix, and Seattle. Check the NG website for its events.

Chris Vallillo at Friday at the Ford

Good timing is essential. Thomas Ford could have invited Illinois folk musician Chris Vallillo to play Friday at the Ford earlier, but this past Friday night really seemed a perfect time. We have established a faithful following for our concerts and can almost guarantee a full audience for a folk artist like Vallillo. And Chris has just released a new CD The Last Days of Winter, from which he played six pieces, three vocal and three instrumental.

Chris is an archaeologist of Midwestern song, having been a song catcher in the 1980s when he interviewed and recorded old musicians who started before there was radio. The work shaped his career and his Friday night concert. With his original compositions, he performed for us 19th century songs, such as "Old Joe Clark," "Burglar Man," and "Shawneetown." He had the audience keep the beat with clapping for the latter two of those old songs. He also had us sing with him on another collected piece, "The Sinking of the Titanic."

From the old musicians, Chris also developed a love of old instruments. He started the night playing on his resonator guitar (seen in photo above) and later turned to his 130 year old hammer dulcimer, which he restored himself after finding it in a "working" barn. He also told us about his 9-string guitar, which was unfortunately in the luthier's shop for a tuneup.

I am now enjoying having my own copy of The Last Days of Winter. The song "The River Road" is urging me to take a driving trip downstate this spring. I'm also liking "Tequila," "The Water is Wide," and the title cut.

Chris is an Illinois Arts Council performer and is especially known for his program Abraham Lincoln in Song. His schedule of concerts can be found on his website. Several of the audience last night will attest that hearing Chris live was worth their long drive.

Million Dollar Quartet, Chicago Cast

"It was one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and go, cat, go..."

It was a Tuesday afternoon in 1956 at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, just an old garage remodeled, and Carl Perkins was scheduled to record a few songs, but he was late. His brother Jay plucked the upright bass, and Fluke Holland sat behind the drums. Owner Sam Phillips stood outside the control booth talking to new session pianist Jerry Lee Lewis, when in walked Elvis Presley and his latest girl, visiting his old haunt. Perkins soon appeared, followed by Johnny Cash. Three chart-topping recording stars and one promising new talent were assembled, and Phillips had plenty of recording tape. It would be a recording session to remember.

More than fifty years later, the only assembly of four legendary performers inspired a musical The Million Dollar Quartet, which is currently playing in Chicago. We saw the musical in the compact Apollo Theater. There is not a bad seat in the house. We were in the fourth row - very close and practically part of the production. We could see and hear everything, especially 21songs delivered with great energy by four actors/musicians channeling the pioneers of rock and roll. 

The looks and the sounds were pretty convincing. I was most impressed by Lance Lipinsky playing the role of Jerry Lee Lewis. How could someone learn Lewis's crazy acrobatic moves and still play piano? I was also impressed by the ringing electric guitar of Shaun Whitley as Carl Perkins, which seemed to highlight in many of the songs. We knew most of those songs very well, "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Between the songs, Tim Decker as Sam Phillips narrates/directs a story about the discovery of four singers and the rise and fall of Sun Records. Some liberties are taken with Perkins brother Clayton dropped from the story, the name of Elvis's girlfriend changed, and time compacted into one dramatic day/night, but the general spirit is in line with Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock and Roll by Colin Escott, one of the authors of the script for the musical.

Of course, many baby boomers will love this show, but there were gen-Xers in the crowd as well. It was an electrifying show that has sparked my interest in doing some research on the characters. What more could I ask?

"See you later, alligator."

A Prairie Home Companion in Chicago

The News from Lake Wobegone was reported from the shore of Lake Michigan on November 10 as A Prairie Home Companion broadcast from the stage of Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Bonnie and I joined our friends Nancy and Glenn in the beautiful old building which, according to host Garrison Keillor, was designed by architect Louis Sullivan to have perfect acoustics. I know we heard the performers very well, except when many people were laughing or applauding, which was fairly often.

I was the sole newbie having never attended A Prairie Home Companion before. I had seen some televised broadcasts before, but it was fascinating to watch the preparations for each segment coming together as previous songs and skits ended. It reminded me of being at the Grand Ole Opry, which I would also like to see again.

I thought the music was the strongest portion of this show, as the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band supplemented with Chicago musicians was tremendous. The most brilliant piece was a jazz-rendition of music from Mozart's Don Giovanni. I also was greatly impressed by the rich voice of baritone Nathan Gunn.

The skits certainly had their funny moments and I loved how The Lives of the Cowboys was set in Western Springs, right where I work. I suppose they grazed their cattle on the Village Green. I will have to keep an eye out for gunslingers in the middle of the downtown streets and see if I can find the Last Chance Saloon so I can charge my cellphone while trying a little rotgut whiskey.

As I started to say, the skits earned a few laughs, but they lasted too long and didn't have very satisfying endings that night. PHC has done better. I wish they had shortened them and gotten in the promised spot for Bertha's Kitty Boutique. I'd like Keillor to bring back Raw Bits, Fearmonger Shop, or Cafe Boeuf skits.

The funniest song came before the broadcast began, but it was probably not deemed proper for the airwaves. The most surprising guest was Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who was seeking Guy Noir's help to suppress a video of the governor putting ketchup on a Chicago hot dog. Quinn did a good job with his lines, as did Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal, who let us know that real Chicagoans do not eat deep dish pizza. A Prairie Home Companion was a wonderful early evening entertainment, which I would do again. Maybe we can visit St. Paul.

Petra van Nuis at Friday at the Ford

I've said it before. Being host of the Friday at the Ford concerts at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library is one of the unexpected pleasures of my job. In the process of hiring acts for the five-times-a-year music series, I meet a lot of nice people. I also get to hear a lot of great music. Such was the case on November 2, when we featured jazz singer Petra van Nuis (pronounced Paytra van Nouse - which rhymes with mouse) with guitar accompaniment by Andy Brown. Petra, as she is called by most of her publicity, specializes in the American songbook and Brazilian bossa nova, genres that really pleased our crowd of 60 at the library.

Petra began with Cole Porter's "Is It an Earthquake" followed by "Dreamer" by Antonio Carlos Jobin. I recognized these but few others in the first half of the concert. Then she sang "I Won't Dance" by Jerome Kern and "Mediation, " another song by Jobin, starting a series of familiar-to-me standards. I especially liked how she finished the evening, letting the audience recommend songs for a medley that she and Brown pulled off splendidly. With her smooth voice, she both calmed and captivated. 

The singer met some of her listeners before the show and discovered the first other Petra she had ever met, other than her Dutch grandmother. After the show, Petra answered questions and signed cd's.

Petra obviously knows and loves her songs and the era from which they came, and she connects warmly with the audience, who enjoyed her many tempos and moods. After the last notes of "You Make Me Feel So Young" ended, many went home with a little more bounce in their steps.

Here's a sample of Petra's music - Old Black Magic

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn

Each summer, Bonnie and I try to attend at least one of the evening concert at Grant Park in Chicago. This year we made a Saturday evening performance by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Carlos Kalmar of the epic oratorio The Seasons by Joseph Haydn. It is epic in that a full performance takes two hours to perform. I do not remember previously hearing even parts, but with three strong soloists and a huge chorus, it was glorious.

If you have ever heard a Christmas performance of The Messiah by George Frideric Handel, imagine that kind of music but longer. (The Messiah is much longer, too, when played in full.) There are orchestral parts, recitatives with voice and harpsichord, arias, and big choral blockbusters. Everything was impression, except the lyrics sung in English. "Come, sweet maidens, let us wander o'er the glowing fields" is a representative line. Haydn himself complained about the lyrics that he was commissioned to set to music. He preferred his previous oratorio The Creation. (I want to hear it, too.) Most of the time, I could not actually understand the lyrics, so I was not distracted from the music.

The next week I borrowed Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn performed by the London Symphony Chorus and London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Colin Davis. The oratorio is sung in German! It is fabulous in German. I listened to the two CDs three times through in the next several weeks, mostly while driving or cooking. I hoped to memorize some of the melodies, but I failed. I can not hum any part now, but I did enjoy imagining myself like Inspector Morse driving around in a hot red sports car with the opera cranked up. (For the record, we have a modest green car.) 

Here is a sample from "Winter" so you can see if you might also enjoy Haydn's The Seasons.

The Mighty Ted: An Unexpected Journey, Written and Performed by Ted Waltmire

Ted Waltmire just wants to be "An Average Guy" again, as he tells us in song in his short musical comedy The Mighty Ted: An Unexpected Journey, performed each Saturday night this September at Donny's Skybox Theater in Pipers Alley in Chicago. He's getting there, as we learn in his funny look at his recovery efforts from the stroke that nearly killed him in 2009.

Ted has been the musical director for community and college theaters in the Chicago area for several decades, as well as being the computer guy at the Downers Grove Public Library. Bonnie and I have attended numerous musicals (Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Godspell, 1776, and more) where he would direct the pit orchestra (often including his wife Michelle) from the piano. Of course, some of the pits were under the stage and hardly visible, but we would always see him at intermission or after the performance. So he was a natural to turn his own experiences into a performance. After the stroke, his colleague and friend Dale Galiniak (who is in the cast) suggested that they take an improv class at Second City. Ted eventually also took a writing class and from that came the script, which was accepted for performance.

For the debut performance, there were many of Ted's family and friends as well as his nurses and therapists in the audience watching him graduate from wheelchair to walker to cane. There was even a song about his many canes. Some got to see themselves comically portrayed. Of course, comedy can include anger, and in this case most was directed at Social Security and impatient people unwilling to give stroke victims time to do the things they are relearning to do. It was an emotion-filled performance with lots of laughs and lively tunes.

Of the remaining four shows, one is already sold out. Go to the Second City website to get tickets. If you decide to go, the best parking deal is at the Treasure Island supermarket across the street.

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado in Iowa

Bonnie and I are just back from a five-day trip to Iowa and Minnesota. We had two reasons for the trip. The first was to see our daughter Laura in the University of Iowa Department of Performing Arts production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado at the nicely restored Englert Theater in downtown Iowa City. The second was to then move Laura to Minneapolis for her upcoming internship in music therapy. We succeeded in meeting both objectives.

Being proud parents, we did as we did for Laura's high school musicals and saw The Mikado three times. By the third performance, we knew well when Laura, a member of the chorus, was on stage. She was easy to spot in her yellow kimono, singing and dancing through many scenes. She had no lines, but she had moments, such as when she helped braid Yum-Yum's hair and when she danced with a long red ribbon. I was reminded of her years in ballet, tap, and rhythmic gymnastics.

Sitting in the first, second, and third rows, we had a great view of the staging and choreography. I liked the repeated decorative use of colorful fans in the backdrops. The stage was relatively small, but the set designer used what there was well. The company was a whirl of color as it deftly moved about from left to front and back and forth. Most impressive was their snapping of fans along to the music. Laura said there was a lot of fan practice. Making them snap was not hard because of their weight, but holding on with sweaty hands was a trick.

Three days later, I still have the songs running through my brain. The words are often quite silly (as is the plot) but the melodies are great. A highlight was the Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko's "I've got a little list" song, which by tradition is modified to include current and local subjects. There were many people who could be beheaded and not be missed, including the musical director for miscuing some notes, Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann for just being as they are, and anyone who stands behind TV reporters to wave.

We are back in Downers Grove now and returning to our everyday lives, but I think I'll have a little extra bounce as I hum Mikado melodies and recall fine performances.

The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe by David Rice

For nearly ten years, Bonnie and I have been attending outdoor productions of Shakespeare plays by First Folio at Mayslake Peabody Estate Forest Preserve in Oakbrook, Illinois. We have taken picnics and stayed for both the tragedies (Hamlet, MacBeth, Richard III) and the comedies (Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night's Dream) under the stars. Despite sticky heat or evening cold, we have always enjoyed lively and imaginative performances. We go almost every summer.

Starting in 2004, First Folio moved into Mayslake Hall, the mansion/monastery that we had always viewed with curiosity. It took us several years to move with them, but in 2008 we saw the hilarious adaptation Jeeves Intervenes by P. G. Wodehouse, staged in the mansion's old library. We were a bit disappointed by Noel Coward's Design of Living in 2009 but loved Jeeves in Bloom in winter 2010. The latter play was staged in the mansion's chapel, a soaring space well suited for intimate theater.

So we were gung-ho to see First Folio's third staging of The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe by David Rice, one of the theater company's founders. We even managed to get tickets for Halloween Night. I was also excited to learn that each scene of the play was staged in a different room of the mansion. We were getting to join our love of theater with our hobby of touring old buildings.

The play lived up to its billing and my imagination. With morbid flare, the players acted out scenes both from Poe's life and from his poems and short stories. We were thrown into nearly total darkness in "The Pit and the Pendulum" and had the murderer right in our faces in "The Tell-Tale Heart." Diane Mair was as I would imagine the petite Virginia Poe, the tortured author's child bride. Understudy Michael Aguirre was a sympathetic yet disturbing Poe.

I'd like to go again.

An Evening at the Ravinia Music Festival

It is not convenient getting from Downers Grove to the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park. When we go, we want to make the best of it. Friday we went and discovered two-for-one tickets in the Pavilion for the all Mozart program directed by Pinchas Zuckerman, at which he played three violin solos. His daughter Arianna also sang from two Mozart vocal works. It was her Ravinia debut, but he has been there many times. Ironically, he was the conductor the only other time I sat in the Pavilion twenty or so years ago. We usually buy less expensive lawn tickets and spread out with our picnic. But yesterday was different, and we sat on the right side five rows from the cellos and bass players. I could see the scratches on the basses and how the cellos seemed to come in different shades of brown.

A second factor in our buying the Pavilion tickets was that it allowed us to also attend the Steans Institute Young Artists' Concert at 5:45 p.m. in the Bennett-Gordon Hall in the John D. Harza Building on the Ravinia campus. The young musicians come from around the world for classes with distinguished faculty, including Miriam Fried and Leon Fleisher. In the biographies in the recital program, there were many references in student and faculty profiles to the New England Conservatory of Music. On the program was a Beethoven piano sonata, a Debussy string quartet, and a Dvořák viola quintet, each approaching half an hour. We got more music than we expected. I particularly liked the Debussy while Bonnie favored the Dvořák.

We hardly had time to eat our salads and desserts before we took our seats in the Pavilion, where, as I said before we sat very close. I found it easy to watch Zuckerman conducting. Unlike my band directors in high school, "Pinkie" (as the frequent Ravinia concertgoer next to us called him) did not seem to be keeping the beat. He was swinging around and pointing and looking around. Strangely, it did not appear to me that many of the orchestra members were actually watching him. Instead, they were intently reading their music. Professionals that they are, they stuck together anyway. I enjoyed hearing the lively and familiar pieces.

The final half of the concert was Mozart's Symphony no. 40 in G minor, a very recognizable piece. I call still hear it a day later. Ta TA TA ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. It was a fitting end to a great evening of music. We have been tending toward attending Grant Park concerts more lately, but Ravinia can still deliver.

Billy Elliot: The Musical

Last night we celebrated a belated Mother's Day by taking Bonnie to the Oriental Theatre in Chicago to see Billy Elliot: The Musical, book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Elton John. Of course, as it worked out, Bonnie booked the tickets herself and identified which train for us to catch to get there. She also found our restaurant. I did pay for the meal and train tickets. So Laura and I did not have to work very hard on this Mother's Day present, but Bonnie got what she really wanted, and we enjoyed the evening with her. Billy Elliot is fantastic.

We arrived at the theater to find we were sharing the balcony with many high school students. They must have come by the busload. The ushers at the door threatened nearly every one of them with confiscation of cameras and cellphones if they dared to take a picture. I must not have looked menacing as I did not get the warning. Ironically, having forgotten my camera, I sat wishing I could snap a few pictures of the mythical creatures decorating the theater walls.

I thought after the first few scenes that we might have a rather long night. The British accents were very thick in the opening - I hardly understood a word of the coal miners calling for a strike- and the comic scene of Billy at boxing lessons was not really very funny. Then the full company sang and danced to Elton John's pounding "Solidarity." With police facing off against the striking miners and the little ballet girls and Billy in between, I was hooked. It was both menacing and comic. I particularly liked how the police and miners ended up wearing each others helmets.

The next dance with Billy and his good friend Michael, who likes girls' clothes, has a lot of surprising set changes, that I do not want to reveal. I will say that eye-popping elements of the staging prepare theater goers for the opening song of the second act, "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher."

Billy Elliot with its language of a coal mining village is not a show for sensitive viewers. It is at times violent and crude, but it is also sweet and sentimental and has great dancing. We saw high energy fourteen year old Tommy Batchelor as Billy. He must have been exhausted after all the ballet, tap, and contemporary dance. He alone was worth the price of admission. Father's Day is coming up. It is tempting to go again.

You may see scenes from Billy Elliot at the tour website.

Jeeves Intervenes: A Play from First Folio

When the eager-to-wed Gertrude Winklesworth-Bode thinks that you have potential (i.e. you are spineless, defenseless, and malleable to her designs), you need someone with a bit of gray matter to save your sweaty neck. When Sir Rupert Watlington-Pipps is threatening to cut off your allowance and send you to the jute farms of India, you need someone with a talent for strategy. If you are Bertie Wooster and his pathetic friend Eustice Bassington-Bassington (pronounced baa-sington bay-sington), you turn to the greatest of British superheroes - (pause for dramatic effect) - Jeeves.

Based loosely on the P. G. Wodehouse short story "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," Jeeves Intervenes is classic comic theater. Bonnie and I attended a very intimate performance of the First Folio Shakespeare Festival performance on Friday night at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, Illinois. The stage was set for the six-character play in the old estate's wood-paneled library. With the stage at one end of the room and risers wall-to-wall, about eighty were seated for the play. Always smart, Bonnie had gotten our tickets in advance online. There were no empty seats.

The entire cast was top drawer. I think we had seen all of them in other First Folio productions. We were laughing nearly the moment the lights went up. Jim McCance as Jeeves calmly stepped forward with solutions to impossible problems just in the nick of time. Christian Gray was just the wastrel that Bertie should be, and Kevin McKillip was hilarious as his dim-witted friend Eustace.

I would recommend that you go, but the last performance was yesterday. What I can recommend is that you try other First Folio productions, especially the summer Shakespeare performances. We've been going for years.

You can find the original "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg" online at Classic Reader.