“Old Town”
Written by Brett Neveu
Showing: Strawdog Theatre Company, 3829 N. Broadway, through May 31
Tickets: $15-$20
Contact: (773) 528-9696; strawdog.org

By Brian Kirst

Contributing writer

The braggart nature of local politicians earned Chicago the well-known moniker “the Windy City.” Strawdog Theatre Company’s sensitive “Old Town” gives emotional perspective to that classic backroom wheeling and dealing by examining the broken hearts and wrecked dreams behind the loud-lunged bravado.

Political patriarch and longtime Cook County President Jerry Weltz finds himself facing the end of the line on election night. His shoo-in days are far behind him and the tense race is bringing out the worst in his family members. His daughter, Cindy, long groomed to be his eventual successor, is on an emotional high wire and having second thoughts about life in such a public arena. His ne’er do well son, Scotty, shows up late and inebriated. His younger wife, Liz, feeling inconsequential, begins to reconnect with a former flame and eagerly reveals too much personal information to Karen Mosher, an overzealous reporter out to dismantle the family. Lastly, his longtime campaign manager, Daniel Deering, is finding it almost impossible to hide his long concealed love for the very married Cindy.

Set inside the ballroom of a hotel as all participants await the final outcome, playwright (and lyricist) Brett Neveu comically explores the piranha-like nature of the local businessmen who hold Jerry in the tightly closed fingers of their financial endowments. Neveu is more interested, though, in the strained humanity that emerges from lifelong manipulation by the strings of political puppetry. Many of his songs focus on simpler days, freedoms lost and hopelessness. This allows the audience an open window into the lives of the Weltzs and their contemporaries.

While several of his anthems are rousing and a couple others shimmer with heartfelt truisms, the rest of Neveu’s songs hit squarely in the middle ground of musical theater shallowness. It doesn’t help that several of the leads are clearly not singers and that the talented backing band, The Denizens, often overpowers even the most accomplished performers. Still the strengths in Neveu’s vision are more essential than its weaknesses and the uniqueness of its focus renders this production as a most welcoming theatrical experience.

Director Kyle Hammon infuses the proceedings with a sweeping elegance and his detailed nature reveals itself within the structured animation of the talented ensemble. The accurate costuming of Allison Greaves and Eileen Mallary’s regal choreography add multiple levels to the show’s appeal.

As actors, the entire cast is first-rate. John Ferrick infuses his Daniel with an awkward passion and bounding charm. Kat McDonnell’s Cindy practically trips across the stage, consumed with a balance destroying sorrow. Christopher Hainsworth’s wild child Scotty crackles with a pepper-filled heart and sodden sensuality. Shannon Hoag’s Karen prowls the stage with whip-cracking vengeance complimented by a smooth ease. Anne Sheridan Smith’s powerful singing as Liz rightfully brings down the house. The emotional cracks she displays within her character’s armor provides the show’s slow-fizzing burgundy grace. The show’s chorus is augmented immeasurably by the flash and star charm of Rebekah Ward-Hays.