The main theater of the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie may be suitable for many kinds of entertainment, but we now know that it is not the best place to premiere a two-character musical about a Jewish cabaret singer and a Chasidic stranger.
Ellen Gould’s “The Glass House,” in which she also portrays the singer, has problems enough without showcasing them in a stiff production and a large (839 seats) auditorium that tends to muffle and swallow up its intimate story.
Gould, who gave Northlight a musical hit two years ago with her folksy “Bubbe Meises,” has returned with another Jewish tale, this one a fictional excursion into the life of singer and folk musicologist Isa Kremer.
Gould begins her story on Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, 1938, a night when Nazi thugs shattered the glass windows of Jewish merchants and shopkeepers. Kremer, in Berlin for the first time in five years, is about to perform in the Kulturbund, that part of the State Theatre reserved by the Nazi government for Jewish culture. Suddenly, lights flicker, the show is interrupted, and a bearded Chasid, not knowing his name or where he came from, appears before her in her dressing room.
A bond instantly and mysteriously develops between the Chasid and the chanteuse, and off they go to Paris to search for the meaning of a recurring dream they both have about a glass house filled with light.
This union of the sacred and the profane, of holy man and worldly woman, is supposed to suggest a fusion of opposites into a complete spiritual whole, and the dream of a glass house is intended to be a metaphor for the coming of a bright new future.
In effect, however, it creates only a mild, spottily engaging story, its gentle music drowned despite the best efforts of the singers and Jeff Lewis’ three-piece pit orchestra.
A smaller theater, such as Northlight’s own 345-seat theater in the North Shore Center, might have brought more focus to the telling of the tale, but under an agreement with the center, Northlight is using the main stage during the holiday season, and as a result, “The Glass House” shatters.
Scott Cooper’s scenic design tries to broaden the canvas by framing the action in front of a long background ramp, but that only makes the tiny central playing area of Kremer’s dressing room look all the more lost in space, and director Russell Vandenbroucke’s blocking, which sends the two players all over the wide stage, can’t conceal the fact that this is a show written for two people singing and acting in close contact with each other.
Gould, usually fussing with some kind of a scarf, is a limited actress who is not the best interpreter of her work. She comes to life only in the Jewish tales and songs she performs. As the Chasid, however, David Studwell does valiant work in a lost cause. He’s a professional music theater player, one of the few solid virtues of this unfortunate production.
———-
“The Glass House”
When: Through Jan. 4
Where: Northlight Theatre, 9501 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie
Phone: 847-673-6300
