They sing, they dance, they swim, they fly, they juggle (just barely), they play flute, drums, harmonica, guitars and keyboards. And out of all this, they have created “Her Name Was Danger.”
Perhaps, as they settle into their mid-30s, the members of the Lookingglass Theatre Company are looking back with nostalgia at their carefree college days, when showing off and goofing off in campus shows was a lot of fun. Or maybe they’re fondly remembering childhood days plopped in front of the TV set watching “Mission: Impossible” and “I Spy.”
How else to explain their excursion into this hodgepodge sendup of swinging ’70s pop art comic strip adventure stories?
Inspired by the James Bond films and a flock of dated movies (“The Assassination Bureau,” “Modesty Blaise”) and those old television series (“The Avengers,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”) about eccentric villains, diabolical plans and sexy spies, creator/director David Catlin’s production presents us with Destiny Deign, a cool, raven-haired beauty operating “on the wrong side of the law,” and Malachy Chance, her studly, bleached blond right-hand man.
Together, they battle the evil Uriah Klench’s plot to send an atomic warhead eight miles up into the atmosphere and unleash chlorine gas that will eat up the hydrogen molecules and thus clear the world of exposed skin–or something like that.
Destiny and Malachy enter the story, and begin the show, by flying (on pullies) into a museum to steal a precious jewel. This has nothing to do with what follows, but it’s a pretty good clue to the show’s nature–which is to throw in a slew of special effects, introduce several mondo bizarro comic characters, kick up a lot of strenuous stage fights and, when not doing that, run off to the sides to get musical instruments and play composer Rick Sims’ funk music.
The breathless pace stirred up by Catlin takes its toll in dropped props and ripped scenery. It’s too much for the gang to handle, and the seams begin to show.
They miss eight out of nine times in their gags, which is not a good average. But they’re in there swinging; and, before long, the outrageousness of the ’70s wigs and costumes (by Kristine Knanishu), the silliness of the characters (Sims as a feckless teenager whose mouth is trapped in a monstrous retainer) and the sheer energy of the performance (David Kersnar as the wicked mastermind Klench, from West Des Moines) may get to you.
Here are two scenes that got to me:
Natasha Bodakovna, the world’s sexiest meteorologist (Laura Eason), leans over the flattened Chance (Philip Rayburn Smith, with the world’s worst cockney accent) and sings a raucous song of seduction to him, her guitar dangling over her neck, at which point he reaches up and perfectly plucks her lower strings.
Chief Inspector Doyle of Scotland Yard (Andrew White), disguised as a French chef, while instructing Destiny (Tracy Walsh, rather bland in her underwritten role) on how to make bouillabaisse, brings out his secret ingredient, La Whiz de Frommage!
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“Her Name Was Danger”
When: Through Jan. 2
Where: Steppenwolf Theatre Studio, 1650 N. Halsted St.
Phone: 312-335-1650
