Next spring, the lucky comedic theatrical troupe known as The Noble Fool will take up city-subsidized residence in some prime real estate in Chicago’s North Loop theater district. So the stakes–and the reasonable level of critical scrutiny–have risen since Noble Fool first produced an amusing holiday parody called “Roasting Chestnuts” back in 1997.
With its new Randolph Street theater still under construction three blocks away, Noble Fool (formerly the Zeitgeist Theater) is remounting this self-penned show at the Storefront Theater until Christmas. The downtown location is especially convenient for those looking to end a day’s shopping with some harmless seasonal jollity that does not involve lots of planning and Broadway-size ticket prices.
As a pleasant, innocuous piece of conceptual holiday enjoyment, “Roasting Chestnuts” is perfectly enjoyable and acceptable. It’s also indicative of the considerable musical, writing and performance talents among this ensemble.
But if Noble Fool is to successfully anchor the Loop’s only comedy theater, it will have to temper its indulgences, learn to cut away weaker material, and present more incisive, polished and contemporary shows.
The premise here is that we are watching one of those old network TV specials, in which a dysfunctional show-biz dynasty treats the viewing public to a display of faux domestic bonhomie sprinkled with seemingly spontaneous seasonal numbers sung by a scarf-and-hat choir that just happened to be wandering past the front door.
Noble Fool has deftly nailed the excesses of a staggeringly dishonest genre. The Oswald Family Quintuplets Reunion features tearful reconciliations, the requisite battler with booze, the cloying video scrapbook, the inevitably horrific production numbers in the fake snow, the live nativity, the shameless plugging of the aerobics video–or whatever other second-rate projects the washed-up siblings happen to be shoving down their old audience’s collectively indulgent throats.
Thanks especially to Bonnie Shadrake’s strong musical direction and a dead-pan, sweet-voiced choir, the musical numbers are deft and wickedly funny, especially a fast-paced version of the “Hallelujah Chorus” and the hapless attempts of the all-white choir to appropriate African-American choral rhythms. There’s also a fabulously inventive number in which host Gina Oswald (the splendid Pat Musker) shows up as Elvis.
The main satirical problem here is that this is too easy and obvious a target for cutting-edge comedy. And since these shows are disappearing fast (outside of Branson and the former Nashville Network, at least), it’s also a rather dated idea that won’t mean so much to younger folks.
At more than two hours, “Roasting Chestnuts” ultimately outlives its welcome and pushes its premise too far. But it certainly has funny, funny moments.
Noble Fool also includes some improvised segments (audience members are asked to sit on Santa’s knee and so on). And while some–and only some–members of the opening-night audience clearly enjoyed the interaction, it felt like an uneasy mix and led to some long, meandering segments that never knew when to stop.
There’s a really great 90-minute show languishing in here, especially if Noble Fool could include some more contemporary material. Heck, even the Osmonds know the limits of their audience.
———-
“Roasting Chestnuts”
When: Through Dec. 23
Where: Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St.
Phone: 312-742-8497
