July 2010 Theatre Review by Lawrence Bommer
The Emperor's New Clothes
For the sake of this show it’s better NOT to know the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Unfortunately, those audience members most likely not to know it are children—to whom, of course, it has the most to say about adult absurdities and grownup hypocrisy. Simply stated, what they get in the Pier’s production is not what Andersen wanted us to discover. His simple and devastating story concerns a pair of swindlers who literally try to get something for nothing: They trick the gullible and insecure Emperor into believing that he’s buying clothes that can only be seen by those who are worthy of their positions.
Duly cautioned, the craven court collectively pretend to see the clothes rather than confess their supposed unsuitability for office. The truth, it seems, will not set them free. The hilarious and cynical result is a convenient mass hallucination where, convinced that everyone else can see what they cannot, the citizens pretend to marvel at the emperor’s gorgeous garments—until an innocent and uncorrupted boy dares to tell the truth (“The emperor has no clothes!”). The fraud is exposed and the fakers duly punished. Children of all ages should identify with the boy—but, alas, in this revision he never shows up.
Such
is the edifying parable that Andersen left to us—a useful
cautionary tale about the danger of conformity, bullying, peer
pressure, and unquestioned trust in authority. Perversely or
unavoidably, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s newly commissioned
musical, though vastly entertaining, impeccably produced and
compellingly performed by a superb cast, completely misses the irony
and the satire. Perhaps because there can be no nudity in a
family-friendly show (no such problem for National Pastime
Theatre’s current X-rated version), the Emperor’s
bare-assed arrogance can never be revealed au naturel. So the
story is forced to take a different (and trivial) turn.
In bookwriter David Holstein’s overplotted retelling the emperor (a fatuous but jolly Don Forston) is equally crazy about clothes, stopping the trains from running while he decides which tie to wear. He regularly taxes his subjects into poverty to pay for robes that he wears once and discards forever. Vainglorious and selfish like any modern celebrity, he seems the perfect gull for the chicanery of wily tailors preying on his megalomania and delusions of grandeur. But family dynamics play a confusing role here.
The Emperor has a college-age daughter (Megan Long, embodying the reality principle) who prefers ecologically friendly and sexually neutral tops and trousers to a full-scale trousseau. She quickly becomes privy to a plan that, oddly enough, we never see concocted: An impoverished mother and son seamstress/stockboy (Anne Gunne and Alex Goodrich) are, it seems, induced by the power-hungry fop Lord Vince (Jonathan Weir, a vintage villain from some overworked melodrama) to produce invisible (and, it seems, untouchable) garments that will trick the Emperor into strolling naked in public. There he will be denounced as insane, allowing Vince to assume the throne because everyone knows that clothes make the king. This stratagem is incredibly inferior to Andersen’s invention.
The king, who conveniently catches on to the planned exposure, turns the tables by giving away his stylish finery. Because he never actually wears the invisible clothes, he’s never really nude. For this well-intentioned, anti-materialistic musical adaptation it’s more important for the Emperor to become a sensitive father than a good ruler, to cut down on the clothes rather than to banish the flattering toadies around him.
Alan Schmuckler’s songs are Sesame-Street sweet and serviceable to the story. They amusingly advance the story which, no question, still delivers a good lesson for kids who must deal with sartorial snobbery at school. The lyrics are harder to praise because the musical accompaniment too often overpowers the singers. Rachel Rockwell’s inventive 70-minute staging should hold the attention of all but the most attention-challenged kids. What remains regrettable is the lost opportunity to let Andersen’s story work all over again in a world where it’s less read than it was or should be. There’s no payoff here compared to the marvelous moment when the little boy and the regal emperor are suddenly equalized by the naked truth. It’s the whole point of this enduring tale of how fraud can destroy faith. But it never happens here.
The Emperor's New Clothes plays through August 29, 2010 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. For more information on this show, please visit the Theatre In Chicago Emperor's New Clothes page.
About Lawrence Bommer
A
native Chicagoan, Lawrence Bommer has been an active free-lance
writer and playwright since 1975. For twenty years he wrote a
weekly column, "Opening Nights" for the Friday section of
the Chicago Tribune, where he also regularly contributed theater
criticism and feature writing. His work has appeared in
Stagebill, the Pulitzer-Lerner newspapers and The Advocate.
Mr. Bommer was theater editor for the Windy City Times since its founding until 1999; from 1986 a theater critic for the Chicago Reader (where he has also written for the "Calendar" and "Our Town" sections); Chicago Free Press, where he was contributing editor until the paper’s demise in spring 2010; Chicago Footlights, where he has been a regular contributor; and Plays International, where he is the Chicago correspondent. He has also contributed to the Hollywood Reporter, PerformInk, Screen Magazine, CitySearch, the Chicago Illini, Inside Chicago, Illinois Entertainer, the International Theatre Festival of Chicago newsletter, Plays International, CitySearch, Playbill Online, TheatreMania, CurtainUp.com and Chicago Enterprise. Mr. Bommer is a three-time finalist for a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in the "arts criticism" category. In 1991 he became a regular theater and, dance critic and arts writer for the Chicago Tribune. His commentary has also aired on LesBiGay Radio, WGN and on Milwaukee Public Radio.
As a playwright, Mr. Bommer's work has been produced in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Madison and, in Chicago, by the Organic Theater Company (Jonathan Wild [1979], Poe [1980]. Gulliver's Last Travels [1993] and by Lionheart Gay Theatre (Gunsel, The Tyrannicides, Killers and Comrades). Since 1976 Mr. Bommer has taught at the Francis W. Parker School and was a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1969 to 1975 (where he received his Master's degree in English), as well as a guest lecturer at the College of DuPage, Roosevelt University, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. Mr. Bommer is a member of the American Theater Critics Association and has been a member of the National Writers Union and the Dramatists Guild.