A Grand Night for Singing at Mercury Theater

★★★☆☆

Mercury Theater (see Resident companies). Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Dir. Kevin Bellie. With Robert Hunt, Stephen Schellhardt, Marya Grandy, Leah Morrow, Heather Townsend. 1hr 50mins; one intermission.

The Mercury Theater, active in recent years as a rental house, shifts into self-produced musicals under the new management of L. Walter Stearns and Eugene Dizon, formerly of Porchlight Music Theatre. Their first subscription season kicks off with this1993 revue of the songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein—a promising debut.

The song selection, as conceived by original director Walter Bobbie, draws heavily on the composing team’s romantic numbers—or numbers recast as romantic: “Maria,” the only tune here from The Sound of Music, becomes a problem to be solved by a lovelorn man rather than a Mother Abbess. The five arresting actor-singers are adept at crafting characters and relationships within the span of a song. They’re aided by Kevin Bellie’s fluid staging and choreography and a crack six-piece onstage band.

Time Out Chicago issue no. 415, February 7–14, 2013