Most children’s shows don’t boast a brand new score by Lamont Dozier, the Motown great who was responsible for the megahits “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go,” and who went on to collaborate with Phil Collins, among many others. Brand new Dozier songs, written in collaboration with his son Paris, are what you can hear presently at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, where, with the help of the New York-based Bisno Productions, Chicago Children’s Theatre is staging a brand new musical adaptation of “Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money.“ That’s the much-loved Christopher Paul Curtis story about a kid in Flint, Mich., who gets handed a piece of U.S. currency with a whole lot of zeros and a chance to learn about what wealth really means.
There’s a live band at the Ruth Page, and from the moment you hear the opening number, “Where Your Dreams Come to Life,” you revel in that inimitable Dozier sound. The 80-minute “Mr. Chickee” really is packed with cheery, hook-heavy songs — a blend, really, of the senior Dozier’s signature Motown-like sound and the younger Dozier’s excursions more into hip-hop stylings, although, given Lamont Dozier’s famous talents for musical reinvention, I’d bet they worked closely together on everything. The pair has penned 11 songs, no less, enough for a far longer show and many of them (“As Long as We Believe,” “Rap Battle,” “My Best Friend”) really are a blast. As far as I know, no Dozier ever has written the score for a new Broadway musical. There’s more than enough here to suggest that such an assignment might well be a really, really good idea. The music here really drives the story (the lively if conventional book is by David Ingber) and the material comes with just the right blend of edge and optimism. Its reason alone for “Motown the Musical” fans (with and without kids) to head over to the Ruth Page, although I confess that I found this great new piece considerably more satisfying than the premiere production.
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1016 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL, 60610, United States
Derrick Sanders’ show is no bust: It’s appealing at many moments, and it stacks up reasonably well against a lot of other family fare in town. But there are some nagging issues, beginning with the tendency to overplay the often outlandish characters in the Curtis story (Ingber’s book also has responsibility there). Yes, the tale involves zany federal agents on the track of the errant bill — who are like refugees from “Men in Black” — and wacky parental figures. But these folks still have to be believable in a definable landscape. When they’re as outlandish as they are here, the social-realism of the story suffers. Curtis loves Flint, the struggling city of his birth, and the best moments of this show happen when we have an emotional connection to the quest of the sage Othello Chickee (Yaw Agyeman) to find a young hero (Steven, played by the capable Jonathan Butler-Duplessis) who might understand what leadership really means and thus return Flint to its past greatness.
That’s the key to the story of the funny money and any kind of overacting or self-conscious kids’ stuff only undermines that aim. Moreover, “Mr. Chickee” is structured as a full-blown musical and it needs producing as such, which means choreography that is not quite as loose as what we see here. Both Agyeman and Butler-Duplessis are good singers (as is the standout ensemble member Ashley Elizabeth Honore), but, still, the staging needs more discipline and panache. Too many scenes got pushed way up stage on Courtney O’Neill’s potentially viable unit setting, flattening out the action. And, more than anything, the production needs higher stakes. This is a great kids’ piece. This is a sometimes-sloppy production for a theater with such high standards.
This company tends to cast adult actors in children’s roles. There are many good reasons for that, and this cast is young and exuberant. Still, sitting there on Saturday morning, I kept wishing I was watching a real 10- or 12-year-old (there are many boys who could do this work), not least because the addition of a real kids’ reality would infuse the show with the edge and honestly.
I hope we meet Mr. Chickee again. He’s a sage fellow, fabulously scored by the Doziers, who has wisely figured out that the future of many of those towns that surround our metropolis lies with the young.
When: Through March 2
Where: Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Tickets: $25-$38, chicagochildrenstheatre.org
Article source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/chi-chickees-funny-money-review,0,868650.column