{"id":3137,"date":"2020-12-30T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T19:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/?page_id=3137"},"modified":"2020-12-30T13:56:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T19:56:22","slug":"les-uncomfortables-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/les-uncomfortables-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Uncomfortables Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"3137\" class=\"elementor elementor-3137\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-a92b018 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"a92b018\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-bf09b9d\" data-id=\"bf09b9d\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5e11649 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5e11649\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"article-section-header\"><section><div id=\"article-header\"><div class=\"article-header-title\"><h1 class=\"article-headline\">Review: \u2018Les Uncomfortables\u2019 returns triumphantly<\/h1><div class=\"light-grey byline\">Written By:\u00a0<span id=\"noLink\" class=\"ttu\">Lawrance Bernabo, for the News Tribune<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<time class=\"timestamp\">Jun 23rd 2016 &#8211; 11pm.<\/time><\/div><div>\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><\/div><div id=\"article-section-body\"><div class=\"article-body\"><div class=\"main-body\"><div class=\"p402_premium\"><p>I am going to have a hard time explaining to my mother why I was shaking with laughter while listening to Sarah Lawrence sing the Mad Scene from \u201cLucia di Lammamoor\u201d 5 feet away from me.<\/p><p>Lyric Opera of the North\u2019s production of \u201cLes Uncomfortables,\u201d the legendary Colder by the Lake original comic opera directed in this incarnation by Julie Ahasay, totally lived up to its reputation Thursday night at the Lincoln Park Middle School Auditorium.<\/p><p>The plot? Well, Daniel Greysolon Sieur duLhut (William Bastian) is going to \u201cdiscover\u201d the town that bears his name (although not necessarily the name he wanted it to bear). But before that takes place, a whole lot of stuff happens, focused more on the hysterical than the historical, including a love triangle that does not emerge until halfway through Act III.<\/p><p>There is not a \u201cHamilton\u201d-like fidelity to history here. The show opens with Madame Frou Frou (Alice Pearce) selling everybody hats (\u201cA hat can be your friend\u201d), not because the creators discovered some interesting historical footnote, but because \u201cchapeau\u201d and \u201cchateau\u201d sound alike, and there is comedy (and costumes) to be mined from that similarity.<\/p><p>Composer Tyler Kaiser provides an impressive array of musical pastiches, focused primarily on opera, but venturing into other genres as well. The libretto by Jean Sramek and Margi Preus has been updated to keep up with local happenings since the show\u2019s 2001 debut.<\/p><p>\u201cLes Uncomfortables\u201d references Little Peggy Marsh, Aerosmith, the Three Stooges, \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cLong-Haired Hair,\u201d while throwing local cuisine, a mayoral checklist and operatic curses into the mix.<\/p><div id=\"in-article-2-container\"><div id=\"in-article-2\">For my money, the biggest laughs come from the forays into parody of well-known opera arias. Sometimes the arias are sung straight, as when Malbec (Lawrence) launches into \u201cO mio babbino caro,\u201d and the comic deconstruction comes courtesy of the subtitles which creatively reimagine the lyrics. But there are also sometimes when the lyrics are rewritten to equal comic effect.<\/div><\/div><p>Otherwise it is the onslaught of local references that pretty much kept the audience chuckling from start to finish. This is a show that is willing to double-down on groaners and to turn the incidental music between the first two acts into a commercial interlude.<\/p><p>There are also dazzling special effects depicting the groups journey through the Great Lakes.<\/p><p>Bastian\u2019s \u201cDan\u201d provides a big bulls-eye for the proceedings. Providing a necessary post-modern perspective on history are John Pierce as Odin (\u201cOy, it will snow\u201d) and Lyz Jaakola as Pocahannukas (\u201cThank you, Mr. Discovery Man\u201d).<\/p><p>As Pinot Grigio, Calland Metts leads a spirited \u201cSo you want to be a Voyaguer,\u201d while Jeffrey Madison\u2019s Zinfandel cannot stop whining about his character\u2019s demise. As Chardonnay playing Father Hennepin, Vicki Fingalson is an absolute scream.<\/p><p>Dirk Meyer, who has way more lines than most conductors usually have in an opera, conducts a 12-piece orchestra, which includes both the composer and kazoos.<\/p><p>Bonus points for this show were awarded for the canoe becoming unhinged and the statuesque \u201cstrike a pose\u201d curtain call.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review: \u2018Les Uncomfortables\u2019 returns triumphantly Written By:\u00a0Lawrance Bernabo, for the News Tribune\u00a0|\u00a0Jun 23rd 2016 &#8211; 11pm.\u00a0 I am going to have a hard time explaining to my mother why I was shaking with laughter while listening to Sarah Lawrence sing the Mad Scene from \u201cLucia di Lammamoor\u201d 5 feet away from me. Lyric Opera of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3137","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3144,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3137\/revisions\/3144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}