Lush score, star highlight imperfect 'Heaven' at Porchlight
Come for the melodrama. Stay for the music.
That's my advice to theatergoers considering Porchlight Music Theatre's Chicago-area premiere of “Far From Heaven,” the chamber soap operetta adapted from writer/director Todd Haynes' 2002 Oscar-nominated film revealing an ugly reality behind the pretty fiction of 1950s suburbia.
Pairing lush lyricism with jazzy discord, the contemporary score by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie (the duo behind “Grey Gardens”) is a pleasant surprise. In fact it's one of the highlights of this often formulaic show about racial, sexual and gender repression that simmers when it should boil.
Written by Richard Greenberg, “Far From Heaven” fails to credibly convey the characters' emotional journey. Frankly, I didn't buy the transformations, so the story kept me at arm's length emotionally despite the earnestness evident in director Rob Lindley's production, led by the enormously talented, always engaging Summer Naomi Smart.
Smart plays Cathy Whitaker (the role originated on screen by Julianne Moore), a housewife living in Hartford, Connecticut, during a time when life was golden if you were a white, suburban, middle-class, heterosexual male.
So it seems for Cathy. She's married to handsome, middle manager Frank (Brandon Springman) and living with their children Janice (Peyton Shaffer of Crystal Lake) and David (Nate Becker) in a tidy, two-story.
Cathy's perfect life begins to unravel after she catches her closeted husband in the arms of another man. She finds comfort (of the platonic kind) in a burgeoning friendship with Raymond (Evan Tyrone Martin), her African-American gardener. Their relationship sparks disapproval among Cathy's gossipy friends as well as members of the black community.
Dialogue flows almost seamlessly into songs that propel the story. In “Sun and Shade,” Raymond explains how some plants thrive in light and others in darkness, an obvious yet effective racial metaphor. Later, Cathy and Raymond bond over an art exhibition (the lovely “Miro”) yet - and this is another fundamental problem with the show - there's not much to suggest a growing attraction. Even when they dance together, during an afternoon errand to pick up plants that concludes at a diner, there's a big space between them. That gap never closes. As a result, the emotional stakes remain low.
Still, “Far From Heaven” is a show worth seeing. There's the score, of course, which is beautifully sung under the direction of music director Chuck Larkin, who conducts his sextet from lofts flanking the stage. Below is Grant Sabin's primary-color, deliberately nondescript, dollhouse-inspired set, which speaks volumes about Eisenhower-era conformity. Just as striking are Bill Morey's period costumes. The jewel-toned, crinoline-enhanced cocktail dresses, tweedy suits and swingy overcoats are beautiful.
The characters, however, are two-dimensional, despite the efforts of Smart, Martin and Springman.
Martin brings a refinement and sensitivity to Raymond. Springman's Frank has a lower profile throughout, but gets a memorable moment late in the second act courtesy of the lovely, introspective “I Never Knew.” Unfortunately, this moving revelation comes too late in the show.
As Cathy's sassy best friend Eleanor, Bria Sudia (so good in Northlight Theatre's “These Shining Lives”) delivers another star turn in a supporting role.
But this is Smart's show. From the moment we meet her until the bittersweet final scene where her initial oblivious contentment has been replaced by resolute understanding, her performance is nothing less than authentic.
“Far From Heaven”
★ ★ ★
Location: Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, (773) 327-5252 or
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through March 13
Running time: About two hours, 15 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $32-$48
Parking: Metered street parking, valet
Rating: For teens and older