Stage homage to Chaplin sparkles -- most of the time
The less Silent Theatre Company says, the better.
Take "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas," the ensemble's homage to film's consummate clown. Comprised of Chaplinesque bits meticulously directed by Tonika Todorova, the show mostly plays as a live version of a silent film.
When it does, it delights.
When it doesn't, when Todorova and her nimble, well-prepared cast disregard Silent Theatre's all action, no talk (or very little talk) approach, the otherwise charming "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas" totters. And not in a good way, as in the distinctive wobble immortalized by Chaplin's Little Tramp.
The show begins promisingly with a fast-moving, slapstick-heavy, dialogue-free pantomime involving an endearing vagabond, a misplaced baby, bilious cops and oblivious passers-by. Just as the madcap scene reaches its climax, a voice yells "cut," chatter ensues and exposition intrudes. Turns out, the scene is part of a movie whose director (David Fink) needs a hit to save his job. When the producer (Nicholas DuFloth) threatens to shut down the film, the desperate director says Charlie Chaplin has agreed to star in it. The lie buys time and sets up a mad scramble to find a look-alike played by the lithe and playful Marvin Eduardo Quijada.
With that clumsy and unnecessary setup out of the way, we jump ahead to the premiere. That's the point at which the production finds its footing. The rest of the play -- the best part of it -- unfolds as the live-action version of that silent movie.
Done true to form in glorious black-and-white (costumes and makeup included), "A Charlie Chaplin Christmas" is a very physical, broadly comic, slapstick-heavy show. And yet, it's not without its heartfelt moments, which also adheres to the Chaplin model.
The story centers on Quijada's tattered Tramp and the young runaway (the winsome Gillian Hastings) he befriends. Together they try to earn a few bucks for Christmas by outwitting Adam Yencho's cop and a pair of rivals winningly played by Kyla Louise Webb and Matthew Massaro.
Delivered at a frenetic pace with Vaudevillian flourish and minimal effects, "Chaplin Christmas" unfolds as a series of loosely connected scenes -- misadventures really -- underscored by bassist Brandon Mitchell, pianist David Taylor and reedman Rob Frye, who provide the music that accompanies the mayhem.
Meticulously staged by Todorova (the artfully choreographed prize fight between the Tramp and Curtis M. Jackson's Contender dazzles), the show emerges as a celebration of Chaplin's greatest bits. It has a fine lead in the shoulder-hitching, eyebrow-twitching Quijada. Every inch the Little Tramp in his toothbrush moustache and bowler hat, wearing an ill-fitting tuxedo jacket and baggy trousers and carrying his ever-present cane, the engaging Quijada lights up the stage every time he steps onto it.
"A Charlie Chaplin Christmas"
Three stars out of four
Location: Studio Theatre, Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St., Chicago
Times: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 6
Running time: About 70 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $20, $15
Box office: (312) 742-8497 or www.dcatheater.org
Rating: Suitable for all ages