Unlike the fear of Y2K which heralded the new 21st century, the arrival the twentieth century was the occasion for enthusiasm, hope, and braggadocio.
President William McKinley:
“The century now drawing to a close has been most memorable in the world’s progress and history. The march of mankind in moral and intellectual advancement has been onward and upward. The growth of the world’s material interests is so vast that the figures would almost seem to be drawn from the realm of imagination rather than from the field of fact.
All peoples have felt the elevating influences of the century. Humanity and home have been lifted up. Nations have been drawn closer together in feeling and interest and sentiment. Contact has removed old prejudices and home and abroad and brought about a better understanding which has destroyed enmity and promoted amity. Civilization has achieved great victories, and to the gospel of goodwill there are now few dissenters.
The century has blessed us as a nation. While it has not given us perfect peace, it has brought us constant and ever-increasing blessings, and imposes upon us no humiliation or dishonor.[i]”
In Chicago, Hall Caine, author of The Christian, prophesized
“When I remember the extraordinary movement of the world during the nineteenth century, and think of the mighty forces, both physical and moral , which are only now coming into play, I feel that to be still young at the beginning of the twentieth century with all the marvels it must surely unfold would be almost the greatest blessing and the highest privilege. To be twenty years of age in 1901, with the prospect of seeing 1950 is to be heir to an inheritance better and greater than the richest millionaire can leave behind him.”[ii]
Meanwhile, two Chicago smart-alecks were writing a play about the new century. Chares MacArthur, Pennsylvania-born Chicago newspaper reporter , brother of the man who would establish “genius grants”, and Ben Hecht, a Chicago Daily News columnist teamed up to joke about the new century with a play entitled The Twentieth Century, set on the century’s iconic Twentieth Century Limited, the super-duper Chicago to New York passenger train. On board would be representative characters of the age – the larger than life entrepreneur, the rags to riches actress, the “nut”, and all sorts of Americans trying to make it up the ladder of success. The play opened on Broadway in 1932 directed by George “Mister” Abbott.
Two years later Howard Hawks directed the film version starring Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. Barrymore played the parody of Broadway playwright – producer David Belasco with over-the-top gusto, while Carole Lombard played the “discovered” starlet Lily Garland, the former Mildred Plotke. Today the film reeks of the age’s cornball comedic situations and gags.
Nevertheless in 1978, composer Cy Coleman and word-smithers Betty Comden and Adolph Green turned the creaky old warhorse into the stage musical, On the Twentieth Century ran on Broadway for 460 performances,
After winning the Tony Award of 1978 for Best Musical, directed by Harold Prince, the road version came to Chicago’s McCormick Center’s cavernous Arie Crown theater with Rock Hudson miscast as Oscar Jaffe the producer and Judy Kaye as his former meal ticket and lover Lili Garland. The Tribune’s critic Richard Christiansen thought the production “derailed…a vacant train run amok”
Good news is at hand, however. Those of you who still remember that lemon of a road show have a chance to wash that memory away with a brand new wonderful production of On the Twentieth Century which is everything that misbegotten effort was not.
Chicago is famous for its hole -in -the – wall theaters giving new life to plays and acting.
And it is happening once again, with a brand new generation of theater artists, carrying on the historic tradition of their forebears.
The Blank Theater Company has revived the wonderful musical in a new performance venue at Clark Street’s Bramble Arts Lofts, with a cast bursting with talent and energy. Directed by Danny Kapinos, with a creativity which puts to shame directors with larger budgets and more experienced actors.
First Mr. Kapinos realized that the main character is not the producer Oscar Jaffee, even though the titan of the stage John Barrymore played the film role. The main character is the young actress Lili Garland. And the play is not primarily a satire of David Belasco. It is a love story. And he has cast the show accordingly.
Maxwell J. De Togne plays the producer without an ounce of ego and without any attempt to imitate Barrymore, and as a result he wins the audience over despite the character’s machinations. DeTogne’s Jaffee actually loves Lili Garland. And who wouldn’t as played by Karylin Veres. By comparison, Carole Lombard is a vacuous Lili Ms. Veres is a star in the mold of the late Marin Mazzie. Should Ms. Veres have played opposite John Barrymore, it would have been at least a draw, rather than a knock out by Barrymore in the first round. Theatergoers should go to this remarkable show to see this revival’s new and moving reinterpretation. In Kapinos’ production love and the audience wins.
He is ably supported by the music direction of Aaron Kaplan and the choreography of Jen Cupani. Rarely has so much excellent dance happened in so small a space. Rose Johnson’s stage design facilitates easy and swift changes as the train hurtles along. Cindy Moon’s costumes evoke the age with loving care.. The supporting cast is almost uniformly excellent – Christopher Johnson as the movie star Bruce Grant, Oscar’s rival for Lili’s love, Dustin Rothbart and Nick Arceo ably capture the toadienss of Jaffee’s right and left hand men. Lili Galluzzo headlines the bevy of others playing multiple roles. Watch out for Ms. Galluzzo. She may be a real Lily Garland in the making.
Unfortunately Alicia Berneche seems to have gotten so carried away by the exciting production that her Letitia Peabody Primrose went over-the-top and out of place. She played the character with an objective which was to convince everyone she was crazy, when in fact “nuts” in real life are characterized by the exact opposite objective.
The success of this production, like others this season, shows that Chicagoans will attend the theater in droves when the quality is excellent and the production avoids preaching.
[i] William Mc Kinley, Minneapolis, Minnesota October 12, 1900.
[ii] Hal Cain, “Mission of the Twentieth Century” December 30, 1900, Chicago Tribune p.37.