Sept. 17--"Come look at the freaks," they sing in "Side Show,"' the 1997 Broadway musical with the cult following and a show inspired by the real-life travails of the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton -- sisters bonded, quite literally, at the hip.
But no musical ever has thrived entirely on the back of voyeurism.
The tagline is a misnomer -- for any production of "Side Show" to work, the effect has to be not so "come look at the freaks" as "come feel for the freaks." Or, better yet, come and understand that we all fly the freak flag high; it's just that some us have more powerful company than others.
When "Side Show," which features book and lyrics by Bill Russell and a score by Henry Krieger ("Dreamgirls"), showed up again on Broadway last season (with a deftly revised book by Russell) and, once again, failed to attract enough of a mainstream audience to stay in profitable business, conventional wisdom had it that the show was just too edgy for the audience. I begged to differ. Musicals about complex female friendships suffering through life's travails have a distinguished track record -- you may know a show called "Wicked," and the Broadway-bound "Beaches" is hoping to capitalize on that very same hook. "Side Show" is no weirder than "Wicked" the problem with the recent revival was rather that the Hilton twins were cool and invulnerable and the production spent so long working on making them act and feel like twins that it obscured the central thrust of the show: Daisy and Violet want nothing so much as to be seen as individuals. Each loves her sister, sure, but that doesn't mean they enjoy sharing the same body.
In those crucial aspects -- empathy, vulnerability, individual distinction -- Michael Weber's new Chicago production for the Porchlight Music Theatre is more successful than the show I saw on Broadway. The two young performers playing the Hiltons -- Colleen Fee as Daisy and Britt-Marie Sivertsen as Violet -- are, thank heavens, as different from each other as two conjoined twins could be expected to be. They sing Krieger's lovably anachronistic power ballads exceptionally well, and most important of all, they are immensely likable. Sivertsen really does fabulous work here. Of a kind that will get her noticed. Individually.
These two women are well-supported by the actors playing the pair of men who promise that they will help the ladies say goodbye to the sideshow, only to infuse the poor twins' distinctive existence with all kinds of other complexities -- Devin DeSantis has the right air of melancholy for Buddy Rodgers, the man with whom Violet falls in love, while Matthew Keffer deftly dances on the knife-edge between kindness and exploitation.
Halfway through "Side Show" at Tuesday's opening, I found myself musing how well this theater at Stage 773, carved out of the former Theatre Building, has worked for Porchlight, a company that produces big musicals on small budgets. For the most part, Daisy and Violet are down-center -- you don't just get to look at the freaks, you get to feel them just a few feet away. Although many of us still remember with great fondness the Northlight Theatre's "Side Show," it did not deliver this level of intense intimacy.
It is very tempting to overplay in "Side Show," and there are times when some of the ensemble overpush. Not all of the stage pictures are artful, and the choreography has some ragged moments. Given the constraints of space, cast size and money, it would have been better to come up with a leaner visual metaphor, although fans of the history of the freak show will appreciate the plethora of historic projections (by Ross Hoppe) that show up as part of Megan Truscott's ambitious design. The whole thing feels a tad over-researched and under-metaphored. But none of that torpedoes the key pleasures of the night.
Most fans of this show love songs like "I Will Never Leave You" and "Who Will Love Me As I Am?" (which could just as well have been in "Dreamgirls" or recorded by Whitney Houston) and appreciate the distinctive dilemma of the central protagonist -- er, protagonists. "Side Show" isn't at all freakish when you care about the twins, each looking for love with a sister willing to close her eyes.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@tribpub.com
REVIEW: Side Show at Porchlight Music Theatre
3 STARS
When: Through Oct. 25
Where: Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $39-$45 at 773-327-5252 or porchlightmusictheatre.org
