To See Clue at The Mercury Theater Chicago

Sunday I went to the Mercury Theater to see their production of CLUE. You know, the one where they find out if Colonel Mustard killed the Maid in the greenhouse with the wrench. This play called Clue is based off of the movie called Clue based off the board game called Clue and is directed by L. Walter Stearns and written by Sandy Rustin. 

CLUE brings a bunch of people together that have been invited to a creepy mansion where they find out that a dude is blackmailing them. When they find out there is a murderer in the mansion, they try to find out who it is, who they killed, where they killed them, and with what they killed them with. Yes, like the game.

That is my summary and it seems short but just buy some tickets, watch the play, and you’ll see what I mean, trust me. The cast of this play is The maid, Yvette, who is played by Tiffany T. Taylor, The butler, Wadsworth, played by Mark David Kaplan, The Cook/Singing Telegram Girl, played by Honey West, Colonel Mustard, played by Jonah D. Winston, Mrs. White, played by Mckinley Carter, Mrs. Peacock, played by Nancy Wagner, Mr. Green, played by Kelvin Roston Jr., Professor Plum, played by Andrew Jessop, Miss Scarlet, played by Erica Stephan, Mr. Boddy/Motorist/Chief Of Police, played by Patrick Byrnes, And the Cop, played by Andrew McNaughton. My favorite actor was Jonah D. Winston, because he made so many funny jokes and wasn’t even laughing! And I think it was impressive how the rest of the cast didn’t laugh as well! Also, all of the acting was so good, that it almost made me think it was real! 

I think that the costume designer, (Marquecia Jordan) really made it realistic, because the costumes matched the characters PERFECTLY! And it was SO similar to the movie! In the movie and play, they were able to PERFECTLY recreate what happened when Mrs. White walked in! It’s INCREDIBLE. Also, I should mention how efficient the set design was! (designers: Bob Knuth, Keith Ryan, and others) It could go from one room to another in, like, 2 SECONDS! I also liked how every single scene had a unique piece of lighting, (great job, Max!) There are also a bunch of people that I can't mention because this can’t be too long, like managers and sound creators, so thanks to you all! There was only 1 thing that I didn't like about it, and that was the funny music that played in the movie when Wadsworth was running around wasn’t there, but for that to be the ONLY thing I missed, that’s impressive!

I liked all the parts where they mentioned the game, like when they ask, “Who built this place?” and then the butler says, “The Parker Brothers!” and when they were using the board from the game as a map. I just basically liked any moment where there was comedy involved, (which was pretty much the whole play) because I like to laugh and make jokes!  I give this play 47 Wrenches out of 47.1 Wrenches because izza good play. I think that anyone who just wants to laugh or have a good time should see this play, because if that’s what you’re looking for, believe me, it is NOT a waste of money.

So long, Gunnar

photo credit: Liz Lauren

to see Mary Poppins at the Mercury Theatre

On Saturday afternoon I went to see Mary Poppins, directed by L. Walter Stearns at the Mercury Theatre.  I went with Mommy and Auntie Kerry.  The play is about Mary Poppins (played by Nicole Armold) who is a magical nanny that comes to take care of Michael and Jane when their other nanny goes away.

Michael (played by Casey Lyons) and Jane (played by Sage Harper) are two kids who want to spend time with their daddy but their daddy, George Banks (played by Kevin McKillip) is too busy working at the bank.  Bert (played by Matt Crowle) is also magical like Mary Poppins because he draws pictures that he can jump into by snapping his finger he also sings a lot and tap dances on roof tops, he's really good at that.  I was really impressed with Jane and Michael, I thought they made strong characters in their acting.

I really loved the set designed by Adam Veness because you could see the outside and the inside of the house. The outside was a painted curtain and the inside had a lot of different rooms that could change for different scenes. I loved the attic nursery because when they turned it around you could see Bert on the top of the roof.

The costumes designed by Rachel Boylan were very colorful and magical. During the song Jolly Holiday some of the black skirts maybe had some strings on them that when you pulled them you could see a more colorful skirt underneath. And I liked the dress worn by Mrs. Corry who sings Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because it had lots of colors and lots of letters. I also really like Mary Poppins' costumes because she looked just like the Mary Poppins from the movie. Another costume part I thought was cool was when chimneys turned out to be people wearing chimneys for hats, there was even smoke coming out.

The show is really cool because it was full of magic and Mary Poppins was able to make things fly and even she could fly! My favorite part was when Michael and Jane were making icing for the cake and the Butler (played by Timothy Eidman) thought it wasn't icing he backed away and bumped into cabinets and made all the dishes crash and then he fell down and fell asleep, that was the silliest part it made me laugh so much. And my other favorite part was when George Banks was at the bank and he was thinking about how to say something and then he sang "it's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" because he was being so silly and he finally decided to play like his kids.

I think the lessons to learn were for Michael and Jane to listen to their nanny and to learn new things and George Banks learned how to play with his children more.

I really think all of my friends especially Jo and Matilda and Sofia and Olivia and Mia and everyone in the whole wide world should see this show because then everyone can learn to be kind and listen to each other! Also they should see it because it is so fun!

I would give this play 9,900 points because it's the best play I ever saw!!

Love,
Gunnar

www.mercurytheatrechicago.com