In December 2006, two new rock musicals opened on Broadway three days apart. One was Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s Spring Awakening, based on the 1891 drama by German expressionist playwright Frank Wedekind—a dark study of teen alienation featuring suicide, rape, and abortion. The other was High Fidelity by David Lindsay-Abaire, Tom Kitt, and Amanda Green: a lightweight comedy adapted from Nick Hornby’s 1995 best seller and the popular movie it spawned, about a thirtysomething record store owner named Rob who tries to win back the heart of the woman who dumped him.
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Now High Fidelity is receiving its Chicago debut from Route 66 Theatre Company, in the Pipers Alley space previously occupied by Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding. Reconfigured as a cabaret theater, with table seating and a cash bar, the venue is well suited to the informality of Peter Amster’s likable, rough-edged staging. Where the Broadway production locates the action in Brooklyn, Amster has moved it to Chicago—which is also where the movie, starring and cowritten by Evanston-bred John Cusack, is set. (It was coproduced by Cusack’s New Crime Productions, which began life as an off-off-Loop theater company whose messy but creative efforts here in the late 80s and early 90s included an adaptation of Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that starred Jeremy Piven.)
The inherent challenge for a musical about music snobs is that the music had better be damn good. Here, it’s just OK. Kitt’s original score consists of generic, sometimes clever songs in various styles—alt-rock, soul, R & B, rap, country, and Beatles-style raga rock—meant to evoke the characters’ musical world while poking fun at it. Laura’s hard-driving “Number 5 With a Bullet” sounds like a Heart hit, while Dick’s “Exit Sign” takes aim at Neil Young’s whining (an easy target if ever there was one), and Barry’s rousing “Goodbye and Good Luck” is a dead-on Bruce Springsteen send-up.
Through 10/4: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4:30 and 8:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Pipers Alley, 230 W. North, 312-664-8844, route66theatre.org, $25-$39.50.
