Review: ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’ by Gift Theatre has soaring songs but not the menace they’re escaping from
In Jim Cartwright’s “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice,” the struggling title character escapes from her dysfunctional and chaotic life into a world of French chansons and songbooks, far over the rainbow from the working-class life in Yorkshire, England, circa 1992.
Emjoy Gavino, who plays L.V., as her family calls her, sounds simply spectacular in those cabaret sequences, not only singing like everyone from Billie Holiday to Gracie Fields to Judy Garland, but simultaneously showing us their emancipatory power for her character. Cartwright (who also penned “Road,” the coming-out production of the great 1990s Chicago company Roadworks) was writing about the power of the arts not only as a means of escape from the various quotidian hells in which some young people find themselves caught at an early age, but also about their capacity for transformation. Gavino shows us every note of that possibility and it’s as moving as it is gripping to watch.
But there’s another side to “Little Voice,” a play I’ve adored for the last 30 years. A famous and justly beloved 1993 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production went on to Broadway and starred the roaring Rondi Reed as L.V.’s unloving mother Mari. But that side is muddy here.
Chicago’s Gift Theatre is currently working on Milwaukee Avenue at the Six Corners home of the Filament Theatre, a cool and comfortable space but considerably larger than its more intimate former digs. That bigger theater adds to the challenges, for sure. But the issues here are really about the need for more willingness to go to the harder places of life.
In essence, this new production from directors Devon de Mayo and Peter G. Andersen lacks edge and menace. Alexandra Main, who plays the chaotic, boozed-up Mari, chilling with her friend Sadi (Julia Rowley) and rolling around the living room with whomever might be available, captures the character’s gothic exuberance but we don’t feel that L.V. truly is at risk from this domestic scenario, mostly because the adults here, even including the sleazy talent agent Ray Say (Ben Veatch), are far too benign.
Compounding that issue is that L.V. doesn’t feel nearly Little Voiced enough in scenes where the other characters are constantly and condescendingly referring to her blocked voice and her reluctance, or inability, to speak her mind or her heart. In other words, the show has the empowered L.V. down to fabulous effect, thanks to Gavino, but not the motivation for her to use that music to free her natural voice, hitherto stymied by trauma and insecurity.
L.V. has a friend, Billy (Martel Manning), who (maybe) cares for her and you’re intended to see him as L.V.’s one assist, if any, in a brutal world. But that’s not really how it feels in this production, where you get a bevy of entertaining characters for sure, and much wild comic business ensues, but you don’t see and feel the core pain that makes L.V.’s eventual transformation to Laura so potentially cathartic.
So necessary.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Oct. 15
Where: Gift Theatre at Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $35-45 at 773-283-7071 or thegifttheatre.org
