“The Choir of Man”

Highly Recommended ***** If one is seeking 88 minutes of fun-filled entertainment, then they might want to hurry and get to see the International sensation, “The Choir of Man” as it starts its world tour at Broadway in Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, located at Water Tower Place on Michigan Ave. at Chestnut ( 175 East Chestnut to be exact). There are nine extremely talented, and also quite good- looking performers celebrating music that has great appeal to the masses. Nothing original about this show’s music. It is the music of  Adele, Queen, Katy Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul Simon and even a marvelous rendition of Man of La Mancha’s “Impossible Dream”. You will not believe the range of Andrew Bateup.

The concept, created by Andrew Kay and Nic Doodson is that we are visiting an Irish Pub, in one of the smaller towns that looks quite realistic  (set by Oli Townsend). Having been to Ireland, I recall going out pubbing at night ( not very much else to do in smaller villages) for a pint or two and a song. What this show does is bring nine men and their talent to the forefront with great harmonies, high energy dance, live percussion and foot-stomping/hand-clapping numbers that will almost give you the feeling of a “Stomp” but without the garbage cans. We do have some numbers where the men play music with beer mugs on tables and chairs and several times a mop does enter the stage. In particular when they do the “urinal scene”- a stitch to watch ( that is all I will say).

This is by far the most energetic “pub crawl” you will ever see filled with tap dancing (Matt Cox is vibrant) on tables, the bar, stairs, crates and of course the stage, music ( these men play a number of instruments including a bagpipe solo (Connor Going, who is also a solid pianist) as they perform music from folk, pub tunes, Broadway and even some classic rock. Something for everybody, including the people that they bring on stage from the audience. One of the press people, Annette Dixon, who publishes several South side newspapers, said she had a ball, as they brought her up, drew her a pint and had Peter Lawrence sing a lovely song to her. Lawrence is the biggest of the men, and probably the strongest ( although the very muscled Tom Brandon might be his rival) but was as sweet as he could be.

Each of these nine men has a special talent and all of them are a delight to watch as they drink, dance, sing and play. Mark Loveday is the barkeeper and the other members of the troupe are: Aidan Banyard, John Sheehy and Dennis Grindel. They do three part harmony, nine part harmony and a host of other sounds with their great vocal ranges. Often with no music, but as melodic as can be. “The Choir of Man” is a party for both the nine talented men on the stage and for the audience who truly loved every minute of the 88, and one more song brought it to 94 ( but I could have sat for even longer watching these men do their” thing”.

The only negative one can say about this production is that it is only here thru St. Patrick’s Day ( 3/17) with performances as follows:

Tonight  7:30 p.m.

Thursday  7:30 p.m.

Friday  7:30 p.m

Saturday  2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sunday  2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $39-$79 and can be purchased at the box office or any of the Broadway In Chicago box offices, or at www.BroadwayInChicago.com and at Ticketmaster.com

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Choir of Man”

As I said earlier, this is the start of their tour, so they could be back, but if you can alter your schedule, this is one that you truly must see!