Nina Metz

The highlight of my week generally occurs when the latest issue of The New Yorker arrives in the mail--which is probably a sad comment on my life, but there you have it. Since the magazine offers some of the best writing anywhere, in order for a musical about The New Yorker's origins to work, the writing needs to be topnotch. Chicago playwright Cheri Coons has done an admirable job with the material, as has composer Michael Duff (also a Chicagoan). It's all very stylish and period appropriate. But the musical still needs a little work, particularly the first act, which would benefit from a series of nips and tucks. Founded in 1925 by husband-and-wife Harold Ross and Jane Grant (two members of the famed Algonquin Round Table), the magazine got off to a rocky start due to problems with financing. Complicating matters was the presence of Alexander Woollcott, the infamous drama critic for the New York Times, who ended up playing roommate with the couple in their shabby Hell's Kitchen walkup, aka Wit's End. But from the get-go, the story about the magazine's beginnings feels like an incidental plot device, something to fill up time when Woollcott isn't on stage. Which actually isn't such a bad thing since he is played with irascible charm by supple-voiced Blake Hammond, who steals the show every chance he gets.

"At Wit's End" plays at the Northlight Theatre, the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9601 North Skokie, Skokie, (312)514-1802, through June 22.

(2003-05-28)

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