AUDIENCE COMMENTS

 

“This play had something for everyone. Laughter and tears all at the same time. The music was outstanding thanks to the genius of Stephen Schwartz. I especially liked the way they integrated the different music from several plays to connect with this play…outstanding. The actors were marvelous! Especially the two leads…Great to see the Wizard again!! A must see….I will go again!”

 

“I have been coming to Northlight for over 30 years and I think this was one of the best shows yet.”

“Terrific cast. Was totally enjoyable. Wouldn’t mind seeing it again.”

“We loved the play.  Especially touching for long-time marrieds like us.  I was watching the audience members at the end.  Men were putting their arms around their wives, taking their hands, giving them a kiss.  Made ‘em think…“

 

“Great voices. Moving. I’m planning on seeing this again.”

“Great acting, story, music…laughed out loud, teared up at the end. Great start to the season!”

“The show made us laugh and cry and isn’t that what a great show should do.  We loved it and highly recommend it for a new and ‘inspiring’  theatrical experience.”

 

“One of the best musicals that I have seen in quite a while. The voices were outstanding and the story was told flawlessly. An enjoyable evening at the theater.”

 

“My husband and I absolutely loved Snapshots! We both cried uncontrollably during the last 15-20 minutes of the show. Bring tissues. We could definitely relate to the characters as we are at the same point in our lives. It gave us hope for a happy future together. It made us appreciate the past that we’ve shared together. We would highly recommend seeing it.”

 

“We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we purchased these tickets. Our rule rules is that if we really don’t like a performance, we’ll leave at intermission. Wow! Not a chance! We thoroughly enjoyed this performance. The subject matter was excellent and the performances were absolutely outstanding!  This was the second show we attended at Northlight and we are seriously considering season tickets.”

 

“One of the best musicals I have seen in years. Perfectly casted with six extremely talented individuals.”

 

“I thought it was a great show. In the week since I saw it I have recommended to everyone I know.”

 

“One of the most enjoyable I have seen in a long time. Technical and staging and cast, exceptional.”

 

“The music was extraordinary.”

 

REVIEWS

Gags, gimmicks blur musically gorgeous ‘Snapshots’

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
September 26, 2011
By CHRIS JONES Theatre critic

 

At one of the key moments in “Snapshots” — the unusual new show at the Northlight Theatre celebrating and re-conceiving the remarkable music of Stephen Schwartz — we watch an older man, whose marriage is in crisis, watching his younger, happier self pace a delivery room. The expectant father is singing “All Good Gifts,” originally from “Godspell,” and a melody of great beauty.

At that moment, you’re struck that the idea behind “Shapshots” (not quite a revue and not quite a full-fledged musical) is a very good one. At the top of “Snapshots,” which has a book by David Stern, a middle-aged woman (played by Susie McMonagle) climbs to her attic to get the suitcase that will help her leave her husband (Gene Weygandt). He shows up from work, oblivious as ever, and the two end up looking back through their lives as lovers, parents and take-each-other-for-granted spouses, with the wife’s impending exit providing the requisite tension. Their younger selves, variously played by Megan Long, Jess Godwin, Nick Cosgrove and Tony Clarno, act out vistas from their lives, singing Schwartz as they go, often with lyrics newly penned by the composer himself.

 

The idea works because of the originality of the set-up, but also because Schwartz’s songs, filled with aspiration and quizzical wonder, fit the basic premise so well. “All Good Gifts” and “Fathers and Sons” (from “Children of Eden”) make perfect paternal sense, just as “Magic to Do” or “Corner of the Sky” work with the young and graduating. I was very touched by how the show uses “Meadowlark” as a picture book that sad-eyed McMonagle finds in the attic, her life flown away. And, thanks in no small measure to some truly superb arrangements from Steve Orich, who also musically directs this strong cast, there are some very clever song pairings that work on one level for Schwartz aficionados and another for everyone else: For example, the upbeat “Lion Tamer” from “The Magic Show” leads beautifully into “I’m Not That Girl” from “Wicked,” fused with even more self-doubt.

 

I could go on about many more such inspired musical choices here, most of which are beautifully sung, especially by Long and Clarno. Schwartz’s new lyrics, like all of his old lyrics, are wise, direct and generally superb.  Read more>

 

 

PREVIEW

New setting for classic Schwartz songs in ‘Snapshots’

PIONEER PRESS
September 6, 2011
By MYRNA PETLICKI Contributor

 

Northlight Theatre Artistic Director BJ Jones has a two-word explanation as to why he chose to open the season with the Chicago premiere of “Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook” — “Stephen Schwartz.”

 

“Clearly Stephen Schwartz is one of the great musical theater icons,” Jones said, adding rhetorically, “How long has ‘Wicked‘ been on, four or five years? He has consistently been a major player on Broadway as long as I can remember. Arguably he’s as prolific as anyone in the business today.”

 

Snapshots blends some of Schwartz’s most beautiful songs through a book by David Stern about a couple of newly empty nesters who are reflecting on their life together. It stars Gene Weygandt as Dan and Susie McMonagle as Sue. (Tony Clarno, Nick Cosgrove, Jess Godwin and Megan Long play the characters at different stages of their lives.) Ken Sawyer directs.

 

Favorite songs

 

Jones said that Schwartz “has taken some of his favorite pieces, stretching over a pretty broad spectrum of work that he has written, and put them into a new context, giving us the opportunity to appreciate anew and — in some cases — discover how really gifted and prolific he is. And it’s such an accessible and relatable story.”

 

Weygandt described Dan as “a typical American middle-aged husband. I don’t mean that to be denigrating to the character but I think that’s part of the point of it. Everybody comes to a point in their lives when they ask themselves quite seriously, ‘How from where I started did I get to where I am?’ ”

 

His wife Sue has similar questions. “She’s frustrated in her life. They’ve been married for 20 years,” McMonagle related. “Although they love each other, it’s very easy to drift into complacency.” As in most long-term relationships, there are sometimes miscues in communication.

 

“I think through stopping to take a real close look at their relationship, she realizes that it’s not just his fault,” McMonagle said. “Relationships are fluid and you have to constantly feed them.”

 

So often when a book is formed around a collection of existing songs the story seems forced. That’s not the case here, the actors insist.

 

Weygandt credits David Stern’s “skill as a writer and his enormous love for Stephen’s material. And the other half of the equation is Stephen’s writing. There are precious few writers working these days who have such an enormous ability to cut to the heart of the issue to describe the human heart in such a simple and potent way.”

 

“I am really excited about this show,” McMonagle said. She noted that prior to auditioning, she knew that “Snapshots“ would be musically wonderful because of Schwartz’s writing. “Once I read the book, I thought, ‘This is amazing,’ ” McMonagle said.

 

The score includes numerous Schwartz tunes, including “All Good Gifts” (“Godspell”), “Fathers and Sons” (“Working”), “Chanson” (“The Baker’s Wife”), “Meadowlark” (“The Baker’s Wife”), and “I’m Not that Girl” (“Wicked”).

 

On the scene

 

Composer and lyricist Schwartz has been heavily involved in this production, including attending casting sessions and some rehearsals.

 

Weygandt noted that Schwartz was also in Chicago for his production of “Working” at Broadway Playhouse in February. In addition, Weygandt had a lot of contact with Schwartz during the years he played the Wizard in “Wicked”, in Chicago and on Broadway.

 

“It’s quite remarkable working with Stephen Schwartz,” Weygandt said. “ ‘With’ is the operative word for Stephen. He assumes that everyone in the room is operating at his level. It’s a wonderful way to work when this guy who has had such enormous success and is so enormously talented and prolific treats you as a collaborator.”

 

“I was extremely nervous to meet him,” McMonagle admitted. That fear dissipated within 30 seconds, she reported. “He’s just people,” she said. “He creates an atmosphere where you feel extremely comfortable.”

 

 

 

Read the review on the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate

 

 

Snapshots makes city’s top ten lists

 

The Anticipation Index: Ten shows to buy tickets to now

CHICAGO MAGAZINE
October, 2011
By CATEY SULLIVAN

“Northlight’s cast is also a dazzler, featuring the soulful clarion pipes of Susie McMonagle and the Schwartz specialist Gene Weygandt.” Read more>

 

 

Top Ten Plays to Watch

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
September 16, 2011
By CHRIS JONES Tribune Critic

 

“Stephen Schwartz is having a busy fall. Along with working on the Broadway revival of Godspell, Schwartz is in town this weekend and working with the Northlight Theatre on a newly developed piece called ‘Snapshots’…Schwartz’s songs from the likes of ‘Pippin’ and ‘The Baker’s Wife’ provide the backdrop for the new story of a marriage at a crossroads.” Read more>

 

 

The pick of a promising fall season

PIONEER PRESS
September 13, 2011
By CATEY SULLIVAN Contributor

 

“Assembling the pieces: An A-list cast that includes Broadway vet and Evanstonian Susie McMonagle and former Wizard of Oz (for ‘Wicked’ of both Broadway and Broadway in Chicago) Gene Weygandt.” Read more>

 

 

2011 Fall Theater Guide

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
September 1, 2011
By CHRIS JONES Tribune Critic

 

“Broadway producers looking for new material will…have to find their way to ‘Snapshots’…a show that draws from the music of that phenomenally successful pop composer Stephen Schwartz (‘Wicked’, ‘Godspell’, ‘Pippin’).” Read more>