Meet Me in St. Louis

With the holiday season upon us, and every other theatre in the city seemingly doing various incarnations of ‘A Christmas Carol' or ‘It's A Wonderful Life' what a grand distraction awaits at Drury Lane Water Tower Theatre with its transfer of last year's gorgeous production of Meet Me In St. Louis, directed to perfection by Jim Corti (who was a Jeff nominee for this production at Oakbrook Terrace).

Based on the 1944 MGM, Judy Garland vehicle, the stage adaption, with book by ‘Sweeny Todd's' Hugh Wheeler and Songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane played for 252 performances on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre starring Betty Garrett, George Hearn, Charlotte Moore and Milo O'Shea in the winter of 1989 and has been rarely revived to the critical acclaim which welcomed the Drury Lane Oak Brook production last year.

Taking place in 1904, Meet Me in St. Louis is an optimistic musical about the Smith family of St. Louis. Life is wonderful in St. Louis: the World Fair is about to begin and love is in the air. This happy world crumbles when Mr. Smith runs into financial trouble and announces that the family will have to move to New York. Soon, the family has packed all their things and is about to start the move. At the last minute, Mr. Smith realizes how much his family loves St. Louis. To the joy of everyone, Mr. Smith announces that the family will not leave St. Louis after all. Memorable musical numbers include The Boy Next Door, A Raving Beauty, The Trolley Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Whenever I'm with You and A Day in New York.

Wheeler's stage adaptation focuses the show much more on the entire family rather then Judy Garland's character of Esther, and for the obvious reasons. Every actress that plays the part will inevitably be compared to Ms. Garland, which ultimately would neither be fair to the show or the rest of the cast.

Mr. Corti has brought together most of the cast from the suburban run including the winsome Justin Berkobien as John Truitt, Cory Goodrich and Michael Gerhart as the Smith's matriarch and patriarch, Susan Hart as Katie, Nichole Hren and Lucille Ballard, and our favorite ‘Gipper' Brandon Dalquisht as Warren. Some new cast members include Megan Long as Ester, who has a marvelous control of her chest and head voice vibrato and one of Chicago's finest actor's, Richard Henzel, who clearly had his own cheering section on opening night.

Margret James' musical direction is by the book, with no surprises, though the on stage band, at times does take away from the any forced tension of play. Ray Nardelli's sound balance, from my vantage point, was a bit spotty and at times quite muffled, especially during the non musical banter. Tatjana Radisic's costumes are visually stunning especially combined with Jesse Klug's impeccably beautiful lighting design in off white hues.

So if you have had your fill of Scrooge and Clarence, go and ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' spending a few hours with the Smith family. Hopefully this will be a new holiday tradition at the gorgeous Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower.

Meet Me In St. Louis plays through December 21, 2008 at the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago, IL, 60611. For showtimes and tickets, please visit www.ticketmaster.com or call the box office at 312.642.2000. For more information on the show and upcoming productions, please visit www.drurylanewatertower.com