Review: ‘Skates a New Musical’ opens in the Studebaker Theatre — a wobbly new musical about teenage memories of a roller rink
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Chicago’s venerable Studebaker Theatre officially rejoined the distinguished club of historic Chicago theaters Sunday night as the grand old venue — now beautifully restored to its 1917 glory and an ideal size for plays and smaller musicals — hosted the world premiere of a new commercial show dedicated to the nostalgia of the teen-friendly roller rinks that once ringed downtown Chicago.
I wish I could report that “Skates a New Musical,” a courageous enterprise that survived both the pandemic closure and the loss of its former venue, the Royal George Theatre, was a smash hit likely to draw swarming crowds to the Studebaker.
More accurately, it’s a modestly entertaining (at best) new show that relies for its appeal on the talent of its cast (led by the former “American Idol” vocalists Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young) and its heart being firmly in the right place. Penned by the married couple of Christine Rea (book and lyrics) and Rick Briskin (music and lyrics), “Skates” is the kind of show that once would have thrived somewhere like the old Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in suburban Summit, a venue that specialized in shows (”Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” and the like), wherein ordinary people came together to remember their youth. Alas, time has moved on.
The mother lode of this Chicago genre is, of course, “Grease,” which rolls on seemingly forever. But “Skates,” alas, lacks comparable veracity, wit and skills of characterization.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the show, directed by Brenda Didier, is of a weird scale: the ambitions of the book require a much larger cast than the 10 hardworking performers in the show. There’s no ensemble as such, and insufficient performers to really do what you keep wanting more than anything: a “Xanadu”-like recreation of a swirlingly romantic night at a roller rink like the fictional Windy City Skates in the show. The show is, after all, called “Skates,” the cast are wearing skate boots and there’s a talented choreographer, Christopher Chase Carter, on deck. But due also to a weak design, it never really happens in a way that captures what it was like to be a teenager in the late 1970s, lapping around and showing off or trying to avoid catastrophe, depending on your level of cool. (Or total lack thereof.)
Rea’s story, based in part, she has said, on personal memory, begins in 1994. Our 29-year-old hero Jacqueline Miller, a successful rock star played by DeGarmo, is in a malaise over unreliable men (especially Blake, played by Ace Young) and a mismanaged tour. So she visits her younger 1970s self (Emma Lord) in the simpler roller-rink days, fighting off a boy-crazy frenemy (Kelly Felthous), sparring with the edgy denizens of the rink like Tonya (Adia Bell), dealing with her loving brother (Zach Sorrow) and parents (Cory Goodrich and Jason Richards) and mostly ignoring the affections of a good local guy, Scotty (Adam Fane). As we anticipate from the get-go, she rediscovers herself through coming to terms with her own past. Alas, all the plot reveals in this show occur first in the viewer’s own head.
The issue with the weak book, and even the direction, is that you have a lot of adults playing very exaggerated versions of teenagers, who shout and wildly emote and, frankly, spend a lot of time doing the opposite of what teenagers actually do. In order to work — consider the “Grease” playbook — the show needs truthful depictions, allowing us all of recognize ourselves. The show certainly has fun stuff — watching the funny Kelvin Rolston Jr., wobble and skate around is a great time — but in Act 1, that crucial sense of truth is mostly elusive.
Act 2 works better. The best songs in the mixed bag of a score, a sweet ballad called “Crushin’ On You” and a potent dance number called “Forward Motion,” come to the fore, and the capabilities of very decent performers like Goodrich, Richards, Fane, Lord and DeGarmo herself get more air. The production, which is unspeakably frenetic at first, calms down a little and you start to see the bones of a show that might appeal to high schools and summer theaters in the future.
Nostalgia is a powerful force in the theater and often highly successful since it tends to be valued more by audiences than artists. But it’s a kind of sense memory, a sensual gauze and, when harvested to the best effect, a revelation of how you used to feel when young; the impossibility of the return makes us crave it all the more. You can see all this in “Jersey Boys,” “Hairspray” and the like, including a show headed to Broadway later this year, “Kimberly Akimbo.”
“Skates” needs first and foremost to relax, to swirl a little in its own past, to dial back all the grating, Wikipedia-like references to this era, to nix the stereotypes and find some genuine Chicago-style specificity and wit. The truth and the way forward lie in summoning all these details — emotional, musical and kinetic.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “Skates the Musical” (2 stars)
When: Open run
Where: Studebaker Theatre in the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $46-$99 at 312-753-3210 and www.skatesthemusical.com
