Dueling Critics: City Lit Revives ‘Oh Boy!‘

Dueling Critics: City Lit Revives ‘Oh Boy!‘
Dueling Critics: City Lit Revives ‘Oh Boy!‘

Dueling Critics: City Lit Revives ‘Oh Boy!‘

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A hundred years ago the American musical was still taking shape. Sure, there were operettas, and grand reviews and comedies that tossed in some of the popular songs of the day. But it was the great Jerome Kern who had the idea, or the audacity, to write songs that actually went with the action and drama taking place on stage. The idea didn’t reach fruition until his 1927 musical Showboat. But Kern had been tinkering with the concept for some time. You can hear that musical tinkering, as well as the witty words of P.G. Wodehouse in City Lit Theater’s revival of Oh Boy! on stage for the first time in Chicago since 1918. Eight Forty-Eight’s Dueling Critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman have this review.

On Stage:
Oh Boy!
Throught July 11
City Lit Theater

Music Button:  Cripple Clarence Lofton, “I Don’t Know” from the CD Boogie Woogie Kings, (Delmark)