Chicago BeAt … The Waco Brothers’ Jon Langford’s new musical, ‘All The Fame of Lofty Deeds’

Wild and feverish and overfilled with imagination, “All The Fame of Lofty Deeds,” written by Chicago rock journalist and writer Mark Guarino with music by local Waco Brother Jon Langford, is a bright bit of bold theater, a Fellini-like, honky tonk meditation of life, death, regret and artistic triumph and compromise.It’s always safe to bet that one of Chicago’s most adventurous theater companies, the House Theatre of Chicago, is going to pull out all the stops. This is the same troupe that set three installments of a trilogy as a Western, a Japanese samurai epic, and a 30s gangster drama, respectively, and achieved great heights with its critically acclaimed breakthrough “The Sparrow.” You can expect ambitious feats like live rock music or even choreographed, “Matrix”-style wire fights from their productions. But those elements can easily become gimmicks, suffocating the story at the center, or in the case of especially weak plays, substituting for it.

“Lofty Deeds” is loaded with fun flights of fancy like dancing, puppet-like human portraits, a talking horse and tumbleweed, and best of all, a killer soundtrack of rocking, rollicking Langford tunes, performed by an ace band. But it all serves an arresting, albeit imperfect, play of old country singer Lofty Deeds, who through Jim Beam and prescription pills, reflects on a successful career that masked personal failures.

A life in a retirement home breathing down his neck, Lofty, played by House artistic director Nathan Allen, recalls his past like a living dream. We revisit his roots singing church music with his brother Lefty (well played by Chicago theater newcomer Patrick Martin). The pair was on the verge of incredible stardom – movies, records, even a variety show – when Lefty’s alcoholism led to his young death. Lofty relishes having the spotlight to himself, and he becomes one of country music’s greatest stars, at the price of tarnishing his brother’s memory, selling out the soul of his music, and abandoning the one woman he loved (Lucy Carapetyan). As the music industry rolls on past him, much like that talking tumbleweed (Corri Feuerstein) serving as Lofty’s subconscious, all the country-singing cowboy has left is his pain and loneliness.

It’s a simple, tired story to be sure – the rise and fall of an artist – but Guarino’s approach, for the most part, is a fresh and fascinating one (think “Walk The Line” written and directed by David Lynch), getting you inside the head of its protagonist better than a straight-up take would have here. That talking tumbleweed serves as a poignant illustration of the wandering Lofty, while the talking horse caricature Mr. Pokey (Brandon Ruiter) from Lofty’s show effectively, and disturbingly, represents all that Lofty hates of his legacy and the crass commercialization of country music. And in depicting Lofty’s lost love, Guarino upholds the illusion, the ideal, of what was, and the longing for what could have been, without so much as giving the couple a scene of dialogue; their body language does all the talking beautifully, as does the depiction of Lofty’s love in a cheap dress, a black veil concealing her face. Moments such as these are such gems, it’s a shame Guarino shoves so much dialogue and exposition practically everywhere else. All that talking is distracting, diluting the dreaminess of the story. 

Director Tommy Rapley stages the action masterfully across set designer Lee Keenan’s beautiful set – a trailer nestled at the base of desert cliffs, a stage to the side for the musical interludes, and a floor passionately drawn with Lofty’s inspired lyrics (an ode to Langford’s own artwork, on display in the halls of the Chopin Theatre, where the play is being held). Sound and costume designers Brett Masteller and Debbie Baer, respectively, set their sights for the sublimely surreal and score.

The weakest link here, surprisingly, is arguably the company’s strongest asset overall – artistic director Nathan Allen as Lofty. The performance has many prized moments, particularly as a distraught Lofty sings “It’s Not Enough” in a broken voice on a bare stage. But Allen doesn’t have the gravitas to play a larger-than-life, remorseful country singer past his prime, and his babyface certainly doesn’t help make him convincing.  But the fact that the show works so well, despite such a large role being miscast, is a testament to all involved.

Grade: B+

“All The Fame of Lofty Deeds” is being performed Thursdays through Sundays (except Thanksgiving) at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division. Most shows are $25-$29. Click here for tickets.