The pub at the heart of Chicago’s new party show and likely bachelorette destination “The Choir of Man” is known as The Jungle, but Upton Sinclair and Chicago’s notorious stockyards are as far from this experience as “Britain’s Got Talent” is from “The Iceman Cometh.”
What transpires at the Apollo Theater is the endlessly enthusiastic provision of a rip-roaring, beer-fueled good time, as created by a group of manly, mostly British performers who here are populating the kind of public house that exists only in our collective mythology. We might be in Ireland, or maybe in London, or maybe in some imagined emo-boozy nirvana halfway across the Irish Sea where everybody knows your name, a bevy of musical instruments are in the back, and everyone might start to warble in collective harmony at the mere pull of a draft or the scent of a half of lager.
That’s what you get in this hit from London’s West End, as created by Andrew Kay and Nic Doodson: A genial narrator, Shane McDaid, yaks on about the glory of the public house, how we’re all social creatures, yada, yada, and introduces us to the regulars, all of whom go by such soubriquets as “Bore,” “Beast,” “Romantic” and “Joker” and who do various things such as sing, tap, play whatever instrument lies at hand and find women from the audience to break up the roaring testosterone on stage. Over about 90 minutes, this baker’s dozen performers sing such jukebox pleasures as “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” “Chandelier” (as in, “I’m gonna swing from”), “You Raise Me Up,” the Adele hit “Hello,” Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” and, switching it up for a bit of pathos, Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” You get solos, ensemble pieces and full-throated a capella, depending on the mood.
“The Choir of Man” has actually been in Chicago before and it has come a long way. When I first saw this show, the dudes sung to tape. But this sit-down production features not only only multi-instrumentalists among the main cast but a live band, which has vastly improved the experience. The singing is very solid, the guys are sweet and likable, the script is amusingly corny and the whole thing is so determined to please its audience that it throws everything against the wall, whether that means handing out free beers or using a slingshot to send packets of Doritos soaring to the back wall, as if we all were at a ball game. I hope, over time, these guys relax a little more.
Much good work has been done here visually by set designer Oli Townsend to turn the historically challenging Apollo space into a credible pub (you can buy a beer from the actors before the show). I’ve seen scores of shows here over the years, but this is the first set I’ve seen that has enough height to make the theater feel genuinely immersive.
If this kind of faux pub culture on steroids is not your thing, or your mood, then caveat emptor, friends. But Chicago needs (and historically has supported) at least one of these kinds of long-running shows: fun, optimistic, requiring zero intellectual investment and enjoyable by those of multiple demographics. After a long day conventioneering or sightseeing or just plain remote-working, god help humanity, here can be found a beer, a laugh and a song.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Choir of Man” (3 stars)
When: Through May 26
Where: Apollo Theater, 2550 N. Lincoln Ave.
Running time: 1 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $35-$109 at 773-935-6100 or ticketmaster.com
