Off to See the Wizard, with Danahey on the Loose

 

 

A wizard, then another drew me into Chicago for two consecutive Thursdays.

First, it was off to see Todd Rundgren perform at the Copernicus Center.

Rundgren put out an album way back in 1973 called A Wizard, A True Star.

I have not listened to A Wizard, A True Star but was familiar with Rundgren through a few of his songs and that he’s produced a boatload of albums for a variety of artists.

The Band. Paul Butterfield Blues Band. New York Dolls. Grand Funk Railroad. Patti Smith. Shaun Cassidy. Cheap Trick. Psychedelic Furs. XTC. Hall and Oates. The Tubes. To name some of them.

His biggest success as a producer/studio wizard came with the 1977 release of Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, which Rundgren said he decided to do because he saw the project as a Bruce Springsteen parody. According to the internet, that album has sold more than 43 million copies.

Beyond all the above, as this blog from the internet says, Rundgren’s musical history will blow your mind.

I interviewed Rundgren once, probably more than a decade ago. If I recall, he said he found the whole idea of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dubious for a number of reasons. He was inducted in 2021 but skipped the ceremony.

Cool for him. First, if it’s going to exist at all, it should be called the Pop Culture Hall of Fame or Museum of Pop Culture, which would be way more truthful, wide-ranging and interesting. Second, the main guy behind this hall is, as the kids say, cringe.

Anyway, I went to Rundgren’s concert because my buddy Traci wound up with free tickets. This was almost like being back in high school and winning tickets from a radio station. Something like that.

Neither one of us were that familiar with Rundgren’s music, but the price was right. Plus, the Irish American Heritage Center is just a mile from the Copernicus Center. Had they been open, we might have stopped by for a drink. That was our backup.

Alas, I enjoyed the concert.

 

Rundgren is 76 years old. Judging by the crowd milling about before the show, I half expected buses from senior centers to be parked in front.

Traci said she saw a few more-than-a-little-tipsy tipsy women when in line for the bathroom. Maybe they were reliving their high school or college days before relieving themselves.

A question I heard fans ask others was what was the first Rundgren album they bought or first Rundgren concert they attended. And there was a sea of white hair above the seats in front of us.

Hey, the same scenario happens at many shows these days. That’s not to mention town fests that are so filled with Journey cover bands that I have totally stopped believing.

But who knows if there will even be many bands left touring in a decade or so.

To Rundgren’s credit, his show wasn’t exactly an exercise in nostalgia.

Sure, the background music before the show was mellow standards. And Rundgren’s opening act was an affable Chicagoan, Lloyd C. Wilson, who played standards from various eras on a piano.

A congenial Rundgren introduced Wilson. He told the crowd how he likes to visit the city and eat at Gibsons.

Overall, I found Rundgren’s show a pleasant way to spend a late summer night. To call it yacht rock wouldn’t be fair to his set. But what he and his fine backing band played would fit in nicely next to the likes of Steely Dan and the blue eyed soul of Rundgren’s fellow Philadephian, Daryl Hall.

There was a pretty good light show to accompany the music, too. Here’s a review from The Oakland Press about a tour stop in MIchigan earlier this year. It confirms that Rundgren wasn’t relying on hits of any sort, unlike how a Rolling Stones stadium extravaganza does.

Traci and I wound up leaving before the show ended. She had to be up early for work. Also, we are suburbanites which means stuff in Chicago typically is at least a 40 minute drive away, even at 10 p.m.

I enjoyed  hearing music I wasn’t that familiar with. And during the week after the show I found this interview Rundgren did on WGN radio.

 

 

Off to see another wizard

Which brings us to the next wizard.

This most recent Thursday, Best Fest Buddy Tom and I headed to the Nederlander Theatre in the Loop to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The play runs there through Feb. 1, 2025, and is the first stop on the first US tour of the production.

The play is set 19 years after Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, the last book (and movie) in the seven-book series about the boy wizard.

That book came out in 2007, and the movie version was released in two parts, one in 2010, the next in 2011. The first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, came out in 1997, and the movie version was released in 2001.

So an 8-year-old who read the first book upon its release would be 35 years old now! Where does the time go, eh?

Speaking of time, from where I live it can take three hours to get downtown. On this particular Thursday, we were going to try to stop at Guinness Open Gate Brewery, for an appetizer, a pre-show pint and to mark our trek to the brewery’s grand opening a year ago.

Traffic nullified the deal. There wouldn’t be enough time. Cripes, the Waze app said it would take 15 minutes just to trek 1.7 miles from Guinness Open Gate to the theater.

Waze took us through the brick bungalow neighborhoods of the city’s northwest side for a bit – much as it did for the trip to see Rundgren. Coincidentally, the circuitous route to the theater took us by the Copernicus Center. Weird.

Once parked, we encountered a fresh-faced young straight couple, dressed nicely in  coordinated outfits, who were also heading to the show. Then, stepping out of the garage, a nice homeless man, sitting on the ground, pointed us toward the theater, without us even asking.

Well, we do look suburban – and had dressed for the occasion. I donned a Beary Potter t-shirt I picked up at the St. Louis Zoo. Tom had on a Harry Potter Gryffindor tie. We both wore professorial blazers with patches on the sleeves.

Hey. We were undercover. Dress-up is part of the deal when you see a show like this.

That was confirmed when we went to Petterino’s for a beverage and a bite to eat. We sat at the bar. Tom parked his fanny next to a woman who looked a bit like someone he used to know. She had on a Harry Potter t-shirt.

To my right were two 20- or 30-something women talking about going to see the play. I told them I had auditioned to be a Death Eater, but weighed too much for the harness system.

Maybe due to that aforementioned wizardry, I received a complimentary beer. One poured foamy, so the bartender gave it to me for free.

Soon, though, it was showtime.

Time, it turned out, was among the themes of the play.

See, the boy wizard is in the early stages of middle age and the parent of a son. Harry and his wife send their son, Albus Severus Potter, to Hogwarts, where they went to school. They want their kid to be a wizard, too.

A lesson I learned from the play: Don’t send your kids to the same school you attended, particularly if you are a legend at that school, like Harry Potter was.

Second, don’t name your kids after your idols.

Those two things can put a kid under a lot of pressure and expectations. Which is to say, it can suck to be a nepo baby.

Here’s a review/synopsis. Here’s another.  While the Chicago version is a new one, here’s a review of what played in Toronto two years ago.

(By the way,  there are two Chicago actors in the cast. Larry Yando, who usually plays Scrooge in the Goodman Theater’s  annual production of A Christmas Carol, plays Severus Snape. Matt Mueller plays a grown-up Ron Weasley. In his role, Lando looks a bit like the William Hartnell version of Doctor Who.)

Anyway, outside the Nederlander after the show, I  heard a guy say it was good but seemed like something you would see at an amusement park.

I thought that pace was super fast, covering a lot of ground in just under 3 hours. (The original version of the play was 6 hours and performed over two nights, much like a Wagnerian opera.)

The special effects were great: fiery wand fights; shape shifting; demonic dementors; teletransportation; a book shelf that swallows people; the whole stage oscillating; even a scene set underwater.

If you aren’t up on your wizard lore, your Harry Potter-phermalia, though, you most likely will get lost at this.

Toward that, fans would cheer when old, familiar characters made their entrances, such Professor McGonagall (whose name always reminded me of now-defunct  McGonigal’s Pub in Barrington.) Eerily and coincidentally Maggie Smith, who played McGonagall in the movies, passed away the day after this play opened in Chicago.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is intended for people who grew up with the books and movies. Nostalgia, like at the Rundgren concert, is at play here. But when isn’t the past present in our pop culture?

There’s lots of music and choreography in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, too. So much so that I expected the cast to start singing at any given moment.  As for that music, Tom said it reminded him of Riverdance, Celtic Woman and Celtic Thunder.

As for the plot, it  involves turning back time with a Time Turner, which made me think of Tina Turner and Cher, simultaneously.

I get all confused, too, when Harry Potter movies use a red telephone box (a replica of which the Nederlander has in the basement by the loos) while Doctor Who time travels in a blue police box.

Anyway, everybody learns it’s a really bad idea to go back in time and try to change things, especially things your dad did or didn’t do. One thing leads to another, as The Fixx sang in the 80s.

Parents and kids come to a better understanding of each other. Bonds form. Hugs happen.

Which brings us back to Todd Rundgren. While I didn’t see it that night for myself, he apparently closes concerts this tour with a song called A Dream Goes On Forever.

Time to end this piece. Wingardium Leviosa.

Or words to that time for me to fly effect.

 

 

Mike Danahey is a fairly friendly freelance writer who lives in the Chicago area. If you need his services, feel free to leave a message in the comments section for this post.