Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me Faces Chicago Critics Pre-Broadway

Martin Short: Fames Becomes Me is winding its way to Broadway where it will start performances at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on July 22 with tryout stops in San Francisco, Toronto and Chicago. It recently opened the final of these stints at Chicago's LaSalle Bank Theatre, where it will run through July 16. Did local critics find favor with Short and his supporting cast?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Chris Jones of The Chicago Tribune: "[Fame Becomes Me] is an all-new, old-fashioned, ill-focused, thoroughly chaotic and uproariously funny variety show… For sure, the often-forced first act needs to play with the fluidity of the second. For my money, the show has too much tired Broadway parody and not enough material about the cultural world at large. There's repetition to excise, and I'd add in much more improvisation—of which Short is a master. Sometimes. Which is the point. Short without the imminent danger of total collapse is not a Short that I ever want to see. His moments of caustic vulnerability are the highlights of the night. More of that! Better to go down in Broadway flames an outside possibility being true to thyself than to doctor the show to death. For now, this is a darn funny night in Chicago."

Hedy Weiss of The Chicago Sun-Times: "It's a totally silly hybrid that is part vaudeville, part burlesque, part musical comedy, part satire, part improv and part nightclub act. It is more 'Forbidden Gumbo of Broadway' than Broadway proper—more pastiche than original. And it clearly harks back to the days when Broadway was all about folly… And while Fame is a mockery of the many shams that come this way in our celebrity-and-victim-addled culture, it also is that very thing itself, awash in starry impressions… In other words, this is a Broadway musical for the age of Jon Stewart—one that is always sweetly winking in its politically incorrect naughtiness, but that at the same time gleefully indulges in that worship itself."

Barbara Vitello of The Daily Herald: "Fame Becomes Me created by Short and director Scott Wittman is a gleeful, burlesque and vaudeville inspired musical spinning plates and all set to a variety show format and seasoned with a bit of Borscht Belt humor. The indefatigable Short sends up his own life with a cheeky, comedic turn in a loosely plotted but very amusing romp that blurs the line between fantasy and reality... The book by Short and Daniel Goldfarb with additional material by Emmy winning writer Alan Zweibel is funny. The songs by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman are short and punchy. And the supporting cast made up of Shaiman, Brooks Ashmanskas, Mary Birdsong, Capathia Jenkins and Nicole Parker is first rate. That said, the show needs some fine-tuning, especially in the first act."