Michael John LaChiusa’s musical Queen of the Mist contains a second-act song that critiques its heroine Anna Edson Taylor’s lackluster performance on the lecture circuit recounting her 1901 trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The lyrics ask how she’s managed to make such an inherently thrilling adventure sound so “tedious, monotonous, repetitive, and not fun.” It’s an apt critique of the show itself, directed by Elizabeth Margolius in this Firebrand production starring Barbara E. Robertson as Taylor. (Full disclosure: I saw the show’s final preview performance before opening.)
The most annoying thing about Queen, though, is its failure to address the big event. The show is a tease: It’s about going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, except it’s really not because we never hear a word about the actual experience. On her speaking tour, Taylor is confused when people ask her to describe how it felt to defy death and plummet hundreds of feet into a roiling abyss. Why does she make the unbelievably peculiar decision not to talk about the thing that she decided to do so she could make money talking about it? LaChiusa never explains.
Through 7/6: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 872-903-3473, firebrandtheatre.org, $55, $20 students and industry, $15 rush.
