Beethoven (George Andrew Wolff, left) and Quasimodo (Larry Adams) reflect on the challenges of creating art during this unconventional Chicago import, which offers clever moments but ultimately overstays its welcome.
So, Ludwig van Beethoven and Quasimodo are giving a panel discussion . . .
It’s no joke, but rather the off-the-wall premise of “The Hunchback Variations.” Not for the intellectually faint of heart, this work from Chicago’s Theater Oobleck has the unlikely duo collaborating on a sound effect for a vague stage direction from Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
Oh, and did I mention that it’s an opera?
Featuring music by Mark Messing and a libretto by Mickle Maher, the show features “11 variations,” or short scenes in which the composer and (fictional) hunchbacked Notre Dame bell ringer musically ruminate on creating art while accompanied by an onstage pianist and cellist.
After all, it’s not easy matching Chekhov’s infamous description of “a distant sound coming as if out of the sky, like the sound of a string snapping, slowly and sadly dying away.”
Especially since both Beethoven and Quasimodo are deaf — which is why, as the composer announces, “no questions will be taken from the audience.”
The show begins with Quasimodo (Larry Adams) shuffling onto the stage wearing a hoodie. From tattered leather satchels he removes such objects as a Slinky, walkie-talkies, and, of course, a tiny bell. Behind him comes a young Beethoven (George Andrew Wolff), looking like a well-groomed Williamsburg hipster.
In each short variation, the increasingly frustrated hunchback tries to come up with something appropriate using his props — he holds the walkie-talkies together to produce a high-pitched squealing sound — only to have the composer retort (in song), “That is not the sound.”
But the conceit eventually wears thin, and the 80-minute piece becomes repetitive despite some witty moments. The minimalist score, though beautifully sung and played, doesn’t add much.
That said, the actors are wonderful as the cheerfully smug Beethoven and the surly, grotesque Quasimodo. Singing in a bright tenor and rumbling bass voice, respectively, they’re like an “Odd Couple” for the Mensa set.