Stage review: High Fidelity

In the recent onslaught of film-to-musical adaptations, most of the productions selected make sense. The monster in Young Frankenstein tap dances, Legally Blonde has a dance sequence and a positive teenage-girl empowerment message, and Shrek is like staged cotton candy. But High Fidelity—the 1995 Nick Hornby novel and the 2000 film about snarky record-store owner Rob trying to patch things up with his ex-girlfriend Laura—has already gotten lost in translation once before in its journey to the stage. The show's infamous 2006 Broadway run lasted a pitiful 13 performances, and last night's Chicago debut suggests it might suffer a similar fate here as well.

The show seems to have been confused from its inception, with its press release boasting a "Flight Of The Conchords approach," which is meaningless and confusing—like Route 66 Theatre Company wants so badly for High Fidelity to be hip and relevant but doesn't know how. The company has ostensibly retooled the show for its Chicago run, but that seemingly goes no deeper than smoothing out the source material's shoehorned-in local references. Mentions of Schubas and the Chicago Diner might ring true to the audience, the show's narrative and execution won't.

Where the movie and book took the effort to bathe themselves in indie-rock obsession and how it pertains to relationships, the musical demotes all that to the scenery, where David Bowie and I Fight Dragons flyers offer more interest than the clunky dialogue and songs. Stef Tovar adds a Disney-like quality to John Cusack's Rob—when he claims to be a "fucking asshole," it's impossible to believe him. Meanwhile, the Bill Hader-like Jonathan Wagner takes a broad approach to Jack Black's Barry and Michael Mahler provides an amusingly theatrical take on the previously soft-spoken Dick. (Dick's song "It's No Problem," promising to deliver the news of Rob's break-up to Barry, is one of the show's few bright spots.) The cast all pulls double duty, playing all the music onstage when not in character.

Ultimately, though, High Fidelity is at a crossroads: Unable to stray too far from its source material, it's been tinkered with too much to not be compared to the movie, and winds up on the side of the road in need of another massive tune-up. Grade: D-