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Take a wild ride with hilarious 'Hellcab'

Arlington Heights Post
By Catey Sullivan | Contributor

Posted June 7, 2007

Kamikaze cabbies -- you should excuse the redundancy -- generally aren't the most sympathetic subjects in the world. Anyone who has spent time navigating Chicago knows they invent lanes as needed, take red lights as suggestions and don't think twice about stopping on a dime in the middle of busy thoroughfares to disgorge or pick up oblivious passengers.

But take in "Hellcab," the darkly funny epic of one long day in the life of a Chicago taxi driver, and you're apt to gain a new appreciation for these vehicular warriors. The 75-minute slice-of-cabbie-life unfolding late nights at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is a twisted, rollicking ride wherein an everyday Joe must summon the patience of Job and the resilience of Teflon just to survive his shift. Freaks, geeks and weirdos -- not to mention really bad tippers and, even worse, New Yorkers -- are par for the crooked course in "Hellcab," a show that deservedly ran for almost a decade in Chicago during its original incarnation.

Playwright Will Kern -- once a cabbie himself -- encapsulates the best and the worst the city has to offer in what plays rather like a modern-day riff on "The Odyssey." The characters that pile in and out of the bright yellow cab (number "666") manned by Jonas Gray's beleaguered driver are written in broad strokes, but they contain more than enough truth to be instantly recognizable. These are character types (it's fitting that they're listed only as "Older White Woman," "Younger Black Man" and such in the program), but they are also people we all know.

As for Gray, he's the Everyman in the eye of the storm, trying to contend with ominous neighborhoods and cracked-out nutjobs one moment and promiscuous Gold Coast cougars the next. Director Lauren Rawitz keeps the performances just this side of cartoonish, creating an evening that's profane (there's enough F-bombs to warrant an R rating, as well as one screamingly hilarious sex scene), blackly funny and at times, unexpectedly moving.

The fares represent a stew of idiosyncratic humanity. About two dozen distinctive characters played by an ensemble cast of six clamber in and out of the cab during the course of the show. The most outrageously over the top belong to Paul Perroni who chews up the scenery to fine effect as a jonesin' coke head incapable of sitting still, shutting up or keeping his clothes on and as a "scary man" of disturbingly few words. Also terrific is Buck Zachary as an obnoxiously wealthy entrepreneur prone to rank misogyny and enraging condescension ("Take me to my condo at 900 North Michigan. Think you can handle that, sport?")

Then there's the trysting paramours who can't quite wait to get to the hotel, and, over the dismayed protests of the cabbie, get real busy during a ride that ends with bone-curdling squeals of joy emanating from the backseat.

On the other end of the emotional spectrum is Robin Hughes, solemn and heart-wrenching as a rape victim, blurting out her pain and leaving the driver stricken over his inability to assuage it better.

The cast is clearly having a ball with the parade of memorable people. Even better, the audience does too.

'HELLCAB'

10 p.m. Saturdays through June 30 at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre,111 Campbell St., Arlington Heights. $15.
Tickets available here

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