The Movement You Need with Brendan Hunt thru May 10th

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"The Movement You Need” with Brendan Hunt at Steppenwolf - Review By: Paul Lisnek

****/4

Brendan Hunt’s “The Movement You Need” is both more and rarer than, a one-man celebrity solo show. This is a showcase piece of theater that is personal, intimate, very funny, and deeply moving. Hunt integrates his life-long Beatles obsession (an obsession he shares with my brother who I took to the show and now talks about nothing else) with a myriad of childhood memories, family pain, and autobiographical confession. He transforms it all into a performance that is entertaining from beginning to end with a turn that is unexpectedly moving.

What makes the show work so well is Hunt’s control of tone and his awareness of the audience at every moment. He is effortlessly funny, leans into improvised and controlled audience banter, performs some awkward but very impressive Beatles impressions (you have to be able to do all of the Fab Four), and the kind of self-deprecating storytelling that makes the room warm up and lean in for every next moment. The brilliance of the work is that its strong underlying comedy never veers from the emotional core; rather it is the engine that keeps circling back to Hunt’s damaged family history, a mother whose love shaped him, and the Beatles songs that helped him make sense of life’s challenges and moments of grief.

While structured by his autobiography, that structure is clearly and carefully designed to guide the audience’s connection with him. His use of projection, video, and lighting (who knew he had a degree in lighting design!) serve to guide the story and audience to move between his memories, the music, and a full range of emotional states. Hunt’s innate skill presents the piece as one full of visual life well beyond feeling like a simple monologue of anecdotes. The play’s shape and momentum propel its most important idea: that the stories we all carry through our lives are often messy, incomplete, but still worth telling, even if we don’t get to personally share them with Paul McCartney should we meet him.

This is an evening of genuine warmth and to my surprise, notable emotional depth. His work on Ted Lasso may bring people to the theater, but Hunt does not embrace that claim to fame as a focus in the story. It’s not much more than a mention made with the wink of an eye to show he gets it. Hunt is clearly aware that the show is the starting point to sell tickets, but he pretty much leaves Lasso at the door for a more universal message: family, survival, and the things that get us through are the things to which we all relate. 

And as for the Beatles, if you are fan, you are really going to enjoy this ticket to ride. If you are Not a Beatles fan, then Hunt will acknowledge your existence, but clearly feels sorry for you. The Movement You Need feels like a conversation you might have with a friend and you’d certainly want to have with Brendan. In the referenced words of Paul McCartney, you’ll have a choice: be a fan or a friend. 

Hunt makes it clear that he hopes we would all choose to be friend. 

The Movement You Need Plays thru May 10th and tickets can be purchased at www.Steppenwolf.org