Ty-Tynisa Wilson Photo by Russ Rowland

Bacharach's genius as a songwriter was his ability to make complexity sound simple. His songs are full of shifting time signatures, key changes, and intricate structures drawn from his background in jazz. Despite the intricate construction, they're immediately familiar and warm. You hear a Bacharach song and feel like you've known it your entire life. But because they're so richly detailed, you can hear them hundreds of times and always find new things to appreciate.

That complexity also sets a mighty challenge for anyone looking to interpret the master's work. These songs sound easy, then you try to perform them and find out just how hard they are. This is a lesson I learned the hard way at a karaoke night thanks to "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." But I'm pleased to report that the cast of Going Bacharach is more than up to the task set to them here, digging into nearly two dozen Bacharach classics with brio, bringing them vividly to life onstage. Each brings a unique personal connection to the material as well.

John Pagano spent 26 years as the lead male singer in Bacharach's touring band, performing around the world with the man himself. Ava Locknar (taking over from original cast member Hilary Kole) is the daughter of Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter Victoria Shaw, who once collaborated with Bacharach. By contrast, Ta-Tynisa Wilson, a Chicago native who recently appeared in Hamilton on Broadway, tells a funny story about how she heard Bacharach's name for the first time when she was invited to audition for this show but has come to develop a love for his work. All three of them have dynamic, expressive voices that find the emotional nuances in these songs so that, no matter how many times you've heard them, these renditions find new expressive possibilities.

Most of your favorite Bacharach tunes are on the menu. The show opens with a snappy overture that weaves together some of his most well-known melodies before the vocalists join the crack band to get the evening underway. But name a Bacharach tune that you admire–"(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me," "The Look of Love," "Don't Make Me Over"–and you're going to hear it. For the most part, these are presented in straightforward arrangements that sound the way you remember them, though "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" gets a nice revision, and there's a fun comic bit with "What's New Pussycat?" where Pagano re-creates the experience of listening to it on a skipping 45rpm record.

Beyond the hits, the show treats the audience to a few deeper cuts from the catalog. Pagano delivers a stellar version of "God Give Me Strength," from the later-period collaboration with Elvis Costello. The trio also collaborate on a fine rendition of "The Windows of the World," a Vietnam war protest song that's largely forgotten today. And I've always been puzzled by Bacharach's contention that "Alfie" was one of David's best lyrics, perhaps because I find both the original film and the remake so unremarkable, but the cast here does a good job with it.

Throughout, the cast and pianist/clarinettist/emcee Adrian Galante offer reflections on the life and career of Bacharach. If I have a criticism of the show, it's that I would've liked a bit more of this material. At one point, Locknar gives the audience a peek under the hood of the song "Promises, Promises" from the same-named musical (an adaptation of Billy Wilder's film The Apartment) that was a hit for Bacharach and David in the late '60s. But this is a minor complaint, and I'm likely in the minority here in wanting a musicological disquisition in the middle of a revue.

I don't know if Going Bacharach is going to win many converts to his cause; the average age of the audience when I was there skewed older. (Let me interject here to say that didn't stop them from being horribly behaved, though! More than one person took pictures and video despite multiple reminders not to, and the person sitting behind me inexplicably turned her phone's flashlight on during the performance. I'm a theatre historian, so I know that the idea of a silent and passive audience is a recent phenomenon and a historically constructed one, but looking at your phone during a show is a sign of mental weakness. Enough!) But I do hope that the show makes more fans of the man and his work because they are an indelible part of mid-century American culture and deserve to be remembered.

This show is very clearly a labor of love, and I'm glad there's something here to remind us how good Bacharach was.

Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon runs through May 17, 2026, at the Apollo Theatre, 2550 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.apollochicago.com/.