'Beaches,' in pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago, is overwhelmed by its score
CHICAGO " In any discussion of a new musical's central flaw, the book (or script, in civilian terms) is almost always the culprit. But "Beaches," now in an alternately moving and exhausting pre-Broadway tryout in the Chicago suburbs with Washington's Eric Schaeffer directing a high-powered cast, is that rare musical in which the charming book scenes arrive as welcome respite from a hopped-up score so bent on wowing i…