'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for August 28th, 2013

THE LATEST IN UNAUTHORIZED GOSSIP AND BUZZ

FROM THE HEART OF CHICAGO'S SHOWTUNE VIDEO BARS,

AND MUSICAL THEATER NEWS FROM CHICAGO TO BROADWAY

by Paul W. Thompson

Overheard last weekend under the showtune

video screens at Sidetrack and The Call:

Tonight's the night! It's gonna be alright at the FALL THEATER PREVIEW PARTY, hosted by yours truly at The Call nightclub in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, from 8:00 pm to midnight on Wednesday, August 28. BroadwayWorld Chicago has got theater companies lined up to tell you all about their fall shows, including the Goodman Theatre, Redtwist Theatre, the Marriott Theatre, NightBlue Performing Arts Company, Big Noise Theatre Company, Remy Bumppo Theatre and more. A special performance will occur during the 9:00 pm hour, and everybody who stops by will leave with a printout listing 117 Theater Productions opening between now and early December. One hundred and seventeen! You don't want to miss out on the information, the networking, the chance to ask questions about shows from people who know them. Come one, come all! The Call is at 1547 W. Bryn Mawr, sandwiched between Clark Street and Ashland Avenue. Alas, it's an 18+ venue, but if you send me an e-mail to Paul@BroadwayWorld.com, I can e-mail you the listing, live links and all. But better if you pick one up in person if you can. I would love to see you! Cool, peeps. Cool.

Youre-Invited-to-the-FALL-THEATER-PREVIEW-PARTY-On-Wednesday-August-28th-2013

And fall has really gotten off to a great start, theaterwise, hasn't it? Super September has started early! The Drury Lane Theatre has gotten the types of reviews that producers dream about for years and never achieve for the regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Next To Normal," running through October 6, 2013 and starring Susie McMonagle as Diana, the suburban housewife with several big secrets. The show has garnered 100% RAVE reviews according to the "Theatre In Chicago" website. BroadwayWorld's own Misha Davenport raved about it as well. Nice, isn't it, when one of the most highly anticipated openings of the summer turned out to have been justified, and become on the fall's hottest tickets. Don't say I didn't warn you.

http://www.theatreinchicago.com/next-to-normal/6481/

The Marriott Theatre has done almost as well with the regional premiere of "9 To 5" (running through October 20th), starring Susan Moniz among others in the Dolly Parton tuner based on the 1980 film comedy of the same name. Most folks would expect that a production of N2N would be better than a production of 925, because if you do them both as well as you can, N2N is just a better show to most observers. However, that's certainly not true of everybody! They are awfully different. If your inclination is that you would like "9 To 5," it sounds like you will. If you want something at the opposite of the spectrum musically, thematically and stylistically, then "Normal" is your destination. Nothing wrong with a little variety. We do have 117 plays and musicals opening in the near term. We've got something for everybody! And the Marriott certainly knows how to put on virtually any show to somebody's liking. After all, the song "Backwoods Barbie" really is a cool song, isn't it?

http://www.theatreinchicago.com/9-to-5-the-musical/5794/

The Mercury Theater Chicago is bringing us the third major regional premiere of a big Broadway title in the past week with the "The Color Purple," and the reviews are falling somewhere in between those of N2N and 925. TCP, if I can call it that, is enjoying reevaluation as a smaller musical right now in both Chicago and London, and both productions are finding wide acceptance for their sizing of the material. Reviews here are strongly positive for L. Walter Stearns' midsized production. And I can tell you that the cast members who celebrated their opening on Monday night at Sidetrack were in high spirits indeed. Some of them hadn't been to a showtune video bar before, and it seemed like they will certainly be back! "The Color Purple" (where do it come from?) runs eight shows a week for two full months, through October 27th. And I've heard nothing but praise from the theater community here during the show's rehearsal and preview period.

http://www.theatreinchicago.com/the-color-purple/6028/

Coming up soon will be what I believe is the third local production of a Tony Award-winning title, "Spamalot." (I just can't call it "Monty Python's Spamalot: The Musical," or any other convoluted concoction that lawyers come up with--I just can't!). The show, based loosely on "Monty Pyton And The Holy Grail" and other films by the British comedy troupe, is being mounted on weekends by the NightBlue Performing Arts Company at Stage 773 from September 6-October 6. Spam. A lot.

http://www.nightbluetheater.com/

Playing just three times the same weekend that "Spamalot" begins, September 5, 6 and 7, will be something called "Death Boogie," playing in the Katten/Landau Studio, one of the upstairs spaces at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Based on a concept album, this "Hip-Hop Poetry Musical" won two awards at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, one of the world's best, and it's written by its star, Darian Dauchan, who'll be accompanied by a jazz violinist and jazz bassist. It uses multimedia and hip-hop to tell the story of a blue collar worker turned revolutionist.

Death Boogie in Chicago

Running September 3rd through November 10th at the Writers' Theatre up in the northeastern corner of Cook County (Glencoe, to be exact) will be "The Old Man And The Old Moon," a new play with music and an interesting origin story. A group of writing and acting students at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh began to develop a fusion of text, story, poetry, puppetry and music to tell an "epic new mythology, centered on a man whose job it is to collect spilled light to refill the leaking moon." After working on the show as students, they further developed it in New York at Vineyard Arts, where it was exceptionally well-received. After further development at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, the group of now former students, calling themselves PigPen Theatre Co., has found a home for their work at Writers' Theatre, where one of their former teachers, Stuart Carden, now holds the title Associate Artistic Director. And so, Chicago wins!

Writers-Theatre-to-Kick-Off-2013-14-Season-with-THE-OLD-MAN-AND-THE-OLD-MOON

Speaking of Chicago winning, we do have the Chicago Humanities Festival. The theme of this fall's fest is "What Makes Us Human." And in that vein, the duo of actor-director Rob Lindley and musical director Doug Peck have created "what may be the first all-star cabaret revue exploring the odd mating habits of animals, paired with songs from the Great American Songbook." The resulting concoction, "Birds Do It, Bees Do It...," will be presented on November 5, 2013 in the auditorium at the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park, hosted by Lindley and actress Molly Brennan. The cast will also include Sean Blake, Felicia Fields, Beckie Menzie and Robbie Fulks. That's a nice caSt. Mark your calendars now!

http://chicagohumanities.org/events/2013/animal/birds-do-it-bees-do-it

Two fun events happened this past weekend. On Saturday, August 24, the twentieth anniversary of the debut of the musical "Schoolhouse Rock Live" was celebrated with a performance of the hour-long version of the show at Mary's Attic, the site of a full-length production two years ago. This Theatrebam Chicago specialty, adapted and directed by Scott Ferguson from the original songs by Bob Dorough (broadcast as "Schoolhouse Rock" on ABC-TV from 1973-1985), has rarely been out of production since it premiered at the late lamented Cabaret Voltaire in 1993 (well-known Chicago actor George Keating was in the cast). After long runs in Chicago and New York, throughout the mid-1990s, the live show, aimed like the original cartoons at improving children's math, grammar and history knowledge, continually tours out of Chicago and is licensed in several guises by Music Theatre International. A unique Chicago theater success story, and an ongoing live performance phenomenon, the show's many casts through the years reunited for a once-in-a-lifetime bash Saturday night. Congratulations, you guys!

http://www.schoolhouserocklive.net/main.html

And the national organization that looks after the interests of playwrights, lyricists, composers and librettists for the theater, the Dramatists Guild, held its conference in Chicago last weekend (Thursday through Sunday), only its second such gathering in its long and storied history. It certainly appeared to be a success when I was there on Friday! I heard from several others that the workshops, keynotes, networking sessions, reading sessions, etc., were all quite successful. The Hilton Chicago was the home base for the conference, entitled "Having Our Say: Our History, Our Future." I attended several session about writing for musical theater, consisting of interviews and discussion with some of today's most successful Broadway names, including Stephen Schwartz (the current Guild President and composer-lyricist of "Wicked" and "Pippin"), Lin-Manuel Miranda ("In The Heights"), Doug Wright ("Grey Gardens" and "Hands On A Hardbody") and Robert Lopez (he helped write two 21st century Tony-winning shows, "Avenue Q" and "The Book Of Mormon"). I haven't had a more enjoyable afternoon in a very long time! I shared some of their thoughts that made an impression on me in an article posted on Monday, and I hope you've had a chance to read it.

MUSICAL-THEATER-WRITING-Conversations-at-the-2013-Dramatists-Guild-Conference

And so, summer draws to a close. The weather isn't done yet! But fall is fast approaching, as evidenced by the 117 shows which will open here in the next three months or so. Help celebrate them, and learn which ones are right for you, tonight in Andersonville. See you there! And I'm see you soon, I hope, either at the theater, or under the video screens.....-PWT

[Be sure to subscribe to the Mosh Pit! Click here to subscribe to our BroadwayWorld Message Board discussion thread. Receive your e-mail notice that the weekly "Showtune Mosh Pit" is available!]

[And click here to "Like" BroadwayWorld Chicago on Facebook!]

To post a comment, you must register and login.