Paul W. Thompson - Page 24

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars. 'A Little Night Music,' '101 Dalmations,' 'Animal Crackers' and more....

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars. 'Jersey Boys,' 'Million Dollar Quartet,' 'Poseidon' and more......

Run. Do not walk. Run to Oakbrook Terrace-or, at least, run to your car, train, bus, taxi or helicopter-in order to get to Chicago's western suburbs. There you will witness an extraordinary night of theater, Jim Corti's staging of 'Cabaret,' which is seamless, courageous and frequently state-of-the-art.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars. 'My Fair Lady,' 'Cabaret,' 'The Merry Widow' and more....

The latest unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars

When a professional theater in suburban Chicago bills a lone actor above the title, expect great things. I mean, it doesn't happen very often. In the opening seconds of Theatre at the Center's production of the musical stage version of 'Footloose' now open in Munster, Indiana, the actor in question, Matt Raftery (starring as Ren), executes an impressive aerial move, half hip-hop and half gymnastics. The show explodes to an exciting start!

Two important post-Broadway mountings of 21st-century musicals opened in the Chicago area this week. One, 'Mary Poppins,' has had a great deal of attention. Now you can forget about it. This review concerns itself with the other one! 'Curtains,' the exemplary 2007 Kander and Ebb post-modern musical comedy, is now receiving its first post-Broadway mounting anywhere at our very own west suburban Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace. That?s right! This major coup for Oakbrook continues the very high standards for musicals that the theatre set last year, with no end in sight.

A helicopter very nearly lands on stage every night at the astounding, frequently breathtaking production of 'Miss Saigon' now on view at the Drury Lane theater in Chicago?s western suburb of Oakbrook Terrace. Said helicopter is the most viscerally exciting aspect of this high quality local mounting of Broadway?s 10th longest running musical, but is by no means its only emotionally affecting moment.

I understand there is someone called David Sedaris. Now, don't shoot me-I've been busy.

You couldn't throw at rock at the Wednesday night opening performance of 'Meet Me In St. Louis' at the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place without striking the cream of Chicago's hometown musical theater talent. And THAT was if you threw a rock at the audience!

The very first snowflakes of Chicago?s coming winter season started to fall on me this past Sunday afternoon, as I made my way out of Steppenwolf Theatre Company?s Near North Side complex and a press performance in the Upstairs Theatre of Conor McPherson?s ?Dublin Carol.? That is the most Christmasy thing that happened to me the entire afternoon. Well, there ARE a few decorations strewn about the set.

After extensive development in New York at the York Theatre and the Vineyard Theatre, the world premiere of the musical 'The Medium at Large' took place Sunday afternoon, October 19, 2008, at the Village Players Performing Arts Center in Oak Park, Illinois, just over Chicago's western border. Starring Tony Award nominee John Herrera (Neville in 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood') as the titular spiritualist, the show shows promise in negotiating a tricky premise and an even trickier payoff.

Where to begin? I have so many things to say about the world premiere production of the musical 'Turn of the Century' at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, a show with more than a dash of incisive sophistication, that I hardly know how to start this review. I'll just say that it is an extraordinarily beautiful production,

There is a big, steaming bowl of borscht on display in northwest Indiana, where Theatre at the Center's production of the 2000-2001 hit stage musical 'The Producers' is playing now through October 19th.

I have news for all you fans of Donna Sheridan: 'Mamma Mia!' isn't about her, it's about her daughter!

For the zippiest and most whimsical performance on the boards in Chicago this fall, look no further that the under-two-hours, no intermission production of the legendary 'Candide,' produced by Porchlight Music Theatre at Lakeview's Theatre Building Chicago.

In development since 2003, and with three showcase productions in its hip pocket, the original musical 'Love in the Middle Ages' had its fully-staged world premiere Friday night, August 22, 2008, much to the pride and delight of the opening crowd of well-wishers at the suburban Oak Park Village Players Theatre...

Young producers Kyle and Drew DeSantis and Artistic Director William Osetek are on a roll with their Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace revisal of Rodgers and Hart's 'The Boys from Syracuse.'

The eight-year-old musical 'The Full Monty' is receiving what is surely one of its very best productions to date, now through September 21st at the Marriott Theatre in the far north Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire, Illinois.