Bruce Vilanch Joins Rhona Frazin Live On Zoom For Porchlight's Movie Musical Monday

Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce that next Movie Musical Monday discussion about the movie "Funny Girl" will be hosted by Porchlight Music Theatre Board Member and retired Chicago Public Library Foundation CEO Rhona Frazin with special guest multiple Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch, Monday, June 7 at 7 p.m. CDT.

The link to RSVP for the Monday Zoom discussion is available at https://www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre/. For more information on Porchlight's online and live offerings including Movie Musical Monday, please go to PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.

For more than a year, Porchlight has hosted Movie Musical Mondays weekly via Zoom. Conceived as a "book club" for movie musicals, Porchlight asks attendees to watch a selected film, RSVP to receive the Zoom link and come prepared with questions, comments or just to enjoy the live conversation. Since May 2020, almost 50 films from the Golden Age of movie musicals to recently released musical films have been discussed with attendees participating in conversations with a variety of hosts and special guests. "Funny Girl," starring the Academy Award-winner Barbra Streisand, in the role she created on Broadway, is the subject for the Frazin-Vilanch led conversation.

The June schedule of Movie Musical Mondays includes:

Monday, June 7 at 7 p.m. CDT

"Funny Girl" (1968)

Host: Rhona Frazin (Porchlight Board of Directors)

Special guest: Bruce Vilanch (Emmy Award-winner, actor, comedian)

Monday, June 14 at 7 p.m. CDT

"Xanadu" (1980)

Host: Bill Larkin (Porchlight's "A Class Act" and "A Funny Thing...")

Special guest: Aaron Holland (playwright & ATC's "Xanadu")

Monday, April 21 at 7 p.m. CDT

"The Prom" (2021)

Host: Frankie Leo Bennett (Porchlight Revisits 1776; School at Porchlight)

Special guests: Tommy Bullington (Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi and host, 'An Absolute Gag' podcast) and Devon Hayakawa (Porchlight's New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 and member, Ring of Keys)

Monday, April 28 at 7 p.m. CDT

"How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" (1967)

Host: Justin Brill (Broadway's Rent; Porchlight Revisits Minnie's Boys) and

Special guest: Shanna VanDerwerker (Broadway's Wicked, Porchlight's Sunset Boulevard)

Rhona Frazin has been a leader in Chicago's non-profit community for more than 50 years and is the retired CEO of the Chicago Public Library Foundation. At Porchlight Music Theatre, she serves on the Board of Directors, chairs the Development Committee and is a member of the Marketing & Engagement Committee. During her time with Porchlight, Frazin has led efforts to increase audiences and donor bases as well as creating partnerships in the private and business sectors. Frazin's dedication to Porchlight and its mission was seen most recently with her participation and support of its 2020 ICONS Gala which was the most successful special event in Porchlight's 25 year history.

Bruce Vilanch has been lavender for quite some time, except in moments of high passion, when he becomes puce. Audiences may have seen him during his six-year stint on Hollywood Squares, where he was just to the left of Whoopi, if that's possible. Or during his two years on Broadway and the road, singing, dancing and ironing as Baltimore housewife "Edna Turnblad" in Hairspray. He has written 23 Oscar telecasts, winning Emmys for two of them and collecting four more for other pieces of undisputed brilliance on your TV set. He is, in fact, an EGOT of award show writers, he hasn't won all four, but has written all four shows four times over. Vilanch was a child actor who dodged rehab, he started his career as a journalist until talked out of it by Bette Midler, with whom he's been collaborating for an alarming number of decades. He's written for a lotta people -- including a drag queen named Lotta People -- and this was chronicled by no-less than Harvey Weinstein in a documentary called "Get Bruce!," although Harvey never got him. He has been planning the sequel, "HAD BRUCE," which will involve a much larger cast.

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