Porchlight Music Theatre Announces 2022 - 2023 Season

Porchlight Music Theatre has announced its 28th season that includes the 2022 - 2023 Mainstage, Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway series. Mainstage and Porchlight Revisits performances take place at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.

Subscription renewals are available Tuesday, April 12 - Sunday, May 1 with new subscriptions available starting Monday, May 2. The single ticket sale date will be announced at a later date. More information is available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or by phone at 773.777.9884.

 

 

"Our 28th Mainstage season speaks to moments of courage, endurance and humanity in the face of life's greatest challenges," said Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber. "This series of productions: a Pulitzer Prize-winner; two that are "Best Musical" Tony Award-winners and the Chicago premiere of one of the most incredible new musicals seen recently off-Broadway, remind us there is no subject that is beyond the realm of the art of music theatre and that there is no story that cannot be enhanced when told through the forms of music, drama and dance."

 

RENT

 

Mainstage

October 29 - November 27, 2022

Music, Lyrics & Book by Jonathan Larson

Over the last 25 years, this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has become a cultural phenomenon with millions of fans around the world. Porchlight's production celebrates this legacy and adds a new page to the story of a year in the life of a diverse group of artists struggling to survive and create in Lower Manhattan's East Village under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. In the thriving days of bohemian Alphabet City at the end of the millennium, these friends are determined to follow their dreams without selling out.

 

 

Fall 2022

Featuring songs from Broadway shows including Guys and Dolls, The King & I, Paint Your Wagon, Call Me Madam and more.

 

Wednesday, Dec. 7 and Thursday, Dec. 8

Music by Jerry Bock

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Book by Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith

The songwriting team behind Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me created this witty, tuneful and charming musical that was Tony nominated for Best Musical. Made up of three musical miniatures: "The Diary of Adam and Eve," a quirky, touching spin on the tale of the world's first couple, adapted from Mark Twain's short stories; "The Lady or the Tiger?," a 1960s rock and roll fable set in a mythical kingdom, which explores the fickleness of love; and "Passionella," based on Jules Feiffer's offbeat Cinderella-story about a chimney sweep who dreams of being a "glamorous movie star."

 

MAINSTAGE

January 14 - February 12, 2023

Music by John Kander

Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Book by Joe Masteroff

Based on the the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten adapted from the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

Bold and provocative, this landmark musical, winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, shines a spotlight on Berlin in the late 1920s and the colorful, gritty and hedonistic lives found there. Filled with iconic songs and electrifying dance, the story of American writer "Clifford Bradshaw's" relationship with English cabaret performer "Sally Bowles" as the Nazi party is rising to power, is one you'll never forget. Overseen by an ominous "Emcee" at the fabled Kit Kat Club, Cabaret is a cautionary tale that has renewed resonance in today's political climate.

 

 

Wednesday, Feb 8, 2023 at 7 p.m.

Written by John Van Druten

Adapted from Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel "Goodbye to Berlin"

(A special presentation in association with our production of Cabaret)

Premiering in 1951 starring Julie Harris as "Sally Bowles," this special staged reading is a rare opportunity to experience the remarkable play that became the inspiration for the musical Cabaret. Never revived on Broadway and not seen in Chicago in decades, the title is a quotation taken from Christopher Isherwood's novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." Before Kander and Ebb. Before Bob Fosse. Before Liza Minnelli. Come see the play that started it all!

 

 

Winter 2022

Featuring songs from La Cage Aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Baby, The Rink and more.

 

MAINSTAGE

In association with Skylight Music Theater

CHICAGO PREMIERE

May 6 - June 1, 2023

Music by Brendan Milburn

Lyrics by Valerie Vigoda

Book by Joe DiPietro

Ernest Schackleton's ship, Endurance, was recently discovered in the icy waters off of Antarctica 100 years after it was crushed by ice and sank. In spring 2023, audiences may discover Shackelton on the Porchlight stage with Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, the critically acclaimed new musical with a tongue-in-cheek script by Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro (Memphis). In this wildly inventive adventure, a sleep-deprived single mom and video game music composer is contacted across time by the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Inspired by her music, he shares his epic Antarctic journey with her in video and song. Together, they conquer the odds in a timeless love affair for the ages. Awarded 2017 Best New Musical by the Off Broadway Alliance.

 

 

Spring 2023

The annual star-studded fundraising concert will return in spring 2023.

Porchlight Revisits Two By Two

May 24 & 25

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Martin Charnin

Book by Peter Stone

Based on the play The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets

 

The legendary comedian Danny Kaye starred in the original 1970 Broadway run of Two by Two, the musical comedy based on Clifford Odets' play The Flowering Peach, that tells the story of Noah, the flood and its aftermath with touches of modern themes including the environment and the differences from generation to generation. The first of two collaborations with Martin Charnin (the other being I Remember Mama,) this late career production by the legendary Richard Rodgers is, by turns, tuneful and hilarious.

 

 

Spring/Summer 2023

Featuring songs from shows playing on Broadway right NOW.

Free Summer Concert Series

Broadway in Your Backyard

Summer 2023

Broadway in Your Backyard is a 60-minute musical revue featuring some of the best and most popular songs ever written for musical theatre with songs from productions like Hello, Dolly!, The Wiz, Dreamgirls and Hairspray. Four of Chicago's professional music theatre performers and a live pianist bring these crowd-pleasing favorites to neighborhood parks across the city.