'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for August 29th, 2012

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:

Just when you thought it was safe to start betting on the winners of the 2012 Joseph Jefferson Awards, Equity wing, news came last week that the original press release and list of nominees from the Jeff Awards committee accidently left a category off! “Director – Revue” was a casualty of a hugely long list of nominees, apparently, but somebody caught it within about a day. So, the directors of the two shows nominated for “Production – Revue,” “Putting It Together” from Porchlight Music Theatre and “We’re All In This Room Together” from The Second City e.t.c., Brenda Didier and Ryan Bernier, respectively, reportedly received apologetic, confirmatory phone calls from Jeff and a flood of social media responses from relieved friends and family. It brings PIT up to five nominations in all, with three for WAITRT. Winners will be announced October 15, 2012 at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Break a leg, Brenda and Ryan!

Click Here for the Complete List of Nominees

As we all must know by now, Chicago really is a hotbed of new musical theater work. And there are several examples of this on display in the coming months. This weekend and next is the Chicago Fringe Festival, and therein the performance troupe Terra Mysterium is presenting the original musical “The Alembic,” by Amy Christensen. The cast of five is directed by Matthew Ellenwood, Terra Mysterium’s artistic director. The Festival is centered in the Pilsen neighborhood this year, and “The Alembic,” described as a “Steampunk musical tale,” will be performed August 31-September 9 at the Dream Theatre on 18th Street.

http://terramysterium.com/

Now in rehearsal for its run from September 12-November 11, 2012 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place is “I Love Lucy Live On Stage,” brought here by Broadway In Chicago after a very successful and BroadwayWorld Award-winning run in Los Angeles. The setting is the Desilu Soundstage, and the time is 1952. You, the studio audience, will witness the “filming” of two classic episodes of “I Love Lucy,” entertained by “The Ricky Ricardo Orchestra” and “The Crystaltone Singers” in the process. I understand that three LA cast members are here, but that the rest of the ensemble is Chicago talent. The original production staff has Chicago ties as well. But why can’t I find a press release? It’s almost opening night!

I Love Lucy Live On Stage

The weekend of October 12-14 will see the world premiere satire, “Showgirls The Musical,” starring ELiza Morris, Jamie Finkenthal and Joe Zordan. The brainchild of John-Ryan Griggs and Chad Comer, and based on the legendarily disastrous 1995 movie musical of the same name with Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon, the musical stage show will play at Stage 773 in the heart of Lakeview. The ambitious young producers got some capital via Kickstarter, and intend to grow the show from humble beginnings into something, well, less humble.

http://www.showgirlsmusical.com/

And one week later, on October 19, the official world premiere of “The Verona Project” will take place at Northwestern University, running through November 4 in the campus’s Josephine Louis Theater. Workshopped there this summer via the American Music Theatre Project, the show is written and directed by Amanda Dehnert, an Associate Professor of Theatre at the Evanston school. Called “an electric hybrid of theatre and live concert infused with original indie-folk-rock music,” and inspired by Shakespeare’s “Two Gentlemen Of Verona,” the show sounds about as far as you can get from the “Hey There” musical, “The Pajama Game,” the university’s spring musical offering which will play February 15-March 3, 2013 at the Ethel M. Barber Theater. There’s nothing wrong with a balanced education….

http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/tic/verona/

And I haven’t really spotlit (spotlighted?) Chicago’s cabaret rooms that seem favorable to the showtune genre and the performers who work in our musical theaters. And so, here goes, and why not?

Arguably, our leading cabaret venue is Davenport’s, the piano bar and cabaret complex in Wicker Park that is the favorite of New Yorkers like Karen Mason and Andrea Marcovicci when they perform in the Midwest. It’s located at 1383 N. Milwaukee Avenue, and the list of local singer-actors performing there in the coming days is getting long, indeed. Garrett Johannsen, Sarah McKinley Carter (with The Blondes), Amanda Horvath, Justin Adair, Christopher Logan and John Eskola are among the showtune types who make appearances there in the next three weeks alone.

http://davenportspianobar.com/

The advantage of location certainly goes to Petterino’s, the restaurant that shares the same building as the Goodman Theatre, and is roughly halfway between the Oriental Theatre and the Cadillac Palace Theatre at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets. Many performers in town to do theater at those theatres will spend their Monday evenings at “Monday Night Live” at Petterino’s, hosted by cabaret stars Denise McGowan and Becki Menzie at 7:30 pm. On Monday, September 10, the series celebrates the venue’s 5th birthday. Who will sing? Will it be you?

http://www.petterinos.com/events/

The cabaret room at Stage 773, “The Cab,” is currently host to two periodic performances by long-run bookings. This includes Catalyst Cabaret, a group of mostly musical theater performers who appear there on the third Sunday of each month (Shaun Nathan Baer, Missy Karle, Danny Spagnuolo and Nick Sula are on the roster for September 16). And the all-musical sketch comedy group, the Cupid Players, presents “Cupid Has A Heart On – A Musical Guide To Relationships” each Saturday at 10:30. Also, this weekend will see an out-of-town tryout of sorts at Stage 773, as the group Yesology presents “One Night Only,” a night of singprov (improvisational musical theater), in preparation for presentation off-Broadway in September. TJ Shanoff directs, with musical direction with Mike Descoteaux.

http://www.stage773.com/Now-Playing

At 3160, Chicago’s piano bar cabaret at 3160 N. Clark Street, Scott Gryder and Nick Sula appear in “Simply Scotty” on the first Sunday of every month at 7:00 pm, full of showtunes, pop standards, novelty numbers and puppet antics. Every Tuesday night is Open Mic, with musical theater veteran Dan Stetzel at the keys. Jazz standards (many of which originated in musicals from the Golden Age) are on tap every Wednesday, with the smooth sounds of the Paul Marinaro Trio. And for two Sundays in October (the 13th and 20th), cabaret and cruise ship favorite Mark Farris returns to his Chicago performing home.

http://www.3160chicago.com/Home_Page.php

When you can’t tell whether it’s theater, a concert or a Comedy Club, the odds are that it’s a cabaret act with true staying power. That can certainly be said of the Kinsey Sicks, “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet,” appearing at the remarkable Mayne Stage venue in Rogers Park for two shows on Friday, October 19. After 18 years of success, including an extensive off-Broadway history, the group’s new show is called, “Erectile Dysfunction: The Kinsey Sicks for President (Because Sometimes It’s Hard Being A Republican).” Political satire and brilliant musicianship? Yes, please.

http://www.maynestage.com/KINSEY-SICKS-730.aspx

Last but not least, we here at BroadwayWorld Chicago are running a poll! And I hope that my Mosh Pit peeps are voting and getting their friends to vote as well. It’s all about Super September, since so many important musical theater production are opening here next month. (Well, “Dreamgirls” at the Marriott Theatre opens tonight, the exception proving the rule.) Which of the ten listed shows are you the most eager to see? Right now, it’s a dead heat between two of the productions, one well known, one a Chicago premiere of an obscure Broadway title. Have you made your voice and vote heard? Vote by the end of August, and we’ll see what show has grabbed your attention and imagination!

Super September Chicago Poll

And so, summer is coming to an end. Or is it? Meteorologically, we have three more weeks. Mentally, who knows? It’s been a great one, with some awesome Theater Productions hereabouts, and great summer theater in the four-state region. But I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend, and that you’ll welcome back our summer theater sojourners, and welcome our new college graduates as they settle here in search of their place in our creative community. I’m stoked! Bring it on, fall. But until fall nips the air, I’m sure I’ll see you out and about, and I’m sure I'll see you under the video screens.....—PWT

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