'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 11th, 2013
By: Paul W. Thompson Dec. 12, 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
Overheard last weekend under the showtune
video screens at Sidetrack and The Call:
Beginning last Thursday, and indeed for most of the time since then, life in America has been extraordinary. If you are a Mosh Pit peep, you know that, for the first time in a very long time, there was a national conversation about a work of musical theater. And I do mean national! NBC's live telecast of a soundstage production of "The Sound Of Music," one of the best-known and beloved of all the titles from Broadway's Golden Age, pulled in a HUGE viewership (reported at more than 18 million), and set off a flurry and a firestorm of comments on social media and news outlets, in classrooms and office break rooms nationwide. The telecast, starring Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer, was NBC's highest rated non-sports night in half a decade, and its biggest non-sports Thursday in a whole decade. People watched!
And they argued. What makes a good musical production? What makes a good video adaptation? Did co-stars (and Broadway veterans) Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle steal the spotlight from the TVQ stars? Whose singing was better, and why? Whose singing was better than their acting, and what does that mean? Is attracting new fans for musical theater with stars taking unexpected career moves wise or unwise? Is non-traditional casting accepted now, or not, and by whom? Were the costumes appropriate for the period? Was Mary Martin or Julie Andrews the "Maria to beat?" What's the best spot in the plot for "My Favorite Things," and is it a Christmas song? If not Carrie Underwood as Maria Von Trapp, then who? Did you hear these exact conversations, over and over again? I did. And just wait. Rumor has it that the show will be broadcast again this very Saturday night! There will be a DVD out shortly (the companion compact disc is already out). And of course, NBC is reported to have green-lighted future live television presentations like this one, perhaps annually. Will we finally get Bette Midler as "Mame" and Lea Michele in "Funny Girl?" Dustin Hoffman and Adele in "Oliver?" Why, or why not?
If there's no such thing as bad publicity, then there's no such thing as bad national conversation about musical theater. Yes, I know that most people know the property from the legendary Hollywood treatment of the story. But now, they know there's more to TSOM than one film. They know there's something out there that informed that film, and now they know there's something that was informed by that film. The work of art is having a conversation with itself. Pretty much in front of the whole country. A bell is no bell till you ring it, right? Well, that bell has been rung. Next up? Lyric Opera Of Chicago is producing the very same show, for a run from April 25-May 11, 2014. That's just over four months away. And we don't yet know who will play Maria. You can bet there will be talk. Oh, yes.
http://www.lyricopera.org/soundofmusic/
Speaking of movies which starred Julie Andrews, there's always "Mary Poppins" to contend with (and how does the film stack up against its stage adaptation, hm?). And you know, of course, that the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire isn't wrapping up its regional premiere production of the very well-known title for another four weeks (it closes January 5, 2014). As a companion piece to that title, the studio that just recently brought you "Frozen" and all its showtune glory is opening "Saving Mr. Banks," a film starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson. The Hollywood-based flick dramatizes how Walt Disney Studios founder and Chicago native Walt Disney convinced P.L. Travers (she was a woman, you know, with the first name "Pamela") to let him make the movie we all now know out of her beloved series of children's books. Directed by John Lee Hancock, the film opens on a limited basis in Chicago this Friday, December 13, and more widely here a week later. It does have a lot of music, and the legendary musical Sherman brothers (as reenacted by Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak) are major characters. Sounds intriguing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Mr._Banks
In holiday show news, we somehow managed to not discuss "The Nutcracker" from the House Theatre Of Chicago before now (it closes December 29). Now in its fourth holiday season at the Chopin Theatre on Division Street, this "fresh take on this holiday classic" is directed and choreographed by Tommy Rapley, with a book by Jake Minton and Phillip Klapperich, lyrics by Minton and music by Kevin O'Donnell. Inspired by the Tchaikovsky ballet, it is in no way traditional, and features a musical about a family in crisis. And people love it. You want the traditional ballet? Go to the Joffrey (through December 28 at the Auditorium Theatre Of Roosevelt University).
http://www.thehousetheatre.com/
The Q Brothers, that Chicago duo that excels in bringing rap and hip-hop together with theatrical classics to produce a new kind of musical theater, is at it again, with "A Q Brothers' Christmas Carol," an adaptation of Charles Dickens' immortal tale that is every bit as geared toward a specific audience as is "A Klingon Christmas Carol" at the Raven Theatre and "We Three Lizas" at Stage 773. In this case, the Qs are upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, reeling in the younger crowd with a "work in progress" that sounds like that's true. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I bet the show will be back next year in more final form. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (Through December 22nd. This year.)
http://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/carol
Speaking of such adaptations, there is also "If Scrooge Was A Brother," now running at the eta Creative Arts Foundation through December 29 on Chicago's South Side. It's a script by Ekundayo Bandele, with music by Sonita Surratt. Kernati J. Porter directs a cast of eight. If you are looking for proof that a story like Dickens' (one about coming to terms with your past so you can live fully in the present, or something like that) cuts across all types of folks, look no further that this year's holiday season in the Chicago theater community. It's universal, you guys....
http://www.etacreativearts.org/
You know there's a juggernaut sailing through here after the holidays, right? And I don't mean the BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration, hosted by yours truly and happening at The Call Bar in Andersonville on Wednesday evening, January 8th? No, I mean the show that's opening at the Cadillac Palace Theatre downtown the very next night, January 9th, and which runs until March 2nd. That would be "The Phantom Of The Opera," peeps. Yes, the one and the same longest-running show in Broadway history (it marks 26 years next month). However, there's a twist! It's a new production, not Hal Prince's Tony Award-winning one. It's a version that toured the UK successfully, and is now making its North American debut (it opened in Providence, Rhode Island, just last week). Directed by Laurence Connor and choreographed by Scott Ambler, the production features new sets by Paul Brown but the same familiar Maria Bjornson costumes from the 1980s. Mark Campbell, Julia Udine and Ben Jacoby (familiar to us from his recent appearances at the Marriott Theatre) star as the Phantom, Christine and Raoul. What do you think? Are you going to go see it?
http://www.broadwayinchicago.com/showtag=phantom14
Broadway In Chicago has an unpredictable entry on its docket for a year from now, recently announced. Written by the front man of the band Twisted Singer, Dee Snyder, it's called "Dee Snider's Rock And Roll Christmas Tale," and it will play (in its premiere, I think) at the Broadway Playhouse from November 4, 2014-January 4, 2015. It's billed as funny, rocking and sweet. OK.
http://www.broadwayinchicago.com/showtag=deesnider14
Well, you know that we are a noted home for original musicals, musicals in development, musicals on formal pre-Broadway tryouts, musicals making the circuit of regional theaters, musicals touring commercially, etc., etc., etc. Not quite three years ago, the musical "Meet John Doe" had a full production at Stage 773, courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre. Next step, a full CD! Eddie Sugarman and Andrew Gerle's work, based on the 1941 Gary Cooper-Barbara Stanwyck film, has been released as an Original Studio Cast Recording, starring Heidi Blickenstaff, Robert Cuccioli, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, James Moye, John Jellison, Joel Blum and Brian Munn. And I understand that some photos of the Porchlight production made their way into the CD booklet. Awesome!
http://www.amazon.com/Meet-John-Doe-Original-Recording
And our exports to the greater showtune community are not restricted to musicals themselves! Oh, no. Our talented individuals loan themselves out to visible projects elsewhere, and even if they move away, we still claim them as our own. I mean, are you aware that Evanston native Jessie Mueller, a two-time Jeff Award winner here, is starring in the new musical "Beautiful," about songwriter Carole King, that opens on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on January 12 (in previews now). Adrian Aguilar, star of "Pal Joey," "Double Trouble" and "tick, tick... BOOM!" at that same Porchlight Music Theatre, is in New York now as well, understudying Andy Karl as Rocky Balboa in the new musical Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical, "Rocky," opening at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre on March 13. And the winner of a BroadwayWorld Chicago Award in our very first year, Max Quinlan (for "Jesus Christ Superstar" at Theatre At The Center), will be in the cast when the revival of "Les Miserables" (the new touring version, not the Broadway or West End original) opens at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on March 23. There are more, of course, but these are the leading lights of the current marquee full of bulbs. And they are bright! Congratulations to all our Chicago-to-Broadway success stories!
Sneak-Peek-at-Jessie-Mueller-and-More-in-BEAUTIFUL-THE-CAROLE-KING-MUSICAL
Jennifer-Mudge-More-Join-Andy-Karl-and-Margo-Seibert-in-ROCKY-on-Broadway
Full-Cast-Announced-for-LES-MISERABLES-on-Broadway
And so, I'm offering this simple phrase to you kids: I'll see you under the video screens.....You know you love it!-PWT
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