'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 8th, 2010
By: Paul W. Thompson Dec. 08, 2010
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:
We're having a party! As the deadline nears for you to cast your votes in the first ever BroadwayWorld Chicago Theatre Fans' Choice Awards (December 20th), plans are gearing up for a Celebration of the Awards at The Call bar in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood on December 29th! Chicago contributing writers M. William Panek and yours truly will be there from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am, on the bar's regular Showtune Wednesday night, to meet and greet you, congratulate you if you're a winner, pass around a microphone and host a year-end theater community party that's open to anybody who's at least 21. Many thanks to Mike Hogan and the staff at The Call (1547 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue) for making this a reality. Come on down and remember all the fun we had in the last theater season! I look forward to meeting you there then! What else're you gonna do that night?
Read the full BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration press release here
Speaking of awards, the nominations for the 53rd Grammy Awards were announced last week, and my predictions in the Best Musical Show Album category came true--sort of. I'm not shocked by any of the Broadway cast albums that were nominated, only that "Memphis," the reigning Tony Best Musical and Best Score winner, was not. However, the five nominees, "American Idiot," "Fela!," "A Little Night Music," "Promises, Promises" and "Sondheim On Sondheim," are all deserving of a nomination, and are perfectly in line with past NARAS choices in this category. Actually, it's pretty unusual that there wasn't at least one studio or London cast recording nominated, as these are all Broadway cast recordings of shows which opened in the previous Broadway season. That's a good sign, I think! And any of them would make a proud winner. You do own all of them, right?
Oh, and the 1947 original Broadway cast album of "Brigadoon" was named to the Grammy Hall of Fame earlier this week. I'm not sure if it was the very first RCA Victor recording issued in the LP format, but it was originally numbered LOC-1001. It's got to be their first true cast album, right? Plus, it's awesome.
Speaking of former Grammy winners in this category, the green girl is back in town! The blonde came too..... I'm talking of course about "Wicked," Chicago's all-time longest running Broadway musical production, which has parked a national tour at the Cadillac Palace Theatre for eight weeks, until January 23, 2011. I understand that Richard H. Blake is causing something of a stir for his take on Fiyero, as he's a little bit older than other actors who've assayed the role. And it's nice to see Chicagoans Barbara Robertson and Gene Weygandt back in their roles as Madame Morrible and the Wizard, and Paul Slade Smith (a graduate of Chicago's longest running Off-Broadway musical production, "Forever Plaid") is Doctor Dillamond. Coming back here during both a traditional busy time (December) and a traditional slow time (January) was quite a savvy move for the show, I must admit.
Wicked The New Broadway Musical - Official Website
This was one of two Broadway national tours to hit town last week. Blink and you missed the other one! It was "Legally Blonde," which played the Rosemont Theatre last weekend (Friday through Sunday) for a total of four performances. Pitiful. Did anybody go? Did anybody even know it was there? Was it there? Pitiful.
Speaking of pitiful, the revamped musical "The Story Of My Life," which is playing at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater under the auspices of Chicago Muse, will be closing this Sunday, December 12, instead of running through January 2 as originally announced. (I think that TimeOut Chicago's Kris Vire broke this story on Monday afternoon.) The original plan seemed a little bold to me, but the ads were there. Unfortunately, the reviews for the most part were not, and three weeks are being lopped off the end of the run. The two actors in the cast are New Yorkers, without any local following to draw audience members into this virtually unknown show mounted by a new (if deeply rooted) producing entity. Too bad, really.
The TOC Blog | Time Out Chicago
Well, what DO we have on the boards, you may ask. Well, I have been reporting so dutifully on "A Christmas Carol" at the Goodman Theatre that I have neglected to tell you that a different show by the same name (this one adapted by Krista Scott) is playing at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights, now through December 24th. It stars Stephen Connell as Scrooge, Joshua Harris as Bob Cratchit and Kristen King as Belle. Robin M. Hughes directs.
Metropolis - A Christmas Carol
At the other end of Chicagoland, the Illinois Theatre Center in Park Forest now has Bock and Harnick's "The Apple Tree" up, through December 19th. Katrina Kuntz, Glenn Stanton and Frank Roberts star in the tripartite musical, written to showcase the talents of former Chicagoan Barbara Harris. Kristin Chenoweth starred in the recent Broadway revival, directed by Chicagoan Gary Griffin.
And a lot of Mosh Pit peeps are getting excited about word coming out of Evanston's Light Opera Works and their upcoming production of another 1960s gem, "Hello, Dolly!," playing December 26-January 2 only at Cahn Auditorium. Rudy Hogenmiller directs and choreographs Mary Robin Roth in the Jerry Herman tuner. It's based on "The Matchmaker" by Thornton Wilder, but you knew that, didn't you? It held the record for the most Tony Awards before "The Producers" bested it, and held Broadway's long run record prior to being usurped by "Fiddler On The Roof." Oh, yeah, you knew those things too. You are a Mosh Pit peep.
Looking even further into the future, it was announced today that tickets for the revamped musical based on Studs Terkel's book "Working," set for the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place in early spring, go on sale this Friday, December 10, 2010. Stephen Schwartz has reworked the show, and Lin-Manuel Miranda ("In The Heights" has written some new material for the 1978 tuner. Broadway In Chicago is presenting it, but New York people are producing it. Could this production be a springboard for a New York mounting later in 2011? We may all find out pretty soon!
Tickets Available for Broadway Playhouse's WORKING
Speaking of New York people, Tony-winning choreographer ("Chicago") and legendary Bob Fosse dancer Ann Reinking is collaborating with Melissa Thodos on choreography for an "epic" new dance work, "The White City: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893." It will be presented on February 19 at the North Shore Center For The Performing Arts and on March 4 at the Harris Theater For Music And Dance. This is Reinking's fourth work with Thodos Dance Chicago (she also choreographed two musicals for the Goodman Theatre). Sounds fascinating!
Last but not least, I guess we've all been tempted to go to the movie theaters this week and see that new movie with the big star in it, the one about all the backstage drama in a big coastal city. Of course, I'm talking about "Black Swan," the psychological ballet film starring Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder that opened last weekend. It's playing at a limited number of screens, and there are no song hits to speak of, but it's a show biz story in its way, just like "Burlesque," "Cabaret," "The Turning Point," "42nd Street" and even "Dirty Dancing" are in their ways. Is it an Oscar contender? Could be!
And so, with awards, tours, local shows (holiday and non), revisions of works, and ballet on stage and screen, we leave you so you can keep warm until the footlights of your favorite show hit you. We are nothing if not eclectic around here, and to each his own. But we know what we like to see, on stage and through our various electronic and digital media. I hope to see you soon, perhaps this coming weekend, under the video screens.....--PWT
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