'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for January 26th, 2011
By: Paul W. Thompson Jan. 26, 2011
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:
There was great news last week! The landmark Paramount Theatre in downtown Aurora, Illinois, announced that it will be producing a subscription series of four musicals, beginning in September for the 2011-2012 season. To that end, they have hired director-choreographer-actor Jim Corti as artistic director, and will be announcing the first season of shows on March 18. So, instead of low-end touring productions for one or two-night stands, as they have done in the past, the Paramount will be presenting three-week runs of shows they have producted in-house, done with local talent and with the same level of quality (they hope) as the shows done at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook, the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire and the Theatre At The Center in Munster, Indiana.
Built as a movie palace in 1931, the Paramount is an enormous, historic 1,888 seat theater smack downtown in Aurora, to the far west and south of Chicago. Jim Corti is a highly respected director with a bunch of national and local theater credits. And the first 10,000 subscribers will get all four shows for a total of $89 dollars! We hope this works out, don't we? Great shows for audience members, great work for theater types, more items to talk about in the Mosh Pit, etc. Sounds great! Stay tuned for that big season announcement! In fact, they are having a "Big Reveal Party" at the Paramount on March 18. Sounds like a blast! More theater. Amen to that.
The Paramount Theatre - Aurora, IL
There was another exciting announcement last week, concerning the pre-Broadway production of a new musical that will open at the Royal George Theatre (after a week of previews) on April 9th. It is "White Noise," and some big names are attached! Whoopi Goldberg is one of the producers, and it will be directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, the super-hot and busy guy who has recently worked on "Jersey Boys," "next to normal," "Memphis" and "The Addams Family," among other recent credits. The show, which emerged from the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival, is by Matte O'Brien (book) and Robert Morris, Steven Morris and Joe Shane (music and lyrics). It's announced as an open run here, and it has challenging subject matter (contemporary racial issues, free speech and show business imagery). It seems like we all will be wanting to find out more about this show.
White Noise | A Cautionary Musical
The Oscar nominations came out this week! And "Burlesque" was nowhere to be seen. But, not to worry. That other show business, backstage tale, the psycho-thriller "BLACK SWAN," was nominated for five Academy Awards, as was "Toy Story 3"--not quite a musical, but almost one, and nominated for its touching Randy Newman song, "We Belong Together." Also nominated in the "Music (Original Song)" category were Broadway's own Alan Menken and Glenn Slater (for "I See The Light" from the Disney film "Tangled"), the fictional biopic "Country Strong," (but for "Coming Home" by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey, not for its title song), and the song "If I Rise," from "127 Hours," with music by "Bombay Dreams" composer A.R. Rahman, and lyrics by Dido and Rollo Armstrong.
A newspaper article caused a lot of buzz this past week. "Newcity Stage" published a well-written and thoughtful article by Brian Hieggelke, ShaRon Hoyer, Dennis Polkow and NeAl Shaw Ryan called, "The Players: The 50 People Who Really Perform In Chicago." There are mini-features (most with photographs) about the 50 movers and shakers on the Chicago theater scene who are not actors, per se. These artistic directors, executive directors and other such types really do form a "Who's Who" around here, and the article should be viewed by anyone who cares about the theater business in this here town. But we were pleased to see a few showtune faces among the crowd, including Broadway In Chicago's Lou Raizin at number 3, Michael Halberstam of Writers' Theatre at number 25, the Drury Lane's Kyle DeSantis (number 37) and freelance musical director Doug Peck (number 49), just to name a few. It's really a treasure trove of information. Check it out!:
The Players: The 50 people who really perform in Chicago | Newcity Stage
In the last week or so, when mentioning current shows on the boards that you really should be seeing, I neglected to mention two-long running shows which are not closing any time soon. People panicked! Well, of course the well-received
at the Apollo Theater and
"The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life"
at Second City, e.t.c. deserve your attention, peeps! Click on their names and find out how to enjoy them. MDQ is announced through May 30, and TABFTOYL is technically open-ended. Enjoy!
A local show from 2001 has been remounted, and it has received good notices as well. It is "Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch," a Valentine's Day musical by Frances Limoncelli and George Howe that opened last week at Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park. It runs through February 27, 2011 up in the Glenwood Avenue Arts District. Has anyone seen it yet?
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch - Lifeline Theatre
Circle Theatre has announced the cast of its upcoming production of the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler "A Little Night Music," coming on the heels of the show's year-long Broadway revival. It will be on the boards in Oak Park from April 22 through June 5, starring Anita Hoffman as Desiree, Patti Roeder as Madame Armfeldt, Patrick Tierney as Henrik, Jeremy Rill as Carl-Magnus and Kirk Swenk as Fredrik. Bob Knuth is directing and designing the set, with choreography by Kevin Bellie and musical direction by Josh Walker.
Two musical theater performers of note are coming to suburban venues for solo concerts next month. "Blood Brothers" and "The Partridge Family" star David Cassidy (half-brother of Sean and Patrick) is playing Oakbrook's Drury Lane Theatre on Valentine's Day, February 14.
Welcome To Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace
And the star of "Baby," "Cats" and "Miss Saigon," Chicago native Liz Callaway, will be performing at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center in downtown Arlington Heights on February 27. The savvy Metropolis has embedded into their website a video of Callaway performing the legendary "Meadowlark" at Carnegie Hall. Nice. Yes. Go.
Last, but not least, I've got two bits of housekeeping-type news. First of all, I am thrilled that the number of folks subscribing to the weekly "Showtune Mosh Pit" articles has jumped to a record high! I really do appreciate your reading this column each week, and I hope you find it informative, beneficial and fun. And together, we're proving that Chicago theater is more than just our legendary gritty storefront realism and our world-renowned improv/sketch comedy scene. There's musical theater everywhere around here!
And second of all, last week BroadwayWorld Chicago received our very own Facebook page. All of the articles, press releases and reviews about theater here and, yes, the Mosh Pit itself, will now be fed automatically onto Facebook for you to "Like" and enjoy. It's just another way for you to stay connected to the very latest news and information about theater here in Chicago. And as a resident of that musical theater land known as the Showtune Mosh Pit, you don't ever want to be too far from the action, do you?
BroadwayWorld Chicago on Facebook
So, that's it, then! Another week of winter bites the dust, and another month nearly gone. I'll see you soon, won't I, in one guise or other? I'll see you under the video screens, I bet!.....--PWT
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