'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for March 9th, 2011
By: Paul W. Thompson Mar. 09, 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:
Here, a "Hair!" There, a "Hair!" Everywhere it's "Hair," "Hair!" The "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical" (whatever that means, though I like it) is on tour and stopping in Chicago for this week and next, starring Steel Burkhardt, Paris Remillard, Caren Lyn Tacket and other preternaturally beautiful people at the Ford Center For The Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre. Originating in New York's Central Park in the summer of 2007, and taking the 2009 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, this revival of the defining rock musical of the 1960s has been to London and is now touring America. You probably know the songs "Aquarius," and "Let The Sun Shine In," courtesy of The Fifth Dimension, and you may know "Frank Mills," "Where Do I Go," "White Boys/Black Boys," "Good Morning, Starshine," the title song and many others. But the show has to be seen and experienced, and this production really does seem to capture those crazy, rebellious times, doing so at the remarkable time in American history we are living through now. That's the awesome power of musical theater, folks! Brought to you courtesy of Broadway In Chicago.
HAIR the Musical on Tour: Official Site: About the Show
Speaking of today's remarkable times, you may know that the original star of this revival production, Gavin Creel, founded a non-profit organization called Broadway Impact, which works for marriage equality. It just so happens that some member of the current "Hair" cast will be hosting sixties-style "Be-In" to benefit this cause next Monday night, March 14, 2011, from 6:00-8:00 pm at.....(wait for it, wait for it) Sidetrack! The bar that was the original inspiration for the very column you are reading will be rocking (for a $25 ticket price) with cast performances, and then of course you can hang around and experience some of the video showtunes you may have heard about, from 8:00 until 2:00 am. You know you want to be in there!
HAIR Hosts Chicago 'Be-In' For Marriage Equality
Broadway In Chicago announced a new item last week--that the touring cast of "West Side Story" (which was up against "Hair" for that 2009 Tony, btw) will be stopping here for four weeks at the Cadillac Palace Theatre this summer (July 19-August 14). Talk about hot! The show doesn't have as many Spanish lyrics as it did when this production first opened at New York's Palace Theatre, but there are reportedly still more than there were in the 1957 original. Don't weep for WSS in the awards department, btw, as this production's cast album took home the 2010 Grammy Award for cast recordings. But here's a fun fact: "West Side Story" has won all sorts of Grammy Awards, for all different types of recordings, and the movie won all sorts of Oscars, but the show has never won a full-production Tony Award (the original lost to "The Music Man"). Fascinating.
Chicago West Side Story 2011 Tickets | Broadway in Chicago
BIC unveiled their late spring production of "Peter Pan" to the media and to group sales representatives last week at a Chicago Tribune building on the Magnificent Mile. Now, the production that's coming here is not the Jule Styne-"Moose" Charlap musical version of Sir James M. Barrie's immortal tale of the boy who never grew up--the one that has starred Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby throughout the years. No, this one isn't a musical at all, though it does boast a (prerecorded) orchestral score of the John Williams movie music genre, written by the very young Benjamin Wallfisch. This production stars an actual male actor (casting not yet announced) and will be playing April 29-June 19 in an enormous, specially-designed tent at the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street. The chief draw of this London cum San Francisco production seems to be the 360-degree CGI screen (more than 15,000 high-resolution square feet) on which London, Neverland and all points in between and beyond are projected. The secret? The pole of the tent are on the outside....
Peter Pan | threesixty° Theatre
And last week was an especially bright one for the bright Chicago talent known as Michael Mahler. On Wednesday he opened as one of the six actors in "Working" at BIC's Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place (to mostly rave reviews, I might add). And on Thursday a childrens's theater production of a musical he co-wrote with actor Alan Schmuckler, the Aesop-based "How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back," began performances at the north suburban Marriott Theatre (also with a cast of six, btw). Not a bad week, I'd say. Well done. (Both shows are based on books, and both run until May.)
A bit more news came out last week, this one from Chicago's fine arts radio station WFMT-FM (98.7). During the station's thrice-yearly membership drive, it was announced that the station will broadcast one of the final performances ever of the Off-Broadway musical "George Gershwin Alone," pianist Hershey Felder's one-man show about the immortal composer and pianist which had an extended run at the Royal George Theatre here and internationally. Felder will be performing the show, billed as a tenth anniversary production, at the Pasadena Playhouse in that Los Angeles suburb, and the WFMT Radio Network will broadcast live the May 2nd performance, beginning at 9:00 CST (7:00 PST). That just sounds terribly cool.
George Gershwin ALONE At Pasadena Playhouse
Speaking of the northern suburbs, and speaking of one-man shows, you may not be aware that Glencoe will be the site of a concert by none other than Mandy Patinkin later this month. It's true! The original New York star of "Evita," "Sunday In The Park With George," "The Secret Garden," "The Wild Party," "Follies In Concert" and the film "Yentl" will appear with pianist Paul Ford in his one-man show, "Mandy Patinkin In Concert: Dress Casual," on Saturday, March 19, as a benefit for Am Sholom, a Reform congregation. Tickets start at $50, if there are any left!
Mandy Patinkin at Am Shalom's Annual Fundraiser
Also in the northern suburbs, work is underway gearing up for a pair of Evanston-based summer musical theater training programs. For young people ages 8 to 15, Light Opera Works is holding five separate one-week sessions of their Summer Workshop, from June 20 through July 30. Classes are held at the Lake Street Church, 607 Lake Street in Evanston, and conclude each Saturday with a performance of a musical! All children get a part, and there are no qualifying auditions.
Light Opera Works Hosts 2011 SUMMER WORKSHOP
Targeting high school students as well as young professionals, the Broadway Vocal Arts Intensive will take place for one week only, June 27-July 1, at the North Shore Hotel, 1611 Chicago Avenue in Evanston. Full disclosure here: yours truly is a special guest on the faculty this year--I will be teaching sessions on musical theater history and doing vocal coaching on audition selections and repertoire. As the title indicates, it's a voice workshop, but with a musical theater emphasis, and with faculty drawn from the worlds of music, theater, dance and medicine. For this one, yes, there are auditions.
Last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't mention yet one more bit of news from last week, a new resource for us video-loving musical theater types, one that is right here on BroadwayWorld.com! It's the Broadway @ Home Video Database, and it's terribly exciting! It's designed to include "Broadway shows that have been filmed, taped or adapted, films that have made their way to the stage, adaptations that have gone from stage to screen (and sometimes back again!), concerts, documentaries, films with a theatrical focus and anything with a theatrical origin or focus" of interest to Mosh Pit peeps and your like-minded friends. I've tried it out, and it seems pretty awesome. Here's the article about it, with a link to the database itself: enjoy!
BroadwayWorld.com Announces Broadway @ Home Video Database
And so, from the town that perfected the Broadway video snippet as a form of evening entertainment, I bid you a happy post-Mardi Gras (whatever that means to you) and good showtuning for this month of hopeful weather and more hopeful auditioning for summer stock jobs! Those of you who do such things know just what I mean, and the rest of us are glad you do them! Adieu for now, and I'm sure I'll see you when I see you, under the video screens.....-PWT[Be sure to subscribe to the Mosh Pit! Click here to subscribe to our BroadwayWorld Message Board discussion thread. Receive your e-mail notice that the weekly "Showtune Mosh Pit" is available!]
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