'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 25th, 2009
By: Paul W. Thompson Nov. 25, 2009
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
Sidetrack and Cattle Call showtune video screens:
Monday nights at Sidetrack have really heated up! This week in the 10:00 hour we were treated to a taste of the hilarity of former Second City ensemble member Jackie Hoffman, in town not only to crack everybody up as Grandmama in "The Addams Family," but putting on her one woman show, "Whining in the Windy City: Holiday Edition," on four Monday nights beginning next week. That'll be at the Royal George Cabaret on Halsted (a street you've heard of, I think), just across from Steppenwolf, north of North Avenue.
http://www.theroyalgeorgetheatre.com
And next Monday night at Sidetrack, from 6-8 pm in a ticketed event, the cast of "Jersey Boys" will present a benefit for Test Positive Aware Network. Billed as a World AIDS Day Event, it is sure to be a crowd pleasing evening. We will be sad to see the JBs leave town and the Bank of America Theatre January 10th, won't we? But what nice things they've been doing for the community while they've been here.
Speaking of "The Addams Family," it is getting pretty good word of mouth during this out of town tryout preview period. More trickles in every day, it seems! The official press opening hasn't occurred here yet, and the production is certainly entitled to make changes down at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, on Randolph Street between State and Dearborn. (Heck, they might make changes before the official opening, after the official opening, while they close down to move east, and during the month-long preview period next spring at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. This is how it's done.) But from what we in the Mosh Pit have heard so far, it's going to be a pretty darn good musical. Let's hope that proves true in the long run!
http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com/
On the other hand, the other production in the Loop right now that's "prior to New York" is not getting such good word of mouth, though again the same rules apply. It's not officially opened, and there's plenty of time for changes, if not outright improvements. I'm talking of course about "Banana Shpeel," the Cirque du Soleil show rooted in vaudeville that's playing now at the Chicago Theater on State Street. Cirque is a powerful brand, but this is something new for them. On the other hand, they probably know that! We wish them the best of luck in getting it right, and we hope it's sooner, rather than later.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/banana-shpeel/default.aspx
Playing the Rosemont Theatre for this week only is the national tour of the multiple Tony-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of "South Pacific." (As I've pointed out before, this is in the suburbs, but you can also walk it from the Blue Line on the El-stop hyperventilating!) If the voices of David Pittsinger and Carmen Cusack sound as good in the theater as they did on WFMT-FM Tuesday afternoon on the classic songs in this Rodgers and Hammerstein score, then audiences are in for a real treat. Some company members were in the Mosh Pit Monday night, and they seemed totally proud of their production. The only question mark is how the physical production will look inside a proscenium arch, instead of on the modified thrust platform stage of New York's Vivian Beaumont Theater. It is stunning there. But we will find out soon enough, won't we?
http://www.southpacificontour.com
Last week there was buzz going on about the new production of "Dreamgirls" that hits town in January (it opened in New York over the weekend, for a brief run there). But Mosh Pit residents are looking even further ahead now-to March and the opening of the first post-Broadway production of the current Best Musical Tony champ, "Billy Elliot." Tickets went on sale Friday of last week, and the heart of the Loop was filled with cute young actor and actress types handing out flyers. Maybe you were one of them! The show begins performances at the Oriental Theatre (where "The Addams Family" is now and where "Wicked" set so many box office records) on March 18, 2010. This may be our Next Big Thing, you guys! Ten Tony Awards is not a bad haul, after all.
http://www.billyelliotchicago.com
Speaking of revivals in New York, there are so many this season, aren't there? In addition to "Dreamgirls" (which is technically Off-Broadway), there are new productions of "Bye Bye Birdie," "Finian's Rainbow" (with Cheyenne Jackson, as if you didn't know), "Ragtime" and the highly anticipated, upcoming "A Little Night Music," with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. ("White Christmas" has just returned there again, and "Promises, Promises" and "La Cage aux Folles" are coming soon, too.) Too bad these revivals can run longer in New York than our home-grown revivals do in Chicago, or New York might have this many revival productions every year. This is normal for us!
But the new musicals are sounding a little slim in New York this year, with only "Burn the Floor," "Memphis" and the Off-Broadway transfer "Fela!" coming online so far (as always, correct me if I'm wrong). There will be a few more entries before early May (bets on "Spiderman," anyone, anyone?), but this is adding up to being a season in which awards show time may be very good for Broadway shows originating in Chicago-I'm thinking of course of "The Addams Family" and "Million Dollar Quartet" (still going strong at Lincoln Avenue's Apollo Theater after a year, and opening at the Nederlander Theatre in April.).
http://www.playbill.com/events/listing/1.html
IN MOVIE NEWS: "The Princess and the Frog," anyone? Anyone? I'm pretty sure it's a Disney animated film musical, opening locally December 11th. Who's excited???
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/
IN BOOK NEWS: John Barrowman (star of London's "La Cage aux Folles" revival and TV's "Torchwood," among other things) has written his second autobiography, "I Am What I Am." At the ripe old age of 42, he's lived two lives so far, apparently!
IN RECORDING NEWS: The star of the aforementioned "Finian's Rainbow" revival, "Xanadu" hunk Cheyenne Jackson, has teamed with renowed singer-pianist and nightclub owner Michael Feinstein on a new 15-track CD called "The Power of Two," now available on iTunes and Amazon.com. The men sing solos (Cheyenne does "Old Devil Moon," for instance) and they duet on songs which may ("I'm Nothing Without You") or may not ("We Kiss In a Shadow") have been done by two male stars of this magnitude before. Dorothy, you are definitely not in Kansas anymore!
http://www.cheyennejackson.com/
And so, with visions of "Glee," "Nine" and "A Christmas Carol" dancing in our collective heads, I will bid "adieu to yieu" until this weekend, when I know I'll see you under the video screens.....--PWT
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