'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 5th, 2014

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:

It's November, and you know what that means! Christmas somewhere in Chicago, that's what. Well, first up this year may very well be at the Broadway Playhouse, where the curiously-awaited "Dee Snider's Rock And Roll Christmas Tale" began performances last night! Scheduled through January 4, 2015, this show was written by and stars Dee Snider himself, legendary frontman for the 80s hair band Twisted Sister ("We're Not Gonna Take It") and one of the models for the role of Stacee Jaxx in the long-running Broadway musical "Rock Of Ages." Snider has crafted a show about a rock band whose attempts at "head-banging anthems turn into warm-hearted carols." He appears in the show as a narrator figure in a big chair, I believe. Prior to Broadway, prior to everywhere else, this is a show cast and rehearsed here, with almost all local talent (lead roles are played by Chicagoans including Bill McGough, Adam Michaels, Christina Nieves, Wilam Tarris, Keely Vazquez and Taylor Yacktman). Tommy Hahn, Dan Peters, Mathew Roberts and Charlie Strater round out the acting company. The cast are the instrumentalists as well. Christmas, y'all. Rock style.

http://www.rocknrollxmas.com/

And casting decisions came down the pike recently about future "pre-Broadway" shows from Broadway In Chicago. The theatrical version of the hit film "The First Wives Club," previously seen in another incarnation in San Diego, will play here at the Oriental Theatre from February 17-March 29, 2015, with opening night set for March 11th. And the three titular ladies will be portrayed by Broadway star Faith Prince, along with two actresses who work nationally but are quite well known to Chicago audiences, Christine Sherrill and Carmen Cusack. Sherrill was nominated for a BroadwayWorld Chicago Award in 2013 for her role as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" at the Drury Lane Theatre, and Cusack was nominated for the same award in 2012 for Dot/Marie in "Sunday In The Park With George" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. "The First Wives Club," with book by Linda Bloodworth Thomason ("Designing Women") and songs by Motown legends Holland-Dozier-Holland, starred Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in its 1996 film version.

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And later next year, film star Keira Knightley will star in the premiere of "N--The Queen Of Paris" in Toronto and Chicago, in preparation for a Broadway opening in March of 2016. The Chicago dates are November 24-December 20, 2015, at the Oriental Theatre. Based on the Emile Zola novel "Therese Raquin," the show is by Ella Louise Allaire and Martin Lord Ferguson, and will have extensive circus elements. And Keira Knightley.

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This Saturday night, November the 8th, is the time for Bailiwick Chicago's "Chicago Casting Auction," as the annual fundraiser for the company takes place at Michelle's Ballroom on West Belmont Avenue. Over 40 roles in "Wonderful Town" will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, for special performances at Stage 773 from February 24-28, 2015. Varris Holmes will direct the lucky cast members, with direction by Kyle Pollio and choreography by Jon Martinez. Who wants to be Ruth and Eileen? Why-O-Why-O-Why-O? Why not?

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Get ready for a production of a popular two-hander musical: "Always, Patsy Cline" will be offered by Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre this holiday season, to play November 14-December 28 at the No Exit Café. The show will star returning company performers Christina Hall ("Pump Boys And Dinettes") as the County-Western legend and Danni Smith (also from "Pump Boys," and a Jeff Award winner for "Passion") as superfan Louise Seger. Fred Anzevino directs, with music direction by Aaron Benham.

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A show that was presented as a work in progress last year is returning in its premiere incarnation from November 19-December 31. It's "A Q Brothers' Christmas Carol," the hip-hop version of Dickens' perennial Christmas tale at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Developed by the Q Brothers and CST creative producer Rick Boynton, this show hopes (I'm sure) to be a hit with those audience members who flocked to "Othello: The Remix" for five months in the summer of 2013. How many ways can "A Christmas Carol" be musical theaterized? Let me count the ways.... I can't! I can't count the ways....

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Speaking of perennial, Chicago's beloved hometown story of "The Christmas Schooner" will return again to the Mercury Theater Chicago, but with many new faces in the cast this time around. Julie Shannon and John Reeger's tale of the real-life ship that brought Christmas trees from the north woods of Wisconsin 100 years ago to Chicago's German immigrant community, and the family of the captain who insisted on making the dangerous trip year after year, ran for 12 years at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre. It stopped off at Munster's Theatre At The Center for one year before docking in 2011 on Southport Avenue. New to the roles of Alma and Peter Stossel this year will be Brianna Borger (newly returned from New York) and Stef Tovar, with the returning support of James Wilson Sherman as Gustav Stossel. Also in the cast will be William Anderson, Brian Bohr, Kelly Anne Clark, Jaclyn Dougherty, Elizabeth Lanza, Leah Morrow, Michael Pacas, Eric Parker, James Rank and Daniel Smeriglio. L. Walter Stearns will direct this year's edition (running November 26-December 28), with choreography by Brenda Didier.

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On Christmas Day, the world will finally get to see the Hollywood film version of "Into The Woods," the 1987 Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine that defeated Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera" for the Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score in one of the most legendary head-to-head showdowns that awards show has ever seen. Just yesterday, I saw the trailer at my local multiplex. It seems that Mosh Pit peeps are getting more excited the more we see of the film, directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago"). I'm sensing a little hesitation about Johnny Depp's Wolf, but that may stem from his turn as Sweeney Todd as much as it does a somewhat unexpected costume choice here. But once we heard Sondheim's actual music being sung by actors in film clips, we relaxed. It may not be your parents' "Into The Woods," but it will probably become your children's "Into The Woods." Children will, after all, listen.

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Speaking of POTO, here's an odd item: A television series is being developed, based on the original Gaston Leroux novel of "The Phantom Of The Opera." Go figure! TV hasn't attempted to spin off a stage musical (or its source material, anyway) into a series since "Anna And The King" flopped in the early 1970s. And yes, the series will incorporate music, but not Lloyd Webber's, Maury Yeston's or anybody else's we know about, yet. Um, ok. Could be cool! Maybe not....

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Another British musical will be at movie theaters soon. 2009 Tony Award winner "Billy Elliot," in a special gala performance captured live at London's Victoria Palace Theatre earlier this year, will be at movie theaters on November 12, 15 and 18, courtesy of Fathom Events. Liam Mower, the boy who first played the role of the miner's son turned ballet hopeful in Elton John's musical, will play Older Billy in the event, which features a special appearance by (I think) all the boys who have played Billy in the West End from 2005 to the present. That sounds pretty cool.

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And "Billy Elliot" also features prominently in the 2015 season just announced by the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook. Eager to open "Camelot" to the press tomorrow night, the DLO has announced that, after the previously announced "West Side Story" (January-March) will be "Billy Elliot," directed by Rachel Rockwell (April-June), then the play "Deathtrap" (June-August), then the play with music "Peter And The Starcatcher" (August-October) and the 2015 holiday offering "White Christmas" (October-January). Finally "Bye, Bye, Birdie" will rock into action from January-March of 2016. Got that? Mark your calendars now!

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So, have you frozen over yet? And no, I don't mean the animated film. It's cold, but not all THAT cold. We will be fine. Now that the election is over, it's full speed ahead into Thanksgiving! Well, Veteran's Day. And the rest of the leaves falling off. And stuff. Ah, well, you know where to find me! At theaters, and yes, under the video screens.....-PWT

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