'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for September 5th, 2012

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:

“A Class Act” is finally here! The 2001 Broadway musical tells about the life and work of Ed Kleban, the namesake of the Kleban Award for promising young musical theater lyricists and librettists, and the lyricist of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Chorus Line.” A composer as well as a wordsmith, his music didn’t really see the light of day during his short life (he died in 1987). So Kleban’s friends Lonny Price and Linda Kline wrote a show that used his theater songs to tell the story of his life and his struggle to create art. Notables like Lehman Engel, Michael Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch also appear as characters in the show. And now Porchlight Music Theatre has opened a production of “A Class Act,” Chicago’s first, running from now until October 7, 2012 at Theater Wit. Stacey Flaster directs and choreographs a cast which includes Bill Larkin (from “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Drury Lane Theatre at Water Tower Place, and a regular pianist at Howl at the Moon in the River North Courthouse District) as Kleban (that's Larkin in the photo), surrounded by Dana Tretta, Tina Gluschenko, Zach Spound and more. Beckie Menzie and Doug Peck are handling the music. BroadwayWorld Chicago readers voted this production the second most popular Super September show they would like to see! Well, you guys, the wait is over….

http://porchlightmusictheatre.org/a-class-act/

Another Super September show (though it opened in the waning days of August) is “Dreamgirls,” now at the Marriott Theatre until October 28th! So, you’ve got a while, but why wait? The Marriott has such a huge subscriber base that tickets are mostly all already sold for choice performances anyway, so I would recommend getting a move on. Most reviewers, including yours truly, seem to have a few quibbles with the production, but if you are prone to liking it, you will kick yourself for not going. Grab your family, get in your Cadillac car, step to the bad side and move, move to the Marriott! Rashidra Scott’s Lorell and Eric Lajuan Summers’s James “Thunder” Early are already immortal. As I said in my review, this show is like “a crash course in how to become a legend, and how to remain there for decades.”

http://www.marriotttheatre.com/show.aspx?show=63

The Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace hasn’t even gotten its Super September entry, “Xanadu,” out of the gate yet, but it’s announced the cast for its next production, “Singin’ In The Rain,” based on the legendary 1952 MGM film musical and set to begin performances on November 15, running through the holidays. Sean Palmer, who starred as Prince Eric in Broadway’s “The Little Mermaid,” will star as film star Don Lockwood, the role made famous by Gene Kelly and all that water. Matthew Crowle, returning to the Drury Lane after his triumph there in “Spamalot” two seasons ago, will be Cosmo, and Jenny Guse will charm as Kathy Selden. Melissa van Der Schyff (from last season’s “Bonnie And Clyde” on Broadway) will be the legendary Lina Lamont, Chicago veteran Don Forston will be R. F. Simpson, and fellow veteran John Reeger, young veteran Daniel Coonley, versatile Catherine Lord, young Amanda Tanguay and end-of-the-alphabet noted performers George Andrew Wolff and Zach Zube will be among the others on hand. Bill Jenkins directs, and Amber Mak and Matthew Crowle will be splitting the dance duties.

Drury-Lane-Theatre's-SINGIN-IN-THE-RAIN

Interestingly enough, “Singin’ In The Rain” figures prominently in the 2013 season announced recently by Theatre At The Center in southeast suburban Munster, Indiana. The Chicago area premiere of the dance musical “What A Glorious Feeling,” about the creation of “Singin’ In The Rain,” will run at TATC from April 25-June 2, 2013. Written by Jay Berkow, its plot is the “tempestuous love triangle that occurred behind the scenes during the filming of the 1952 blockbuster,” between Gene Kelly, his assistant Jeanne Coyne and the film’s co-director (with Kelly), Stanley Donen. Sounds interesting? Maybe? Well, the aforementioned “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” will run April 25-June 2, Stephen Schwartz’s “Godspell” will play a year from now (September 12-October 20, 2013) and, as the show I am most interested, Alan Menken’s “A Christmas Carol,” the show that played the Paramount Theatre underneath New York’s Madison Square Garden for 10 Christmases, will make its Chicago area debut November 14-December 22, 2013. Now, that’s a musical season!

Theatre-at-the-Center-Announces-2013-Season

So, I realize that that’s looking pretty far ahead, but all these shows may be competing for ticket sales with a certain Broadway blockbuster than recently announced an extension here, and it hasn’t even opened yet! Or announced a cast. I’m talking of course about the 2011 Tony Award winner for Best Musical (among 9 Tonys in all, plus many other honors), “The Book Of Mormon.” It looks like it’s headed for a sit-down production here that may rival “Jersey Boys,” if not “Wicked.” Now, that latter one may be a bit of a stretch, but the show will soon be selling tickets for its Bank Of America Theater run from December 11, 2012-June 2, 2013. Not bad for a show that’s still on the horizon. Not bad at all.

http://www.broadwayinchicago.com/shows/bookofmormon

In the near term, some Mosh Pit peeps are celebrating the return of “Sexy Baby,” the original “docu-musical” from Hell In A Handbag Productions that ran in May, June and July at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville, satirizing the child beauty pageant world. Now the show is back, billed as “The Late Night Boystown Edition,” running September 6-October 27, on Friday and Saturday nights only, at the aforementioned Theater Wit. Curtain time is 11:00 pm, btw. And your ticket purchase includes a free cocktail! Hell in a handbag, indeed!

http://www.handbagproductions.org/

In a different vein entirely, but also a remount of sorts, is “The Sound Of Music” from Chamber Opera Chicago, which the company mounted last year. It’s back again, for two performances only (September 15-16) at the Athenaeum Theatre on Southport Avenue. Chuck Gessert directs, assisted by Matt Raftery, who is also recreating Linda Fortunato’s 2011 choreography. Barbara Landis stars as Maria, with Ryan de Ryke as the Captain, Erika Morrison as the Mother Abbess, Nancy Wiebe Mazurowski as Elsa and Frederic Joseph as Rolf. Brian Burkhardt will conduct a thirty piece orchestra. What’s the name of that Max/Elsa/Georg song from Act II? “No Way To Stop It!”

http://www.chamberoperachicago.org/sound-of-music.html

“A Class Act” will soon be joined by another Chicago premiere of a Broadway musical. Courtesy of Bailiwick Chicago, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” will premiere October 4 (through November 11) at the National Pastime Theater in the Uptown neighborhood. The 2010 Broadway musical has music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and a book by Alex Timbers, and will be directed here by Scott Ferguson, with musical direction by James Morehead. Matthew Holzfeind stars as the sexy, dangerous seventh President of the United States, with Sam Dubina as Rachel and Judy Lea Steele as the Storyteller. It should be quite something. Rehearsals started last week.

https://bailiwickchicago.com/loop/see-a-show/bloody-bloody-andrew-jackson/

The folks at Bailiwick have also announced one of the more fun fundraising events on Chicago’s theater scene, their annual Chicago Casting Auction. And the show for which roles are available to the highest bidder is a more traditional rock musical than “Bloody Bloody”--it’s “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice show that seems to be just around the corner all the time. The live auction event will take place October 27, 2012 at the Dank Haus in Lincoln Square, and the resulting “Joseph” production will take place January 31-February 2, 2013 at Stage 773. “Go, Go, Go!”

https://bailiwickchicago.com/chicago-casting-auction/

And last, but not least, we note the closing on September 2, 2012 of “Pinkalicious,” the little children’s show that could. Emerald City Theatre’s production of the off-Broadway show about a girl who eats to many pink cupcakes opened on July 8, 2011 and ran for almost four months at the Apollo Theater on Lincoln Avenue. Then it got picked up by Broadway In Chicago and plunked into the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place six months later, where it ran for 14 joyous months. That’s positively amazing! The Showtune Mosh Pit salutes director Ernie Nolan, stars Lara Mainier, Rachel Klippel, Mark Kosten and Patrick Byrnes, and all the casts and crews that entertained all those tourists, and a few Chicagoans too, during that time. Emerald City’s “Cinderella” is going into the BPAWTP next (opening in November) Wouldn’t it be great if it also ran 14 months? Good going, you guys.

http://www.broadwayinchicago.comPinkalicious

And so, September has finally arrived. If the temperatures are a slight bit cooler, at least our stages are red hot! I hope you’re in the thick of things, one way or the other. See you at all those opening nights, or maybe at the opening night cast parties! And I know I'll see you under the video screens.....—PWT

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