'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for January 26th, 2010
By: Paul W. Thompson Jan. 27, 2010
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:
So much to talk about--so much that all of YOU are talking about! OMG!!!
We learned late last week that the rumors were true, that the four guys in the "Million Dollar Quartet" will all be making their Broadway debuts! When the show begins performances in mid-March at New York's Nederlander Theatre, the four singing and playing actors who have been playing Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins in Chicago for the last 16 months will all be front and center! Kudos and best wishes to Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Levi Kreis and Rob Lyons for this fantastic and well-deserved accomplishment. (And note, this is their final week to play the show at the Apollo Theatre here--catch them while you can!).
Broadway actors Hunter Foster (the guy who hits that high note in the "Urinetown" Tony Awards clip) and ElizaBeth Stanley (she starred in "Xanadu" here at the Drury Lane Theatre, Water Tower Place) round out the cast. There's a cast album already available, too!
But, you may know that MDQ is selling tickets here in Chicago for another four months of performances! So, who will replace the Quartet here? David Lago (a daytime Emmy Award winner for "The Young And The Restless"), Sean Sullivan, Lance Lipinsky and Gabe Bowling (currently an understudy and movin' on up!) are heavy into rehearsals now, with continuing Chicago cast members Tim Decker and Kelly Lamont as Sam Phillips and Dyanne. Best wishes to all of them!
There are big doin's at another long-running area musical, "Oh Coward" at Glencoe's Writers' Theatre. They've announced yet another extension of the highly regarded, intimate production, through April 18th, and they've also released a cast album! Called "Bright Young People" for weird legal reasons, it's a CD of 17 Coward songs from the production, sung by Kate Fry, Rob Lindley and John Sanders, with Doug Peck at the piano. The sample selections on the theater's website sound great, don't they? And the other big news from Glencoe is that John Sanders has left the production, reportedly to join the tour of "Mamma Mia!" that played the Rosemont Theatre last week! Who has replaced him in "Oh Coward?" That would be Brandon Dahlquist, last seen as the lead in "The Christmas Schooner" at Theater at the Center in Munster. I wonder if he has shaved!
http://www.writerstheatre.org/
Well, I lied. There is actually even more news from Glencoe. On four Monday nights in March, the theatre will present a "Writers' Cabaret" series, featuring in succession Foiled Again, Ross Lehman, Joan Curto and E. Faye Butler. What a great idea for that space!
http://www.writerstheatre.org/behind_the_scenes/cabaret
And there's still more! Writers' was the subject of an article last week in (of all places) "Crain's Chicago Business," the weekly bible of Chicago's business community. The article features the company's new Executive Director, Kate Lipuma, and is required reading for anyone interested in the business aspects of the theater world. Awesome job, Kate and everyone! They are clearing doing many things right.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?id=32925
While we're on the subject of local cast albums, we are told that the recent "The Wind In The Willows" that ran at City Lit Theater Company in Edgewater has recorded a cast album as well! It's being remixed now, and according to those involved it should be featured soon on CD Baby and on composer and playwright Douglas Post's website.
http://www.douglaspost.net/index.htm
One of that production's stars, Jeremy Trager, is in rehearsals now for the upcoming production of "Chess" at the intimate Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre in the Rogers Park neighborhood. The legendary show, with music by ABBA men Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (and lyrics by the peripatetic Tim Rice) runs March 7-April 25.
Another spring pop opera has hit our rehearsal radar--this one at House Theatre. From April 8-May 25, they will be offering "Girls vs. Boys" by Chris Matthews, Jake Minton and Nathan Allen, directed by Allen. Originally developed at Northwestern University's American Musical Theatre Project, this show promises to "push the envelope" in its performances at the Chopin Theatre on Division Street. I believe that busy theatrical drummer Ethan Deppe is musical directing.
http://www.thehousetheatre.com/shows?show-id=girls-vs-boys
Out at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, they have scarcely settled in for the fun of "Funny Girl" before all eyes are turning to their upcoming production of "Ragtime," the Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty musical that regrettably closed on Broadway earlier this month despite rave reviews. But Oakbrook's will be an entirely different production of the Tony-winning book and score, directed by Rachel Rockwell (whose "Miss Saigon" at DLO was the talk of the town one year ago). The epic "Ragtime" (rumored to feature a searing "Back To Before" from "The Christmas Schooner"'s Cory Goodrich) will run March 18-May 23.
http://www.drurylaneoakbrook.com/live_theatre/now_playing.php
The Grammy Awards are this coming Sunday night, and the eyes of the Mosh Pit are on the prize for "Best Musical Show Album" (it's category 80 for those with score cards). The award is wide open this year, since neither the most recent Tony winner for Best Musical ("Billy Elliot" did not release an album last year) nor for Best Score ("Next To Normal" was inexplicably not nominated) is in the running. The five nominated recordings are of the New York revivals of "Hair" and "West Side Story," the new film-to-stage musicals "9 To 5" and "Shrek" and a touring production of "Ain't Misbehavin'" with "American Idol" coattails. We're thinking that "Hair" will take this, aren't we? Aren't we??
Turning attention to the big-venue activities of the very busy Broadway In Chicago, I would like to ask if you all survived last week's opening of three touring shows? The "Mamma Mia!" and "Annie" performances went well, I hear, but the mind-blowing reviews and reception afforded the new Robert Longbottom production of "Dreamgirls" (still here this week at the Cadillac Palace Theatre) makes you wonder- -what do we have to do to get this show to stay here longer? I mean, really. This is Chicago, after all.
http://www.dreamgirlsonstage.com/
On the horizon for the Cadillac Palace in the next six weeks are the new musical "The 101 Dalmatians Musical" starring the incomparable Rachel York (and yes, that's the actual title) February 16-28, and "An Evening With Patti LuPone And Mandy Patinkin" from March 2-7. The "Dalmatians" show features music by Chicago's very own Dennis DeYoung (Styx and "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame") and is directed by Jerry Zaks (now show-doctoring "The Addams Family" for Broadway). Patti and Mandy are, well, Patti and Mandy!
And last but not least, we mention an announcement made on Monday which sent tongues flapping long into the night! A little show named "Wicked" will be making a surprise return visit to Chicago (to the Cadillac Palace, not the Oriental) this coming December and January! Who'd have thunk it? Consensus is that this is probably a smart move for the producers, and that ticket demand will be high, but the fear is that it indicates a dearth of new tours to land on our mid-continental shore for the busy and popular holiday theatergoing season. But perhaps some great shows will be booked into the Bank of America Theatre ("Next To Normal?"), or even the Chicago Theatre ("West Side Story?") by the powers that be. Wouldn't "Rock Of Ages" work well at the Drury Lane Theatre, Water Tower Place? Maybe we won't have to wait too long to find out what's in store.
At any rate, it's busy as usual for Windy City tuners! Save me a seat at your next performance, ok? And then afterwards, I'll see you over the weekend (I'm sure), under the video screens.....--PWT
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