'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for June 8th, 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:

It's awards season! And of course, all Mosh Pit eyes are on Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Awards (Non-Equity Wing). Aren't they? Of course they are! The awards for the period April 2010-March 2011 were handed out in a two-hour ceremony this past Monday night at the Park West, that somewhat rambunctious concert venue in Lincoln Park that, unfortunately, is known for its inadequate air conditioning system. And boy, was THAT right! There were some pretty hot doings, let me tell you, and not all of them were on the stage. 

"Cabaret," the Kander and Ebb musical, was named the award recipient in the Production--Musical category, in the incarnation by The Hypocrites. The unusually dressed, shockingly ended production carried home five awards in all, including both of the Actress--Musical categories--Kate Harris in her Supporting Role as Fraulein Schneider and, in the Principal Role category, Jessie Fisher as a gender-reversed Emcee (the role played to award-winning acclaim in New York by Joel Grey and Alan Cumming). In the weirdest event of the evening, the show's director, Matt Hawkins, was named winner of the Director--Musical category, but only after Brenda Didier (a Choreography winner earlier in the evening for the much-discussed production of "Cats" at the No Exit Café) heard her name called out as the Director winner, gave an acceptance speech and apparently was given a plaque with Hawkins's name on it. Her name was not on the jumbotron screens flanking the stage, either--his was. He gave an acceptance speech, too, and I can't imagine what was going on backstage at that moment! But before dawn on Tuesday, the Jeff Awards website listed both Hawkins and Didier as co-winners of the Director category, so that is that. 

Her "Cats," produced by Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre i/a/w Michael James (that's "in association with," for those who think it means the "International Auto Workers" union) won four awards of its own, the two won by Didier, one in the category of Artistic Specialization, for Makeup Design (Izumi Inaba), and, in the category of Costume Design, these two productions tied again (Alison Siple for "Cabaret" and Matt Guthier for "Cats"). But, even with The Hypocrites taking the biggest prize of the evening, Theo Ubique still managed to once again be a formidable player on the scene, as Austin Cook won for his much-discussed Music Direction of its still-running "Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein." (I have to say, though, that no one pronounced "Hammerstein" correctly, all evening long. Cook isn't who I'm talking about, either. What gives, you guys? He's hardly obscure!) 

Anyway, other music awards were won by actors Andrew Mueller (Principal) and Courtney Crouse (Supporting) for their Huck and Tom in Bohemian Theatre Ensemble's popular mounting of "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which inaugurated the company's residency at Theatre Wit on Belmont Avenue last fall. (Crouse, you may remember, was a winner last year as well, for Theo Ubique's "Chess.") Chris Gingrich, Henry Riggs, Thea Lux and Tara Sissom won for Original Incidental Music for the play "That Sordid Little Story," produced by The New Colony. And, even though it was shut out of the winners' circle, "Boojum! Nonsense, Truth And Lewis Carroll" was well-represented by its cast's performance of the song "Flash: We Must Be Off," a choral highlight of the co-production by Chicago DCA Theater, Caffeine Theatre and Chicago Opera Vanguard. After well-performed highlights from the familiar scores from "Cats," "Big River" and "Cabaret," the virtually unknown "Boojum!" kept the audience in rapt attention.... And there were awards to non-musicals, too.... 

Jeff Awards Recipients 

So, I understand that New York has a theater awards show coming up next weekend, that right? The Tony Awards are on the horizon, of course! No, I didn't forget..... And many Chicagoans have been discussing the Tonys a lot these days, and all spring long, folks have been traipsing east to see whatever new productions they could get tickets for. "The Book Of Mormon" is viewed here as the shoo-in winner of the Best Musical prize, and Sutton Foster is also felt to have a lock on being Best Actress in a musical for the second time, for her Reno Sweeney in "Anything Goes." That Cole Porter gem was supposed to have a lock on the Best Musical Revival prize, but there's a late surge in support of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," driven no doubt by some chagrin that Daniel Radcliffe was not nominated for Best Actor. The Choreography prize is a three-way heat between these productions, though, and may be the category to watch for some suspense. In most categories, though, the drinking game activities may boil down to whether or not any other production ("The Scottsboro Boys" and "Sister Act" among them) can take any prize away from "Mormon." Oh, and will Norbert Leo Butz win his second Tony as the only winner for "Catch Me If You Can?" Oh, and "Priscilla: Queen Of The Desert" will definitely win for Best Costumes. Or do they call it "Outstanding Achievement In Costume Design?" I can't remember.... 

You know, I jest, but in all seriousness, this year's Tonys may turn out to be a lot more balanced than people were initially thinking. I'm just saying. ("Women On The Verge...," anyone?) They are being given out next Sunday, June 12th. Oh, there are some awards for non-musicals, too.... And next year's Tony race heats up the very next day, when "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark" officially opens. No, really! 

The 64th Annual Tony Awards 

Last weekend, many Mosh Pit peeps traveled out to the Allstate Arena for a helping of "Glee: Live," and most were satisfied that they got what they expected to see and hear. Amber Riley wowed 'em, and Chris Colfer crooned. The dancing was hot, the vocals somewhat...something (prerecorded, autotuned, overdubbed--"pick your word" is the word on the street) and I take it that there wasn't a live orchestra. And of course, the characters aren't going on this tour, the actors are. (Go figure.) But at least this tour seems to capture the truth of the hit TV show--it's about music, after all. Music, not theater, not comedy, not satire, not social change. Music. Churned out like there's no tomorrow, but still music. And that's...ok. 

Home : Glee Tour 2011 

Our namesake musical is in town this week, for one week only! "Chicago" plays at the Ford Center For The Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre from June 7-12, with John O'Hurley starring as Billy Flynn. You know, as amazing as the length of this revival's run in New York has been (and still counting), it's even more amazing that a tour is still going. It's fifteen years, right? The Oscar-winning film helped, but the film wouldn't have happened without the tour, I'm thinking. And the original production opened in 1975, the same year as another fifteen-year runner, "A Chorus Line." Our American megamusicals. Wonder what was in the drinking water that year, beyond Watergate and the Captain and Tennille? Can I have some? Crazy! 

CHICAGO The Musical 2011 Tickets | Broadway in Chicago 

A pretty awesome benefit event is taking place next Tuesday, June 14, 2011, at the Mercury Theater on Southport. It's "Mile Markers 2011," the annual outing for the Route 66 Theatre Company, and featured are the talents in music composition and performance of Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler, two hyper-talented young men on the local, and soon to be national, scene. They will be joined onstage by Marya Grandy, James Earl Jones II and Bethany Thomas (currently in Court Theatre's "Porgy And Bess"), plus Mahler's wife, the actress Dara Cameron, and a three-piece band. RAndy Steinmeyer hosts. 

Route 66 Theatre Company 

Has anybody noticed the detail about Northwestern University's SummerStage production of "Godspell" that caught my eye? Playing July 7-24 at the Ethel M. Barber Theater in Evanston, and directed by Dominic Missimi, the Stephen Schwartz tuner will feature "arrangement and orchestrations" by Alex Lacamoire. He's Lin-Manuel Miranda's go-to guy for such things, and he performed such things for Miranda's contributions to Schwartz's "Working," which just headed home from the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. But did we know that Lacamoire was working on "Godspell?" Is this 40th anniversary of the Christian-rock/feel-good musical the premiere of his work? Will it be licensed for future productions? Does anyone know? 

Godspell, Theatre and Interpretation Center 

A musical of a far different stripe opened here last weekend, and plays only on Friday nights in June. It's "Mansical," a singprov production with a cast of seven men, with musical direction by Stephanie McCullough. It's at the Apollo Studio Theatre, and "Male, Music, Improv," the show's tagline, is all you need to know. They make it all up, kids. And apparently they tend to use wigs. "Mansical!"  

Mansical!

In the mainstage at the Apollo Theatre is "Million Dollar Quartet," of course, where Chicago's production of this Tony-nominated musical has run for two and a half years, and is selling tickets through Labor Day. The Broadway production of the jukebox show actually set in the jukebox era abruptly announced that it is closing this Sunday, June 12, and will be taking the path of "Avenue Q," reopening off-Broadway in July, as soon as everything can be worked out at New World Stages. Interesting. Well, it did run more than a year at the Nederlander Theatre, long-time home of "Rent." That's not bad at all, and an off-Broadway house is probably a better-sized venue to keep this show running for a longer while. Look how it's done at such a venue here--two and half years and counting. 

Million Dollar Quartet to Close on Broadway 6/12 

Another New York show with roots here is also closing this Sunday, "A Minister's Wife," the musicalization of "Candida" that began at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe and stars Chicago's Kate Fry at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, along with heavy hitters Marc Kudisch and Bobby Steggert. The good news is that a cast album will be made of Josh Schmidt's and Jan Levy Tranen's score (book by Austin Pendleton), to be released by PS Classics, a leader in the post-CD world of cast album recordings. The legendary Tommy Krasker will produce. Get it, Kate! And could Michael Halberstam be more proud? 

PS Classics Will Record "A Minister's Wife" 

Speaking of recordings, that video record of "Company" at the New York Philharmonic earlier this year, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, Jon Cryer, Stephen Colbert, Anika Noni Rose, Katie Finneran, Martha Plimpton, Jim Walton, Craig Bierko, Jill Paice, Aaron Lazar and Jennifer Laura Thompson, among others, will begin playing on the movie screens of the Century Center Theater on Clark Street on June 15th! There are suburban locations as well, but Century seems to have a Chicago exclusive for this event! A very important addition to the catalog of Stephen Sondheim's filmed works, despite its mixed reviews, this is generating a lot of excitement. Don't miss out! You don't want to be the only person standing in the Mosh Pit who didn't see it, do you? I didn't think so! 

Screenvision - Stephen Sondheim's Company 

So, is it cool yet? And you thought that summer would never come? Well, it did, though it may just as quickly leave us. At any rate, musical theater will keep us hopping all season long, and thank goodness for air conditioned theaters, nightclubs, movie theaters and video bars. You know who you are--and I'll see you under the video screens.....-PWT 

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