'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for March 7th, 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:

So, “Bring It On!” The new musical based on the 2000 Kirsten Dunst film is here for three weeks, March 6-25, 2012 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. By all appearances a pre-Broadway tryout, this show boasts a top-tier, though young, artistic team, even as the onstage talent is mostly newcomers. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, as I’m sure the producers are counting on the movie’s name and the unique presence of competitive cheerleading on a legitimate stage to sell a lot of tickets. But the team of Tom Kitt and Amanda Green previously collaborated on “High Fidelity,” Jeff Whitty wrote the book for “Avenue Q” and the triumvirate of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire and Andy Blankenbuehler all worked on “In The Heights.” So, this group has some successes under their belts. Is this show any good? Well, reviews in other cities have been promising, though all are aware that work needs to be done, and is getting done. It will be fun to hear what Chicagoans think about this latest production to use us as a sounding board.

http://www.bringitonmusical.com/

Broadway In Chicago announced last week that its holiday schedule for 2012 will be graced by the national tour of Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s “Sister Act” (to play November 13-December 2 at the Auditorium Theatre Of Roosevelt University) and the musical version of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!”, a New York City holiday favorite (to play December 5-16 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre). It also announced a return of the popular 25th anniversary reimagining of “Les Miserables,” to precede “Grinch” into the Cadillac Palace from November 14-December 2, coinciding with the release of the feature film of the same property, now in production in England. And just today, BIC announced the third Chicago visit of “Rock Of Ages,” but the first one to fill the space I always thought it should play, the Broadway Playhouse At Water Tower Place. It will be here a rollicking nine weeks this summer (from June 5-August 5). Tickets will go on sale next Wednesday. But what does this mean for “Pinkalicious?”

ROCK-OF-AGES-Returns-to-Chicago-for-9-Weeks-This-Summer

Two important local musical theater companies announced their upcoming seasons as well. Porchlight Music Theatre has announced its first season planned by new artistic director Michael Weber, and it’s a doozy. The company’s 18th season, to take place at Theater Wit and at Stage 773 on Belmont Avenue, will start off with the Chicago premiere of the show about the lyricist of “A Chorus Line,” Ed Kleban. It has music and lyrics by him, unheard until after his untimely death and put into a show about his creative process by his friends Linda Kline and Lonny Price. Called “A Class Act,” the musical will place September 1-October 14, directed and choreographed by Tammy Mader. From November 17-December 30 will be the Chicago premiere of “The Gifts Of The Magi,” the off-Broadway retelling of the famous O. Henry short story, directed by Nick Bowling. February 2-March 17, 2013 will see “Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar And Grill,” directed by Rob Lindley, and Porchlight’s season will conclude with the Chicago located, Broadway-infused Rodgers and Hart classic, “Pal Joey,” direction by Weber, musical direction by Doug Peck and choreography by Brenda Didier. (That’s some A-Team.) “Joey” will zip the trousers that cling to him (or will he?) from April 20-June 2, 2013. 

Porchlight-Music-Theatre-2012-2013-Season

Our other “P” theater, Aurora’s Paramount Theatre, announced its second season of locally produced big-time musical theater under artistic director Jim Corti. The conservative, though lucky, shows are “Grease,” (September 12-30, 2012), “Annie,” (November 21-December 30, a longer run than usual), “The Music Man” (January 16-February 3, 2013) and “Fiddler On The Roof,” (March 6-24). Michael Unger will direct “Grease,” Corti himself will take on “Fiddler,” and Rachel Rockwell will do the honors for the middle two.

Paramount-Theatre-2012-2013-Season 

Before we get to the next school year, however, we get to progress through a hopefully wonderful Chicagoland summer! And the Grant Park Music Festival has announced its summer season, to run from mid-June to early August. The musical theater event of note will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 13 and 14 (my birthday!), when former Chicagoan turned Broadway musical director Kevin Stites (“Titanic”) conducts “Perfectly Frank: From Broadway To Hollywood.” We know the Grant Park Orchestra and members of the Grant Park Chorus will sing selections by Loesser in the Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park, but we don’t know who the “Broadway Vocalists” will be. When will Grant Park learn that some people in Chicago (namely my Mosh Pit peeps) do know who the folks are (and do care to know) who will ultimately perform at these events? It’s like throwing a Puccini festival and announcing that “Opera Singers” will handle the singing chores. And they’ve been known to do that, too. Really? Really?

grantparkmusicfestival.com/perfectly-frank-from-broadway-to-hollywood

Trickles of information are also coming out from the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, most notably the July 8, 2012 appearance of Idina Menzel. The “Wicked Rent Girl” will be opening up a North American tour on June 1 in Vancouver and singing somewhere almost every night for a while. That’s a grueling schedule!

Idina-Menzel-Announces-North-American-Tour

Not to be outdone, Menzel’s “Wicked” co-star, Kristin Chenoweth, has also announced a North American tour, to take her to 19 cities in May and June. Chicago is on the schedule, for June 16, 2012 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Sure to be a massive sell-out, the concert’s tickets go on sale this week, March 9, at 10:00 am (it’s a Broadway In Chicago event). Chenoweth has both an album (“Some Lessons Learned”) and a TV show (the very new “GCB”, premiering this week) to publicize, not to mention the chance to perform some of the many songs associated with her career thus far. I hereby predict that the day is not far off when Menzel and Chenoweth team up for a network TV special (not PBS, mind you, but one of the big three), the likes of which we haven’t seen since Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett did it three times, 30-50 years ago. The only thing holding them back may be the question of billing….Think about it.

Kristin-Chenoweth-Announces-19-Date-North-American-Tour

The movie screens have been alive and well with the big-screen debut of the filmed musical “Love Never Dies,” the sequel to “The Phantom Of The Opera” that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glenn Slater wrote for the West End and which has not yet been seen live on our shores. The Melbourne, Australia production was filmed, and was shown at Fathom Events movie houses nationwide last week, on February 28. An encore presentation is scheduled for today, March 7. Anybody going?

http://www.fathomevents.com/loveneverdies

Lloyd Webber’s first musical, “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” seems to be gaining in popularity all the time, even though it is now about 45 years old. (My mother still has the coat made by my grandmother that I wore in a concert presentation of the original schoolchildren’s version in about 1971.) The film that starred Donny Osmond (star of the landmark, 16-month run of the show at the Chicago Theatre in the mid-1990s) was made in 1999, but is coming back with a vengeance…to Fathom Events movie theaters. And this time, it’s a singalong, hosted by Donny himself! On March 26 and April 4. You can’t make this stuff up. Where’s Tim Rice? No doubt pinching himself that both “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita” are being revived on Broadway this spring. You can’t make this stuff up.

http://www.fathomevents.com/josephandthecoat

Even though the show has morphed from a musical by children into a musical by and for adults, it is also being done as we speak as a musical by adults but for children! It’s at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, and it’s getting great reviews. And why not? It’s an all-star Chicago cast, with Susan Moniz as the Narrator and Bernie Yvon, Jameson Cooper, Brandon Springman, Tiffany Topol and Alan Schmuckler, among others, in the small but energetic cast. Brian Bohr, who played Joseph in last fall’s mainstage production at the Paramount in Aurora, stars. Matt Raftery directed and choreographed the show, onstage in Lake County, through May 12. Can you say, “10:00 am?”

marriotttheatrejoseph

Not to be outdone by this outpouring of ALW popularity is the Stephen Sondheim camp, and those folks are undoubtedly pleased that his masterwork “Sweeney Todd” is on the boards again. It’s on for two weekends in Oak Lawn, March 16-25, courtesy of the Oak Lawn Theatre on 110th Street. With direction by Brad Kisner and musical direction by Greg Owens, the Grand Guignol guzzler stars Mark Jacobson and Gina Guarino, with Craig C. Mason, Melina Vitucci, Mark Bartishell, Jamie Szynal, Billy Vitucci and Reagan Pender, with David Belew as Judge Turpin. Next up there: “Legally Blonde!”

http://www.oaklawntheatre.com

Meanwhile, back at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, it’s in use even though it’s not summertime just yet. Next Monday, March 12, Paul Oakley Stovall and Brad Simmons perform “The Next Best Thing To Love” on the Cabaret With A View series, the climate-controlled setting that’s intimate and classy. And on Monday, April 9, the series concludes for the year with McKinley Carter and Dustin Pappin in “Spring Forward/Fall Back,” music by Rodgers, Sondheim, Coleman, Finn and more, including Chicagoans Cheri Coons, Beckie Menzie and Chuck Larkin. Awesome.

Cabaret-Returns-to-Millennium-Park

And so, with the temperatures temporarily in the upper 60s, I’ll leave you to it! I know you’ll be out and about, and maybe I'll see you, under those video screens.....—PWT

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