'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for May 29th, 2013
By: Paul W. Thompson May. 29, 2013
THE LATEST IN UNAUTHORIZED GOSSIP AND BUZZ
FROM THE HEART OF CHICAGO'S SHOWTUNE VIDEO BARS,
AND MUSICAL THEATER NEWS FROM CHICAGO TO BROADWAY
Overheard last weekend under the showtune
video screens at Sidetrack and The Call:
Last week was our annual Chicago Summer Musical Theater Guide, and this week we turn the attention of the Mosh Pit and its peeps to theaters within a day's easy drive of here. It's the 2013 Regional Summer Musical Theater Guide! Enjoy, whether you're involved in putting these shows on, or are experiencing them as an audience member!
The closest thing to traditional professional summer stock theater that we have from a Chicago perspective is probably the Timber Lake Playhouse, located in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, near Galena in northwestern Illinois. Many of the professionals working here are based in Chicago, and many audience members are probably familiar with the Chicago theater scene during the colder months of the year. This summer, Executive Director Jim Beaudry's company kicks it off in high hat style with "A Chorus Line," directed by Broadway performer Will Taylor and running June 6-16. Beaudry himself will helm "The Music Man," running July 5-14, and Derek Bertelson will direct "Spamalot" (August 1-11), choreography by Jim Beaudry and Cameron Turner. The season will end with the new musical "S' Wonderful," featuring 42 songs by the Gershwin brothers. The plays "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "Unnecessary Farce" round out the offering.
http://timberlakeplayhouse.org/
Swinging north into cheese country, we find that the University Of Wisconsin--Platteville's Heartland Festival, dark last year due to theater renovations, is back in action this summer. "Nunsense" will run June 14-30, directed by Dr. David Shuler, and "Fiddler On The Roof," starring Shuler and directed by Dr. Ann Dillon Farrelly, will play July 6-21. Get it? "Fiddler" will play.... The festival will also produce the play, "Frankly Scarlett, You're Dead!" and host the Missoula Children's Theatre from Montana for two productions.
http://www3.uwplatt.edu/news/curtain-rise-again-heartland-festival
The American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, is one of the Midwest's leading summer theaters, only they don't do musicals! You'll have to sit through stuff like "Hamlet," "All My Sons" and "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" if you go there, plus stuff by people like W. Somerset Maugham, Tom Stoppard and Brian Friel. You know, the great playwrights of the twentieth century.... But please, no e-mails. I'm totally kidding here. American Players is this country's second largest outdoor classical theater, and they feature a ton of Chicago actors there! It's a remarkable operation. Superb, peeps, just superb.
The important and professional Fireside Theatre in FT. Atkinson, Wisconsin, rounds up a production of "Annie Get Your Gun" on June 9, opening up a "Little Shop Of Horrors" production from June 13-July 14 (Get it? They're opening up a "Shop!" I'll stop now.). The farce "Run For Your Wife" will bring the summer to a close, July 25-September 1.
http://www.firesidetheatre.com/
Billing itself as "America's oldest professional resident summer theatre," and dating from 1935, is (are?) the Peninsula Players, in Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin. The Sondheim/Lapine musical "Sunday In The Park With George" is on the docket this year, running July 24-August 11, right after the world premiere of Chicagoan Joe Foust's play, "Once A Ponzi Time." The other plays on the peninsula will be "Saloon," "The Game's Afoot" and "Miracle On South Division Street."
http://www.peninsulaplayers.com/pages/theplays.html
The American Folklore Theatre (also in Door County) is unique in that it only produces original musicals, ones with a Midwest, Great Lakes or Cheesehead sensibility. And the shows alternate nights! This year's season will run from June 12-August 24, with three shows on the boards. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, "Windjammers" makes its world premiere, with book by Robin Share, music by Clay Zambo and lyrics by both. Tuesdays and Saturdays brings "Muskie Love," with music by Paul Libman and book and lyrics by Chicago resident Dave Hudson. And on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, "Loose Lips Sink Ships" makes its appearance, book and lyrics by Jacinda Duffin and Laurie Flanigan, and music by James Kaplan. For those keeping score, the theater is dark on Sunday, with one show on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and two different shows on Wednesday and Saturday. Whew!
http://www.folkloretheatre.com/
Across the bay from Door County, the Theater On The Bay at the University Of Wisconsin--Marinette is presenting "The Sound Of Music" from July 18-28, for its 48th summer season. John Thornberry directs, with musical direction by Jay Jensen.
http://marinette.uwc.edu/student-life/fine-arts/theatre-on-the-bay/
Northern Wisconsin's Hazelhurst is the home to Tommy O's Playhouse, the former Northern Lights Playhouse. Now the "Home of the Northern Stars," Tommy O's will be presenting "Oklahoma!" (June 22-August 22) and "The Music Man" (July 17-28), plus the non-musicals "A Little Off The Top" (June 19-August 25) and "Death And Life Of Sherlock Holmes" (June 20-August 22), plus some special concerts and children's shows. Shows alternate nights.
http://tommyosnorthernstarsplayhouse.com/category/current-shows/
And I think that's it for Wisconsin. Let's move over to Michigan, shall we? Many Most Pit peeps spend time in Saugatuck in the summer, and the Mason Street Warehouse in downtown Saugatuck starts things off this year with "Xanadu" from June 21 through July 14, directed and choreographed by Kurt Stamm. They'll switch gears to the regional premiere of Jeffrey Finn and Bob Walton's comedy, "Game Show," from July 26-August 11, and end the season with a brief run of the Maltby and Shire revue, "Closer Than Ever," from August 16-September 1. That's cool.
http://masonstreetwarehouse.org/Mason_Street_Warehouse/Home.html
Up the highway in Holland, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre has a busy season planned on the campus of Hope College, with the musicals "All Shook Up" (June 21-August 10), "The Light In The Piazza" (July 19-August 9) and "I Am Woman..." (July 2-31) alternating with the plays "The 39 Steps" and "Romeo And Juliet."
http://www.hope.edu/hsrt/shows/currentseason.htm
And the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, the state's oldest professional summer stock theater, marks its 67th season with an introductory revue, "The Great Big Bar Show" (May 28-June 9), leading to the first big musical of the summer, "42nd Street," playing June 11-23. The musical "Peter Pan" will soar June 25-July 7 (with "Guiding Light" star Robert Newman [Josh Lewis] as Captain Hook), followed by the play "Deathtrap" (July 9-21). Three big musicals comprise the summer's second half, with "Tarzan" swinging onto the stage from July 23-August 4, "Shrek" being family friendly from August 6-18, and "Young Frankenstein" bringing Mel Brooks monster realness from August 20-September 1. Four of these musicals are Barn Theatre premieres.
Moving over to Indiana, we find the Round Barn Theater at Amish Acres, "the national home of 'Plain And Fancy.'" Yes, the 1955 Albert Hague/Joseph Stein Broadway musical has played here, in the town of Nappanee, every summer since 1986, in a run somewhat unprecedented in the history of America's summer theaters. This year's production begins tonight, May 29, and runs through October 19. Have you seen it? The other musicals in this summer's repertory season include "Nunsense A-Men" (June 11-July 21) and "9 To 5" (July 30-September 1).
http://www.amishacres.com/musical_theatre/the_round_barn_theatre_home.php
The Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw, Indiana, has a full stock season planned, leading off with "Shrek" (June 5-15) and also including "9 To 5" (June 19-29). After that, "Hello, Dolly!" plays in early July (3-13), followed by "The Wedding Singer" from July 17-27. The play "The Nerd" runs July 31-August 10, with my old friend, "Forever Plaid" ending the festivities from August 14-24.
http://www.wagonwheeltheatre.org/
Moving over into central Illinois, we find another theater close to the heart of many Chicagoans, the Little Theatre On The Square in Sullivan. The season this summer kicks off with "Fiddler On The Roof" from June 5-16, to be followed by "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" (June 19-30) and, surprisingly, "Anything Goes" (July 3-14). Even more surprising is a rare revival of the Tony Award-winning "The Will Rogers Follies" (July 17-28: go catch this one!), with the season wrapping up with the popular "Spamalot" (July 31-August 11). Good for them!
http://www.thelittletheatre.org/
The McLeod Summer Playhouse at Carbondale's Southern Illinois University has a nice, balanced season prepared, dawning with "Hair" from June 21-30. "Annie," still on Broadway with Chicago's Jane Lynch now starring as Miss Hannigan, will come to life Carbondale style from July 12-21. And the All Southern High School Theater Project's "Guys And Dolls" will play August 1-5.
http://playhouse.siu.edu/shows.html
Over in Rock Island, Illinois, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse has two musicals on tap for the summer, "Menopause" (June 5-August 10) and "Southern Crossroads" (August 14-September 21). The first show played a long commercial run in Chicago in 2006, and the second was I believe created by former Chicagoan Warner Crocker in Virginia even more recently. Far from New York City, theater thrives, and takes on all kinds of forms.
Lastly, let's travel down to St. Louis, Missouri, as many Chicagoans do, to visit the high-powered season at the Muny, the Municipal Theater Association Of St. Louis and its ginormous amphitheater setting in the suburb of Forest Park. One of America's most important summer musical theater organizations at the age of 95, the Muny this year will offer "Spamalot" starring John O'Hurley (June 17-23), "Shrek" directed by John Tartaglia (June 24-30), "Nunsense" with Beth Leavel, Ken Page and Lara Teeter (July 1-7), "South Pacific" with the Bloody Mary of Loretta Ables Sayre and the Joe Cable of Josh Young (July 8-14), "Les Miserables" starring Hugh Panaro and Norm Lewis, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander (July 15-21) "Mary Poppins" directed by Gary Griffin and starring Jenny Powers, Rob McClure and the husband and wife team of Stephen Buntrock and Erin Dilly (July 25-August 2) and a "West Side Story" that is not yet announced (August 5-11). I hope you know who all these people are, and how awesome this season is. We are lucky that St. Louis is as close as it is!
So "Spamalot," "Shrek" and "9 To 5" and seem to be the most popular titles on the summer vacation circuit this year. Fine by me. And this ends our tour of parts of five states, and lets you know that there is definitely theater going on out there. Go out and see it!
But I have one last thing to tell you about before you go. And that's the Tony Award Viewing Party I'm hosting at The Call Bar in Chicago, on Sunday evening, June 9th from 6:00-11:00 pm. The Tony Award broadcast will be on the screens from 7:00-10:00, of course, and we'll have "Chicago At The Tonys" trivia questions during the commercial breaks, with prizes furnished by The Call! The bar is located at 1547 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue in Andersonville, where VJ Michael Hogan will be spinning Showtune videos starting at 4:00 pm, and going until 2:00 am. New York's biggest theater night will be a night to remember in Andersonville, as BroadwayWorld Chicago, the Showtune Mosh Pit and Paul W. Thompson Music bring you The Call's 2013 Tony Award Viewing Party. Come one, come all, to The Call!
I'll see you there...and I'll see you at all the usual times and places, under the video screens.....-PWT
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