Paul W. Thompson, a contributor to BroadwayWorld.com since 2007, is a Chicago-based singer, actor, musical director, pianist, vocal coach, composer and commentator. His career as a performer, teacher and writer is centered at Paul W. Thompson Music, located in Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building, where he teaches the great songs of Broadway to the next generation of musical theater performers. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Paul was raised in a family of professional musicians and teachers, steeped in classical, gospel, country, pop, sacred and show music. Dubbed a “thin, winsome lad” at the age of 13 by a critic for the Nashville Banner, he earned two degrees in musical theater (a B.F.A. with Honors from Baylor University and an M.M. from the University of Miami, Florida), plus an M.B.A. with Distinction from DePaul University. Paul’s memberships include Actors’ Equity Association, the American Guild of Musical Artists, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (proud voter for the Grammy Awards!), the National Association of Teachers of Singing and New York’s Drama League.
Moving easily between the worlds of classical music, religious music, classic pop and musical theater, Paul has appeared onstage or in the orchestra pit in concerts, musicals, operettas and operas in 30 states and in Europe, in a career spanning more than 35 years. His Chicagoland stage credits include “Forever Plaid” at the Royal George Theater and twenty mainstage productions at Light Opera Works. Paul joined the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1995 (he was Tenor I Section Leader for four years and sings on two Grammy-winning recordings), and is one of Chicago’s foremost liturgical singers, marking 20 years as a member of the choir at St. James Cathedral (Episcopal) in 2011.He has composed and arranged a number of anthems, hymns and songs for worship and concert use, and collaborates on the creation of new works of musical theater. Paul can be found on Monday nights watching showtune videos at the world-famous Sidetrack nightclub, the inspiration for his weekly column, “The Showtune Mosh Pit.” His proudest achievement is that he has seen the original Broadway production of every Tony Award-winning Best Musical since “Cats.” No, really. Since “Cats!”
The Artistic Home, near the corner of Byron and Clark on the outskirts of Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood, is directly across the street from a cemetery.
Playing each Thursday through Sunday from now until May 1, 2010, the 1993 off-Broadway musical "Hello Again" is on the boards at the Heartland Studio space on Glenwood Avenue, courtesy of the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble.
Last Saturday night, April 10, 2010, Chicago's Provision Theater Company presented the world premiere dramatic adaptation of the book 'The Hiding Place,' the real-life story of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutchwoman arrested by the Nazis who survived life in a concentration camp.
Tony winner and Broadway legend Sutton Foster will come to Chicago for a weekend of performances this September, when 'An Evening With Sutton Foster' kicks off programming at the renovated and renamed Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, it was announced this morning.
Now through April 25, 2010, on the mainstage of the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, is the premiere of "The Lost Boys of Sudan," the play by VG ensemble playwright Lonnie Carter that has "changed enormously" since its 2007 world premiere at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
Is "Ragtime" the Great American Musical? Certainly a grand argument in favor of that statement is now on display at the Drury Lane Theatre in Chicago's western suburb of Oakbrook Terrace, where one of the strongest home-grown musical productions in recent memory very nearly floored the opening night
The Jedlicka Performing Arts Center will present the Chicago Regional Premiere of the Broadway musical A TALE OF TWO CITIES at their 250-seat theatre just outside the Chicago city limits.
This coming weekend, March 19 and 20, 2010, the musical "13" will be presented in downtown north suburban Waukegan, Illinois, in what is believed to be its first professional production in Illinois.
Playing on Sunday nights in February and March in Mary's Attic, that casual and funky space above Hamburger Mary's restaurant in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, is the equally casual and funky "Show Us Your Love," a fundraiser cum audience development activity cum consumer survey vehicle that