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!”
BWW REVIEWS: IN THE HEIGHTS Tour Really Heats Up Chicago's Winter
December 18, 2009
December 18, 2009
Those folks you will see sweating in Chicago's Loop for the next three weeks won't be working too hard, wearing too many clothes or worrying about the local real estate market. They will merely be lucky Chicago theatergoers, responding to the warmth, light and fire of the very first touring production of the 2008 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, "In The Heights."
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 16th, 2009
December 16, 2009
December 16, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The Second City, 'TAF,' 'Glee,' 'The Princess and the Frog,' 'In the Heights,' 'Aida,' more.....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 8th, 2009
December 9, 2009
December 9, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Glee,' 'The Addams Family,' David Cromer, Grammy Award nominations, 'The Merry Widow,' more.....
BWW REVIEW: 'Oh Coward!' A Delectable Gift from the Gods at Writers’ Theatre
December 4, 2009
December 4, 2009
In this, its 18th season of award-winning and insightful professional theater, Writers' Theatre, 'focusing on the word and the artist,' has decided to bless us all with only its second musical offering ever--and what a production!....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 2, 2009
December 2, 2009
December 2, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Thanksgiving Day Parade, 'South Pacific,' 'Rudolph, the Red-Hosed Reindeer,' 'The Wind in the Willows,' Linda Eder, more.....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 25th, 2009
November 25, 2009
November 25, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Jackie Hoffman, 'Jersey Boys,' 'The Addams Family,' 'Banana Shpeel,' 'South Pacific,' more.....
Munster's 'Christmas Schooner:' The Gales of November Pack An Emotional Wallop
November 23, 2009
November 23, 2009
I may be the only Chicago theater critic of a certain age who has never seen "The Christmas Schooner." After its initial production by the Music Theatre program at Northwestern University in 1993, directed by Dominic Missimi, the show debuted at the old Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in 1996 and ran for thirteen holiday seasons, an extremely impressive track record, indeed.....
'Miracle On 34th Street' A Modestly Charming Play With Music
November 22, 2009
November 22, 2009
Now on the boards at Theatre Building Chicago is the first edition of Porchlight Music Theatre's hoped-for holiday tradition, 'Miracle on 34th Street,' an adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1947 film (and its Valentine Davies source novel) by Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder, Will Severin and John Vreeke. Porchlight has added musical arrangements by Chicago composer Jon Steinhagen to the script,....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 17th, 2009
November 18, 2009
November 18, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'The Addams Family,' 'Dreamgirls,' 'Glee,' Bailiwick Chicago, Second City, more.....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 10th, 2009
November 10, 2009
November 10, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Holiday Musical Round-Up: Part Two. 'A Christmas Carol,' 'A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant,' 'Plaid Tidings,' 'The Christmas Schooner,' more....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 3, 2009
November 3, 2009
November 3, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Young Frankenstein,' 'The Addams Family,' 'South Pacific,' 'In the Heights,' more.....
Oakbrook's 'MILLIE' a Tappy, Happy Hit
November 1, 2009
November 1, 2009
Opening this week at the high-flying Drury Lane Theatre, in Chicago's far western suburb of Oakbrook Terrace, is "Thoroughly Modern Millie," the 2002 Best Musical Tony winner which gave the world the career of Sutton Foster (and didn't too badly for her male co-stars Gavin Creel and Marc Kudisch). Based on the pretty successful 1967 film starring Julie Andrews, more.....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 27th, 2009
October 27, 2009
October 27, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'The Rocky Horror Show,' 'Animal Crackers,' 'Promises, Promises,' 'Five Mos Named Guy,' more....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 21st, 2009
October 21, 2009
October 21, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Jeff Award results, 'Ragtime' auditions, 'Young Frankenstein' and Broadway in Chicago tours, Zachary James, and more....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 13th, 2009
October 14, 2009
October 14, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Man of La Mancha,' 'The Glorious Ones,' 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' 'Othello,' and more.....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 6th, 2009
October 6, 2009
October 6, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Early fall round-up, Levi Kreis, 'A Hundred Dresses,' cabaret news, 'Attack of the Theater People,' celebrity sightings, more.....
A Lincolnshire "Hairspray:" Total, Inevitable Integration
October 2, 2009
October 2, 2009
Opening this week at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago's far north suburban collar community of Lincolnshire is one of the first post-Broadway productions of "Hairspray," one of this decade's biggest hits and longest running Broadway shows, based on a hit movie and the basis for yet another....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for September 29th, 2009
September 30, 2009
September 30, 2009
The mosh pit was rocking on Monday night, as Sidetrack played host to Stef Tovar and cast members of "High Fidelity!" The star of Piper's Alley Theater's current musical offering (in its first major post-Broadway engagement)....
'The Marvelous Wonderettes:' Forever Female at the Northlight Theatre
September 28, 2009
September 28, 2009
In the smallish pantheon of shows that followed in the footsteps of "Forever Plaid," that early 90s ode to the boy bands of the 1950s and 60s that uses a small cast, one set and a "juke box" of Baby Boomer radio hits, many of them quite naturally feature girls. ("Beehive" comes to mind, as does the recent "Shout.") And now comes "The Marvelous Wonderettes," ....
'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for September 22nd, 2009
September 22, 2009
September 22, 2009
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Patti LuPone, 'Sister Act,' 'The Story of My Life,' 'Cotton Patch Gospel' and more.....
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