ANYTHING GOES, The Cole Porter Festival & More Set for Porchlight Music Theatre 29th Season

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre has unveiled its 29th season. The new season launches with The Cole Porter Festival - A Celebration of the Man and his Music. The centerpiece of the Festival is a 90th Anniversary production of Cole Porter’s crown jewel musical comedy, Anything Goes, starring internationally renowned powerhouse Meghan Murphy as “Reno Sweeney” and featuring the Chicago debut of a newly commissioned 2022 libretto, January 13 – February 25, 2024 at the Ruth Page Center. Then in spring, Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II, April 15, 2024 at The House of Blues and Porchlight in Concert: Sunday in the Park with George, May 11 and 12, 2024 at the Studebaker Theater. Subscriptions are $150 for Anything Goes and Porchlight in Concert: Sunday in the Park with George with Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II as an add-on to the subscription. Subscriptions are available to the public at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org or 773.777.9884 starting Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 12 p.m. Sponsorship opportunities for Porchlight’s 29th Season are available by contacting Development Director Evin Rayford* at evin@porchlightmusictheatre.org.

“Porchlight’s 29th Season is smaller than those in the past but does not hold back on the spectacle,” said Artistic Director Michael Weber. “We look forward to welcoming audiences to a fantastic season celebrating Cole Porter with our Cole Porter Festival and his Anything Goes, the return of last year’s sold-out sensation Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II and a new offering featuring one of Steven Sondheim’s groundbreaking works with Porchlight in Concert: Sunday in the Park with George.“

The Cole Porter Festival - A Celebration of the Man and his Music

Dates TBA
Various Locations throughout Chicago

Culminating in Porchlight’s 2024 run of Anything Goes, The Cole Porter Festival will feature a variety of events and activities including a retrospective Cole Porter in Hollywood, a newly curated Behind the Show Backstory multimedia presentation created by Artistic Director Michael Weber focusing on the creation and evolution of the musical Anything Goes, A Roundtable Discussion focusing on Porter’s work as seen through his lens as a gay artist working in the 1920s-50s, a revisit of Cole Porter and the Golden Age of Radio featuring rare broadcasts of Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate and more free and ticketed events to be announced. 

Anything Goes

January 13 - February 25, 2024
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Ave.
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Original Book by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton
and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
New Book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber+
Choreographed by Tammy Mader*
Music Directed by Nick Sula+
Starring Meghan Murphy* as “Reno Sweeney”
Previews: January 13, January 14, January 17 and January 18 
Opening Night: Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.
Performance schedule: Wednesdays at 7:30PM, Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 7:30PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 7:30PM, Sundays at 2PM

Chicago will get a kick out of this 90th anniversary production of Cole Porter’s smash-hit musical comedy, Anything Goes starring the Chicago-based international sensation Meghan Murphy as “Reno Sweeney.” Launching Porchlight’s 29th season, this legendary toe-tapping voyage across the Atlantic is filled with laughs, romance, intrigue and, of course, lots of tap dancing in this farcical and merry musical classic. Porter’s iconic score includes a shipload of tunes that built the Great American Songbook including "Anything Goes,” “Friendship,” "You're the Top" and "I Get a Kick Out of You.” 

Chicago Sings Broadway Pop II

Monday, April 15, 2024 at 6 p.m.
House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St.
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber+ and Producing Artistic Associate Frankie Leo Bennett+
Music Directed by David Fiorello+
Ticket Prices: $175, assigned main floor seats; $150, general admission and $50, Porchlight Young Professionals 
Sponsorships begin at $2500, which includes up to 10 seats at the event

Back by popular demand with an all-new program! This year’s annual fundraising concert will dive into more Broadway songs that have found their way onto the popular music charts and popular songs that have been heard on Broadway. Join Porchlight for a night of unforgettable music with a new set list including songs from the hottest pop musicals  performed by Porchlight favorite stars on the legendary House of Blues stage.

Porchlight in Concert: Sunday in the Park with George

Saturday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 12 at 2 p.m.
Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave.  
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber*
Ticket Prices: TBA

Porchlight celebrates the 40th Anniversary of one of Stephen Sondheim’s most celebrated works with a new special event concert staging. Audiences will experience Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer-, Tony- and Oliver-winning musical masterpiece with the original Broadway orchestrations performed by musicians live on stage with an all-star cast at Chicago's historic and beautifully restored Studebaker Theater. Based on Georges Seurat's painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” which is on display just down the street at the Art Institute of Chicago, this limited engagement brings to life the rich score telling the story of the months leading to the completion of Seurat’s famous work in 1886 and the effects of the artist and the art on people over the following 100 years.

Performances, dates and participants are subject to change. 

Porchlight’s 2023-2024 season is dedicated to Jim Jensen in recognition of his outstanding generosity and 12 years of dedicated board service to Porchlight Music Theatre.
 

ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE

Porchlight Music Theatre is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.” 

Porchlight's 28-year history includes more than 70 mainstage works with 16 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight’s commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites. 
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations, most notably the ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form. 

The company’s many honors include 192 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 45 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 12 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards, and was honored with eight nominations in both technical and artistic categories and won three awards in its inaugural year in this tier, most notably Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. 

Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Allstate; Michael Best & Friedrich LLP; Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Comcast; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation; The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at Prince; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints and Dr. Scholl Foundation.

The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. 

Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Abbvie; Allstate; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Peoples Gas; Pepsico; Polk Bros Foundation and The Saints. 

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