'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for May 1st, 2013
By: Paul W. Thompson May. 01, 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:
It's finally time! The production that many of us have waited the better part of a year to see will finally open this Saturday, when Lyric Opera Of Chicago's new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" opens, directed by Broadway and Chicago's Gary Griffin and starring Broadway and Chicago's John Cudia and Ashley Brown as Curly and Laurey (that's him in the picture). Also in the large cast are David Adam Moore (Jud), Tari Kelly (Ado Annie), Curtis Holbrook (Will), Paula Scrofano (Aunt Eller), Usman Ally (Ali Hakim), Matt DeCaro (Andrew Carnes) and Andrea Prestinario (Gertie Cummings), plus an ensemble drawn from the ranks of the Lyric Opera Chorus and the Chicago musical theater and dance communities. James Lowe conducts, with Agnes De Mille's original 1943 Broadway choreography recreated by the legendary Gemze de Lappe. With sets by Broadway's John Lee Beatty (in his Lyric debut), costumes by Mara Blumenfeld, lights by Christine Binder and a new sound system designed by Mark Grey, Valerie Maze as chorus master and three dozen members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra playing Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations, it looks and sounds like Lyric is really doing this right. The show that may have been Broadway's first mega-musical (it toured for a decade and held the long-run record for 13 years) plays 16 performances only (through May 19, 2013), so you better move quickly. The buzz at this point is extremely positive. We'll see. But I'm rarely wrong!
OKLAHOMA! at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Another big show from an even earlier Broadway, George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's "Porgy And Bess," is receiving a somewhat prominent production too, though you have to travel to Milwaukee to see it (it's not THAT far...). Skylight Music Theatre will present the opera/musical from May 17 through June 9 in Milwaukee's Broadway Theater Center. Bill Thiessen is directing the show as a "chamber opera," with musical direction by Richard Carsey. Jason McKinney and both Kearstin Piper Brown and Rhea Olivacce star as the title pair, with Adrienne Danrich as Serena, Nathaniel Stampley as Crown and Chicagoan Anthony P. McGlaun as Sporting Life.
skylight-to-premier-new-production-of-porgy-and-bess
There are always interesting events coming up on Monday nights, in addition to the usual plethora of open mics, karaokes and classes that actors partake of on their big night off. This coming Monday, May 6th, there is a benefit for the Route 66 Theatre Company, and it's a fascinating idea--only I'm told it's all sold out! At Stage 773, the company is presenting, for one night only, a concert production of The Who's seminal rock opera "Tommy," directed by Rachel Rockwell and musical directed by Michael Mahler. Mahler also stars as Tommy, with a top drawer local cast, including Christine Sherrill and Rod Thomas as the Walkers, Adrian Aguilar and George Andrew Wolff as Cousin Kevin and Uncle Ernie, Derek Hasenstab as The Hawker, Bethany Thomas as The Acid Queen, Stef Tovar as The Specialist, Skyler Adams as The Pinball Wizard and Emily Rohm as Sally Simpson. And they're not done! In the ensemble will be Devin DeSantis, Sophie Grimm, Matt Deitchman, Jim Barclay and Travis Taylor. Oh, my. I say, show up there before 7:30 on Monday, and demand to get in. See them! Feel them! Touch them! Do all that stuff!
Also on a Monday night, the one just passed, Chicago Dramatists hosted a reported-to-have-been-awesome event, a master class in musical theater writing by Andrew Lippa, who of course is in town working on the out-of-town tryout of "Big Fish," directed by Susan Stroman. Lippa, sponsored by the Traveling Masters program of the Dramatists Guild Fund, heard work by four Chicago composers for the theater, Diana Lawrence, Ethan Deppe, Russell Coutinho and the team of Steve and Karen Multer. Cheryl Coons coordinated. You know what this means, don't you? We expect great new shows composed by you!!
Of course, there's another way to write for the theater, a tried-and-true Chicago-style method. You make it up in front of the audience! In this vein, the brave folks who comprise the Improvised Sondheim Project are doing their thing again, onstage at 10:30 pm on each Friday night in May at Stage 773. It's a cast of eleven, with musical direction by Aaron Benham and Stephanie McCullough Vicek. Some faculty members from The Second City (including 2010 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award winner Amanda Murphy) began this notion of making up and performing a new Stephen Sondheim musical live and onstage about a year ago, and they seem to be having pretty good success at it! These are some pretty brilliant and spontaneous folks, folks. This is something to see, indeed.
The-Improvised-Sondheim-Project-Performs-in-May-at-Stage-773
On a Saturday night in June (the 8th, to be exact), Chicago will see get our first chance to see television, Broadway and internet star (and recording artist and composer, and 2011 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award-winner) Darren Criss in concert, as part of his "Listen Up!" tour (apparently sold out, too). Our first chance since August of 2011, that is, when I was apparently the only critic in attendance for Darren's performance at our Northalsted Market Days. My, how things change. He'll be at the House Of Blues. And, as his Team StarKid colleagues live and work here (that's the merry band of mostly Michigan musical theater graduates who created "A Very Potter Musical," etc. online), I wouldn't be surprised if some of them showed up onstage for the Chicago stop on Criss's 16-city tour. He's promoting his first full-length solo album. Watch out, world! In case you couldn't tell, he is seriously talented.
June will also see the biggest summer musical this town has seen in many years, the world premiere of Mary Zimmerman's production of Walt Disney's "The Jungle Book" at the Goodman Theatre, June 21-July 28 (it's already been extended a week). It's a co-production with Boston's Huntington Theatre Company, which is this year's recipient of the coveted Regional Theatre Tony Award (which the Goodman already has, of course). And this show is being done "by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions," which of course means that if it flies, it will fly all the way to Broadway and beyond, eventually. For now, we have it for a month, and then in the fall it travels to Boston. And we now know who is in it! The most well-known name is that of Andre DeShields (the original Wiz), who will be King Louie. Chicagoans of course recognize Larry Yando's name, and the former Scar from the national tour of "The Lion King" will play another Disney animated villain as Shere Khan. Usman Ally, who will be coming to this production directly from Lyric Opera's "Oklahoma!," will be Bagheera, and little Mowgli himself will be portrayed by ten-year-old Akash Chopra. Kevin Carolan will be Baloo, singing the Oscar-winning "The Bear Necessities," and the rest of the cast is a mix of New Yorkers and Chicagoans, executing choreography by Christopher Gatelli ("Newsies"). There are already serious nationwide online discussions about this project. I'm telling you, it's going to be big!
Andre-De-Shields-Set-to-Lead-THE-JUNGLE-BOOK
When I mentioned the national tour of "Anything Goes" last week, I neglected to mention an upcoming Cole Porter project by Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre. June 6 through July 21 will see "A Cole Porter Songbook" at the No Exit Café, directed by Fred Anzevino and musical directed by Aaron Benham, choreographed by David Heimann. But I don't know who's in it! I think they're hoping for success like last summer's Jule Styne revue. Are those folks available?
http://www.theo-u.com/a-cole-porter-songbook
And beginning that same week will be a revue of a different sort, "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, performing June 5 through August 11 and directed and choreographed by Matt Raftery. Jimmy Roberts' songs and the script by Joe DiPietro ("Memphis"), depicting modern romance in a variety of scenes, will be brought to life by Alex Goodrich, Bernie Yvon, Kelly Anne Clark and Johanna Mckenzie Miller, music directed by Ryan T. Nelson and conducted by Patti Garwood. It's a smaller show than usual for the great big square up there, but it ran for years in New York and is a very popular property. And all of these performers have made their mark at the Marriott in years past.
The-Marriott-Theatre's-I-LOVE-YOU-YOURE-PERFECT-NOW-CHANGE
Lastly, my peeps, you may know that a little something in New York called the Tony Awards announced its set of nominations yesterday. Our very own "Kinky Boots," which premiered here last fall and won two BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards in December, leads the pack of Broadway shows in this year's Tony possibilities with twelve nominations in all, including nods for performers Billy Porter, Stark Sands and Annaleigh Ashford. Cyndi Lauper is up for Best Score, which has not yet been won by a woman working alone. And "A Christmas Story," which played here on its pre-Broadway tour, was well-remembered by Tony also. But not as well-remembered as lighting designer Kenneth Posner (designer for the Goodman's "Crowns" last summer). He was nominated three times in the same category this season (for "Kinky Boots," "Pippin" and "Cinderella")! And Chicago's Garth Helm, frequent sound designer for productions at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook and elsewhere, was nominated for his sound design of "Pippin." On the non-musical side of things (gasp!), I am also proud to note that Chicagoans Tracy Letts and Amy Morton are among those nominated for "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf," for which the pair won BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards a year ago, after the first mounting of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's well-received production. I'm just sayin'. The little darlings (the awards, that is) will be given out June 9 at Radio City Music Hall. Stay tuned for more on that!
2013-Tony-Nominations-Announced-The-Complete-List
So how do you like this heat wave in the Mosh Pit? No, I don't mean the weather. I mean that every showtune night I've been to lately has been CRAZY. So many people, having so much fun! Our theater community and its many fans have been doing amazing things lately, and celebrating that! I think it's awesome. So, I'll see you under the video screens, right? Sooner or later?.....-PWT
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