'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 29th, 2014

THE LATEST IN UNAUTHORIZED GOSSIP AND BUZZ FROM THE HEART OF CHICAGO'S SHOWTUNE VIDEO BARS, AND MUSICAL THEATER NEWS FROM CHICAGO TO BROADWAY

by Paul W. Thompson

Overheard last weekend under the showtune video screens at Sidetrack and The Call:

As October winds to a close (can you believe it?), two very prominent Golden Age musicals are hitting our most well-heeled suburban commercial theatrical enterprises for the upcoming holiday season. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's Tony Award-winning "The King And I," from 1951, opens tonight, after a week of previews, at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, for a run through January 4th. Chicago stage star Heidi Kettenring is Mrs. Anna Leonowens, real-life teacher to the children of the Siamese King in the mid-19th century. Cultures clash, and unusual love stories play out. Director Nick Bowling and the Marriott have searched nationally for this cast, deciding on Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte as the King, Megan Masako Haley as Tuptim, Devin Ilaw as Lun Tha, and Kristen Choi as Lady Thiang, with Chicago's Joseph Anthony Foronda as the Kralahome and Rod Thomas as Sir Edward Ramsey and Captain Orton. The boys are Matthew Uzarraga and Michael Semanic, with a large ensemble cast. Tommy Rapley choreographs. "Shall We Dance," anyone?

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Beginning performances at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace tomorrow night and opening November 6 (running through that same January 4) is Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "Camelot," which despite common misconception did not win the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1960 (it did win awards in four other categories). Broadway's Ken Clark and Christy Altomare and Chicago's Travis Taylor star as Arthur, Guenevere and Lancelot, directed by Alan Souza. Social media has been all a-twitter about the swordplay implied by the casting announcements and design rumors of this production, and by photos of the entire male ensemble with natural beards. We shall all see, soon enough. "If Ever I Would Leave You," anyone?

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A Tony-winning show about to close has been given a reprieve, as the Porchlight Music Theatre production of "Sweeney Todd" was extended by one week. The Stage 773 production will now shutter on November 16. "More Hot Pies," anyone?

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The 1997 Best Musical Tony winner, "Titanic," included a huge physical production and huge cast, which has limited the show's long-term prospects. But Chicago's Griffin Theatre Company has mounted the Chicago premiere of a scaled-back version of the show, put together by original cast member Don Stephenson and intended for Toronto and Broadway this season (now postponed). Wouldn't you know it that the Griffin production (scheduled through December 7th) has gotten RAVE reviews from nearly every critic in town! Putting the emphasis on the characters and on Maury Yeston's evocative score (sung by a cast of 20), and not trying to put a large ocean liner on stage, seems to have worked. Theater! And BroadwayWorld Chicago's Misha Davenport joined in the praise earlier today. Grab a napkin and wish the show "Godspeed," won't you? Scott Weinstein directs, with music direction by Elizabeth Doran.

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I've often said that Chicago is the best place in the world to compare and contrast live performances of musicals. Wouldn't you know it that "Titanic" will also be this year's Dolphin Show at Northwestern University, as the nation's largest student-produced musical series reaches its 73rd year. I'm assuming that this will be the original script, score and character-breakdown of the show, playing at Cahn Auditorium on the Evanston campus January 23-30, 2015. There's a cast of 39, directed by senior Brendan Flynn.

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But that's not the next musical to appear at Northwestern. The Wirtz Center For The Performing Arts will present "Little Women" at the campus' Josephine Louis Theatre from November 7-23, directed by emeritus professor Dominic Missimi. "Astonishing," anyone?

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Speaking of Evanston, the longtime city performing arts organization Light Opera Works has announced its 2015 season. After the 2014 season closer "The Merry Widow" (playing December 19-31), the company will be back in the summer of 2015 with a full-orchestra version of "The Fantasticks" (June 6-12), a show in which artistic director Rudy Hogenmiller once toured to Japan with creators Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" will return to the company for a second time from August 15-30. From October 2-11 of 2015, the company will present an original revue, "Hollywood's Greatest Song Hits," and December 26, 2015-January 3, 2016 will see Light Opera Works' first production of Frank Loesser's "Guys And Dolls." All shows except for "Hollywood's Greatest Song Hits" will take place at Cahn Auditorium ("Hollywood" will be at Nichols Concert Hall).

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Further up the north shore in Highland Park, The Music Theatre Company has announced its upcoming season as well, and it's all new works! TMTC will get a running start on things in December, with an encore of its 48-Hour Musicals project (December 4-14, 2014). Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has written a 20-minute musical that will be premiered alongside reprises of past TMTC short works. On January 31, 2015, the company will present an exploration of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Allegro" at the Ravinia Festival's Bennett-Gordon Hall. And the company's commissioned musicals "Mill Girls," with music and lyrics by Diana Lawrence and book by Samantha Beach, and "The 9/11 Report," with music and lyrics by Michael Mahler and spoken word poetry by Oron Stenesh, will premiere in the summer of 2015.

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Speaking of the northern suburbs, Skokie will be the scene of Showtune Mosh Pit interest on December 11, 2014, as three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown is slated to perform at the Northlight Theatre's 40th Anniversary Party at Skokie's North Shore Center For The Performing Arts. The composer's popular musical "The Last Five Years" received its world premiere at Northlight in 2001, going on to receive two high-profile productions in New York and an upcoming feature film version. Wonder what he'll perform for us, peeps?

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Speaking of December, the Chicago performance troupe known as The Hypocrites will be performing all three of the major Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas in rep this holiday season, in a hat trick not common among anyone these days. But performances stretch from November 26 through to February 7! The company's critically acclaimed past versions of "The Pirates Of Penzance" and "The Mikado" will be joined by a new staging of "H.M.S. Pinafore" this year, and all three will be done by the same group of ten actor-musicians: Kate Carson-Groner, Emily Casey, Matt Kahler, Robert McLean, Dana Omar, Shawn Pfautsch, Doug Pawlik, Erik Schroeder, Christine Stulik and Lauren Vogel. Coming off his day-long amalgamation of the extant Greek dramas, "All Our Tragic," Sean Graney adapts and directs. Now, these aren't your great-uncle D'oyly-Carte's versions of these English staples, but folks sure like them. Will "Pinafore" equal the other two? Will actors get confused? This is quite a feat, folks. Say you were there then! Performances are at The Den Theatre in Wicker Park.

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The world premiere children's musical, "Frederick," based on the Caldecott Award-winning book by Leo Lionni, has gotten good notices in its Chicago Children's Theatre production at the Ruth Page Center For The Arts on Dearborn Street. Adapted for the stage by Suzanne Miller, and with songs by Sarah Durkee and Paul Jacobs, the show is directed by Stuart Carden, the man behind the Jeff Award-winning "The Old Man And The Old Moon" at Writers' Theatre last year. "Frederick" plays October 15-November 16.

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And another, slightly different world premiere musical is imminent, this one from the Underscore Theatre Company, performing in Room 300 at the Collaboraction Theatre in Bucktown. "The Guide To Being Single" will run November 8-December 7, directed by Laura Stratford and music directed by David Kornfeld. It's a new romantic musical comedy by Chicagoans and Northwestern University graduates Kaitlin Gilgenbach (book) and Alexi Kovin (music and lyrics). It takes place in Wrigleyville. Enough said!

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So that's the Mosh Pit for this week! So much great work going on about town, and so much to do and see. Awesomeness, folks. Now, go ye forth and sing showtunes! And I'll see you under the video screens.....-PWT

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