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'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for October 9th, 2013
By: Paul W. Thompson Oct. 09, 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 time again for the BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards! Chicago's only comprehensive, fan-voted theater awards are now in our 4th fabulous year. On Monday of this week, BroadwayWorld opened up the 2013 online nominations process, available throughout the month of October.
We've added more categories this year, including ones for directors and sound designers. There are now 36 categories in all! Equity and Non-Equity productions are eligible, as long as they opened between November 1, 2012 and October 31, 2013.
Once the suggestions are in, the voting will begin! In early November the nominees will be announced, and online voting will commence on BroadwayWorld's unique voting software. You can track how your favorite nominees are doing in real time. Voting will be open until New Year's Eve, December 31, 2013. And then? Once again, we will all convene on Chicago's north lakefront, at The Call Bar in the Andersonville neighborhood (1547 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, between Clark and Ashland).
The BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration will take place on Wednesday, January 8, 2014, from 8:00 pm till midnight, where winners will be revealed, certificates handed out, and showtune videos will be watched, played by "Curtains Up Wednesday" VJ Michael Hogan. Nominees will wear yellow ribbons, casts will reunite, and all facets of the Chicagoland theater community will come together for a relaxing night of fun with friends, fans and theater folk alike. But it only works if YOU are involved!
Nominate your favorite productions, performers and creative personnel. Get your friends to nominate as well. And vote! (Only once though.....) And come on out in January and celebrate the winners, the nominees and the whole theater season with like-minded folks. You make the party a great one!
Who will join the esteemed list of BroadwayWorld Chicago Award winners? Help us as only you can.... So Nominate and Vote online, and Celebrate in person with the 2013 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards!
NOMINATE-VOTE-AND-CELEBRATE-The-2013-BroadwayWorld-Chicago-Awards-Are-Underway
Two productions which might show up on a list of nominations for the Broadie Awards have announced extensions. Cheryl L. West's play with music, "The Pullman Porter Blues," will play six additional performances, in an extra week (October 23-27, 2013) at the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago's Loop Theatre District. Have you seen some of the performance videos? My, my, oh my, that's some singing going on....
PULLMAN-PORTER-BLUES-Extends-Through-1027-at-Goodman-Theatre
And "The Color Purple," playing at the Mercury Theater Chicago on Southport Avenue in West Wrigleyville, has announced an extension all the way to November 10th, two weeks beyond the original closing date of October 27th. Not bad for a show that opened in late August. Remember summer? Oh, right, it lasted up until last week!
Mercury-Theater-Chicago-Extends-THE-COLOR-PURPLE
The very well received production of "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" that American Blues Theater placed into the Greenhouse Theater Center on Lincoln Avenue has also announced more playing time. But it's next summer, July 25-August 31, 2014 in the same venue. The production starring Matt Brumlow, and co-starring Jim Leaming, Michael Mahler, Suzanne Petri and Austin Cook (with Dana Black, John Crowley, Greg Hirte and John Foley) has to close this Sunday, October 12, 2013. After such solid reviews, one hopes that the whole company can come back for a reprise next year. Good for them.
HANK-WILLIAMS-LOST-HIGHWAY-to-Return
The Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace is no stranger to the BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards, and it has announced its 2014-15 season, some of which was already known by the actors who've auditioned for the theater in recent weeks. A production of "Les Miserables," directed by Rachel Rockwell, will play March 29-June 8, 2014, to be followed by that now-perennial favorite, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" (June 19-August 17). And then? After the non-musical "The Game's Afoot" (August 28-October 19), two oldies but biggies. "Camelot" will hold court October 30, 2014-January 4, 2015, and "West Side Story," in its first local staging since the recent stops by the national touring production, will play January 15-March 15, 2015. Very nice.
LES-MISERABLES-WEST-SIDE-STORY-More-Set-for-Drury-Lane-Theatres-30th-Season
But right now at the west suburban major player playhouse, final preparations are underway for "Hello, Dolly!" The Jerry Herman tuner begins performances next week, October 17, and runs right up to the Sunday before the BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration (January 5, 2014, to be exact). And it's an appealing cast. Broadway star and Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba stars as Mrs. Levi herself, with David Lively, Emily Rohm, Jeff Diebold, Lee Slobotkin, Maggie Portman, Laura Savage, Skyler Adams, Holly Stauder, and an ensemble peopled by the likes of the talented Elizabeth Lanza, Stephen Schellhardt and Richard Strimer. Rachel Rockwell is directing this one, too, and choreographing.
http://www.drurylaneoakbrook.com/index.php/live-theatre/now-playing/
Two examples of Chicago musical theater improv are involved in theatrical runs right now. "Best Musical!" has returned, courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre. Subtitled, "A Completely Improvised Musical Comedy," the show gives you exactly that. Back after a spring run, it's playing only on Wednesdays, at 8:00 pm, from October 2-November 6 at the UP! Comedy Club in the Old Town Piper's Alley complex.
http://porchlightmusictheatre.org/best-musical/
And a show with its origins in that very Piper's Alley complex, "The Improvised Sondheim Project," is now running (October 3-November 21) only on Thursdays at 8:00 pm at Stage 773. The company has played two long runs before, and is also venturing into other cities, I understand. But see how this works? You can see both productions and never feel like you are putting one over the other. Chicago, where folks make up songs on the spot, but never make their audiences choose who's funnier.
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Speaking of Sir Stephen, there has been some consternation afoot lately about the fact that there are four, yes four, local productions of "Sweeney Todd" going on in the northern suburbs this season. I mean, on the one hand, no one balks at a chance to see one of the most highly regarded of all American musicals, live onstage. However, let's hope that these productions don't end up cannibalizing each other's audiences. Pun, there....
For the record, the productions are at the Raue Center For The Arts, courtesy of Williams Street Repertory, in far north Crystal Lake (October 25-November 2, 2013), at the Devonshire Playhouse in Skokie (November 2-17, 2013) with friend of the Mosh Pit (Tina Pappademos) as Mrs. Lovett, in Des Plaines, courtesy of Oakton Community College (November 14-24, 2013), and courtesy of the Harper Ensemble Theatre Company at Harper College in Palatine (March 14-23, 2014). I love how the runs of these first three productions actually dovetail! For a month, Sweeney Todd will be somewhere. Then, he will re-emerge in springtime, just in time for Sondheim's birthday (March 22). Lovely.
Harper Ensemble Theatre Company
And as if that weren't enough, there's a local production of "Cats" afoot (you know that Sondheim and Lloyd Webber share that March 22nd birthday, right?). The Highland Park Players are mounting the feline fantasy in Northbrook (at the Northbrook Leisure Center) from October 4-20. Jennifer Cupani directs and choreographs, with musical direction by Ken Preuss. Denise Tamburrino is Grizabella, with Mike Weaver as Old Deuteronomy and David Geinosky as Rum Tum Tugger/Mungojerrie. Meow.
http://www.highlandparkplayers.com/CATS
It's October, peeps! How did that happen? Well, we had a run of nice weather, and then fall snuck up on us. Well it's still nice outside. It's just very close to holidays and very short afternoons. Well, we've got a lot to keep us busy. So hop to it, and I'll see you under the video screens when I may.....-PWT
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