Sage News

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Monday night's Jeff Awards at the Drury Lane, and 'Amazing Grace' at the BOAT! Plus 2014's other Broadway In Chicago shows, The Grinch at the Chicago Theatre, local productions of 'Parade,' 'Camelot' and 'Mary Poppins,' the new 'A Christmas Memory,' and the sold-out Humanities Festival tribute to the Tonys!

Grammy and Tony Award-winning songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik makes his long-awaited return to singing stand-alone pop songs in his City Winery debut. Sheik has released seven albums, and his song "Barely Breathing" spent a record 55 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

Red House Arts Center will present the Syracuse Premiere of The Penguin Tango, an original comedy by Stephen Svoboda. The show will run from October 23rd through November 1st.

Broadway LeAps Onstage, a concert to benefit LeAp (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program) OnStage, will be held Thursday, November 13th at 8pm at the Davenport Theatre. The event, raising funds and awareness of theatre arts education in underprivileged schools in New York, will feature a wide range of composers and performers. Newsies stars Ben Fankhauser and Andrew Keenan-Bolger are among the lineup.

At the gala 46th Annual Equity Jeff Awards held at Drury Lane Oakbrook on Monday, October 13, awards were spread among numerous theatres honoring a season of outstanding productions. From Writers Theatre, "The Dance of Death", a battle of wits between a tyrant and his manipulative wife, received the Production-Play award for a large theatre, along with its two principal actors Larry Yando and Shannon Cochran. "The Normal Heart", Larry Kramer's tale of the early indifference in N.Y. about the HIV/Aids crisis, presented by TimeLine Theatre Company, was honored with awards for Production-Play for a midsize theatre and for Director Nick Bowling.

Visitors to the second annual Life is Beautiful Festival (Oct 24-26) will enjoy three days of exciting pop-up events, intimate culinary demonstrations and hands-on appearances by some of the world's best chefs.

The 46th Annual Jeff Awards ceremony honoring excellence in professional theatre produced within the immediate Chicago area is tonight, October 13 at Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace.

'There's nothing not to like,” says photographer/author, Kim Weiss about her first book, Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe & Gratitude (HCI Books – October 28, 2014-– ISBN; 9780757318085-- $10.95). 'Odd as it is to go from publicist to 'author,' I was compelled to share the sense of awe I get to experience every day from my 14th floor terrace.”

Blessed with what the New York Times described as a 'beautiful countertenor,' singer Art Garfunkel has made an indelible mark on the music world as both a solo artist and half of the unrivaled Simon & Garfunkel. After a long battle with debilitating vocal-cord paresis - diagnosed in January 2010, Art's voice has fully recovered. He's back performing live shows and Harris Center for the Arts in Folsom is fortunate to have just booked him for a memorable one evening performance.

Michael Shannon will present the New York Premiere of EXCUSE MY DUST (A DOROTHY PARKER PORTFOLIO), written and performed by Jennifer Engstrom. Directed by Darren Lee Cole, previews begin tonight, October 10 at SoHo Playhouse with opening night set for Sunday, October 19.

Helen Chadwick Song Theatre presents: War Correspondents. Co-directed by Helen Chadwick and Steven Hoggett and composed by Helen Chadwick with creative Aassociate Miriam Nabarro, the show goes on a National Tour, today 10th to 25th October 2014, with a stop at Stratford Circus today 10th and 11th October. Press night is tonight 10th October.

Working Barn Productions and Bontela Productions will present a six-actor, multimedia look at William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, MACBETH, directed by Peter Richards. MACBETH will preview tonight, October 9 & Friday, October 10 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, October 11 at 8pm and will run through Sunday, November 2 at Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main Street in Santa Monica.

Von Smith is back to take on Taylor Swift's newest hit, 'Shake It Off' ala the Motown era. Von Smith will be joining Postmodern Jukebox on our East Coast dates this Fall! Check out the cover below!

Honest Accomplice Theatre's THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED is returning to Lower East Side's University Settlement to build on last year's debut success to explore new themes in female and trans sexuality. THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED explores the unique -- yet interwoven -- life circumstances of eight women & trans people forced to confront their own sexuality, realizing that sexuality itself is not simple or clear-cut. Through dialogue, movement, song, humor, and multimedia, the performance examines such themes as partner communication, sexual identity, the de-sexualization of aging women, today's 'hook-up' culture, and sexual health.

Season 18 at the Mad Cow Theatre Company is here, and up first: THE WHO'S TOMMY. The 1993 Best Musical nominee is considered to be Broadway's first Rock Opera turned Rock Musical. Shows like Greenday's AMERICAN IDIOT, Stew's PASSING STRANGE, and, more recently, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's HERE LIES LOVE all followed. But it was The Who that first took their concept rock album and turned it into a warm-blooded stage musical. In doing so they attracted a younger audience (that once looked at Musical Theatre as something their grandparents listened to on vinyl) to Broadway.

Well, here we are, about to start our fifth studio record. It's hard to believe that we made our very first one 9 years ago, but this one actually feels different.

Today, October 7th, Jackson Browne will release his 14th studio album, Standing In The Breach. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and features the single 'The Birds Of St. Marks,'

Honest Accomplice Theatre's THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED is returning to Lower East Side's University Settlement to build on last year's debut success to explore new themes in female and trans sexuality. THE BIRDS & THE BEES: UNABRIDGED explores the unique -- yet interwoven -- life circumstances of eight women & trans people forced to confront their own sexuality, realizing that sexuality itself is not simple or clear-cut. Through dialogue, movement, song, humor, and multimedia, the performance examines such themes as partner communication, sexual identity, the de-sexualization of aging women, today's 'hook-up' culture, and sexual health. Below, check out a special promo for the play, directed by Andrew Keenan-Bolger and and featuring Anika Larsen, Julia Murney, Lindsay Mendez, Cortney Wolfson & Kirsten Wyatt.

Producing Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside and American Blues Theater, Chicago's second oldest Equity ensemble, are proud to announce the return of the critically acclaimed It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, directed by Marty Higginbotham on the mainstage of the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., November 23 - December 28.

Lois Weaver is co-founder (with Peggy Shaw and Deb Margolin) of Split Britches, the world's premiere lesbian theater troupe, and is well-known for her dramatis persona, Tammy WhyNot, an aging trailer trash blonde who threw away Nashville stardom for a career as a contemporary performance artist. Tammy returns to La MaMa November 6 to 23 with 'What Tammy Needs to Know about Getting Old and Having Sex,' a new performance created with elderly women in Zagreb, Croatia and NYC that illuminates the taboo subject of desire, pleasure and intimacy in old people. This show is the project for which she was awarded a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship.