Category: Musical
Sunday Night Sondheim – Recording Session of "Company"
Found this absolutely great video!! It’s a clip from the cast album recording of the original production of Sondheim’s “Company” – specifically “I’m Not Getting Married Today”. (Note the hair styles – definitely 1970′s) The clip starts out with Harold Prince talking about the show, then goes into the recording studio where we see a young Stephen Sondheim assisting in coaching the singers. It’s thrilling to be a bug on the wall watching creative minds hard at work.
Witness a Behind-the-Scenes experience of "Jersey Boys"
Now’s your chance to witness “Jersey Boys” in an entirely new way – an intimate view from backstage, featuring the stars of the mega-hit Chicago production. You’ll even get the chance to take photos and gather autographs from the talented cast
The Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University presents an Exclusive Backstage Experience with the Stars of “Jersey Boys” Sunday, Sept. 21 at 6 p.m.
The evening begins at 6 p.m. in the lobby of The Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University, where guests will gather to enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Just prior to the performance, dessert will be served on The Center’s stage. The “Jersey Boys” cast will serenade guests with chart topping songs from the past beginning at 7 p.m. The performance, with the audience seated at tables on The Center’s gorgeous stage, will include Top 40 hits not seen in the Broadway production of “Jersey Boys,” including “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins, “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel and more. The unforgettable evening concludes with the opportunity for autographs and photos with the cast.
From executive director of the University’s Center for Performing Arts, Burt Dikelsky: “This experience with members of the ‘Jersey Boys’ cast offers an incredible opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the largest musical stars in Chicago.”
For more information, and to buy tickets, call the Performing Arts Center at (708) 235-2222. Proceeds support future programming at The Center. The Center is located at 1 University Parkway (Governors Highway and University Parkway), 45 minutes south of the Loop, off I-57 at Sauk Trail. Parking is free.
"Jersey Boys" – no smoking allowed!
It’s official – all smoking scenes in Chicago’s long-running Broadway hit, Jersey Boys, have been snuffed out. Chicago’s smoking ban does not offer exemptions for indoor performances, and – unlike many American cities – also does not allow for any type of substitutions, such as clove cigarettes (which is a common practice in many theatres around the country).
A theatrical telling of the rise of Frankie Valli and his singing group, it is natural that the characters would smoke in certain scenes, just as they did in real life. Unfortunately a theatre patron lodged a complaint with the city, so the smoking scenes had to be rewritten and restaged. (some people just need to have something to complain about, you know?)
The New York and London version of Jersey Boys cast will continue with the smoking scenes, as these cities have indoor smoking bans that offer exemptions for theatrical performances
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Sunday Sondheim – Betty Buckley and Harlem Boys Choir
This is an absolutely beautiful arrangement of Sondheim’s “Our Time” and “Children Will Listen” from Merrily We Roll Along and Into The Woods respectively. Enjoy
For WGN Radio – My summer picks…
For Kids and Families:
- Lyle, Lyle, the Crocodile, Lifeline Theatre
- June 13th -July 13th; Friday-Sunday at 1pm
- Tickets: $10
- Cirque Shanghai: Gold ; Navy Pier outdoor theater
- Runs all summer through Sept. 1st
- Performed at outdoor theater at Navy Pier (just east of Ferris Wheel), so take in the show, then experience the huge fireworks display every Wednesday and Saturday evening.
- Tickets: $12.50-$30
- Willy Wonka, Chicago Shakespeare at Navy Pier
- July 8th – August 17th
- Tickets: $18-$23
- Blue Man Group, Briar Street Theatre
- Super-fun for kids of all ages
- Tickets: $49-$59 (box office: 773-348-4000)
For Teens (and the young-at-heart):
- Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Neo-Futurists
- Experience Chicago’s longest running play – 20 years and counting!
- Days/Times: Friday-Saturday, 11pm, Sunday 7pm
- Price: $6 plus the roll of a dice (so $7-$12 – is that cool or what?!?)
- That’s Weird Grandma, Barrel of Monkeys
- Monday nights, 8pm
- Adults: $9 // Kids: $4
Broadway In Chicago (the big downtown shows):
- Wicked, Ford Center for the Performing Arts (Oriental Theatre)
- After 4 super-successful years,Wicked, has announced that it will officially close in January 2009. So catch it while you can!
- Ticket Price: $30-$95 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
- Jersey Boys, Bank of America Theatre (formerly Schubert Theatre)
- Open run
- Ticket Price: $30-$95 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
- Shout!, Drury Lane Watertower
- Through July 20th
- Tickets: $45-$55 (Box Office: 312-902-1400)
For Date Night:
- Jacques Brel’s “Lonesome Losers of the Night”, Theo Ubique Theatre
- runs through July 20th
- Tickets: $10-$20 (Box Office: 773-743-3355)
My two-pennies worth:
You haven’t experienced Chicago until you’ve ventured north to The Heartland Cafe in East Rogers Park. First opened in the 1970′s, this earthy restaurant and bar jettisons you back to the late 1960′s and early 70′s (in a granola and incense kind-of-way). The musical review, Lonesome Losers of the Night, is performed in an intimate coffee house down the street from Heartland, so first grab a bite to eat at Heartland, walk down the block to the performance, then mosey back down to The Heartland for drinks and nightly live music.
Comedy
- Campaign Super Nova: or How Many Democrats Does It Take To Lose An Election?
- Second City’s newest review
- Open run, tickets: $19-$25 (Box Office: 312-337-3992)
- Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Steppenwolf Theatre
- runs through July 27
- Tickets: $20-$68 (Box Office: 312-335-1650)
- Co-Ed Prison Sluts, Annoyance Theatre
- Annoyance Theatre brings back their raunchy long-running hit of the 80′s and 90′s.
- Runs July 4th – August 29th
- Tickets: $15 (Box Office: 773-561-4665)
- Comedy Sportz – Comedy Sportz Theatre, Belmont and Clark
- audience-interactive comedy competition between two teams of improv comedians, who perform a series of scenes and songs, all based on suggestions from the audience
- Open run, now in their 21st year
- Ticket prices vary, (Box Office: 773-549-8080)
Drama
- A Steady Rain, Royal George Theatre
- extended through Oct 5 (then on to Broadway?)
- Tickets: $50 (box office: 312-988-9000)
- Taste of Honey, Shattered Globe Theatre Ensemble
- runs through July 5th
- Tickets: $15-$35, (box office: 773-871-3000)
- Hizzoner, Prop Thtr (performed at Beverly Arts Center)
- Running for over 2-years, this play eerily depicts the infamous Mayor Richard J. Daley and inner-workings of “The Machine”
- runs through July 29th
- tickets: $40
Musicals:
- Fiorello, Timeline Theatre
- runs through July 20th
- Tickets: $15-$30 (Box Office: 773-281-8463)
- Ain’t Misbehavin’, Goodman Theatre
- running June 21st – July 27th
- Tickets: not yet announced (Box Office: 312-443-3800)
- Jekyll & Hyde, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
- through July 20th
- Tickets: $20-$27 (Box Office: 773-327-5252)
- Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bailiwick Repertory
- composed by Dennis DeYoung of the band “Styx
- runs through July 6t
- Tickets: $25-$45 (Box Office: 773-883-1090)
- Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook Terrace
- runs through July 27th
- tickets: $28-$33
Goodman announces cast for “Ain’t Misbehavin”
The Goodman Theatre has just announced the casting for there summer production of Ain’s Misbehavin’, directed by Chuck Smith. The cast will include five of Chicago’s foremost musical theatre names – E. Faye Butler (Purlie), John Steven Crowley (Crowns), Alexis Rogers (Black Nativity), Parrish Collier and Lina Kernan. Additionally, Linda Buchanan has been hired as set designer, who reportedly will transform the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre into a grandiose period concert hall, featuring an eight-piece band led by music director Malcolm Ruhl.
The band will include Peter Benson (piano), Larry Bowen (trumpet), Y.L. Douglas (drums) Anderson Edwards (bass), T.S. Galoway (trombone), Jarrard Harris (tenor sax/clarinet), Stephen Leinheiser (alto sax/clarinet) and Malcolm Ruhl (guitar and conductor).
The design team and additional artists for Ain’t Misbehavin’ include Birgit Rattenborg Wise (costumes), Robert Christen (lighting), Josh Horvath and Ray Nardelli (sound) and Lisa Willingham-Johnson (choreographer).
Ain’t Misbehavin’ opened first as a cabaret act, quickly followed by a Broadway run of over 1,600 performances and numerous awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.
From the Goodman Theatre:
“Born in Harlem in 1904, Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller remains one of the most influential stride piano players, having written more than 450 songs and recorded over 500 sides during his career. He wrote his first composition at age 14, and became a professional pianist the very next year – playing with legendary artists such as Fletcher Henderson and Jack Teagarden, Alberta Hunter and Bessie Smith. He became famous performing a combination of his own music and music written by others. After Waller’s death in 1943, his influence waned and his legacy faded into the historical background for over three decades. In 1978, theatre artists Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr., generated renewed attention and interest in Waller with their creation Ain’t Misbehavin’, through which they paid tribute to Waller’s contributions to American music and highlighted the best aspects of the Harlem nightclub revues of the 1920s and ’30s.”
Ain’s Misbehavin’ will run this summer at Goodman’s Albert Ivar Theatre from June 21st through July 27th. For more information, go to Goodman’s website.
(Hat tip to Playbill.com)
Writers’ Theatre announces 2008/09 season
Writer’s Theatre 2008/09 Season
Nixon’s Nixon
By Russell Lees
Directed by Michael Halberstam
Featuring William Brown and Larry Yando
Just in time for the elections, we bring back our critically acclaimed, award-winning production of Nixon’s Nixon. This box office record-breaking production returns to our most intimate theatre for a limited engagement. Artistic Director Michael Halberstam will once again direct William Brown and Larry Yando as they reprise their tour-de-force performances as Kissinger and Nixon in this thrilling, hilarious and brilliantly imagined story of what might have happened in the Lincoln sitting room the night before Nixon resigned.
September 16 – November 16, 2008
Picnic
By William Inge
Directed by David Cromer
When a charismatic young drifter arrives in a small Kansas town on the eve of a Labor Day picnic, the simmering repressions of its residents come rapidly to a boil. Frequently hilarious and profoundly mo ing, Inge’s masterpiece chronicles the hopes and despairs that lie between the realization of adulthood and the eternal optimism of youth. This American classic is staged by Chicago’s own David Cromer, whose previous work for Writers’ Theatre includes The Price and Booth, and whose highly acclaimed production of The Adding Machine is enjoying a successful run in New York.
September 16 – November 16, 2008
The Maids
By Jean Genet
Translated by Martin Crimp
Directed by Jimmy McDermott
When the mistress is away, the maids will play. Two women in service to a younger socialite pass the moments of their day in play-acting and fantasy. As the line between fantasy and reality begins to disintegrate, their games take a deadly turn. Jealousy, resentment, sexual tension and murder converge in this 1947 classic French thriller. Jimmy McDermott, one of the city’s most exciting young directors, brings his trademark edginess to this seminally rebellious play.
November 18 , 2008 – April 5, 2009
A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens
Adapted & Performed by Michael Halberstam
Artistic Director Michael Halberstam masterfully recreates the greatest ghost story ever written with his tour-de-force solo performance of Ebenzer Scrooge’s journey over the course of one magical Christmas Eve. Now in its 13th season, this holiday tradition has been extended to nine performances after last year’s sold-out run.
December 13 – 23, 2008
World Premiere!!
Old Glory
By Brett Neveu
Directed by William Brown
William Brown, director of last season’s triumphant As You Like It, turns his attention from the old to the new. One of the country’s hottest young playwrights, Brett Neveu, brings us the world premiere of Old Glory.This gripping drama in which a family confronts loss as a conseqwuence of war is brought intensely to life through Neveu’s direct yet poetic language. No government, no politics, just people. Razor sharp wit and fiercely emotional confrontation combine as this viscerally powerful mystery unfolds.
February 3 – March 29, 2009
World Premiere Musical!!
A Minister’s Wife
Music by Josh Schmidt, Lyrics by Jan Tranen
Adapted by Austin Pendleton
Conceived & Directed by Michael Halberstam
After his unanimously acclaimed New York debut, The Adding Machine, Writers’ Theatre Associate Artist Josh Schmidt has become the most eagerly anticipated young musical theatre composer in the country. Schmidt’s second creation, in collaboration with artistic director Michael Halberstam, playwright Austin Pendleton and lyricist Jan Tranen, receives its world premiere in Glencoe. A poet, a preacher and his wife enter into a delicious conflict when a fantastical assumption turns an ordinary day topsy-turvy.
May 19 – July 19, 2009
For more information on Writers’ Theatre, call 847-242-6000, or go to www.writerstheatre.org.
“Food Court Musical” – Sondheim’s current project!
Okay, I’m not sure whether or not it’s Sondheim’s current project, but it certainly sounds like something he’d write… 
Either way, this is a really fun video. I especially like the staging with the food court trays. Didn’s they do this in “Grease”????
Chicago Tribune’s Top Plays of 2007
In alphabetical order, here are the Chicago Tribune’s choices for the top 10 plays of 2007:
The Adding Machine
(Next Theatre – and soon Off-Broadway)
August: Osage County
(Steppenwolf – and now receiving rave reviews on Broadway)
Between Barack and a Hard Place
(Second City)
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow
(Collaboraction)
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
(Congo Square)
Merchant on Venice
(Silk Road Theatre Project)
Othello
(Writers Theatre)
Shenendoah
(Marriott Theatre)
The Sparrow
(House Theatre)
A Stead Rain
(Chicago Dramatists)
To see further discussion regarding each show, go to Chris Jones’ The Theater Loop blog posting.
Just saw the movie “Sweeney Todd” – loved it!!
Hey all – I just saw “Sweeney Todd” at the theater in Evanston and really enjoyed it – even more than I thought I would (though didn’t expect all the TONS of blood). What did you think about it? I’ll no doubt say a few more things about it, but right now I need to go to bed. In the meantime, here’s a trailer from the movie:
