3-4-05
BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL
Broadway-bound musicals that shake down in Chicago typically preview before a paying audience for three or four weeks before they open for the press late in their runs. However, that's not the case with local productions of established shows that already have been produced in New York or elsewhere. Typically they preview for only a few nights, or perhaps a week, before their press openings. Thus it was that the preview schedules for the upcoming Jewtopia and Respect: A Musical Journey of Women caught our eye. The former begins performances at the Mercury Theatre March 22 but will not open for the press until April 20 after a full month of previews. The latter begins previews March 23 at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts but will not open to the press until April 17.
Is this the beginning of a new trend in Chicago producing circles? We called publicist Nick Harkin at Carol Fox & Associates to find out what gives. He told us that money talks and art talks, too.
Jewtopia, which began in Los Angeles in 2003 and opened Off-Broadway last October, only has been performed with its co-authors, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson (Northwestern theatre graduate), in the leads. They continue to star in the Off-Broadway company. The Chicago edition will star Scott Antonucci and William "Sandy" Smillie. As Chicago will be the first production without the authors, they and director John Tillinger believe they will need the extra previews in order to get it all just right. Since the authors can come to Chicago only on their days/nights off, the extended previews give them several additional opportunities to fine-tune the show before it opens here.
Harkin's explanation about Respect, a musical revue with a cast of three and more than 60 familiar songs, had to do with one of the principal financial backers. Seems the show was going to open earlier, but the Big Angel couldn't be in Chicago for the proposed opening night and accompanying splashy party. As a courtesy to him, the producers decided to delay the opening to accommodate his schedule.
One of the pleasures of our theatre industry is the high level of co-operation and co-production between one company and another. Recently, two somewhat unusual collaborations have been announced that will connect Lookingglass Theatre Company with the Old Town School of Folk Music, and Light Opera Works with the Actor's Gymnasium.
The next show at Lookingglass is a world premiere musical adaptation of Antigone set in Appalachia. Hillbilly Antigone features book, music and lyrics by Rick Sims from a story by Sims and director Heidi Stillman. When Sims and Stillman decided that they wanted an authentic bluegrass musical style, rooted in the traditional rural, mountain sound of the Carter family, they turned to the Old Town School. Sims has been studying at the School since last fall, learning traditional country banjo picking and slide guitar techniques from Steve Doyle and Chris Walz (no stranger to Chicago theatre). Meanwhile, the 10-member cast has met for weekly singing lessons at the school, tutored in early country ensemble singing by instructors Paul and Gail Tyler. For those who know a dulcimer from a donut, this attention to musical detail is certain to be a bonus. Hillbilly Antigone begins previews April 27.
In Evanston, a more unlikely partnership has been struck between Light Opera Works (LOW) and the Actor's Gymnasium, centered on LOW's June 3-12 production of Carnival! In an effort to supply the show with circus authenticity, director Michael Ehrman and artistic director Rudy Hogenmiller have called upon LOW's Evanston neighbors to supply tumblers, jugglers and clowns and coach sleight-of-hand magic. Lawrence DeStasi and Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi are the point couple for the Actor's Gymnasium. Hogenmiller said that audiences can expect a Spanish web aerial act and unicyclists, among other treats.
Ike Holter, a Sophomore BFA Playwriting student at The Theatre School/DePaul University, has been awarded second prize in the American College Theatre Festival's Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award competition. Holter's prize package includes a trip to the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center next month, and a full scholarship to the Kennedy Center's Summer Intensive in Playwrighting where Holter will study with Marsha Norman, Lee Blessing, Melanie Marnich, Chay Yew and others. Holter, only 19, is from Minneapolis. His winning full-length play, Short on Vacancy, began as a 10-minute scene in a playwriting class at DePaul. Holter has had pieces presented at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis and the Mixed Blood Theatre. Congrats!
As part of a series exploring America's regional theatres, National Public Radio (NPR) will be highlighting the Goodman Theatre on April 7. The broadcast will be part six of a seven part series entitled American Stages. The series is hosted by correspondent Jeff Lunden and aired weekly on "All Things Considered," which is heard locally 3-6:30 p.m. on Chicago Public Radio, 91.5FM. The April 7 program will take partnerships as its subject, and focus on the collaboration between the Goodman, Seattle's Intiman Theatre and Lincoln Center in New York City that resulted in The Light in the Piazza, seen last year in Seattle and Chicago and opening soon at Lincoln Center.
In conjunction with Ch. 11, Des Plaines-based HMS Media has produced a 13-part prime time series called "The Chicago Dance Project," which began airing Jan. 30. The series spotlights more than 40 Chicago dance troupes and individual artists, among them the Joffrey Ballet, River North Chicago Dance, Mad Shak Dance Company, Deeply Rooted Productions and the Joel Hall Dancers (celebrating its 30th anniversary). The on-air host for The Chicago Dance Project is actress Samantha Albert. In addition, HMS Media is making footage shot for the shows available to the dance companies for their own promotional purposes. Already, HMS Media has used series footage to create commercials for River North Chicago Dance, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and the Dance Chicago Festival at the Athenaeum Theatre.
Primary funding for the series has come from the Chicago Community Trust, with additional funding from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and individual donors. HMS Media principal Scott Silberstein believes the series is "the most diverse array of dance from one city ever aired on television." No stranger to the performing arts, HMS Media has won seven Emmy Awards for its performing arts specials and has a long history with organizations such as the Marriott Theatre, Second City and Steppenwolf.