9-2-05
BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL
This writer owes an apology to PJ Powers, artistic director of TimeLine Theatre Company. In my last Behind the Curtain column I said that Powers was the distinctive star of an AOL TV commercial that was running like crazy. Turns out I was wrong. PJ e-mailed to say that he’s never done a spot for AOL, let alone a national spot with hefty residuals, and doesn’t he wish! I confess: after seeing the arresting spot four or five times in as many weeks, I was so sure it was Powers that I didn’t call him to confirm, thus violating one of the Cardinal Rules of journalism, checking one’s facts. Okay, I don’t know who it is and I don’t even know where the spot was shot, but PJ Powers certainly appears to have a doppelganger out there carrying a union card. I AM quite certain, however, that it IS the real Mr. Powers appearing currently in TimeLine’s staging of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, continuing at the Wellington Avenue Church through October 9.
Jay Kelly and his Off-Loop Public Relations have been appointed “of counsel” to Lookingglass Theatre Company with regard to media relations. Kelly will continue to serve his roster of other clients as well, among them the League of Chicago Theatres, the Metropolis Centre and Victory Gardens.
A month ago we ran through the list of current and upcoming shows related to The Wizard of Oz including Wicked (Broadway in Chicago), Was (American Musical Theatre Program at Northwestern) and two adaptations of the L. Frank Baum original itself (by Theater-Hikes and House Theatre respectively). Now comes news of yet another, a fifth Ozite show, again adapted from the original. Quest Theatre Ensemble currently is offering The Wizard of Oz at Klasen Hall (1609 W. Gregory) through Sept. 25. Stop already, people! Just Say No! Seriously, if you can’t be just a little more imaginative in selection of repertory you probably shouldn’t be in the biz.
As reported in PerformInk first and exclusively 18 months ago, the Majestic Building (22 West Monroe Street) is being converted into a boutique hotel. The building, of course, is the HQ of Broadway in Chicago and home of the refurbished 1,900 seat theatre that will reopen in November as the LaSalle Bank Theatre (formerly the Shubert and originally the Majestic). The top 17 floors of the 20-story building will be remade into a 135-room Hampton Inn scheduled to open in spring 2006, when the Majestic Building will be 100 years old.
Rosemont-based First Hospitality Group Inc. will operate the facility and will co-own it with the Nederlander Organization (co-parent of Broadway in Chicago and owner of the Majestic Building since 1991) and Northern Realty Group of Northbrook. Press materials released by the developers still refer to the one-time Majestic Theatre as the Shubert Theatre. The hotel will have about 75 full- and part-time workers, at least some of whom—we presume—should be unemployed actors.
Chicago Free Press writer and sometimes-theatre critic Louis Weisberg got it wrong in the Aug. 24 issue when he said that Leslie Jordan’s one-man show, Like a Dog on Linoleum, was set to transfer to the Mercury Theater. Weisberg didn’t attribute his information, but it came from the voluble Jordan himself who met with Weisberg following a performance. However, the show’s publicist, Jonathan Barnes, said no deal was in place for a transfer to the Mercury, and that such a happening didn’t seem likely. Linoleum will continue at Bailiwick Repertory through Sept. 4 and possibly longer, Barnes said. Weisberg was right about one thing, however: the show is heading to New York after the Chicago run.
Speaking of gay things, when the Center on Halsted (the GLBT community center going up in the heart of Boys Town) opens its doors in late 2006 or early 2007, it will include a multipurpose room that may be used for theatre and dance performances. It will have up to 170 movable seats and a small platform stage, also movable, according to Joel Mangers, the Center’s director of cultural and community programs. Mangers (pronounced with a hard “g” as in hungers) reports the Center staff is contemplating a Gallery 37-type operation; that is, a curated space made available for runs of two-to-four weeks by a variety of smaller companies at below-market rates subsidized by the Center. Although first preference will be given to troupes or projects with relevance to the GLBT community, there won’t be a litmus test.
Is it just me? Or is theatre speaking in strange tongues these days? The town is up-to-here with foreign players, such as Katowice, Poland’s Teatr Cogitatur now completing a month-long visit to the Chopin Theatre (through Sept. 4), and Polish solo performer and Shakespeare guru Omar Sangare, who appeared at the fourth Single File Festival (Aug. 18-28). Bigger than either of the Polish attractions, however, is the upcoming appearance by Indian theatre and film star Naseeruddin Shah, who will sell out the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie on Sept. 9, with tickets costing up to $100 each. Shah, and co-stars Ratna Pathak Shah and Heeba Shah, will appear in three one-act plays, performed in Hindustani, under the collective title Ismat Apa Ke Naam. South Asian producer and actor Kern Wasan (former managing director of Boxer Rebellion Theatre) advises that Naseeruddin Shah is “one of the biggest Indian stars of all time,” and an actor’s actor trained for theatre.
In fact, foreign stars working in native tongues have been coming to Chicago for many years. Although little-noted by mainstream media, they play sold-out performances for the city’s ethnic communities. As long ago as 1988, in a story written for the Chicago Tribune, this writer discovered visiting performing troupes working in Polish, Czech and Mandarin all within a period of a few weeks. At the top of the current ethnic heap may be the musical extravaganza shows that feature top Indian film stars, lip-syncing their way through all-singing, all-dancing spectaculars that bring 15,000 or more to venues such as the UIC Pavilion at top ticket prices. Hooray for Bollywood!