12-22-06
Recycling: Theatres, Stories, Touring Shows
As reported in this column March 31, the historic north suburban Wilmette Theatre has new owners and new live theatre programming to complement its existing film programming. Actor Carole Dibo and Stewart Talent honcho Sam Samuelson are the proud “parents” of the new operation, having closed on the house last May, thereby saving it from conversion into a furniture store.
The 500-seat Wilmette, 1122 Central Ave. east of Green Bay Road and the railroad tracks, was built as a vaudeville house in 1912, and began showing films in 1914. Dibo and Samuelson purchased the building from Richard Stern, who had owned it for four decades, and had divided it into two film theatres of 200 seats each. “We bought both the building and [film] business,” Dibo told PerformInk. “What we’ve really been doing since May is steadying the ship, and now we’re ready to move forward. The cinema aspect was very new to us.”
Since acquiring the venue, the partners have spruced up the decor and installed improved lighting and sound systems. In one house, they’ve removed three rows of seats to create a stage, and also added an overhead DVD projection system. Initially, their live programming has focused on drawing weekend family audiences – they’ve booked in Emerald City Theatre Company, Barrel of Monkeys and other family brand names. Evening shows for adult audiences will come online in March. While Dibo and Samuelson intend to produce and not merely present, they welcome inquiries from in-city Off-Loop theatres that might have something right for their suburban audience. The partners engaged a film booker to supply their twin theatres with product and, after some experimentation, have settled into a policy of art house films and independent features, such as The Queen. “That seems to be what the market wants,” Dibo says.
In addition to theatrical and film uses, the new owners have made the venue available for day rentals. So far, clients as diverse as a private birthday party, Wilmette village officials and nearby New Trier High School have used the space for meetings, parties and private screenings. The building also houses a popular little hamburger grill, the Chuck Wagon, and the studio of a massage therapist, both of which provide modest rental income. Samuelson still can be reached through Stewart Talent, but Dibo is managing things day-to-day at the Wilmette Theatre. She can be reached at 847/989-8466.
Hmmm. We all know that composers often go to their trunks and pull out old tunes to recycle in new vehicles. Usually, they are numbers that haven’t been used before, so for the audience they are new. But in our experience, it’s very rare for an editor to pull a story intact from a publication’s trunk and recycle it, especially if the story has been seen before and very recently, too. Indeed, such a practice is rather universally considered shabby.
But that’s exactly what you’ll find in the December issue of Playbill bearing the Chicagoplays imprint. There you will find Thomas Connors’ story Casting a Spell, about The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It’s word for word the same story that ran in the September issue of Playbill, same photos, same layout. The December issue also carries a story by Tony Adler on playwright Richard Nelson and Frank’s Home at the Goodman Theatre, directed by Robert Falls. Nothing wrong with that, except that Adler wrote a profile on Falls for the October Playbill. While the focus is different, the subject theatre – which happens to be a Playbill client – is the same.
Connors is listed as the Chicago editor for Playbill, but he works out of New York. He’s engaged several very capable Chicago writers – Adler, Jenn Q. Goddu, Catey Sullivan and choreographer Asimina Chremos among them – still, he and Playbill president Philip S. Birsh seem not to be living up to the promises they have made to the Chicago theatre community to cover the industry broadly and deeply. Said Birsh, “We will try diligently to have a cross section of articles throughout the year so that we’re covering the entire scene, and not just the usual suspects.”
Well, they need to be a lot more diligent, because Connors and company simply do not appear to be trying very hard. Playbill has had five months now to get its editorial act up and running.
Producer David Stone passed through town Dec. 11 to check up on his long-running show, Wicked, and he and Broadway in Chicago hosted a classy luncheon at the Peninsula Hotel for members of the media. Stone and cohorts had nothing to announce, nothing to sell; it was just a pleasant, social occasion to thank the media for its support of the show. Perhaps it was a practical exercise of the old axiom to hold your friends close and your enemies even closer. In any case, Stone mentioned that one in four people who see Wicked come from 100 or more miles away, a number that’s likely to grow as the run continues. Luncheon guest Rondi Reed, who plays Madame Morrible in the show, told of signing autographs for a mother and daughter who came up from Atlanta just to see the show. Broadway in Chicago president Lew Raizin told us that the boutique hotel being created in the Majestic Building (of which the LaSalle Bank Theatre is a component) is expected to be up and running by late winter. The original hope was for an autumn 2006 opening. Hey, the building will be 101 years old in January. Who’s going to notice if it’s four months late reopening, right?
Happy holidays to all! And remember: in the United States, The Holidays run from Halloween through the Super Bowl.
Editor’s Note: In addition to his regular columns and stories in PerformInk, Jonathan Abarbanel is also a regular contributor to Chicago Footlights, which provides program books to Chicago theatres.