CONVERSATIONS André Ward - Moulin Rouge! The Musical - Broadway in Chicago

ANDRÉ WARD – FEELS LIKE HOME!
by Ed Tracy

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, opens the inaugural 2022 North American tour at Broadway in Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre on April 6. With book by John Logan and musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine, Moulin Rouge is directed by Alex Timbers, choreographed by Somya Tayehis and features an all-star cast including Courtney Reed as Satine, Conor Ryan as Christian, Austin Durant as Harold Zidler and André Ward as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

André Ward, who has played at the Nederlander in multiple touring productions dating back to 1998’s Ragtime, joined the CONVERSATION by telephone before a two-show preview on Wednesday to talk about playing Toulouse-Lautrec and the exhilarating reception from preview audiences for the highly anticipated show set in 1899 that infuses a tender love story with original and pop songs, all within the spectacle of the iconic Paris nightclub.

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Ed Tracy: How long have you been in Chicago?

André Ward: We got to Chicago on February 27th. This is our second week of previews.

ET: And this is the launch of the first national tour, which has been put off for several years due to the pandemic. Have you been on board for awhile?

AW: I have. Since April 2020. We were delayed and I'm so lucky and blessed to be launching the show here in Chicago. This is my fifth time playing this theater in Chicago and I'm so excited to be here with Moulin Rouge! The Musical. It's like a full circle moment for me. I was in the cast of Ragtime that reopened the Nederlander (formerly The Ford Center) in 1998. Then I came back with Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, The Producers and then I was here in 2018 with Escape to Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett Musical. So it feels like being home again.

ET: Ragtime is a show that has played a lot here in Chicago recently. All terrific productions, every single one of them. I imagine the 1998 tour was a highlight.

AW: It was absolutely a highlight! For me, Ragtime was one of those shows I watched on Broadway and then got the opportunity to be in it. Just thrilling. And I can say that Moulin Rouge! The Musical is the same for me. When I saw the show, I was immersed in this amazing theatrical experience. I was thrilled. It has comedy, operatic tragedy… and when we started rehearsals and performances, I was like, this is the same.

ET: So, you had seen the show before you were cast?

AW: I saw Moulin Rouge back in 2019 before I was even auditioning for it. I had some friends in it and I fell in love with it, never thinking that I would ever be in it.

ET: So take us through how that all happened back in April 2020.

AW: I started auditioning after my agent got a call saying that they are auditioning for all of the productions of Moulin Rouge. This could be for the tour. It could be for Broadway. It could be for the UK. It could be for Australia. Auditioning for all of the roles. And they wanted me to come in for Toulouse-Lautrec. And I thought, how wonderful. I went through several rounds of auditions and then got the call that I was being offered the role and it went from there.

ET: The show was pushed back a bit and twisted around in the schedule somewhat. But it seems like things are back on track for everybody right now.

AW: And isn't that fantastic! Yes. I was not prepared for how overwhelmed I'd be with the energy coming from the audiences in Chicago. As a company, we are absolutely cohesive. It's one of the most beautiful companies I've had the pleasure to be a part of. Audiences are ready to be entertained… to be enveloped in theater again. And we certainly felt that from the downbeat of the show. It's been marvelous here in Chicago, just marvelous.

ET: So let's turn to the show. The through line of Moulin Rouge incorporates original songs and a lot of pop songs and medleys in the dynamic atmosphere of the club. Give us an idea of how your character Toulouse-Lautrec fits into the musical story.

AW: The pop tunes are absolutely amazing. They are brilliant. The audience is not prepared for when they come and that's the beautiful surprise. It's set in 1899 in this indulgent, beautiful, extravagant world that is Paris at that time. Toulouse-Lautrec is a starving artist who brings together Satine, the muse of the Moulin Rouge, and Christian, an artist and songwriter from America… their love story. Toulouse-Lautrec has unrequited love for the Satine that he's never really told her about.

ET: You have, in my mind, one of the most beautiful songs in the show. Talk about “Nature Boy.”

AW: I first heard the song years ago, a version by Nat King Cole. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful songs. When I got the chance to sing it, I felt it was like a gift to me. In the context of the show, Toulouse-Lautrec sings it to Christian. It’s a bit about Satine. A bit about himself. A bit about Christian. It's sort of a memory... a little pause in the show… all the pop tunes have come at you and then there's this lovely little nugget of a song to say this is where Toulouse-Lautrec’s heart lies.

ET: Tell us something about the Toulouse-Lautrec, the person himself, that we might not know.

AW: He was a starving artist but had come from an aristocratic family. Toulouse-Lautrec broke one of his legs at 13 and one of his legs at 14 and they stopped growing. He was five-foot, five-foot one, maybe. A short man. He wasn't a little person. That's a common misconception. He fits into the show as this Bohemian artist that travels to Paris as a boy. He finds Santiago his best pal—the greatest tango dancer in all of Paris—and they need the last piece to their puzzle in writing the show. That is where Christian comes in. Christian is this wide-eyed, lovely American man who believes love can conquer all. He helps them write the show, Bohemian Rapsody.

ET: So, they've taken this multiple Tony award-winning production, which transformed the entire theater in New York, and are moving it to venues across the country with Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre as the launch of the national tour.

AW: The Nederlander is a theater that fits a lot of people, but it's so intimate. You still feel when you're sitting in the audience like you're involved in the production. Especially our production. The set is absolutely gorgeous! And you feel like you are in it and it's so perfectly well-suited for this huge spectacle, the extravaganza that is Moulin Rouge: The Musical.

ET: In terms of entertainment set at the turn of the century and recreating that for a new audience, it must feel very fulfilling to be in the middle of that excitement, enthusiasm and music that is blending the original concept of Moulin Rouge with this hip, upbeat pop culture.

AW: Most definitely. The costumes and the sets are so colorful and so of that time, but you fill in with pop music and the language and it's for a modern audience. It is the perfect blend.

 ET: Do you think that the story is driving the music, or the music is driving the story?

AW: What an amazing question. I have done a lot of catalog shows and it's really unbelievable and uncanny how the script of Moulin Rouge fits with the music. Even when I was learning the show, I would start to sing a song that came out of a scene and I couldn't believe how well-crafted it is.

ET: Hopefully sometime during the run of the show, or very soon, all of this business will be behind us and you will be able to see faces and hear laughter out loud as the audience enjoys Moulin Rouge! The Musical Rouge.

AW: Thank you so much. The audiences have been so fantastic! To hear the laughter from the house has been so fulfilling. I will say that we need theater! We need the live theater and I'm so grateful to be back in Chicago.

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical plays at the James M. Nederlander Theatre through May 14, 2022.
2 hours 35 minutes with an intermission
For a complete tour schedule visit: Moulin Rouge Tour

Broadway in Chicago
presents
2022 National Tour
MOULIN ROUGE! The Musical
James M. Nederlander Theatre

WEBSITE

TICKETS

MOULIN ROUGE! The Musical
James M. Nederlander Theatre
24 W. Randolph

2022 National Tour Creative Team
John Logan|Book
Alex Timbers|Director
Justin Levine|Musical Supervision|Orchestrations|Arrangements
Somya Tayehis|Choreography
Derek McLane|Set Design
Catherine Zuber|Costume Design
Justin Townsend|Lighting Design
Peter Hylenski|Sound Design
David Brian Brown|Wig and Hair Design
Sarah Cimino|Makeup Design

2022 National Tour Cast
Courtney Reed (Satine)
Conor Ryan (Christian)
Austin Durant (Harold Zidler)
André Ward (Toulouse-Lautrec)
David Harris (The Duke of Monroth)
Gabe Martínez (Santiago)
Libby Lloyd (Nini) 
Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer (Satine Alternate)
with Nicci Claspell, Harper Miles, Andres Quintero, Adrienne Balducci, Andrew Brewer, Jack Cahill-Lemme, Sam J. Cahn, Darius Crenshaw, Alexander Cruz, Alexa De Barr, Tamrin Goldberg, Alexis Hasbrouck, Jordan Fife Hunt, Justin Keats, Tyler Logan, Tanisha Moore, Brayden Newby, Kent Overshown, Amy Quanbeck, Adéa Michelle Sessoms, Jenn Stafford, Denzel Tsopnang, Travis Ward-Osborne, Sharrod Williams, Jennifer Wolfe and Ricardo Zayas.
Special Thanks Damara Anderson|Broadway in Chicago

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CONVERSATIONS Kelly O'Sullivan - The Play That Goes Wrong

Kelly O’Sullivan — Maintaining A Sense of Optimism
The Play That Goes Wrong

Take a look at the cast list for “The Play That Goes Wrong,” opening this week at the Broadway Playhouse, and you will see many familiar names including Matt Mueller, Colton Adams, Jonah D. Winston and Kelly O’Sullivan who are among the Chicago-based company.

You may have seen O’Sullivan at productions on the Goodman and Steppenwolf stages in recent years, however, before and during the shutdown, she had turned attention to writing and performing in film, most recently “St. Francis,” an award-winning production whose truth emanates from her own experiences. It’s all part of a career path that has led the talented actor to broaden her skill set into writing, directing and producing her own work.

O’Sullivan’s first love remains ensemble theater and being cast in “The Play That Goes Wrong” is a dream come true. As we discovered in our conversation, the show includes an unlikely additional “character”: the Tony Award winning set, designed by Nigel Hook, that is so essential to the show the cast rehearsed in New York on the Off-Broadway version.

The show itself is a tightly choreographed farce about an amateur theater troupe’s opening night performance that starts off well enough, but then rapidly disintegrates into chaos, mayhem and uproarious physical comedy. According to O’Sullivan, in order to play it all for laughs requires the cast to maintain a sense of optimism while performing the play within the play. That sounded to me like good advice for our time, to be sure.

There’s much more from Kelly O’Sullivan, who learned at an early age growing up in North Little Rock, Arkansas that theater would play a significant role in her life.

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Kelly O’Sullivan: My kindergarten teacher told my mom she thought I would really enjoy doing theater. I was a very energetic playful kid. And so she and my mom took me to audition at a local children's theater called the Arkansas Children's Theater and I loved it. I took to it from the time that I was six years old. I continued doing theater until I was ready to graduate from high school and then went to Northwestern University and majored in theater. There is actually a very thriving group scene in Arkansas and I was very lucky to grow up inside of it.

Ed Tracy: And getting accepted into the theater program at Northwestern is no small accomplishment.

KO: I loved it there and was lucky to have gotten to train with the people that I did there.

ET: When did you attend Northwestern?

KO: Well, I would be revealing my age, so I'll just say it was about a million years ago. Okay?

ET: That's fine. I'll go with that. Were you in the WAMU show?

KO: No, no, no. That's a musical and I am very much a non-musical actor.

ET: So you are an actor. Do you dance?

KO: I do. I was part of a dance group at Northwestern called “Boomshaka” which was hip hop and drumming. So I can dance to a certain level, but not musical level dancing.

ET: I get it. I was an “upper body” dancer growing up. That was the most important half. This show—“The Play That Goes Wrong”—would you call it a farce?

KO: It definitely feels like a farce. There are all of the telltale signs of a farce, lots of people coming in and out of doors and mishaps. From the inside it definitely feels like a farce.

ET: And yet, in this kind of show, I imagine you have to learn it all the right way first in order to make the comedy work.

KO: That's right. For our very first rehearsal, we read a version of the play that goes right so that we would always be able to refer back to it and say: “Okay, if things were not going devastatingly wrong at this moment, how would we be playing this scene?” So even though it is ridiculous, we all have that foundation of truth underneath it. And then everything still starts to fall apart.

ET: The writers are Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields. Have they been involved?

KO: Not in our production, although there is the clear lineage of our director, Matt DeCarlo, who worked very, very closely with them and was the original production stage manager. We feel like we're doing a very faithful production of it.

ET: So tell us, about “The Play That Goes Wrong.” It's a play within a play—“The Murder at Haversham Manor”—and it's presented by the Cornley University Drama Society.

KO: It's opening night of the latest show and they are all very proud of it. They're all very nervous. I would say they are an amateur troupe. When lights come on and the play starts, they are all incredibly optimistic and then slowly but surely some really common mistakes that happen in any theater start to happen. Their mistakes are more extreme than you might find in other theaters.

ET: The set plays a key role in this show.

KO: Yes. It's Nigel Hook’s Tony award-winning set design and when people see the play they will see why. The set acts as a part of the ensemble; it really is a character in the piece. Sometimes the set really helps out the players and sometimes the set sort of sabotages the players. So it's really fun to walk in when you sit in the audience. You just take in how gorgeous this set is. And then over the course of the show, it becomes less gorgeous and more treacherous.

ET: So when you were in New York for a month you did a lot of rehearsing on the set?

KO: The entire time we rehearsed on the set, except for a couple of hours here and there or when the actual show needed to be performed and then we would go to a rehearsal space, but that's the reason they brought all of us out to New York because it's really impossible to rehearse this play in a room without any set pieces. We needed to be on a physical set, rehearsing with all the mechanics of what happens because it is such a crucial part of the plot.

ET: How long were those rehearsals each day? How did they work with respect to the other show?

KO: They were from 9 am to 4:30 pm and then the Off Broadway company would come in and the crew would set up and do the show at night. It was really fun. It felt like a timeshare in a way that we would have it during the day and they would have it at night.

ET: That's a fascinating way to develop the show. I can't think of another show offhand that would have all rehearsals on a set already in production.

KO: Very few shows require that kind of rehearsal with the set, but ours really does.

ET:  And then you arrived last week into the Broadway Playhouse and there's your set.

KO: That's right. With tiny little differences. The window may be a couple of inches higher or we have slightly more space in the Off Broadway house, but it was like showing up and seeing an old friend because we had just been with it for a whole month.

ET: And you can make those adjustments rather quickly and then amp the show up to production speed.

KO: Yes. It's not a typical show where we could come in and just do tech on the set. It would have been a total nightmare, so I'm really glad they did it this way.

ET: You play the part of Sandra. Tell us about her role in the show.

KO:  Sandra likes things a certain way. She wants to be a star in this ensemble piece. And so she uses every opportunity to take focus and take up space. I think if she had her way she would be the director of the piece, a trait many of the characters actually have in common. And so she's playing the role of Florence Colleymoore in the show who is a real sophisticated lady. She is awesome to play because Florence Colleymoore is the character, but Sandra has such ambition and drive and a sort of greediness underneath her that’s fun.

ET: It's a physical role. How do you balance that acting requirement with the physicality that you need to have?

KO: It's a lot of multitasking. I will say this play is the most multitasking I have ever, ever done as an actor, because you are playing Sandra who plays Florence Colleymoore and you are doing a play within a play, you are having to remember all of this very intense physical choreography that is incredibly technical, and you are trying to be responsive to your fellow ensemble members and the audience. And so it's like trying to keep 25 plates in the air all at once. I think that's the challenge of it and that's the joy of it as an actor—trying to do it all at once.

ET: Is there an element of improv in all of this? Things going wrong even if they are planned to go wrong?

KO: You know the show is so tightly choreographed, we have had certain moments already of there being something spontaneously that goes wrong, that we weren't expecting. For safety reasons, the show is incredibly precise. Something that the audience feels is spontaneous to them takes a lot of skill on the writer, the director and the actor’s part to make it feel that way while all of us should hopefully know exactly what we're doing. So there's less improv than you might think.

ET: Well, the challenge is always not to play the end, right? So, you know the bit is coming and you want to keep it going.

KO: Yes and we talk about it as maintaining a sense of optimism the entire time after the first thing goes wrong and they think everything else is going to go right. And so it's maintaining that sense of optimism rather than giving into the feeling of defeatism.

ET: This is a long sit down here. Seven weeks. It is going to be a great opportunity at the Broadway Playhouse to spread your wings. What does it feel like to be in the middle of this right now?

KO: It feels really exciting. I have worked at the Goodman and Steppenwolf, but the Broadway Playhouse feels different. It is really exciting to be downtown during the holidays and to be working in a new venue.

ET: And it isn't necessarily a holiday show, although it's perfect for the holidays. Perfect for the whole family.

KO: That's right, yes. We say from age eight to 98 there's something for everybody. It is sort of that old world British murder mystery that always makes me think of the holidays. Family fun and a lot of joy.

ET: When I saw the show in New York there was audience interaction. I won't say a lot, but it was certainly important to the play. How is that aspect being handled at this point? 

KO: We are still figuring it out. We are about to go into previews and we keep saying in rehearsals that the audience will tell us. And so it's almost like we are waiting now for our other scene partner to show up. And I think that first preview is going to be incredibly informative for some actors more than others. Matt Mueller has a prolonged section where he's talking to the audience. And so I know that we're all very eager to see what that's actually going be like.

ET: You have a lot of interests. You are a writer, a producer and you have done some film acting work. Where does the fire really lie?

KO: Everywhere. The older I get the more I want to play a larger role in the kinds of stories that I'm telling. When you are a young actor you just sort of take the jobs that are given to you. I think the fire for me lies in: Do I believe in the work? Do I believe in the story? and so that takes a lot of different roads for me. I love writing and I love directing and it certainly gives me more agency. I also love being part of the ensemble. There are more and more people who are not sort of sectioning themselves off to just one path anymore. There are more multi-hyphenate people who are acting, writing and directing and doing all of it. And so I want to be really active in doing whatever excites me most at the moment.

ET: You have a new film project underway. Anything you can let us know about that.

KO: The goal is for us to shoot it this summer, it's called “Mouse” and hopefully the next step in my evolution as a filmmaker. I wrote and starred in “St. Francis.” I wrote “Mouse,” and will co-direct. It will be shot in Arkansas which will be really exciting to go back to my home and tell a story from there.

ET: “St. Francis” was somewhat autobiographical, is that true?

KO: There were components of it there that were taken from real life. It is one of those things that you start from your seeds of truth in your own life and then fictionalize from there. So components of it.

ET: So is “Mouse” in the same vein?

KO: Not as much, it's more using real with settings that I know from Arkansas. It's definitely more fictionalized than “St. Francis”.

ET: Well, I have to admit, I don't talk to a lot of actors who have such a broad understanding of the film and television aspect of their lives and are making their art themselves. That does seem to be a trend that you are in the forefront. It is important that actors across the board have multiple projects working all at the same time. I hear it from a lot of very successful actors that they have a kit bag of all of these projects and pivot when necessary.

KO: That's right. I think it is a way to stay engaged. A way to not get rusty or to feel bored. And you want to exercise different muscles because after awhile, at least for me being an actor, people want to pigeonhole you, or they think: “Well, they've done this before, so let's just have them do it again.” It's really up to the individual to say: “Well, I'm tired of that. And I want to do something else. Something that I have more say in.”

ET: We are about four days away from the opening of “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Any final thoughts about coming back home to Chicago?

KO: As we were rehearsing in New York, we kept saying that we can't wait to get home and show this to our friends and families and have people who come visit Chicago see it. It's such a blast. It's so wild. It's so funny and we are excited to bring it to our hometown.

ET: I really hope—and this comes from my heart, Kelly—that everything goes wrong. I hope it goes wrong every single night.

KO: I think it will.

Comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

PHOTO: Jeremy Daniel

BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
presents
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
The Broadway Playhouse
Water Tower Place

December 14, 2021 through January 30, 2022

WEBSITE

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PicksInSix Q & A - BRENDA DIDIER - PARAMOUNT THEATRE presents "CINDERELLA"

PicksInSix® Q & A - Brenda Didier – Paramount Theatre presents “CINDERELLA”

The rags to riches story of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA is timeless. For many of us of a certain age, it evokes memories of Julie Andrews and Lesley Ann Warren in the title role, which, thanks to broadcast television, expanded the audience to upwards of 60 million viewers at the time—one report had Andrews live viewership at nearly 110 million in 1957!—connecting the new medium of television with live performance. Warren’s 1965 version was rebroadcast annually for eight consecutive years.

Fast forward to the 1997 revival co-produced by Whitney Houston, that had equally staggering numbers of viewers. That production, with a teleplay by Robert L. Freedman with Whoopi Goldberg, was adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs in 1999 and toured with the likes of Brandy, Houston, Bernadette Peters and Eartha Kitt. It is a vastly different story line than the original and decades ahead of its time.

On the eve of the official opening of Paramount Theatre’s production of CINDERELLA, as Mikayla Renfrow makes her Paramount Theatre debut in the title role, we asked director Brenda Didier six questions about the process of putting the show together for Paramount Theatre’s holiday season. The multi-Jeff Award-winning Didier—who has received over thirty Jeff nominations and counting—has a long and distinguished career as a director, choreographer, actor and dancer. She is also the founder and principal of the Lincolnshire Academy of Dance, teaching the next generation of dance students and theatre artists.

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Ed Tracy: The Paramount revival of CINDERELLA feels both inspired and daunting, given the unique times in which we live.

What is it about this particular adaptation that drew you to it?

Brenda Didier: I was drawn to this particular adaptation after seeing the Brandy/Whitney Houston version on TV starring Whoopi Goldberg- who also produced this version. I like the humor, heart and honesty. It also has a more contemporary feel to the script. It feels fresh and full of heart. I like the 2013 revival, but the script did not speak to me. The political subplot in that production took me away from the Cinderella story a bit. This is Paramount's big holiday slot. Families make a holiday outing and with that in mind, this version felt appropriate for their holiday audiences. It also moves along nicely.

ET: Paramount productions attract top national and regional talent and “CINDERELLA” has a superstar company.

Talk about the casting process, what you were initially looking for and what you found. Any surprises along the way?

BD: Trent Stork, Paramount's amazing casting director, started the casting process in March of 2020. When Covid shut down theatres, we canceled in-person auditions and Trent sent us many self-tapes. This entire show was cast between May-July 2020 via video submissions. Tiffany Krause, our co-choreographer, Kory Danielson, our music director, and I viewed the submissions, wrote notes and met via zoom meetings to do the best we could with this cast. The challenges were not being able to read actors with each other during callbacks to answer questions like: Do they have the right chemistry? What is their energy like in the room, etc? Tiffany also recorded herself teaching two dance combinations for the ensemble dancers to learn via video. They would then film themselves in various locations—apartments, rooftops, garages, parks—anywhere they could dance safely and have space and then submit their videos to Trent. We could not teach any partnering in this scenario, but we did the best we could. The cast was put on hold until we knew when CINDERELLA would actually happen. We did lose about 8-9 cast members, including principals, when we were back up and running. Some actors changed careers during the pandemic, moved out of town, started families, or had conflicts. We recast their roles via more video submissions. On our first day of rehearsal—October 12—we finally met everyone in person after nineteen months off. Remarkably, the cast bonded and the chemistry started. It has been quite a process and I cannot express my gratitude enough to Trent and the entire Paramount team!

ET: Do you have a sense that you are directing the show differently than you would have before the shutdown? If you can, speak to some of the specific challenges you and the creative team had to overcome to maintain the momentum.

BD:I definitely directed this show differently than I would have before the shutdown. The creative team only met one time in person. Zoom meetings were helpful, but we did lose momentum and connection during the long shutdown. It took me a while to get my director footing again. This is also my first show directing at the Paramount and a musical of this scale. I have directed at larger venues, but they were either live events or commercial/concert projects. I was feeling the isolation we were all feeling. We talked about it during our table work. Within every fairytale, there is a world with real people, real situations and real conflict and wants. The cast also came back from the shutdown with many emotions. I was extra sensitive to their process, especially to the actors I had just met.

ET: This is a creative industry that thrives on collaboration. What are the essential qualities you look for in establishing a creative team? 

BD: Establishing a creative team that is on the same page and trusts one another is so important. I had choreographed The Producers with the amazing Jim Corti directing, so I had collaborated as a choreographer with the brilliant Paramount designers before—Jesse Gaffney (Props), Katie Cordts (Wigs and Make-up) and Adam Rosenthal (Sound Design), so there was already a familiarity with them. I have collaborated with both Angie Weber Miller (Set Design) and Theresa Ham (Costume Design). They are also brilliant and special collaborators. Vicki Bain, our lighting designer, was new to me. She had designed Newsies for Paramount, so she was very familiar with the space. We hit it off immediately. This is a huge show with many moving parts technically and full of magic. During our tech process, many adjustments were made over and over again when the team realized what did not work. We quickly brainstormed about plans B, C, D. This is live theatre and things come up unexpectedly. Amber Mak and Paul Jordan Jansen, our artistic leads on the show, have been so valuable as they have experience on and off the Paramount stage. I learned so much from them and throughout this process. 

ET: You have had an enormously successful career as a performer, choreographer and then as director/choreographer at theaters of all sizes across Chicagoland in addition to teaching the next generation of dancers.

What advice would you give to help others find balance of their personal and professional lives?

BD: Finding work/life balance is challenging in any career, but particularly in the performing arts. The hours can be very long. I was often at the theatre from 11am-12am. We work six days a week for six weeks and do not have much time for family or friends. I am very lucky to have such a supportive family and friends. I have a wonderful executive director at my dance academy, Lincolnshire Academy of Dance, to handle things while I am away. It is important to take time to connect with your loved ones, take time for yourself, so you don't burn out. The emails come fast and can be overwhelming at times, but you learn to breathe, remember the "Why" we are in this line of work and practice daily gratitude. I am more grateful to create again after experiencing theater and the world shut down for so long. 

ET: Can you share a Fairy Godmother moment in your life?

BD:I feel like I have many Fairy Godmother moments in my life. Throughout my life, many important women had such an influence on me and believed in me. One moment that stands out to me is when one of my dearest childhood friends, Gabrielle Smillie, flew in with her husband in 2009. I was a week away from starting my chemotherapy treatments for Grade 3 breast cancer. They flew in and stayed at the hotel where our competition dancers were performing/competing that weekend. I will never forget it. It was the push I needed to begin the treatment process and, I am happy to say, get on with my life.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE
presents
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S
CINDERELLA
through January 9, 2022

23 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, Illinois

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(630) 896–6666

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READ THE “CINDERELLA” PicksInSix® Review

ARCHIVE - 2017 CONVERSATION with BRENDA DIDIER

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CONVERSATIONS David Catlin - Mr. Dickens' Hat - Northlight Theatre

Northlight Theatre’s world premiere of “Mr. Dickens’ Hat — A Play with Music” written and composed by Michael Hollinger is at last coming to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. Originally slated for a November 2020 launch and postponed due to the pandemic, the show opens November 26 and is directed by David Catlin, a Lookingglass Theatre co-founder, ensemble member, director and actor with a long and impressive list of creative milestones including “Frankenstein,” “Moby Dick” and “Lookingglass Alice” scheduled to return next spring to the Water Tower Water Works theater.

Hoillinger’s play is set in and around events that occur in a Victorian hat shop in December 1865. In true Dickensian style, the multitude of robust characters in Hollinger’s work span the social spectrum of the day to emulate the contrasting attitudes of wealth and poverty. With original music that functions on multiple levels, Catlin’s bedrock understanding of Dickens’ work and the Victorian period, and a multi-talented cast, “Mr. Dickens’ Hat” is a highly-anticipated holiday season addition for all ages.

At the center of the play is a unique and relatable hero for our time. The story revolves around a girl named Kit, who at twelve is working in the hat shop to pay off her father’s debt in order to free him from debtor’s prison. The shop is home to the famous hat that Dickens used to haul water to victims of a train crash. Early on, Kit discovers devious plans afoot and the imaginative action adventure that unfolds over the ninety minute piece promises to be full of chilling intrigue, uproarious comedy and heartwarming music for the season.

The cast includes: Christine Bunuan (Lady Plume/Witslow), Cordelia Dewdney (Kit), Kasey Foster (Mrs. Prattle, Locksmith, Mother, Piggot), Mark David Kaplan (Mr. Garbleton, Gnat, Old Engineer, Polly), Ruchir Khazanchi (Ned, Countess, Styfflip, Mum), and Nick Sandys (Father, Fleece). Chuck Larkin serves as music director. The creative team includes set designer William Boles, costume designer Sully Ratke, lighting designer Jason Lynch and sound designer André Pluess.

On November 8, during a rehearsal break, we caught up with David Catlin via text to shed more light on the storyline and the development process, how Hollinger’s original lyrics and music are incorporated into the piece and the essential contribution that the cast has made to bringing the creative vision forward in telling Hollinger’s compelling and heartwarming tale.

ET: We know from shows like “Hard Times” at Lookingglass that you are particularly at home in Dickens’ world with his marvelous characters. It sounds like you and Michael Hollinger have taken a mutual fascination one step further, opening a treasure trove of possibilities. Talk about a few of those possibilities.

DC:  Michael has written this beautiful play in the style of Dickens. And the characters and situations feel really very much of the moment. Even more so now than when we intended to do it a year ago. This play is filled with characters who feel isolated. Alone. Who have been crushed a bit by their circumstances and conditions and yet with all this darkness, with all this heaviness, there is this underlying joy. This soaring human spirit. There are all these skillfully wrought Dickensian characters who are at once hilarious and also deliciously nefarious and feeling the heaviness and ache of the world.

We have a bumbling constable who is looking for felons and ne’er-do-wells at every turn. We have an absent-minded father and maker of hats who is continuingly bursting the buttons on his new waistcoat. We have a character named Gnat who is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier but certainly the sweetest. And we have Kit who is twelve years old and working to pay off her father‘s debt to earn his release from prison.

ET: A new Dickensian story just in time for the holidays! How does it feel to be out of a zoom room and back in a theater with a creative team that is dealing with some of the same sensibilities that we’ve all lived through? What have the cast brought to the show from their own experiences?

DC:  In fact, in the opening lyrics of the first song we hear: “Over and over the days go by|Swifter than birds the hours fly|Days that are lost can never be found|The hands on the clock go round and round.”

Time – over the last twenty months – has certainly flown by for us and those days we may never find again.

The song continues: “With weeks that are lost can never be found|Months that are lost can never be found|Years that are lost can never be found.”

We have all endured and lost much in these last twenty months. We have suffered and we have suffered separately, at an appropriate social distance. Isolated in our zoom meetings in our homes. There is this great quote from the Pickwick Papers that Michael puts at the front page of his play: “There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.” It does feel to me that the shadows have been darker than ever. Have felt grimmer than ever. More doom full than ever, not unlike perhaps Dickens version of that industrial age and that time. Being back in a space with a bunch of collaborators whose life calling is to bring stories into the world that illuminate the darker contours, that enliven and bring joy, is an extraordinary event that I am so grateful to be included in.

The play takes place over the course of a single night, December 21, 1865, the longest night of the year. It is the onset of a long and cold winter. Our hero, a young kid, finds herself in great peril trying to make it through the night on the icy tracks of a train trestle with her fate rumbling down the icy tracks in front of her while Mr. Fleece, our delicious villain, looms closer and closer. Will she survive? Will she be the hero of her own story?

ET:  Six actors playing many characters in ninety minutes. It sounds like this cast needs many talents. Acrobatics? Magic? Sleight of hand?

DC: Each cast member is multi-talented. In addition to writing a brilliant play, Michael has composed a beautiful score & lyrics including holiday carols.   Each actor sings in addition to taking on many characters, as well as playing instruments and animating William Boles set which is part 19th century Industrial structure and part playground.

Each cast member is also an inventive collaborator. Most of the intricate choreography and staging has been devised by members of the cast.

ET: How is the music integrated in the play? Is it used to move the story forward, set the scene or a hybrid?

DC: The music functions on all levels.  There are blissful carols that capture the spirit of winter holidays, but also intone|articulate the moment.  “Tar Black River” dredges up the muck from the bottom of the Thames: “What will you find at the bottom of the Thames? | Is the riverbed covered in jewels and gems? | No, the bottom is nothing but broken dreams|daft ambitions and desperate schemes|The runoff of a million wishful streams is the bottom of the tar black river.” This delivers Kit to her father in Queen’s Prison where he faces a long winter before spring will come. “Night Sleigh” has a driving pace that also underscores Kit’s initial escape through the London night before she is caught by her nemesis Fleece on the frozen train trestle. “Psalm” follows the crescendo of the play’s thrilling climax with the ethereally sung lyrics: “Calm, calm, night is calm…”

ET: I was about to say that after our last conversation about ‘Moby Dick’ that it was great to have you back on terra firma. But it sounds like the water flowing in the Thames still plays a big role in telling your stories.

DC: Definitely.  I grew up in Pittsburgh – far from big bodies of water like the sea or our beloved Lake Michigan. But the Allegheny River held its own sway over me, whether jumping off train trestle bridges, canoe-camping along it’s many islands, or watching it flow by my town’s Riverside Park, it is an important part of who I am.

ET: It’s always a pleasure to chat with you. “Mr. Dickens Hat” is a highly anticipated show for the holiday season and this new collaboration with Northlight Theatre looks like a great opportunity to expand the unique style of storytelling that you’re known for. Thank you for all the insight into this fascinating new project.

DC: Thanks, Ed.  Always grateful to chat with you!

REHEARSAL PHOTOS | Caleb Woodring, Colleen Schuldeis, and Mara Mihlfried

Northlight Theatre
presents the
World Premiere of
Mr. Dickens’ Hat
A Play with Music
Written and Composed by Michael Hollinger
Directed by David Catlin
Music Direction by Chuck Larkin

November 26, 2021 – January 2, 2022 

9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie, IL
(847) 673-6300

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PicksInSix Q & A - Cassie Beck: What The Constitution Means To Me-Broadway Playhouse

Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me,” a smart, provocative work presented in a wide-ranging narrative that alternates from heartbreaking to hilarious and all points in between, will return to Chicago on October 26 for a two-week run at the Broadway Playhouse starring Cassie Beck, the multi-talented stage and television actor whose credits include the Tony Award-winning “The Humans” and the just-released Amazon Prime series “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

One of the many startling and insightful revelations in Schreck’s play occurs quite matter-of-factly early on, as she reflects on her 15-year-old-self travelling the country and participating in constitutional debates in American Legion halls. It has to do with the theatrical set, conjured up from her memory, that includes a massive wall with portraits of men, peering back impassively at the 40ish woman, and serving as an imposing metaphor for the multi-layered discussion of inequity and inequality that is to come.

It is then that Schreck readily admits not being able to conjure up one important detail: she could not envision a door out of the room.

The framers could not begin to list the rights for all either and chose to amend the document so that future interpretations could be made. Navigating the constitutional territory of a way out and framing the discussion of the text, purpose and future of the document—specifically focusing on Articles 9 and 14—is the meaty middle of Shreck’s superb 2019 Tony® Award-nominated show.

Now back on tour, and in advance of the Broadway in Chicago run which was stalled by COVID-19, we posed questions to Beck about tapping into her own experiences to create the role and how the show has been impacted by the current state of politics and women’s rights.

Ed Tracy: What is it about "What The Constitution Means To Me" that first got you interested?

Cassie Beck: When I saw Heidi perform the piece in New York, I loved it. I was really flattered and honored when the tour offer came to me. She’s a friend and a colleague. I’ve collaborated and performed in some of her other plays prior to CONSTITUTION and cherished those times of working together. She’s an inventive, honest and uncompromising writer who really values actor input. I will always get in a creative room with her anytime I’m invited. For this particular production, I have the unique perspective of having been an audience member, so I know what it’s like to receive this play from a theatre seat. I found it so revelatory, raw and exciting, not to mention enraging at times. It’s a full spectrum kind of piece that covers a lot of emotional ground while also being relatable and laugh out loud funny. Plus, for an actor, navigating such a hefty bulk of material is a theatre nerd challenge I couldn’t refuse.

ET: Talk a bit about how the staging and rehearsal process for the tour evolved as we started to emerge from the pandemic. Is there an example where a section of the show has been adjusted or expanded?

CB: Firstly, rehearsal protocols were strictly and smartly enforced for physical safety by our Covid Safety Manager who attended every rehearsal and is also with us on tour. Everyone is vaccinated and frequently tested. We wear KN95 masks at all times, with the exception of actors on stage. There was also the addition of HEPA filters and area fans. The most informative and reassuring was our team’s one-on-one meeting with Dr. Adamson, the Broadway Covid Advisor. She was incredibly helpful with regard to where the science is now around testing, transmission, contagion and viral load. We got a full 30 minutes with her before she had to Zoom with The White House, so, nbd. We all played it very cool. Tip: Keep those fans circulating, blast that overhead air vent straight into your lap while on planes, and wear your masks, everyone! As for the show, while we are not ignoring the fact that there’s been a pandemic since the show last played, for example, I greet the audience in a way that acknowledges how good it is to be back in the theatre.  Mike Iveson interacts with some audience members and puts on his mask to do so–the word Covid-19 has not made it directly into the text. I do think the pandemic deeply permeates the questions raised in the show, especially as they relate to accessibility to healthcare in this country, an individual’s right to life, and, of course, current events from today’s headlines are always changing in the live debate portion of the piece.

ET: The original production had the added benefit of Heidi Schreck’s own experiences, many, if not most, of which universally resonate with women in the audience. Is there one particular moment in the piece that strongly tapped into your personal experience? How did you approach that in your own preparation?

CB: Heidi’s examination of her mother, grandmother, great, great grandmother and herself in the play not only resonated with me but invited me to do the same. I lost my mother in 2019, and because there is a kind of universality for American women in the piece, I bring my own mother and grandmother and great-great grandmother’s ghosts on stage with me as well. The play has a deep spiritual, ritualistic, séance (dare I say witchy) quality as the character of Heidi evokes spirits from history into the theatre space. She’s calling them up, remembering them, discussing them and interacting with them through time and space. I find it so comforting and moving that I get to do the same with my ancestors while simultaneously calling to action the younger generations in the audience to understand, learn, and question the past so we can move forward. It’s funny, I can hear the audible gasps from the audience after the line, “birth control became legal for single people in this country in 1972.” I remember that being a shocking realization for me as well. The facts surrounding birth control legality was revelatory for me and sharply pointed to how I took the right to contraceptives for granted.

ET: The show is a conversation starter and provides an open, unique and often hilarious opportunity for women of two generations to address wide-ranging issues.  What do you see as the most important concepts for women to share with the next generation and as a lens to Heidi’s view of her mother and grandmother’s experiences?

CB: That we are complex beings with both strengths and weaknesses, that deserve to live, love and achieve. To not lose hope, that we are progressing! We must know our worth so we can continue to fight for equality, which is our birthright.

ET: One fascinating aspect of the play is the embodiment of women at various ages and through the eyes of their experiences with men, as portrayed by Mike Iveson who played the role in the Broadway production and is on tour. Can you talk about the interaction between the essence of the everyman (on stage) and how you associate that relationship with the men in the audience?

CB: Yes, as we were rehearsing the play, I asked for an afternoon dedicated to dissecting Heidi’s onstage relationship with the Legionnaire. What I learned is that Mike is truly there to catch and respond to anything that I happen to throw at him over the course of the performance. I see so many of the men Heidi describes in the play embodied in him. Once the show’s spell is cast, Heidi calls him into the space like a ghost of the real Legionnaire she knew. He makes this long entrance from the back of house to the stage, which I like to imagine is the conjuring of this real man’s spirit to enter our playing space. Over the course of the show, he morphs into many other men, such as the college guy that gives her a ride home, her castmate “Jean” from Miss Julie, her father, even Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant! Not to mention the men in the audience, from young to old. He really is a surrogate for any male energy that is accessed in the play. Most importantly, at his core, he’s the wonderfully supportive and talented Mike Iveson himself. He’s always got my back, whether I’m loving or berating him. His breakout speech is always perfection.

ET: There are among the historical references humorous anecdotes that are contextualized with recordings of Supreme Court proceedings that align with Heidi’s personal experiences. And yet, all these years later, our society continues to face obstacles that both directly and indirectly inhibit equality. It seems, to use the metaphor early on in the show, that there is no one door to open, but a series of doors for this and future generations. Talk about the two most important takeaway’s that will provide both inspiration and a call to action for our time.

CB: The show has taught me how difficult and lengthy the legislative process really is and how unequal the playing field continues to be because of that glacial pace. The fact that the mechanism to change the Constitution is written into the document itself and we haven’t passed the ERA yet is enraging - and yet, we are not mad enough. As a culture, inequality MUST matter more. We can change it, but we have to run for office ourselves, demand change and rectify the Constitution to protect us all. I would like the takeaway to be that our relationship to democracy and the Constitution should function like any relationship you care deeply about: it requires work, dedication, and evolution.

PHOTO|Joan Marcus

BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
Presents
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME

October 26-November 7, 2021

Broadway Playhouse
Water Tower Place

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A New Immersive "Recipe" Ahead for Director David H. Bell

A New Immersive "Recipe" Ahead for Director David H. Bell

When we last spoke on the Conversations podcast in 2016, David H. Bell and a spirited group of co-creators were at the time huddled around the game plan for a musical version of the Knute Rockne story. In the years that have followed for the director and educator whose extensive body of work has received over 45 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations and has received the award a dozen times to date, he has directed the critically acclaimed Windy City Playhouse production of Southern Gothic, an immersive theatrical experience that took Chicago audiences by storm.

The success of Southern Gothic has now given birth to a new project with restaurant impresario Rick Bayless and the Windy City Playhouse—a fascinating concept entitled A Recipe for Disaster that will debut this fall in the club space below the iconic Chicago theatre district restaurant Petterino’s, which, it was announced in July, will be opening soon under new and separate ownership.

David Bell joined the Conversation recently to discuss the development of the new show scheduled to open on October 6th, how the pandemic impacted his Northwestern students and his professional career, and what might be ahead for the future Southern Gothic.

Ed Tracy (ET): We have been through this monumental shutdown. Nobody expected it would last as long as it did. It's almost an equally monumental start up with a lot of different players at every single professional level in America. Storefront theatres. Non-profits. Professional theatres. Everyone is in this major shift. This pivot. When you found yourself in the middle of this, what gave you hope to go forward? Did you have a series of projects that kept you busy? I know you were teaching, but how did you put all of that together?

David Bell (DB): In many ways I was lucky. As things slowed down—I lost nine jobs essentially that either got postponed or canceled altogether as a director and in my professional career, but I, fortunately, had an abundance of time, therefore, to really put an effort into my teaching, figuring out how to teach via Zoom and continually pivoting as the restrictions that surrounded the COVID change. I ended up in one of the most exciting teaching gears I've ever had. The students were extraordinary. And a hundred percent of the time when I found myself a little at sea—which happened more often than I care to admit—it was the students who not only came up with the solution, but actually turned the experience of teaching into a real positive. They were focused. They were dedicated. And, most of all, they were really inventive about how they needed to get educated and they often provided me solutions to the problems that the COVID pandemic had created. It turned out to be a wonderfully positive time in the life of my teaching. Coupled with this clearly national sense of isolation and for months thinking that things would change, some of the projects that I am working on I'm involved as a creator, so I was able to focus as a writer in three or four projects. I have a new version of Christmas Carol opening up at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. So I did several rewrites of that. I'm working on the new project with Windy City Playhouse and although I'm only the director on A Recipe For Disaster, I got involved in moving that forward. The wonderful composer Ira Antelis and I have been working on a musical about aging that I'm also very excited about. So those things started moving to the fore and I spent a lot of time on the writing side of my creative projects rather than the directing projects.

Strangely, we had a very, very long and slow and slightly exhausting first six months of this pandemic where we continually discovered that we are able to do less and less. And that ended up into a kind of numbing, sick additional six months where everything seemed pretty much shut down. But as soon as things started coming back, the fall seemed like the place to reopen and vaccinations started happening, all of a sudden everything hit at once. I'm currently involved in about seven different projects, all that are going to be opening up during the course of this calendar year. I'm feeling overwhelmed, but I'm very grateful to be at a point in my life and my career where I am involved in enough different projects that I generally can keep myself busy. Now it seems that things are coming back very, very strongly. And of course, three of the projects that I'm working on are connected to Windy City Playhouse.

ET:  It's an understatement to say that you, David Bell, do not have a lot of moss growing under your feet. You have had an extraordinary career. It's hard not to look back at that career and ask: “How did he find all that time to do these things? And all of these projects are coming at a time when the University is coming back in a new and different way from this past year. Turning to Northwestern for just a moment, what are some of the changes looking like in the performing arts as the pandemic moves into the fall?

DB: We are still being very, very cautious. Northwestern has wisely decided to move very slowly and cautiously and follow the cutting edge of CDC recommendations, rather than proceed them or come up parenterally about how to move forward. So, I think in the fall, they're going to be very cautious. But by winter, we're planning to be back and presenting shows. Winter and spring will feel very much like it has always felt. Our highest priority is the safety of the students. And you know, the new Delta variant has thrown everybody a curve ball. The number of people who are reluctant to getting vaccinated has made this a far-from-done deal. It is not going away as thoroughly as it seemed about a month ago.

ET: There are a lot of projections in the last six months or so about January openings, you mentioned that things moved up to the fall and now we're kind of in that start, don't start, how fast process. You see larger theatres, and others that have received funding, have been able to sustain themselves. What is the outlook for the smaller theatres who are operating in a small space, which is really a breeding ground?

DB: I'm always of two minds. I always understand and fully appreciate the challenges at the moment, and they are considerable at this moment. But at the same time, I also believe that every challenge is an opportunity and there is real opportunity in smaller spaces. I think the thing that makes live theatre so exciting is its ability to create an environment that is individually sensorily impactful on an audience. And there is something about the very smallness of a storefront theatre here in Chicago that creates real immediacy that brings the action of the show right to you. And I think there's going to be an uptick in the need to be surrounded in a community of people having a shared experience. It's not going to be a giant shared experience. One of the remnants of the pandemic might be that there is an embrace of smaller, more unique, more immersive kinds of experiences. I think that is a real possibility. The big arena shows—the big multi-million dollar musicals, the high-tech musicals—there will always be a market for those, but I think the theatre—the idea of a community gathering to share a single dramatic event—is going to happen everywhere. And I think it's going to be a great boon to the smaller theatres that have been able to survive the last 18 months. 

ET: To that shared experience you talk about: I know that you have a fondness for military history, you have an extensive history library and you're an avid reader. World War II was a shared experience for the veterans. Many historians agree that the success of the World War II generation was that they had this ‘like’ experience. Is this pandemic going to affect people in the arts and everywhere else in the same way?

DB: I don't know. My hope is yes, but there was a lack of cohesion in the sense of national identity being tied up with combating this virus. And so we're at a very polarized time. And I think there is politicalization of how people have responded to the pandemic that, in fact, instead of joining us in the single effort that we felt in World War II, has really done just the opposite. And, you know, that there are those people who don't believe that there was ever a pandemic. There are people who feel that it was created. There are people who feel that somehow vaccinations are a government plot. And so somehow this national crisis has widened the gaps between us as opposed to World War II which bridged the gaps that were between us.

ET: There is a role for the performing arts and others to help speak to that. I thought early on the first two or three months that we would have a lot of artists holding up, creating new art and that out of that art would come other really substantive pieces. And it seems to me that, A Recipe For Disaster, which was in the cooking pot for a long, long time before, is a unique, innovative new piece that is going to be perfectly centered Chicago's theater district downtown and the kind of fully scripted, immersive event that you have very successfully already created in Southern Gothic.

So, let's turn to A Recipe For Disaster. Tell me about the development process from your perspective, how it came to be and how you got involved.

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DB:  I love the Windy City Playhouse. I am an associate artist with the institution. I love Amy (Rubenstein) and Carl (Menniger) who are the artistic director and associate artistic director. They are extraordinary human beings. Evelyn Jacoby, who got me there in the first place, is the managing director, an former student of mine and I have always admired her and her work. I have done three shows there. This is the third. The first was Explorer's Club. The second was this very innovative and challenging and exciting process developing Southern Gothic. Because of the success of that experience, we were very excited to do something else, Amy, as all of us, but Amy in particular, has always been a fan of Rick Bayless. He is remarkable. Everything he touches is magnificent and turns to gold. He and his wife Deann have an extraordinary sense of the theatre. Amy and Rick started talking about developing a show almost two years ago. And because of the coronavirus they were able to meet every week. I was in some of the very early meetings. When I really got more involved, the script was almost done so I have been giving suggestions about how to adjust plot lines. We did a zoom reading about five months ago and they took on a lot of rewrites based on that. We just had a workshop of it last week and again we had a great meeting afterwards. They are astounding collaborators and they are finding a way to tell a very funny, driven by action, farce in a big event in a restaurant and using the vocabulary that you see as audiences or patrons at the restaurant. We are building a theatrical immersive experience. So it will involve some food, the preparation of food and how it's delivered, but it really is about the people who operate a restaurant and all of the kind of farcical situations that no one would know better than Rick and his lifetime involved in the service industry. Those kinds of crises that can happen in the preparation of food and serving an audience. It is really a fertile and exciting world that we've been exploring. The process thus far has been a dream. We are just finishing up the casting process and preparing to go into rehearsal early in September.

ET: And this show will be opening October 6th in the club space below Petterino’s restaurant 150 North Dearborn adjoins the Goodman Theatre in the center of the theater district. I have to think that having that space become available, which has a separate entrance on the Randolph side, must have been an amazing coup for everyone.

DB: It was astounding! Amy Rubenstein is one of the visionaries of Chicago theatre. She saw what was happening with restaurant real estate in downtown Chicago. We were looking for a home for this and we couldn't find the right one. We spent several meetings contemplating spaces that are not known necessarily as theatre spaces but have a kind of downtown restaurant world vibe to them. When Petterino’s came up, my mind was blown. Petterino’s is the functional equivalent of Sardi's here in Chicago. It is an institution. And to be at the heart of the theatre district in downtown Chicago with a new immersive theatre piece is very exciting.

ET: Is the plan to have one show per night? How do you think the run is going to look?

DB: We will have matinee days which will be later afternoon and later evenings. The idea is a fairly regular performance week. Eight shows a week.

ET: Will guests be able to order off a menu?

DB: It is actually a theatre experience, not a dining experience. The show is based on a kind of  influencer's night tasting where a chef introduces a few bite-sized versions of the dishes they do to get influencers interested and wanting to come back. So that's what the evening is constructed around, but it is not primarily a dining experience, although there is both food and drink that will be served in the course of the evening.

ET:  How are the rehearsals going to be developing? Are they all being worked out through the Windy City Playhouse? Are you building a set somewhere else?

DB: We will probably build the set on location. And when we start rehearsal in early September we will be rehearsing on the set in the downstairs space at Petterino’s. It is already being designed by an amazing designer, William Boles who won the Jeff award last year for his equally amazing set for Boys In The Band at the Playhouse. It's an extraordinary world that he has created. I can't wait to start playing on it. It's going to be an exciting and very vivid process as Southern Gothic was.

ET: And Southern Gothic, for those who may not now, opened to terrific reviews and then evolved into a more complex version of itself. Talk about that for a second.

DB: It opened very well and ran almost two years, moved to another space in the south loop so the initial Windy City space could keep on presenting their theatrical season. We are now and have been talking to various cities. We're very close to getting it produced in Washington, DC. We're now talking to people in Nashville about taking our homegrown product and moving it, transplanting it to another city. So it's a very exciting period of growth for immersive theatre. It is immersive to the point where we had about thirty audience members every night and you were right in this kind of Southern Atlanta living room while the action unfolded all around you. It was extraordinary. And again, with Amy and Carl and faulted the writing process with Leslie Liautaud creating that world, um, and it was such a successful model that that's what kind of led us to look to create A Recipe For Disaster and find another way to approach immersive theatre that will hopefully surprise and delight our audience.

ET: David Bell. You are a man with a kitbag that looks more like a steamer trunk. I cannot believe the things that you were involved in education, developing superb talent. People know you far and wide as one of the top professionals in your field. I wish you well on this new one.

DB: Thank you so much, Ed. I really appreciate it.

ET: The show is A Recipe For Disaster, a fully-scripted, immersive theatrical event with food opening October 6th in the club space below Petterino’s at Randolph and Dearborn in the heart of Chicago’s theatre district.

PHOTO: Rick Bayless|Galdones Photography

This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

A RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Petterino’s
Club Level
150 Dearborn Street
Chicago

October 6, 2021—OPEN RUN

Cast and Production Updates: Windy City Playhouse

2016 CONVERSATION with David H. Bell LINK

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ALL HAIL THE CAESAR! TEATRO ZINZANNI RETURNS!

All Hail The Caesar! Teatro ZinZanni Returns! 

The house band is back together on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel where on July 8th Teatro ZinZanni will mark its return to nightly performances in the 100 year-old Speigeltent ZaZou. The return of live theatre is courtesy of co-producers Broadway in Chicago and Randolph Entertainment, LLC, a giant leap forward for the performing arts in Chicago, offering the perfect combination of cocktails, a four-course menu conceived by Debbie Sharpe’s The Goddess and The Grocer and an international cast of featured performers and vocalists served up with a special brand of comic mayhem from impresario and host Frank Ferrante in the character of The Caesar.

It was Ferrante as The Caesar who led the charge in his chariot the first time around in August 2019. The show, created and directed by Norman Langill, is a glistening, non-stop, immersive entertainment extravaganza including the trapeze act, Duo 19, singers Cunio and Storm Marrero, aerialist Lea Hinz, hula-hoop contortionist Vita Radinova, and dancer Mickael Bajazet. And the comic mayhem includes Ferrante and the comic mastermind Joe De Paul who returns to the show and to share directing credit with Dreya Weber and Langill.

I caught up with Ferrante (and his alter-ego The Caesar) in a phone interview during a break in rehearsals to talk about the new show, how The Caesar character came to be and what the moment was like when he heard that Teatro ZinZanni was returning to Chicago this summer.

Frank Ferrante: It's been a process to accept it and to fully embrace the possibility… I think I will really believe it when I walk on the stage on July 8th… There were certainly moments of feeling despondent over how things were going. There were also great, wonderful, beautiful moments that occurred during the last year and a half. … I really was excited about working again with my colleagues, my peers, being around creative people, funny people, performers who are literally risking their lives and that kind of passion that I'd missed… It has been a heck of ride and this past week of rehearsal has been just thrilling.

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ET: From the outside looking in during the pandemic, we saw you being cavalier. A lot of online stuff. Your Groucho show at a drive-in. You were pumping people with energy, enthusiasm and optimism. I can't think of anything better than to have The Caesar and Teatro ZinZanni opening the Chicago season.

FF: You default to what you know and I don't believe in quitting. When someone asks me “What's your motto?” it's really: Never say die. … I was weaned on the laughmakers. I love the great comics of the past. I love the great comics of today. I grew up watching Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis and Laurel and Hardy and made a study out of it from the time I was a kid. So it's really in me. It's in my blood. I love the tradition and Teatro ZinZanni is very much of that tradition. It has a vaudeville vibe to it. An elegant variety. And it's got that same kind of rhythm and pulse of this American form of entertainment. Chicago is a great town for it because there was so much of this going on in Chicago in terms of comedy and touring shows, shows that originated in Chicago and so many great comedians come from Chicago. So it seems like the perfect place to come out of this pandemic. I always feel welcomed here—from audiences, to friends in the media, to the friends I made while I was here. My brother lives here so there is very much a feeling of home here. And I'm a theatre guy first and foremost and this is a theatre town. That's not lost on me.

ET: And you've created this over-the-top character “The Caesar.” How did The Caesar and Teatro ZinZanni get together?

FF: There's nothing quite like Teatro ZinZanni.  I had never seen anything like it. It started in 1998 by Norman Langill who is here in Chicago directing the show along with two other directors. There is a team that work on it. There are so many different components. He saw a tent in Spain during one of the Olympics in the early 90s, I believe—(as ‘The Caesar’) It could have been midnight, maybe ‘96 or ‘92. Someone can correct me—but he saw this incredible Belgian Spiegeltent which is really a character in the show. It has beautiful burgundy fabric, hand-carved wood and stained glass. (The stage area) is in the round and was used for parties, Octoberfest and dances. Norman Langill brought one to Seattle and came up with his own version of the show thinking it would last a matter of weeks. It played for 20 years in Seattle (and later) in San Francisco. Chicago is (currently) the only one representing the Teatro ZinZanni name. It's immersive theatre in that you don't know who the maître d is or if the waitstaff are really performers.

There is a wonderful actor by the name of Kevin Kent, who was the first comic host. He did drag and he's a brilliant interactive improvisational performer and played three different characters. They flew me out to watch him in action and I was blown away. Kevin was here in Chicago right before the pandemic and will be back in January. I was just completely transfixed by this gentleman. I thought: “Why do they want me to do drag? What do they want me to do?” The answer was they wanted me to come up with my own stuff. I had never really done that. I've directed. And I acted. I have a one-man show about Groucho Marx, but I’d never really done sketch interactive comedy within a variety show that features acts from all over the world, contortionists, jugglers, foot jugglers, singers Joan Baez, and Liliane Montevecchi and acts from a variety of countries and different disciplines.

Stuart Gordon saw me do my one-man Groucho Marx show in California. (as ‘The Caesar’) And I was particularly hot that night. I was on fire! There were four hundred people in the audience! It was sold out. And I remember being angry before the performance, having to move the piano around and feeling like: “Come on! Someone help me out here!” Anger is sometimes good for a comic, particularly for playing Groucho Marx. I just started going wild with the improv and making fun of everything and everyone. I got huge laughs and a standing ovation. It was very satisfying. I was able to vent and, in a way, that was healthy and paid off for the audience.

Stuart called his friend Norman Langill and said: “You should see this guy. You should use him. He would be a great host for your show.” And so I was approached, they flew me out to see Kevin Kent in San Francisco, and Teatro ZinZanni with all these great performers and said: “No, we don't want you to do his material. We don't want you to play his role. We want you to come up with your own material.”

And so I met with the director, Stefan Haves, and we started brainstorming. Initially I was doing a little Groucho on the show, which really didn't work that well, in my opinion, because it was circus within a circus. Groucho needs to be in a more formal setting. He needs to break the fourth wall. He needs to tear down the walls in a circus that is already wild. So there was no contrast. I have always fantasized about making fun of show business characters, egocentric people, macho types… those kinds of characters. It's been done – the so-called ‘Latin Lover’–but I thought I might be able to put my own spin on it. I drew him. I sketched him out. I gave him the big pompadour and a beauty mark, a little mustache, a little thin pen, pencil, mustache, sideburns, rosy cheeks and lounge suit. I showed it to the great costume designer Beaver Bauer and she put together these beautiful costumes for me. And that was the beginning.

The question was then how far can I go? Do I wear a crazy outfit and underplay it? Or do I go over the top with him, as you mentioned. Once I saw the costume, there was only one way to play him – over the top and unfiltered. And the fun thing about him is that he says what he wants to say and he does what he wants to do. He has huge appetites and, in a way, he's me exploded. What is within me. It's what I try to keep from being seen.

ET: It seems to me that there are a lot of those comedians you mentioned within the framework of ‘The Caesar,’ you find them in what you're doing and how you're communicating with people. One of the highlights of your performance is how you relate to the people in the audience. You look at someone and you immediately sense how they are going to react to you and what you have to say to get them to laugh. Where does that particular skill come from?

 FF: I think it has to do with at-bats. I have had a lot of opportunity from the time I was a kid to working in the theatre professionally since I was 22. I'm 58 now so a lot of it is due to the work I spent doing the Groucho role, a great deal of interaction and judging an audience, feeling the energy of an audience, knowing how far I can go figuring out when I should pull back, because ultimately, I don't want to hurt anyone. You want to uplift someone. I like brash humor and teasing humor. Not everyone does. I love it. I love that type of humor. I love Groucho. I love David Letterman. There's a lot of comedians of that ilk that I admire, but I think that has to do with just being around people.

I think I am a fairly sensitive person and that is in play. I want people to get their money's worth. I want people to have fun, but you learn and you make mistakes, too. Early on it wasn't perfect and it took months and years to get to a point where I can do this and feel comfortable with it. It's been hundreds and hundreds of performances within this role—probably over 1500—and all kinds of different people and children are in the audience, seniors, people from different backgrounds. You name it. It has to do with the privilege of having so many opportunities and not everyone gets that. I have been one of the really fortunate performers on the planet. I've worked consistently up until the pandemic, month after month in different areas and different countries. Your instincts take over. I learned to rely on my instincts. And there is a lot to be said for practice. I've had a lot of practice.

ET: It's a glorious set up. The magnificent Speigeltent ZaZou within the building, the band elevated behind the stage and the show occurs throughout the space. A lot goes on in there.

FF: You would never know that this remarkable tent sits like a jewel in this building. You're on Randolph. At the Cambria Hotel. You go up to the 14th floor and would never know once you get off that elevator the world that is awaiting you. It's beautiful art decor, chandelier's, mirrors and brick. It looks like it's been hidden there for a hundred years.

ET: Any final thoughts from ‘The Caesar?’

FF: (as ‘The Caesar’) Hello Everybody! I love you all. You cannot go wrong with Teatro ZinZanni and The Caesar. We hope to see you. You will have the best time of your life!

Teatro ZinZanni kicks off the summer season in Chicago’s Loop on July 8th. The show runs Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:00 PM. with a Sunday brunch option as well. For more information about individual, group sales and booking special events, visit the website.

Comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Teatro ZinZanni
Performances begin July 8, 2021
Open Run
Spiegeltent ZaZou
Cambria Hotel
32 W Randolph St. Chicago

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