The air is humming at Lyric Opera of Chicago these days. And no matter who you to talk to, there is a feeling that something great is coming. That something would be the highly-anticipated coproduction of “West Side Story” presented by the Lyric, the Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival, directed by Francesca Zambello and featuring Corey Cott as Tony, Mikaela Bennett as Maria, Amanda Castro as Anita, Brett Thiele as Riff and Manuel Stark Santos as Bernardo.
No matter whether you place your priorities on acting, singing or dancing—and everyone has to dance—the cast for the upcoming Broadway at Lyric show requires top-tier triple threat talent to deliver the magnificent Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score with Jerome Robbins original choreography recreated by Julio Monge. James Lowe will conduct members of the Lyric Opera Chorus and Orchestra.
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Early in the CONVERSATION with Dana Tretta and Christopher Kale Jones about their roles in the superb Mercury Theater Chicago production of “Little Shop of Horrors” directed by L Walter Stearns with musical director Eugene Dizon, we learn just how fiendishly desperate—and painfully real—things are for the star-crossed lovers. Jones plays Seymour Krelborn, the orphaned employee who lives at Mushnik’s Skid Row Floral Shop in the macabre 1982 hit with music by Alan Menken and book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Seymour has dreams of capturing the affections of his sweet co-worker Audrey played by Tretta, who is mired in an abusive relationship with Dr. Orin, a dentist who lives his life gleefully inflicting pain on others. With Mushnik’s business withering on the vine, the two convince him to showcase an odd little plant, known as ‘Audrey II, that Seymour has been nursing back to life. The trouble is as Audrey II’s influence and appetite grows, everyone else starts looking like the next course on the menu.
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Renowned soloists Alfreda Burke and Rodrick Dixon join with Karen Marie Richardson, the legendary Detroit pianist Alvin Waddles and over 100 musicians and vocalists to present Too Hot To Handel, the blues, jazz, gospel, and rock-infused treatment of Handel’s Messiah in celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The 14th annual Chicago concerts will be held on January 19 and 20 at the Auditorium Theatre and will be live-streamed to inmates in a unique partnership between the Auditorium and the Christian Reform Church.
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Lookingglass Theatre Company, one of Chicago’s iconic theatrical institutions known for original adaptations of Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Hard Times, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is now presenting Mary Zimmerman's stunning new creation, The Steadfast Tin Soldier based on the Hans Christian Andersen children's story. In an extraordinary career that has spanned the worlds of theater and opera, Zimmerman received the 2002 Tony Award for directing Metamorphoses, which was developed at Northwestern University and first produced professionally by Lookingglass Theatre where she has worked for over 25 years.
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When Janet Ulrich Brooks decided to bypass a move to Kansas City and land in Evanston, Illinois in 1988, the decision was made in part because of the potential for more artistic work in Chicago’s vibrant theater community. Primarily, she came to help care for her newborn niece, Laura. Looking back on it now she says her role as a nanny was the best day job she ever had.
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An exciting new season is around the corner for Joffrey Ballet and it includes a double dose of the phenomenal Christopher Wheeldon. First up, Swan Lake returns to the Auditorium Theatre beginning October 17th. The Nutcracker, Wheeldon's reimagined holiday classic, set during the construction of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, opens December 1st and runs through December 30th, aligning with exhibits and other events capping a year-long celebration of the Exposition’s 125th anniversary.
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With over twenty-five years in Chicago theatre, a vast knowledge of Broadway musicals and a new big move to a downtown location, Michael Weber, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Artistic Director, appears to be just getting started.
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Ever feel like you want to throw your cell phone away, but then realize you need to call someone to tell them where you are? Was the last time you ended an argument with a Google search around lunchtime today? How many pairs of shoes did Amazon send to you before you actually wore them? If you are a keen social observer like Bill Dyszel, there is a good chance that you already know how amazingly dependent we are on the internet, that highway of information and practical applications that make life so easy we often forget to actually live it in real time.
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Rich Daniels and The City Lights Orchestra return to the Auditorium Theatre on November 17th for ELLA & LENA: The Ladies and Their Music, a centennial concert celebration of Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne. Chicago vocalist and producer Joan Curto will be joined by many of Chicago’s top artists including E. Faye Butler, Beckie Menzie, Tammy McCann, Paul Marinaro, Tom Michael and Sophie Grimm with a 17-piece orchestra featuring songs from the Great American Songbook.
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Our Conversation this week comes in the form of a letter from Ron Keaton. Ron agreed to step in when business called me out of town. It was a chance for Ron to give his unique point of view on a big night of recognition for Chicago's professional theatre community and share comments from award recipients in many of the categories.
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For Brenda Didier, directing Porchlight Music Theatre's production of Billy Elliot The Musical is like coming home again. The show opens the company's 23rd season in their new digs at the Ruth Page Center in Chicago a place that is very familiar to Didier. She has vivid memories as a young dance student. And perhaps most helpful, particularly to the story of Billy Elliot, is rekindling the excitement she experienced realizing her own dream that began when she was eight years old.
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