Stage 773's official grand opening celebration will take place Oct. 16. It follows a $1.5 million renovation of its multi-theater space (formerly known as Theatre Building Chicago until 2010) at 1225 W. Belmont Ave. However, Stage 773 venues have already been in use this past month as part of a soft opening just to make sure all the bugs get worked out.
Stage 773 improvements include a new façade and lobby area complete with more restroom facilities. Stage 773 has also upped the number of its performance venues from three to four.
Under the direction and design of architect John Morris of Morris Architect Planners, changes include a new stage alignment of the venue's 148-seat South Theater space and a division of the former West Theater space into two new performance rooms: an 80-seat black box theater and a 70-seat cabaret space.
"Smaller theater companies often didn't have the budget for the Theatre Building's bigger spaces," said Stage 773 artistic director Brian Posen about the venue's new smaller spaces. Posen hopes that Stage 773's newest venues prove to be magnets for all kinds of artists, ranging from pick-up dance companies to magic acts, from improv troupes to burlesque performers.
What's intriguing about Stage 773's cabaret space is that it will be rented out on a day-by-day basis instead of the usual multi-week contracts for the venue's other theaters. That ensures the potentially amazing diversity of performances within the cabaret space.
One Stage 773 cabaret theater presenter that already looks to have a major impact on the venue is Lampkin Music Group producer and presenter Ralph Lampkin Jr. As a veteran entertainer and producer with more than 30 years of cabaret experience, Lampkin was specifically sought to offer his personal input and advice into the space's creation and design.
"I thought that besides Davenport's, we needed another cabaret room," said the South Bend, Ind.-based Lampkin about the established cabaret venue along Milwaukee Avenue. "I'm just hoping to boost the genre of cabaret outside the very small arena that it is now [in Chicago]."
For the next three months, Lampkin is taking a chance on Stage 773 with an auspicious cabaret series in the 8 p.m. Saturday nighttime slot. Lampkin is producing and presenting a wide variety of musical theater and jazz artists all with ties to the Midwest. (Windy City Media Group, which owns Windy City Times, is a media sponsor of the Lampkin Music Group cabaret series at Stage 773.)
One reason Lampkin chose Midwestern artists was because he wanted to highlight the amazing cabaret and musical theater talents that can be found the region. The other was purely economical, since he wanted to see how the Stage 773 cabaret venue worked out before taking a bigger chance on potentially flying in artists from New York or Los Angeles.
Chicago songbird Audrey Morris, 83, opens the series with a concert celebrating The Best of the American Songbook at 8 p.m. Oct. 1. Lampkin specifically sought Morris since she has worked with jazz legends like Oscar Peterson and vocalist Billie Holliday.
"She'll be singing works by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Rodgers and Hart," Lampkin said. "One song she'll be singing is 'Strange Fruit' [an anti-lynching song popularized by Holliday in the late 1930s] because she feels its message is still one we need to hear even in this day and age. That will be the show's centerpiece."
Other impressive acts in the lineup include the cabaret debut of dance hit diva Suzanne Palmer ("Much Better," "Alright") on Dec. 10; a special New Year's Eve concert featuring Jeff Award winners Hollis Resnik (Follies, Candide) and Doug Peck; and a couple of concerts directed by David Zak of Pride Films and Plays. (The Oct. 29 concert features Jeff Award-winning actor Jeremy Rill accompanied by Robert Ollis, while a Dec. 17 "Holiday Variety Show" also serves as a benefit for Zak's non-profit development organization dedicated to creating new LGBT-theme scripts.)
"When you do cabaret on in an intimate space that is only 70 seats, it's just you and the audience. It has to be the truth," Lampkin said about his eagerness to work with Chicago-area musical theater stalwarts in developing a cabaret act. "[Cabaret] gives them a chance to show their other talents and other gifts—some are musicians, some are songwriters, you know, allow them to go outside of the realm that they're used to."
Ralph Lampkin Jr. and Lampkin Music Group's cabaret series at Stage 773 takes place at 8 p.m. Saturdays through Dec. 31 (no show Dec. 24). Tickets to regular performances are $20, while the special New Year's Eve gala is $75 (including champagne and desserts).
Portions of ticket sales are to be donated to the nonprofits Season of Concern; the Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame; and Pride Films and Plays. Call 773-327-5252 or visit www.stage773.com or www.lampkinmusic.com for a full lineup of performers and more information.
