Next stop Broadway for The Producers, which had its press night just one week before the end of its month-long tryout here. Our review ran last week, but we didn't have a chance to tell you who was at the opening: Anne Bancroft ( Mrs. Mel Brooks ) , Sarah Jessica Parker ( Mrs. Matthew Broderick ) , and Chicago's own Tony Award-winning director, Frank Galati.
We wonder if Sarah Jessica knows what Matthew was doing with costar Nathan Lane when she wasn't in town. Besides acting and singing up a storm together every night, the two boys were seen together frequently at many local restaurants such as Gibson's and Zoom and Rosebud. Well, dear reader, draw your own conclusion. We've drawn ours: those boys really like to eat!
Chicago is losing one of its oldest theater collectives with the March 1 closing of the Center Theatre Ensemble, founded 17 years ago in Rogers Park by director Dan LaMorte. The troupe produced more than 90 classics, contemporary plays and world premieres in its tiny studio space, but ran into financial problems with its tiny seating capacity. For the last several years, the Ensemble has sustained a deficit, and has produced only three shows in the last two years, generally leasing its Devon Avenue space to other theater companies. The Ensemble intends to sell off its lighting and sound equipment, costume stock, office equipment, tools, props, set pieces, chairs, everything. If you're interest in seeing what's available, call board president Charlie Frankel at 773-528-8624.
The Training Center for Actors, Directors and Playwrights, with which the Center Theatre Ensemble was affiliated, will continue its 20 year-old teaching program, regrouping in the spring at a new facility.
Well, you lose one, you pick up another. We mean theaters, possums. Center Theatre Ensemble is closing, but the Acme Theater debuts the very same day as Chicago's newest performance space. The 90-seat theater and art gallery at 1444 W. Chicago Ave. will be the home of Sliced Bread Productions, which is opening with a bang: a production of legendary drag artist Charles Ludlam's raucous satire, Le Bourgeois Avant-Garde. March 1-April 7 are the dates. 312-850-1444 is the number.
The buns will be hot on Belmont, and we don't mean the sticky buns at Ann Sather's. We mean the sticky buns at "Heat," an evening of erotic dance, Sunday, March 11 at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre ( where else? ) . The evening—cosponsored by the Windy City Times—is a benefit for Bailiwick's annual Pride Series and for A Season of Concern. Tickets are $50-$100 ( the seats closest to the action ) and include cocktails and hors d'ouevres. There'll be live music and artistry mixed in with the beef and buns, thanks to the participation of the Cerqua/ Rivera Art Experience. For tickets, call 773-883-1090, ext. 16.
The Pride Series this year runs June 1-Sept. 30 and will feature the Chicago premiere of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christie, and the hit West Coast musical Naked Boys Singing ( which is just that ) .
The Vagina Monologues has been extended again at the Apollo Theater, and now will run at least through May 27. The three current performers, all local leading ladies, are Kristie Berger, Anjali Bhimani and Lily Shaw. Remember, $10 of every ticket sold goes to the V-Day Fund and the Chicago Foundation for Women.
OK, folks, we've got a mini-Alan Ayckbourn festival going on. That's SIR Alan to you. The terribly prolific British playwright is represented on local stages by four overlapping productions. To wit: the American premieres of his newest plays, the companion pieces House and Garden run through this weekend ( March 4 ) at the Goodman Theatre. Meanwhile, Wing & Groove Theatre Company opened one of his earlier farces, Absurd Person Singular, Feb. 24 for a run through March 31. Meanwhile, up in Evanston, the Organic Theater opens Ayckbourn's Things We Do For Love March 14, running through April 8.
As EVERYONE knows, March is Women's History Month, which the Three Arts Club is marking with a March 7 program that's part of its NonSalon series. Word for Word, as the program is called, will present out lesbian playwright Claudia Allen, author Carol Anshaw ( author of the lesbian-themed Aquamarine ) , poet Beth Ann Bryant-Richards and performance poet Cin Salach. Each will read a passage from one of her own works, plus a passage from a work by a significant woman writer of the past. Nice idea. Tickets are $10 for the 6:30-8:30 event. Call 312-944-6250.
The Three Arts Club, by the way, is a handsome old Gold Coast building that long has been a residence for women. You'll enjoy the gracious public rooms and inner courtyard.
Hey, you, Theater Queen! You have a rare chance to be a star—well, a performer at any rate—at Lyric Opera of Chicago. The company will hold an open call this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday ( March 4, 5 and 6 ) for a range of non-operatic talent required for next season's production of Street Scene, the great work by Kurt Weill. Male and female singers ages 20-40 with movement and dancing skills are required. Lyric will provide audition music, with those chosen on vocal ability then auditioned for dance. Four male actors also are needed: one middle-aged, one twentysomething tough guy, and "two fit male actors to portray Officer Murphy and Fred Cullen." Lyric will provide dialoque sides in advance to those interested.
Also needed: one Broadway-type song-and-dance couple ( sorry, they mean one male and one female ) . Dancers need not audition as a team, but they must have virtuoso tap and partner skills for their show-stopping number. A vocal audition will proceed the dance audition. A variety of children's roles also will be filled. For further info, call the Lyric Opera Audition Hotline at 312-827-3548. By the way, all adult performers at Lyric must join the American Guild of Musical Artists ( AGMA ) if they are not already members.
Finally, your free Shakespeare of the Month is The Taming of the Shrew, presented at 1 p.m. March 17 and 18 by the Shakespeare Project of Chicago at the Harold Washington Library Center ( March 17 ) and the Berger Park Cultural Center ( March 18 ) . No reservations are required.
