It's not quite Christmas but Jonny already is planning for New Year's Eve. After all, one doesn't drink champagne to celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus. Manischevitz perhaps, but bubbly, no. Those of you who might want to incorporate a live performance into your New Year's plans—Jonny doesn't mean a real-time Web cast from your bedroom—might consider the following options.
New Year's Eve marks the absolutely final performance of Naked Boys Singing at Bailiwick Repertory after a run of four years and four months, and they are going out with a bang, if you'll pardon the expression. Many Naked Boy Singing alumni will return for a pre-show cabaret performance at 9 p.m., followed by the final performance itself, followed by a champagne toast and dessert buffet. With hundreds of former cast members in attendance, you're bound to run into an old trick or two. What? You haven't slept with even ONE singing naked boy? Reservations are a must: ( 773 ) 883-1090; $50-$75.
Corn Productions, creators of the long-run hit Floss!, are teaming with Chemically Imbalanced Comedy to throw a New Year's Eve extravaganza that begins at 8 p.m. with drinks and dinner, continues with a sketch comedy and improv show, and follows up with a Midnight toast and dancing until 2 a.m. It's a good deal at $35 and an even better deal at $50 per couple; ( 773 ) 868-0243.
As highlighted in Windy City Times, the potent and iconoclastic Paula Poundstone will bring her motherhood and her act to the Paramount Theatre in Aurora for one performance New Year's Eve at 10 p.m.; ( 630 ) 896-6666; $24.50-$34.50.
Jazz aficionados can welcome the New Year with jazz legend Ramsey Lewis and the Ramsey Lewis Trio in a gala evening at Symphony Center. Lewis also welcomes always-stylish vocalist Bobbi Wilsyn and the Johnny Frigo Quartet in an evening that begins with a 10 p.m. concert and follows with a balloon drop, champagne toast, dancing and drinks. Call ( 800 ) 223—7114; $50-$110 for concert and post-show party.
Up in Andersonville, the Neo-Futurists host an informal New Year's Eve bash that features a performance of their forever-hit, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, presenting 30 plays in 60 minutes. The performance begins at 11 p.m. sharp, but the doors open at 9:30 p.m. for hors d'oeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages ( if ya' want stronger, bring a flask ) , with pizza and a toast following the show. Advance tix required; ( 773 ) 275-5255; $30.
Jonny suggests that our town's cabaret rooms are certain to be cooking on New Year's Eve as well, you might want to check the talent rosters at Cyrano's Bistro, Davenport's, both branches of Gentry and the Speakeasy among other swank rooms.
A thought on Christmas: Jonny reminds dear readers that Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol for adults, not for children, and that it's a ghost story that's supposed to scare you. Far too many of the numerous film and stage versions of A Christmas Carol reduce it to sentimental treacle aimed at kids. Perhaps the most telling scene in the original—retained in only one of the many film versions and a handful of theatrical adaptations—is when the ebullient and hearty Ghost of Christmas Present reveals two skeletal children cowering under his robes, as Scrooge gazes appalled. 'This boy is Want, this girl is Ignorance,' the Ghost declares. 'Beware them both, but most of all beware the girl.' Dickens' words are more potent and true today than when he wrote them over 160 years ago.
Whether your 2005 has been an annus horribilis or an annus mirabilis, Stage Door Jonny would like to wish you—wish us all—a better 2006; a year of health, of liberal spirit and of peace.
