Pictured From Weddings of Mass Destruction.
The compact musical dynamo Sam Harris is in town this week to portray another musical dynamo, the legendary Al Jolson, in two workshop performances of a new musical, Broadway Man, at Theatre Building Chicago Friday and Saturday nights. The very out Harris is a Tony Award nominee for The Life, and a dedicated promoter of AIDS-related charities. It should be fascinating to see how Harris, an outstanding R&B singer, tackles the 1920s period music associated with Jolson. Broadway Man is one of seven new musicals that will be presented Aug. 13-15 as part of Stages 2004: A Festival of New Musicals. The Festival covers the musical waterfront, with klezmer, Cleopatra, Kafka and cowboys being among the musical styles or subjects of the shows. Call (773) 327-5252 for details and tickets ($15).
Bailiwick's big springtime hit, Sin: A Cardinal Deposed, is heading for New York with two-time Tony Award winner John Cullum as Boston prelate Bernard F. Law. The Michael Murphy play, which had its world premiere here, won't be produced in The Big Apple by Bailiwick, but the Chicago company will have modest royalty participation. Previews for the Off-Broadway production begin Oct. 11. The regular run is Oct. 26-Dec. 4.
Meanwhile, Bailiwick's cash cow, Naked Boys Singing, will celebrate its third anniversary Aug. 22. A $50 gala ticket entitles you to a reception with the cast at 6 p.m., a special Nearly Naked Cabaret at 7 p.m., and the regular full-monty show at 8 p.m. Call Bailiwick for details or reservations.
GayCo and Second City Theatricals have a huge hit on their hands with Weddings of Mass Destruction, so much so that Second City is in the process of putting together a national tour of the show, which absolutely must close this Sunday (Aug. 15). The hope is for a tour of up to 10 weeks that would play theaters of 300-1,000 seats, all of which are much bigger than the show's Chicago venue. The bad part is, it takes time to put a tour together, and GayCo won't hit the road until sometime in 2005, maybe as long as a year from now. Sketch comedy being what it is, many of the scenes that make Weddings of Mass Destruction so sharp—even the title itself—might lose their bite by then.
There's a great deal of interest in Winesburg, Ohio, the musical co-authored by About Face artistic director Eric Rosen, and produced by About Face and Steppenwolf over the summer to large audiences and ecstatic reviews. The musical, based on the novel by Sherwood Anderson, will travel in October to New York to be featured by the National Alliance of Musical Theatres as part of the Alliance's annual showcase of new work.
Gay icon Richard Chamberlain will be in Chicago to play nasty, old curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge in a live, musical version of A Christmas Carol, adapted from the 1970 film Scrooge (that starred Albert Finney). The show will launch an eight-city Holiday Season tour with Oct. 26-Nov. 7 performances at the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre. The producers already have held a Chicago casting call and hired several local performers for good roles in the show. Chamberlain is an interesting casting choice. How nasty and dark will he choose to be? And how old will he allow himself to look? The only down side is that the 1970 film was an absolutely dreadful and cloying version of the Dickens original, featuring the hack-work songs of Leslie Bricusse.
Equity Library Theatre/Chicago will offer its annual Actors Voices Showcase Aug. 18-22 at Theatre Building Chicago (1225 W. Belmont). There will be two performances each of three works, among them two original plays actually written by actors! The new works are Frankly My Dear ... A Fable About Gable by Rick Plastina, Guy Barile and Dennis Sook; and Exit by Roxanne Fay. The third show features the distinguished Caitlin Hart in a one-woman show about Lillian Hellman. Tickets are $5-$10; (773) 327-5252.