Out actor, director and choreographer Jim Corti is amazed at this point in his life to finally be working behind a desk after years of performing on Broadway, on tour and as a freelance theater director and choreographer based out the Chicago area. True, that "desk job" is as the artistic director of the Broadway Series at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, so Corti is not that far removed from his performance roots.
"I find it unbelievable that I'm a part of it," said Corti during a rehearsal break for Miss Saigon, the second of four shows for the Paramount Theatre's third Broadway Series season of self-produced musicals. "It's been quite the experience and most gratifying."
Corti and Paramount Theatre President/CEO Tim Rater launched the Aurora theater's own home-grown series of Broadway musicals three season ago and have been building its stellar reputation ever since. The run of each show has been extended to four weeks this season due to demand, and critics have lavished praise upon the Paramount's fledgling productionsnotably last year's run of Annie by director Rachel Rockwell, which was deemed by Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones to be better than the current Broadway revival.
"The citizens of Aurora have been rallying behind the theater, and it's something that they're taking great pride in," Corti said. "It's also very stressful to keep hitting them out of the park, show after show."
Before it started producing its own shows, the Paramount was largely a venue for visiting one-night touring engagements. So to consider the fact that the Paramount Theatre didn't have its own scenery shop or costume shop in place before it launched its Broadway Series shows how quickly the theater has found its legs under Corti's stewardship.
"Getting that first show upwhich was My Fair Lady three years agoit was such an undertaking," Corti said, amazed that the landmark 82-year-old art deco theater didn't have its own production facilities in place.
Corti also made the decision not to play things entirely safe with the Paramount's programing that first season, which included such shows like A Chorus Line and Hair which can still test conservative audiences today.
"It was pretty bold of us," Corti said about featuring A Chorus Line featuring a 10-minute monologue about a gay dancer coming to terms with his sexuality and then the 1960s hippie countercultural depiction of drugs and nudity in Hair.
While the Paramount's second season was largely traditional with its line up of Grease!, Annie, The Music Man and Fiddler on the Roof, its third season includes more boundary-pushing shows like In the Heights, Miss Saigon and Rent.
For his staging of Miss Saigon, Corti is taking a page from Rockwell's acclaimed take on Annie by deploying a series of historic photograph projections to help root this modernized take on Puccini's Madame Butterfly that is reset in the Vietnam War era.
"Getting to the reality of a show is what freshens it up and steers you away from stereotypes and cliches. Which is what I think we're doing at the Paramount," said Corti, who is now taking a break from performing to focus on his career as both an artistic administrator and director. "It's such a privilege to direct on this scale and to do great pieces of musical theater. It's a tremendous thing and everyone ( at the Paramount ) feels that."
Miss Saigon plays at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, from Wednesday, Oct. 30, through Sunday, Nov. 24. Previews run through Nov. 1, with an official press opening 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Regular run performances are 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $36.90-$49.90; call 630-896-6666 or visit paramountaurora.com for more information.
A gay Day of the Dead party
Nothing Without a Company theater company a offers another way to extend Halloween celebrations this Friday with its "Queen of the Dead" gala. The event is not only a fundraiser for Nothing Without a Company, but for Project Fierce Chicago, an organization that works to reduce LGBTQ youth homlessness in Chicago by providing affirming, no-cost transitional housing and support services.
The fundraiser features a plethora of burlesque, performance art and drag entertainers like Po' Chop, Camille Leon, White Flame and more, all vying for the Queen of the Dead pageant crown, while DJ Foxfonix spins throughout. The evening will also honor David Cerda, the artistic director of Hell in a Handbag Productions which is presenting the world premiere of Christmas Dearest later this season.
Nothing Without a Company's Queen of the Dead Gala is from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster Ave. General admission tickets are $30 ( includes three drink tickets ) and VIP tickets are $60 ( all-access pass with open bar and goodie bag ). Proceeds benefit Nothing Without a Company and Project Fierce Chicago. Visit www.nothingwithoutacompany.org or www.projectfiercechicago.org for more information.
[Note: columnist Scott Morgan and Nothing Without a Company artistic director Anna-Rose Epstein are respectively members of the Windy City Performing Arts choral ensembles Windy City Gay Chorus and Aria].