Dear Readers: please remember that Christmas follows fast upon Thanksgiving's leftovers. That means The Holidays are upon us in full force, for better or for waist, and with them come all sorts of parties and special events.
The best of them feature Stage Door Jonny himself, and far be it from Jonny to assume any false modesty about such things. All dolled up in tux and mistletoe tiara, Jonny will be this year's guest conductor for Don We Now, the annual Xmas concert of the Windy City Gay Chorus, Unison Lesbian and Gay Singers, and the Windy City Slickers. It's hard to believe, but this will be the Silver Anniversary concert, and several members have been with Windy City Performing Arts for all 25 years. Congratulations!
There will be three performances of Don We Now, and Jonny will conduct a number at each one. New this year is a performance in Oak Park, Friday Dec. 5, at the Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake St. Then, on Saturday Dec. 6, there will be two performances at the Harold Washington Library Auditorium in The Loop, at 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Call (773) 404-9242; $15-$24. And sing out, Louise!
Jonny will be back in his tux Monday evening, Dec. 8 as emcee of a Holiday Cabaret at Davenport's, presented by Chicago Cabaret Professionals to benefit the Teen Living Program. Jonny will be joined by his Gay Chicago Magazine colleague, Jeff Rossen, as co-emcee. The talent line-up for the 7 p.m. program is tops, with Daryl Nitz, George Howe, Claudia Hommel, Steve Kimbrough, Suzanne Petri, Brad Newquist and Cindy Sciacca among the line-up of 20 artists. Call (312) 409-3106; $20.
Now, what would The Holidays be without ... Judy Garland??? She'll be there in spirit on Dec. 6 at the Chicago Cultural Center, which offers a 3 p.m. Tribute to Judy Garland in Preston Bradley Hall. And, wowie-zowie, the cast features Alexandra Billings, Audrey Morris, Tracy Adams, Tom Michael, Kat' Taylor, Nan Mason, Ty Perry and more. This matinee program is FREE, but is bound to be standing-room-only, so come early. Afterwards, you can shop a bit, have dinner Downtown and then swing by the Harold Washington for Don We Now.
Alberta Hunter was one of the all-time legendary Blues Mammas who helped make Chicago a center of the Delta sound moving up the Mississippi in the years before World War I. She went on to sing with Satchmo, Fletcher Henderson and Eubie Blake; to play Queenie in the London cast of Show Boat in the late 1920s,;and to keep on singing and writing until 1959, when she became a nurse! In 1979, she went back to singin' the blues at The Cookery, a club in Greenwich Village that became her home until she died in 1984 (do the math, she was 89). Point of all this: Alberta Hunter was a lesbian who had a long-term relationship with Lottie Taylor. Hunter's musical legacy is celebrated in a two-character blues show at Northlight Theatre this month, Cookin' at the Cookery, playing Dec. 10-Jan. 11. (847) 673-6300; $34-$48.
Theatre Entropy, the phantom troupe that put itself together last year for the sole purpose of representing Chicago at the Columbus, Ohio, Gay and Lesbian Theatre Fringe Festival, has decided to materialize and stake its future on ectoplasm. Entropy will stage a two-show season in 2004, marking its official debut in the city it represented in Columbus. Their inaugural show next spring will be an adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, to be followed in the fall by Making Peter Pope, a dark comedy by Edmund De Santis in which the hero is a young, gay man struggling with identity issues. The company will take Making Peter Pope to the Columbus Gay and Lesbian Fringe Festival prior to its opening here. To help launch itself, Entropy is staging a holiday season benefit show, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m., at T's Bar & Restaurant, 5025 N. Clark; $10.
If you don't know what to give the theater-lover on your list, Jonny would like to recommend Play Money Gift Certificates from the League of Chicago Theatres. Available in denominations of $25, they may be used like cash to purchase tickets at more than 70 Chicago-area theaters, including all the leading Loop and Off-Loop venues. Play Money can be purchased online, over the phone, at any of the three full-service Hot Tix locations, or at all area Tower Records locations. (312) 554-9800; www.Chicagoplays.com .
Whatever you do this holiday season, however you indulge, Jonny urges you—no, begs you—to pace yourselves, possums; for the slope is steep and the path is slippery, and the ordeal is a long one. Please remember that in the United States, The Holidays run from Thanksgiving through the Superbowl.
