`Les Miserables,” the mammoth musical based on the epic novel by Victor Hugo, is slated to return to the Auditorium Theatre in March for a 12-week engagement.
The musical, which first visited the Auditorium for six months beginning in March 1989, will take over the house from ”The Phantom of the Opera,”
scheduled to close its long run there in mid-February.
Previews for ”Les Mis” are to start March 16, with opening night on March 24. Tickets, available by mail from the Auditorium box office, are $22.50 to $50.
– ”Mr. Dooley`s America,” a two-man comedy based on the fictional Chicago barroom philosopher, will play one night only at 7:45 p.m. Friday in the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N. Knox Ave. The program is part of a weekend of speeches and discussions at the center on Peter Finley Dunne, the newspaper columnist who created the talkative barkeep, Mr. Dooley, for the Chicago Evening Post in the 1890s.
Among the bits of advice passed on by Mr. Dooley in these now-legendary columns was the classic note of caution, ”Trust everybody, but cut the cards.”
Vincent Dowling, former artistic director of the Abbey Theatre of Ireland and of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Ohio, appears as Mr. Dooley, with Kenneth Tigar as his pal and straight man, Terrence Hennessy.
For ticket information and a complete schedule of the Dunne conference, call 312-282-7035.
– An abrupt change in the touring schedule of the White Oak Dance Project, with Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing in works choreographed by Mark Morris, has forced a change in date and location for the company`s Chicago engagement.
The troupe is now slated to dance at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 in the Arie Crown Theatre of McCormick Place, instead of 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at the UIC Pavilion, as previously announced. Ticket prices, at $37.50 to $75, remain the same.
Tickets are on sale at the Arie Crown box office and through Ticketron.
– The Joel Hall Dancers open their 17th season this weekend with performances at the Blackstone Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Drive.
On the bill are two new works by Hall: ”Widows,” set to music by jazz artists Miles Davis, Abby Lincoln and Max Roach, and ”Cheers for Alexandra,” a jazz dance tribute to Broadway dedicated to Alexandra Bryant, daughter of the company`s former ballet master, Homer Bryant, in honor of her battle against cerebral palsy.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $15 to $25. Phone 312-362-8455.
– American Players Theatre, a classical company based in Spring Green, Wis., for summer performances in an outdoor arena, is planning its first fall visit to the Chicago area this month with a program of four one-act comedies by Anton Chekhov.
The plays, ”On the Harmfulness of Tobacco,” ”The Bear,” ”The Proposal” and ”Swan Song,” are to be performed at 5 and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 25 through 27 in the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Call 312-327-5252.
