Chicagoans like to think otherwise, but New York is the city where most high-profile theatrical works gain national — and increasingly international — reputations. Producers can be notoriously tight-lipped about their plans for bringing big New York shows to Chicago. So here’s an unofficial update on the current local prospects for some of the hits about which you may have been reading.
“Cabaret.” Performed in a former burlesque club with tables and cocktails, Sam Mendes’ ultra-sleazy, Tony Award-winning revival of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical has been one of the hottest tickets of the just-completed Broadway season. New York co-producer Scott Zeiger of Pace Theatricals told me last week that a duplicate “site specific” version of the production will be coming to Chicago, possibly as soon as next winter. In an attempt to re-create the ambience of the nouveau Kit Kat Klub, Pace appears to have narrowed its options to one of two Chicago venues. Producers have been scouting the appropriately atmospheric Vic Theatre on North Sheffield Avenue (once under consideration for “Rent”), but they’re worried about the lack of parking and a small seating capacity. According to Zeiger, the most likely location is the Shubert Theatre, with the front rows removed to accommodate tables, and drinks allowed inside the venerable venue.
“Art.” After originating in London, this comedy by Yasmina Reza is one of the very few non-musical plays to attract a large Broadway audience. A national tour is slated for fall 1999, but it is widely known in the theater community that local producer Robert Perkins is hoping to bring the show to the Royal George Theatre Center this fall. Perkins had no comment at press time, but sources close to the producers say that the need to cast the licensed production with star names is what’s holding up the deal.
“Footloose.” Based on the cultish 1984 movie about thrill-seeking teenagers fighting a local ban on rock ‘n’ roll dancing, this new Broadway musical won’t even open in New York until October. But in a very unusual move, the tour is starting immediately thereafter — casting and set building for the duplicate company will all take place before the Broadway company takes its first bow. The national tour starts in Cleveland on Dec. 15 and will arrive in Chicago sometime next year, probably under the auspices of Jam Productions.
Incidentally, Jam is also expected this season to present touring versions of “Victor/Victoria” (with Toni Tenille) and “Fame” (based on the film and TV show) and a revival of the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Evita.” The star for the last-named show has not been signed, but a well-placed New York source says that the front-runner is Ednita Nazario, former co-star of “The Capeman,” the Paul Simon musical that flopped on Broadway earlier this season.
“Titanic.” The Broadway musical is beginning its national tour in Los Angeles this winter. Chicago will be the second port of call for a show that will feature a very different design from the Broadway original (“We won’t be excavating basements all over the country,” says producer David), but the disaster epic will no doubt more than fill the Shubert stage when the piece arrives here, probably in spring 1999.
“The Last Night of Ballyhoo.” This Off-Broadway hit from the 1996-97 season by Alfred Uhry (“Driving Miss Daisy”) has taken its time arriving in Chicago. The rights here are owned by Michael Cullen, who says that the play will “definitely be seen at the Mercury Theater in either late fall or the winter.” Timing depends in part on the success (or lack thereof) of “His Way,” the tribute to Frank Sinatra beginning performances at the Mercury next week. For “Ballyhoo,” Cullen intends to employ the original director, designers and possibly some of the New York cast in a commercial production slated for a long, open run.
Incidentally, Cullen is expected to announce plans soon for a second Mercury Theater, on Lincoln Avenue. The seating capacity is expected to be about the same as the original Mercury on Southport Avenue. Cullen is also mulling a production of “As Bees in Honey Drown,” another successful Off-Broadway show.
“Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.” This Off-Broadway play about the celebrated literary figure has had commercial productions in several major cities, but the original plans to produce the work here on a for-profit basis never panned out. Thus the rights eventually filtered down to our local non-profit troupes, and something of a bidding war erupted this spring between the Northlight Theatre and the Court Theatre. The latter troupe emerged with the rights, and “Gross Indecency” will play in Hyde Park beginning in the fall. If the show does well, expect a transfer to the North Side.
That’s not to say that Northlight did not snag its fair share of hot New York shows. The Skokie-based troupe will be presenting the Chicago premieres of “As I Learned to Drive,” the play by Paula Vogel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year. The show deals with the subject of incest, although with great tact (“It’s `Lolita’ from Lolita’s perspective,” the author noted earlier this year). Additionally on the 1998-99 Northlight slate: David Mamet’s “The Old Neighborhood.”
Also on the long-range Chicago radar (no venues yet): Eddie Izzard’s “Dressed to Kill”; Savion Glover in “Downtown”; “High Society” and “1776” (both coming in 1999); “Jekyll and Hyde” (again); and a new show called “Cumberland Blues” that’s based on the music of the Grateful Dead. And why not. . . .
