Michael Bolton says he’s thinking seriously about writing a musical.
“I am interested in writing a show where I can explore my life’s experience and the depths of whatever I feel,” the loquacious Bolton mused over the phone from his office in Connecticut last week. “I’d like to include every musical genre. And have many hits in it.”
This may come as a surprise from the mouth of a highly successful pop balladeer and songwriter who has sold more than 45 million albums and delivered a string of chart-topping hits, including “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” and “That’s What Love is All About.” To anyone with a taste for lite-rock radio, Bolton’s soaring tenor and passionate style of delivery has for years served as a backdrop to red lights and construction delays.
But musical stars from Jimmy Buffett to Dennis De Young and Randy Newman to Barry Manilow are showing increasing interest in working in the theater. When you speak to them about it, they generally talk of finding a new challenge or working on a broader creative scale. After all, if you’ve spent a good chunk of your career writing mini-dramas lasting five minutes or less, then doing a whole show must sound very attractive.
Bolton’s theatrical thoughts have been most recently sparked by his starring role in the perpetually touring “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber,” which begins performances on Tuesday at the Shubert Theatre. With the orchestra sharing the stage with a small cast of singers, this is a concert-style presentation of the music of the author of “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats, “Evita” and other big theatrical hits that enjoy a popularity unparalleled in the theater.
“This show,” Bolton says, “is a step into another world. It’s me getting my feet wet in the theater.”
Bolton has never been afraid to try new musical genres, nor has he let the reaction of critics cause him any particular worry. After he was invited to sing in a European benefit concert with Luciano Pavarotti, Bolton studied opera with the intensity of a sudden fanatic. This was something new — he’d sung plenty of high C’s in his career but had never had to hold one in the classical style.
“I used to think Puccini was some kind of mushroom,” Bolton said. “But then I became overwhelmed by the beauty and the magnificence of his music.”
Since then, Bolton has made other excursions into opera. Soprano Renee Fleming and the Philharmonia Orchestra make appearances on Bolton’s 1998 classically oriented album, “My Secret Passion” (that would be opera). And he now usually includes at least a couple of arias in his regular concerts.
“It’s a chance,” he says, “to expose my fans to another kind of music. They love it. `Nessun Dorma’ [from Puccini’s `Turandot’] steals the show every time.”
Does he care about the upturned noses in the opera establishment?
“It’s a pleasure,” he says, “to upset the purists. Pavarotti has taken heat — he bends the notes from the way they are written on the page. Every great composer has always wanted a passionate interpretation of their work. Music is not an intellectual experience — it’s powerful, visceral and moving.”
That truth would also apply, Bolton figures, to Lloyd Webber’s music. And since he’s worked on classical singing, Lloyd Webber’s populist, pseudo-serious compositions seemed like a logical choice.
“I would never have thought of myself as a candidate for this show if I hadn’t started studying the arias,” he says. “Andrew likes the fact that people reach into his work from different areas.”
If you’ve seen “The Music” in one of its previous incarnations here (Michael Crawford was one of the headliners), it’s worth noting that the included songs tend to vary according to the strengths and desires of whoever happens to be in the starring role.
Bolton says he was given a lot of freedom to pick out whatever he wanted to perform from the extensive Lloyd Webber backlist. Along with the de rigueur material from “Phantom,” he also plans on doing some of the songs not known for male performance, including “Memory” and “Tell Me on a Sunday.”
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The real-estate boom in Chicago is certainly taking a toll on theaters that happen to have established a base in more desirable neighborhoods. The Annoyance Theatre in Wrigleyville is disappearing next month. Farther north on Clark Street, the Raven Theatre has scheduled a benefit bash on June 24 to mark the closing of its current theater at 6951 N. Clark. And last week came word that Doug Bragan is considering selling the multispace Ivanhoe Theater (formerly the Wellington Theatre) complex for condominium redevelopment.
While some turnover in spaces is always part of the world of Chicago theater, some of the neighborhood troupes are starting to look more favorably on a downtown district that they have long mistrusted. Lisa Dowda is working with the city to try to re-establish her beloved but defunct Cafe Voltaire (also a victim of a plum location) performance space on Randolph Street. The downtown artery not only has its own “storefront theater” but is at least one district of Chicago where theaters have some protection from market forces.
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“The Rhythm Club,” a new musical that’s headed for Broadway, will be trying out here this fall at the Oriental Theatre. According to New York sources, opening night in Chicago will be Nov. 11, with a monthlong run being projected at the Oriental.
Set in the 1930s in Hamburg, Germany, “The Rhythm Club” deals with the world of underground swing clubs and has three young musicians at the heart of its story.
After the show’s premiere at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., Chicago will be the next stop (or that, at least, is the current plan). Book and lyrics on the show are by Chad Beguelin with music by Matthew Sklar. The director is Eric D. Schaeffer, a talented young fellow whose work has been previously seen at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.
