Call it the post-Labor Day rush. After mostly sitting out this quiet holiday weekend, Chicago theaters shake off the dog days in an annual ritual that creates probably the busiest two weeks of the theatrical year. It’s notoriously difficult to snag much attention when as many as three shows per night are opening over the next couple of weeks.
But each year a couple of savvy theaters ignore the official Labor Day starting post and get things underway a little early. That’s good news if you are in search of some theatrical activity this weekend instead of the usual round of barbecues and handwringing over the end of the summer. The “Party” at the Bailiwick Repertory is already underway. Curious Theatre Branch’s annual Rhino Festival begins Friday. And the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire opened its production of “Evita” earlier this week.
“We go 52 weeks a year and we’re never dark. Each show has some holiday or another in the middle of its run,” says Terry James, executive producer at the Marriott. “For years, we even did shows on Christmas.”
James’ north suburban theater opened “Evita” on Wednesday (see Arts Watch for a review), two days before the beginning of the long weekend, which contains a regular slate of performances. At the Marriott, the timing of opening night primarily is an issue of fitting in all the subscribers before the next show hits the stage.
“For us to delay an opening,” James says, “we’d have to move 36,000 people.”
Aside from the appointment of Rick Boynton as incoming artistic director (succeeding the retiring Dyanne Early in 2001), the big news at the Marriott is James’ revelation that the theater plans to produce “Miss Saigon” in the 2001 season. This will, of course, be an entirely new production.
The famous pop-musical treatment of “Madam Butterfly,” which closes on Broadway on Dec. 31, is likely to stir an enormous demand for tickets. Still, James says that while the “Miss Saigon” run may be a little longer than normal, it will not be permitted to dislodge the regular season.
“One of our problems is that we cannot keep hit shows running,” James says. “We have to take care of our subscribers.”
That’s smart business. When it had a big hit with “The Phantom of the Opera,” the defunct Candlelight Dinner Playhouse postponed its following shows and upset some subscribers. In the short term, the theater made money. But in the long term, it was not a smart move.
The recent summer run of the Marriott’s production of “Joseph” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre was one solution to this problem — a hit show gained a new home and subscribers did not have to wait for their next show.
Next year’s plans for the Chicago Shakespeare mainstage are not yet firm, but they are for the studio. Chicago Shakespeare has already commissioned Second City’s Jeff Richmond to write a new comedy revue in the style of “Hamlet The Musical,” which did boffo business on Navy Pier this year.
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Here’s an early fall update on Broadway in Chicago — or Broadway Maybe in Chicago.
There are rumors that the producer — SFX Theatrical Group — of the new musical “The Sweet Smell of Success” has been scouting for local production staff in Chicago. That would seem to indicate that the show is considering a tryout engagement here before to its Broadway opening. There currently are no dates attached.
With a book by John Guare, lyrics by Craig Carnelia and music by Marvin Hamlisch, the show is based on the cult film of the same name. It will likely be a production of some prominence. Interestingly, one of the writers of the 1957 source movie was playwright Clifford Odets.
Other future Broadway shows looking for tryout cities include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” a new musical version of the Mark Twain favorite to be directed by Scott Ellis. The Nederlander Organization (one of the forces behind the Broadway in Chicago series) are the lead producers, so that bodes well for a Chicago sojourn.
Also on the future Broadway docket are a musical treatment of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” (the non-musical version was given a splendid production by the Bog Theatre here last year) and a show called “One Star Love.”Formerly known as “The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas,” this piece have been knocking around the Midwest in various versions for years (the Red Clay Ramblers are the stars). In the 1980s incarnation at least, it was a grim night of theater. They are talking about including Alice Ripley and Gary Sandy in the new cast.
One of the major perennial issues with touring shows is schedule changes. Even though it was part of the major Broadway in Chicago announcement, the proposed “Sundance Theatre of the Air,” a theatrical version of old-time radio drama, has already been canceled (it was to have come here in October).
On the upside, it was recently announced that Penn & Teller are returning with their current show, which will play a week at the Oriental Theatre beginning Sept. 26. The duo’s representatives say that you’ll find some of the same illusions that were seen when these strange fellows played the Shubert a couple of years ago, but that the show has been “heavily revised” since then.
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When David Stone called to talk about “The Vagina Monologues” (coming soon to the Apollo Theatre), he opined that he was most worried about the Chicago leg of Eve Ensler’s tour (which also includes Boston and San Francisco). Many of his fears seemed grounded in the perception that Chicago was a place of heartland conservative tastes. “Do you think they’ve heard of the show there?” he asked.
Most Chicagoans do, of course, read the papers. Surely Boston is more of a worry? “That’s a great college town,” Stone retorted, apparently oblivious to Chicago’s fine campuses. “I just don’t know about the Midwest,” he said.
Ah, New Yorkers. With attitudes like that, it’s no wonder we have to keep fighting for timely productions of off-Broadway shows.
