City Lit has announced an expanded, higher-profile 2006-07 season. The four-show slate includes the professional world premiere of Frank Galati’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (Sept. 22-Nov. 5), which started life as a campus project in 1979 at Northwestern University. Artistic director Terry McCabe (who directs the Galati piece) also has developed a new holiday revue titled “Christmas As We Grow Older” (Nov. 17-Dec. 24) featuring material from the likes of Mark Twain, P. G. Wodehouse and Irving Berlin. In the spring, City Lit will produce Wendy Kesselman’s “The Juniper Tree, a Tragic Household Tale” (Feb. 23 to April 8), a musical version of the German folk tale. And the season concludes with “Gidget” (April 23-June 3), a new dramatic adaptation of the 1950s Frederick Kohner novel that spawned three movies and a TV series. City Lit performs at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave … . The Red Hat Society (which has many Chicago members) is the subject of a new stage musical, “Hats,” premiering in October in Denver … . Suggesting that Chicago is a healthier market for theater than San Francisco, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” has announced the closing of its San Francisco company, even as the Chicago production seems destined to last at least until next Christmas … . Chicago actor Guy Adkins has landed a role in the upcoming national tour of “Sweet Charity” starring Molly Ringwald. That means he won’t be appearing as the emcee in the Peninsula Players’ summer production of “Cabaret.” … This Sunday’s opening of “The Winning Streak” at the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park marks the end of the troupe’s long run in its current home. Apple Tree will be in temporary quarters next year and the location of its next permanent home remains up in the air.
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Compiled by Chris Jones
