'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for December 7th, 2011

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THE LATEST IN UNAUTHORIZED GOSSIP AND BUZZ

FROM THE HEART OF CHICAGO'S SHOWTUNE VIDEO BARS,

AND MUSICAL THEATER NEWS FROM CHICAGO TO BROADWAY

by Paul W. Thompson

Overheard last weekend under the showtune

video screens at Sidetrack and The Call:

The clock is ticking on voting for the second annual BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards! Anyone and everyone who has a valid e-mail address can vote for their favorites for the Broadies,Chicago’s only fan-driven theater award, but only through midnight onDecember 15, 2011. There are 125 nominations, spread among 67 different productions and 40 local theaters, all vying for one of the 25 awards, which include touring shows, resident Equity and non-Equity productions, including plays, musicals and revues. Competition is pretty close in some categories, with only a few percentage points separating the first place from the last place nominee, so every vote does count!

And it’s a pretty impressive list of nominees. Included are artists currently working on Broadway (such as Jessie Mueller, Jennifer Lim and Darren Criss), former Tony Award winners (like Mary Zimmerman, Alice Ripley and Amy Morton), nationally famous artists (like John Mahon ey, David Henry Hwang, Constantine Maroulis, Brent Barrett and Tracy Letts), prior and current Jeff Award winners (like Maggie Portman, Chuck Spencer, Tammy Mader and Brenda Didier) and some of our most Popular Productions over the eligibility period of September 2010 through October 2011 (“Sweeney Todd,” “Cats,” “The Original Grease,” “Murder For Two,” “Follies,” “The Sound Of Music,” “Red,” “Man From Nebraska” and “The Pitmen Painters,” just to name a few). If you haven’t voted for your favorites, click HERE!

And everyone (fan, nominee, EVERYONE) who’s 21 and over is invited to attend the BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration at The Call nightclub in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 from 9 pm to 2 am. This theater family holiday party will be even bigger and better than last year’s celebration, with staff from BroadwayWorld Chicago and The Call working and on hand to greet nominees with yellow ribbons and winners with newly designed certificates, now being used in over a dozen BroadwayWorld competitions internationally. It’s free, and the party will last into the wee hours of The Call’s regular “Curtain Up” showtune video Wednesdays. I hope to see you all there!

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Paul W. Thompson, a contributor to BroadwayWorld.com since 2007, is a Chicago-based singer, actor, musical director, pianist, vocal coach, composer and commentator. His career as a performer, teacher and writer is centered at Paul W. Thompson Music, located in Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building, where he teaches the great songs of Broadway to the next generation of musical theater performers. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Paul was raised in a family of professional musicians and teachers, steeped in classical, gospel, country, pop, sacred and show music. Dubbed a “thin, winsome lad” at the age of 13 by a critic for the Nashville Banner, he earned two degrees in musical theater (a B.F.A. with Honors from Baylor University and an M.M. from the University of Miami, Florida), plus an M.B.A. with Distinction from DePaul University. Paul’s memberships include Actors’ Equity Association, the American Guild of Musical Artists, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (proud voter for the Grammy Awards!), the National Association of Teachers of Singing and New York’s Drama League.

Moving easily between the worlds of classical music, religious music, classic pop and musical theater, Paul has appeared onstage or in the orchestra pit in concerts, musicals, operettas and operas in 30 states and in Europe, in a career spanning more than 35 years. His Chicagoland stage credits include “Forever Plaid” at the Royal George Theater and twenty mainstage productions at Light Opera Works. Paul joined the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1995 (he was Tenor I Section Leader for four years and sings on two Grammy-winning recordings), and is one of Chicago’s foremost liturgical singers, marking 20 years as a member of the choir at St. James Cathedral (Episcopal) in 2011.He has composed and arranged a number of anthems, hymns and songs for worship and concert use, and collaborates on the creation of new works of musical theater. Paul can be found on Monday nights watching showtune videos at the world-famous Sidetrack nightclub, the inspiration for his weekly column, “The Showtune Mosh Pit.” His proudest achievement is that he has seen the original Broadway production of every Tony Award-winning Best Musical since “Cats.” No, really. Since “Cats!”

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