'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for November 2nd, 2011

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 Joseph Jefferson Awards are here once again! The Equity Jeffs will be handed out next Monday night, November 7, 2011, at the Drury Lane Theatre in west suburban Oakbrook Terrace. Awards will be given in 35 categories (wow, that's a lot!). Additionally, a special award will go to Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times for her nearly three decades of work as a tireless advocate, reporter, critic and cheerleader of theater in the Chicago area. Favorite musical productions like the Goodman's "Candide," the Court's "Porgy And Bess" and the Marriott's "A Chorus Line" vie for the top awards in the large theater categories, and Drury Lane's "Hot Mikado," Porchlight's "The King And I" and Chicago Shakespeare's "Murder For Two" keep popping up in the nominations listings too. There was so much good theater this past year. It sounds like a great night!

Jeff Awards

Speaking of awards..... Altogether now: "Stephen Sondheim's Coming To Town!" Whether he be God or Santa Claus, or some mixture of both, the legendary composer-lyricist will be in Chicago this coming Sunday morning, November 6th, at Symphony Center, to receive the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize during this year's Chicago Humanities Festival. He's been here several times recently, so sightings are not rare. However, he is 81 years old, after all. The writer in our field against whom all others are compared, whether justified or not, Sondheim's work is acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, studied, savored, emulated, satirized and adored. And, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we won't see his like again in this world. The prize is well deserved. Bravo, Mister Sondheim!

Chicago Humanities Festival | 2011 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize: Stephen Sondheim

At least two local Catholic universities are offering Sondheim samples this month. The Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago is presenting "Into The Woods" for the next two weekends in the Kathleen Mullady Theater on the Chicago Lakeshore campus. Sondheim's score and James Lapine's book both won Tony Awards, defeating a little show called "The Phantom Of The Opera."

Into the Woods

And Dominican University in River Forest is presenting "Gypsy," with lyrics by Sondheim, music by Jule Styne and book by Arthur Laurents, in the 1,170-seat Lund Auditorium in the school's Performing Arts Center, November 11, 12 and 13. Yours truly is the musical director, and the stage director is Krista Hansen, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts. 22-year-old senior Jackie Travers is legendary stage mama Rose.

Gypsy 

After New Year's, beginning January 19, 2012, there'll be another "Gypsy" in the western suburbs, this time at the aforementioned Drury Lane Theatre. The cast has not yet been announced. Until then, now through January 8th, Oakbrook audiences are making more than do with one of the shows that defeated "Gypsy" for the top prize at the 1959 Tony Awards, "The Sound Of Music," by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Reviews have been ecstastic. Director-choreographer Rachel Rockwell has apparently done it again. And Broadway star Patti Cohenour singing "Climb Every Mountain?" Priceless.

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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