'The Showtune Mosh Pit' for September 12th, 2012

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 1970s are alive and well in Chicagoland’s theaters! And a big hit (in Chicago and on Broadway) during that decade was “Grease,” a show that was originally written and set here, premiered here, and then went on to be altered and embraced, and further altered and even more strongly embraced, before that decade was over. After several more decades of changes (and never being far from our audiences here), Jim Jacobs and WarRen Casey’s ode to their high school days at the Northwest Side’s Taft High is back in a big way, at the enormous Paramount Theatre in Aurora. The show opens this weekend, after three previews today and tomorrow, and runs through October 7, 2012, only. That’s the bad thing about shows at the Paramount--they just don’t hang around that long! But the good news is that’s everything there is big--the cast, the orchestra and the opulence. New Jersey’s Michael Unger (a former Chicagoan) directs, with choreography by Dana Salimando. Reprising their pairing from Paramount’s “Hair,” Skylar Adams and Adrian Aguilar head the cast of 24. First Folio Theatre’s Michael O’Keefe conducts.

http://paramountaurora.com/events/grease/

“Godspell” is being resurrected, er, revived, too, by the Brown Paper Box Co., beginning September 20 and running through that same October 7th. It will be in Wicker Park/Bucktown, in the Collaboraction Studio 300 in the Flat Iron Arts Building. M. William Panek directs, with choreography by the very busy dancer Daniel Spagnuolo and music direction by Katie Colby. Stephen Schwartz’s musical about Jesus and his followers stars Andrew Lund, Jake Mahler, Jeanne T. Arrigo, Pavi Proczko and more. They beseech us to hear them.

http://www.brownpaperbox.org/

Not to be left out, the other 1971 New York musical about Jesus and his followers (both of which were revived on Broadway this past season, by the way) is also coming to a local stage this month. Of course, I’m talking about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “Jesus Christ Superstar,” courtesy of the Big Noise Theatre Company, heading to the Prairie Lakes Theatre in Northwest Suburban Des Plaines (it’s playing weekends from September 28-October 21). Jonathan Lee Cunningham stars as JCSuperstar himself, with Roy Brown, Lauren Paris, Mike Weaver, Tommy Bullington and a full cast conducted by Robert Deason. The director? Well, her work on the Theatre At The Center production of this very same show in 2010 won two BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards. She is the very busy Stacey Flaster, who just directed Jonathan Lee Cunningham in TATC’s “Little Shop Of Horrors.” Small world, isn’t it? Everything’s alright!