In a press release issued this morning, Broadway in Chicago announced a pre-NYC engagement of Paradise Square, a musical telling of the Draft Riots of 1863. It promises a blend of original music —by Jason Howland (Little Women), Nathan Tysen (Amélie, Tuck Everlasting), Masi Asare (Monsoon Wedding, The Family Resemblance) and Larry Kirwan (lead singer of Black 47)
Stories
Chicagoland's musical theatre information featured in this section is a digest obtained from producers, directors, agents and public relations representatives along with our own original content. Any entity wishing to share information about Chicagoland musical theatre participants and productions is welcome to add [email protected] to its e-mail distribution list. We work to publish this information as quickly and completely as possible. As a conduit to the musical theatre community we typically publish minimally edited press releases provided to us, believing this gives our readers the fullest information possible in the most timely manner. As a result, readers will see some variation of styles among the articles in this section.
Performer’s School in Highland Park: Making the most of quarantine with monumental planning
By Patrick O’Brien Insofar as any theatrical institution can have “business as usual”, Highland Park’s Performer’s School had just that on their hands in March 2020. They had two shows in the hopper — Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. for the fourth and fifth graders; Les Misérables School Edition for the sixth through eighth graders. They were
Northlight Theatre will reunite original ‘Last Five Years’ players for its twentieth anniversary
On May 23, 2001, Northlight Theatre mounted the world premiere of Jason Robert Brown‘s The Last Five Years, his chronologically shifting two-hander depiction of a marriage, from the blushing first date to sober divorce. It is, perhaps, by far, Brown’s most successful work to date. (Not to mention his most searingly personal, based as it
Black Button Eyes Productions Announces 2021-22 Season at The Edge Theater
Black Button Eyes Productions, which specializes in surreal and often macabre musicals, has announced it will open back up in October, appropriately in time for Halloween. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all cast and crew will be fully vaccinated. Audience members will be required to be at least two weeks out from their final
Mercury Theater Chicago resurrected with new Artistic Director
One of Chicago theatre’s greatest losses to the COVID-19 pandemic may be reversed. Mercury Theater Chicago intends to reopen, having restructured for the future. Key in this restructuring: a new artistic director: Christopher Chase Carter. Carter, a Mercury alum (Little Shop of Horrors, Hair), hails from Michigan and began his theater career in Grand Rapids,
