Paul Anthony Stewart, Sara Sheperd/Photo: Johnny Knight

A beloved and iconic 1960s musical that is rarely revived, “Funny Girl” is so associated with canonizing the career of Barbra Streisand and was so tailor-made to her performing style that few attempt to tackle it unless you have one hell of a leading lady who can sing her heart out, make you laugh and break your heart all in the same show.

The great irony, of course, is that vaudevillian Fanny Brice, upon whose career “Funny Girl” is based, was a subtle and smoky contralto, not a belting soprano like Streisand. As an anchor of the Ziegfeld Follies, Brice had made a specialty of comedy along with “victim” torch songs where she came out and poured her heart out about mistreating men, about which she knew so much that a movie was made about her life that so offended her that a successful lawsuit ensued. Her son-in-law and producer Ray Stark sought to set the family record straight with a film version of her life that would be so whitewashed that few took interest, so Stark decided to do a backstage Broadway musical instead.

Unable to secure the rights to Brice’s songs, who was dead by then, a new score was commissioned from Jule Styne, of “Gypsy” fame. As with “Gypsy,” Styne’s score was such a tour de force that Anne Bancroft, the original choice for Brice who was just off of her Tony and Oscar for “The Miracle Worker,” pulled out. Name performers of the day such as Carol Burnett and Edye Gorme were considered but ultimately Streisand, who at that time was still singing at clubs in Greenwich Village, was secured. Though the show was a triumph, it became more about Streisand than Brice, a problem for anyone else trying to do the show ever since. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from the Lyric:

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 56th season
begins Friday, October 1, 2010, at 7:00 p.m.
Giuseppe Verdi’s MACBETH in a new production
by renowned Shakespearean Barbara Gaines
starring Thomas Hampson and Nadja Michael

Also next season: Carmen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Masked Ball,
The Mikado, The Girl of the Golden West, Lohengrin, & Hercules Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Sella, Tracy Michelle Arnold; Tim Campbell, Chaon Cross

RECOMMENDED

What a brilliant stroke for Chicago Shakespeare Theater to present Noël Coward’s “Private Lives” the same season as it is presenting the Bard’s own “The Taming of the Shrew.” So much is the same and yet so much is different when it comes to the battle of the sexes, but one message remains intact for both: you always love the one you hurt.

This is the first-ever Coward production at CST, a significant development as there is often a Shakespearian snobbery when it comes to Coward that it would be hard to imagine Shakespeare himself accepting. Both, after all, were audience-pleasing pop-culture icons of their time who placed how a story is told—i.e., its language—first and foremost, even over the narrative itself, which is often mundane and predictable in both.  Experiencing Coward in a theater built for the Bard where the play is the thing makes for a remarkably satisfying contrast in playwrights of different centuries who are above all, wordsmiths.

Yes, within minutes of “Private Lives,” we all know exactly what is about to happen, even if we have never seen or read the play before. But the genius of Coward is that even though we know—perhaps even because we do know exactly what will happen—we relish in the expectation all the more, and can sit back and bask in the glories of Coward’s language. Read the rest of this entry »

Tara DeFrancisco, No. 36

In this town of performers—theater makers, dancers, comedy creators—you’d think it’d be pretty easy to assemble a list of artistic influencers and innovators. And it is. The challenge is paring that list down to a mere fifty. It’s a testament to the wonders of the performing-arts culture in Chicago that we easily came up with about 200 names when we set out to create this year’s version of The Players. Unfortunately, we’re only listing a fraction of those worthy of your attention, but that’s the problem with an abundance of riches. Hopefully you’ll see a handful of recognizable names and a whole lot more you’ll start noticing from this point on. We’ve retooled the criteria for this year, focusing on onstage artistic achievement, rather than the backstage influence of artistic directors, executive directors and the like—who will get their day again next year. Let the arguments begin. Read the rest of this entry »

Pizza? Theater Oobleck's "Strauss at Midnight"

As part of this story, we sent a few questions to leaders of the theater community in Chicago and received about forty written responses. Here are excerpts from some of their answers. The full text will also soon be published online.

Any observations or thoughts about Chicago theater in the last decade?

“When one theater has a hit show, its not just a hit for that show, it’s a hit for Chicago.”
—Deb Clapp, Executive Director, League of Chicago Theatres

“I love the shake-ups that are happening as a result of management changes, economic pressures, and influx of new artists. It’s exciting to see the landscape shifting so dramatically, the new work that is being created as a result, and the new artists and management teams that are getting a chance at bat.”
— Kevin Mayes, Executive Director, Bailiwick Chicago

“The first SKETCHBOOK was produced in January 2000 and has gone on to create 135 world premiere short plays with over 1000 different artists for over 30,000 audience members and launching numerous careers.”
— Anthony Moseley, Executive and Artistic Director, Collaboraction Read the rest of this entry »

Elizabeth Futral/Photo: Dan Rest

“I will wear the orchestra out with my dance card,” says the Merry Widow herself (Elizabeth Futral) at the Act I party where her countrymen are trying to make sure that her fortune stays within their country. The irony is that the old gal almost didn’t have an orchestra at all, as the Lyric Opera Orchestra, which had been playing without a contract since the season began nearly three months ago, had threatened a strike by curtain time of Saturday’s opening. A tentative agreement had been reached early Friday morning, averting a work stoppage.

Lyric Opera has always had a snobby attitude about “The Merry Widow.” Lyric founder Carol Fox wouldn’t touch it since it was an operetta and not an opera, but Ardis Krainik found herself presenting it twice during the 1980s: the first with Evelyn Lear in the company’s first-ever production, and again in 1986 as a vehicle for Kiri Te Kanawa, although Te Kanawa pulled out and Maria Ewing took her place. This third-ever company production sees the pendulum swing to the opposite direction, given that it was conceived around veteran Chicago director Gary Griffin and the vast majority of those involved with it come from the theater world rather than the opera world. That’s great in that it means that those long sections of spoken dialogue are performed by genuine actors, but when the singing begins, we’re often hearing “show” voices rather than operatic voices, which means that the music often loses its sparkle and luster. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the release from Chicago Shakespeare Theater:

Chicago Shakespeare Theater Announces
A Season of Ruthless Love and Undying Ambition
Charming Villains and Feuding Lovers Fill the Stage
Affordable Access a Hallmark of the Season

Chicago—March 30, 2009—Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and
Executive Director Criss Henderson announced today the series lineup of productions, with new affordable access opportunities, for the 2009/10 Season. “Villains and lovers make for compelling storytelling, and this year–from Shakespeare’s beguiling hunchback and fiery fiancées, to Chekhov’s restless lovers and Coward’s dueling divorcées–they’re out in force,” said Barbara Gaines. “These great characters of dramatic literature will tread the boards with tales of human endeavor and folly, provoking thought and laughter in equal measure.” A three-play subscription series of classics, renowned artists from around the world and productions for the entire family set the stage for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s tenth season on Navy Pier.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the press release from Lyric Opera:

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 55th season
begins Saturday, September 26, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.
with Sir Andrew Davis conducting Giacomo Puccini’s immortal
TOSCA
starring Deborah Voigt, Vladimir Galouzine, and James Morris

Faust, Ernani, Katya Kabanova, The Merry Widow, The Elixir of Love,
The Damnation of Faust, and The Marriage of Figaro
also to be presented this season, including three new Lyric productions
– one a Lyric Opera premiere – and one new-to-Chicago production Read the rest of this entry »

What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway,  receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

Most DVD film commentaries are snoozefests, but on the original “Amadeus” commentary that was made for the laserdisc version in the mid-1990s, a fascinating and spirited argument takes place between “Amadeus” playwright Peter Shaffer and filmmaker Milos Forman, who directed the film version. Shaffer is thinking out loud that he never should have allowed Forman to talk him into having the lead character of the play, composer Antonio Salieri, tell his story to a priest rather than directly to the audience, as he does in the play. “No, no!” Forman scolds. “Peter, in the play, the people are THERE! This is a film, a projected shadow on a wall: when an actor on a stage looks into an audience’s eyes, it is engaged and drawn in. When an actor looks directly into a camera lens, the audience is reminded it is watching a film and loses its engagement and the whole thing comes crashing down as artificial.”

That difference is one reason that for all of the magnificence of the film, it is still far more engaging to have Salieri confide to you eye to eye rather than through a projected intermediary. As if to emphasize the point, director Gary Griffin has the two sides of the audience see the other side of the audience in a ceiling mirror as Robert Sella’s Salieri compellingly unspools his woeful (and yes, mostly fictional) yarn of jealousy and murder in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s brilliant new production. But the real surprise of this version is the character of Mozart himself, traditionally a cutout throwaway role that has often been the property of teen idols of yesteryear. Robbie Collier Sublett gives Mozart’s arrogance and vulgarity a credible context as well as shows us Mozart’s heart and soul in Act II. The contrast between a mediocre and great composer in every respect is drawn sharply and convincingly.

The one aspect that keeps this production from heading into the stratosphere is that with the exception of a single soprano who sings along with recordings karaoke-style, all of the music is canned. Finding a small, first-rate ensemble to play live Mozart in a city the size of Chicago would not be hard and would immensely enhance the proceedings. (Dennis Polkow)

At Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 East Grand (at Navy Pier), (312)595-5600, Through November 9, $54-$70.