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Showing posts with label Tina Landau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tina Landau. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

OPENING: World Premiere of The Doppelgänger (an international farce) at Steppenwolf April 5 – May 27, 2018

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Rehearsals Have Begun for Steppenwolf’s World Premiere of
The Doppelgänger (an international farce) 
By Matthew-Lee Erlbach 
Directed by Ensemble Member Tina Landau
April 5 – May 27, 2018


Ensemble Member Celeste M. Cooper Joins the 11-Person Cast Featuring Actor and Comedian Rainn Wilson from NBC’s The Office

A Side-Splitting Farce about First-World Greed and Backroom Deals

Rehearsals kicked off today for Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s highly anticipated world premiere comedy, The Doppelgänger (an international farce) written by Chicagoland native Matthew-Lee Erlbach (Showtime’s Masters of Sex, Off-Broadway’s Handbook for an American Revolutionary). Directed by ensemble member Tina Landau (SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical), this hilarious farce features an 11-member cast led by actor and comedian Rainn Wilson, well-known for his role as “Dwight Schrute” on NBC’s award-winning comedy The Office, in the role of Thomas Irdley/Jimmy Peterson. Steppenwolf’s newest ensemble member Celeste M. Cooper joins the cast of fellow ensemble members—Audrey Francis, Ora Jones, Sandra Marquez and James Vincent Meredith—alongside acclaimed actors Michael Accardo, Whit K. Lee, Andy Nagraj and Karen Rodriguez. Previously announced ensemble member Alana Arenas is no longer in the cast due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict.

In the dangerous back channels of international resource politics, a wealthy British businessman suffers an untimely accident just before a critical African copper deal is signed. So when his unwitting (and witless) American doppelgänger is thrust into negotiations to avert intercontinental disaster, chaos erupts, leaving us wondering: whose side are we supposed to be on...and who will save Africa?? The Doppelgänger (an international farce) is a hilarious, irreverent and timely look at the back-room deals that shape our world and the unlikely cast of characters who make them.

Previews begin April 5 (opening is Sunday, April 15) and runs through May 27, 2018 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N Halsted St. Press performances are Sunday, April 15 at 6pm and Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30pm. Single tickets ($20 - $109) are available through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650 or steppenwolf.org.



Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor with Chicagoland roots (he graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill.) who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” in HBO’s Six Feet Under, winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.” Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable “Dwight Schrute” for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award-winning comedy The Office. Among Wilson’s film credits are the Netflix feature Shimmer Lake; Hesher, opposite Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levett; Super, with Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler, and Ellen Page; and the acclaimed comedies Juno and Almost Famous, among others. Next up, Wilson co-stars in Warner Bros adventure feature The Meg opposite Jason Statham. Wilson has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, and spent 10 years doing theatre in New York before moving to Los Angeles. He was on Broadway in The Tempest with Patrick Stewart, and the Tony nominated London Assurance. Wilson worked off-Broadway at The Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons, and performed regularly at The Arena Stage, The Guthrie, and with the touring repertory theater The Acting Company. The comedy show he created, The New Bozena, had a successful Off-Broadway run at The Cherry Lane, and later played in Los Angeles at The Hudson Guild and The Tiffany. Most recently, Wilson performed the critically acclaimed one-person monologue Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) at The Geffen. He founded the YouTube channel Soul Pancake, which has 2.5 million subscribers. In 2015 he published his memoir, The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy.

Casting note: The role of Thomas/Jimmy will be played by Eric Slater, in place of Rainn Wilson, for the following performances: April 22, 7:30pm; April 24, 7:30pm; May 6, 3pm and 7:30pm; May 20, 3pm; May 22, 7:30pm.

Newly announced ensemble member Celeste M. Cooper (Rosie Guerekoyame) joins the cast after her acclaimed performance as “Imani” in Aziza Barnes’s BLKS this past December. The cast also features ensemble member Audrey Francis (Beatrix Geddes-Renwick) is currently on stage in You Got Older (through March 11); ensemble member Ora Jones (Lolade Másarágba) was most recently in Steppenwolf’s The Wheel and Three Sisters, and in last season’s Broadway revival of Les Liasons Dangereuses; ensemble member Sandra Marquez (Theresa Irdley) most recently in Mary Page Marlowe at Steppenwolf and directed Teatro Vista’s production of FADE at Victory Gardens; and ensemble member James Vincent Meredith (Michel Másarágba) most recently performed in Steppenwolf’s The Minutes. Michael Accardo (General Stanley Harcourt) was recently seen onstage in Drury Lane Theatre’s production of Chicago and onscreen in Shameless and Chicago P.D.; Whit K. Lee (Wen Xiaoping) was in Off-Broadway productions of Attack of the Evis Impersonators and Junie B. Jones’ Essential Guide to School and the Netflix series Orange is the New Black; Andy Nagraj (Prince Amir Abdullah) recently played Ed Knight/Isaac Jaggard in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts production of The Book of Will and was recently in Court Theatre’s production of Harvey as Duane Wilson; Dan Plehal (Body) Karen Rodriguez (Marina) was most recently seen on Steppenwolf’s stage in The Rembrandt and in the critically acclaimed one woman show The Way She Spoke at Greenhouse Theater Center.

About the Playwright
Matthew-Lee Erlbach is an actor/playwright from Chicago and NYC whose plays include his critically acclaimed solo play, Handbook for an American Revolutionary (Gym at Judson) and Eager to Lose, a Burlesque Farce in Rhyming Verse (Ars Nova). Other plays include Kevin Lamb, King George III, Revelations, A Neighbor in the Area, and Electronic Persons, which have been developed with The New Group, Vineyard, Ars Nova, MCC, Williamstown, NYTW, SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Orchard Project, among others. A recipient of the 2016 Humanitas Prize New Voices Award, Puffin Foundation Grant, and member of Ars Nova’s 2014/15 Play Group, he has written for Showtime's Masters of Sex as well as for Nickelodeon, MTV, WWE, and The Huffington Post. He is a graduate of the public school system from K-College, a team leader for Habitat for Humanity Global Villages program, and runs a writing program for The Midnight Mission.

About the Director
Tina Landau is a writer, director, and teacher whose work includes directing/conceiving SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical (currently on Broadway), Tarell McCraney’s Head of Passes (Steppenwolf, The Public and the Mark Taper Forum), WIG OUT! (Vineyard Theatre), and In the Red and Brown Water (The Public), Bill Irwin/David Shiner’s Old Hats and Chuck Mee’s Big Love and Iphigenia 2.0 (all Signature Theatre), Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas (New York Theatre Workshop), and her musical Floyd Collins (also bookwriter/additional lyrics, Playwrights Horizons.) On Broadway, Landau has also directed Tracy Letts’s Superior Donuts and the revival of Bells Are Ringing. At Steppenwolf, where she is an ensemble member, directing credits include The Wheel, Hot L Baltimore, The Brother/Sister Plays, The Tempest, The Time of Your Life (also Seattle Rep, ACT), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cherry Orchard, The Ballad of Little Jo, Berlin Circle, and her own play Space (also Mark Taper Forum, the Public.) Landau has co-authored The Viewpoints Book with Anne Bogart and has taught regularly at such schools as Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and Northwestern. Upcoming projects include a follow-up book with Bogart, Viewpoints on Viewpoints, and the premiere of the new musical Dave this spring at Arena Stage.

The Doppelgänger production team includes Todd Rosenthal (scenic design), Clint Ramos (costume design), Scott Zielinski (lighting design), Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (sound design). Additional credits include Malcolm Ewen (stage manager), Christine D. Freeburg (assistant stage manager), JC Clementz (casting director), Gigi Buffington (company vocal coach) and Jonathan Berry (artistic producer).

Tickets & Membership Info
Single tickets ($20-$109) are available through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650, steppenwolf.org. Black Card Memberships are still available for the remainder of the 17/18 season. They are designed for audiences interested in extreme flexibility with six tickets for use any time for any production. Perks include easy and free exchanges, access to seats before the general public, savings on single ticket prices and bar and restaurant discounts for pre- and post-show socializing. Red Card memberships are available for theatergoers under 30.  To purchase a Flex Card Membership, visit Audience Services at 1650 N Halsted St, call 312-335-1650 or visit steppenwolf.org/memberships.

Remaining 2017/18 Season
Currently playing is the Chicago premiere of You Got Older by Clare Barron, directed by Jonathan Berry (January 25 – March 11) and Steppenwolf for Young Adults’ production of The Burn by Philip Dawkins, directed by Devon de Mayo (last performance March 10). Following The Doppelgänger (an international farce) is Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph, a story about the search for beauty in desperate circumstances (May 31 – June 22, 2018) directed by ensemble member Amy Morton who returns to direct the cast from the acclaimed Off-Broadway production; and The Roommate, by Jen Silverman, directed by Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show, A Raisin In The Sun, Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County). In The Roommate, a comically mismatched pair of roommates leads to a surprising and touching friendship (June 21 – August 5, 2018).

Accessibility
Committed to making the Steppenwolf experience accessible to everyone, performances featuring American Sign Language Interpretation, Open Captioning and Audio Description are offered during the run of each play. Assistive listening devices and large-print programs are available for every performance, and the Downstairs and 1700 Theatres are each equipped with an induction hearing loop. All theaters feature wheelchair accessible seating and restrooms, and Front Bar features a push-button entrance, all-gender restrooms and accessible counter and table spaces.

Visitor Information
Steppenwolf is located at 1650 N Halsted St near all forms of public transportation, bike racks and Divvy bike stands. The parking facility ($12 or $14, cash or card) is located just south of our theater at 1624 N Halsted. Valet parking service ($14 cash) is available directly in front of the main entrance at 1650 N Halsted St starting at 5pm on weeknights, 1pm on weekends and at 12 noon before Wednesday matinees. Limited street and lot parking are also available. For last minute questions and concerns, patrons can call the Steppenwolf Parking Hotline at 312.335.1774.

The Doppelgänger is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as United Airlines and PwC. United Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf and ComEd is the Official Lighting Sponsor for the 17/18 season.

Front Bar: Coffee and Drinks
Connected to the main lobby is Steppenwolf’s own Front Bar: Coffee and Drinks, offering a warm, creative space to grab a drink, have a bite, or meet up with friends and collaborators, day or night. Open Tuesdays – Sundays from 8am to midnight, Front Bar serves artisanal coffee and espresso is provided by La Colombe and food prepared by Goddess and Grocer. The menu focuses on fresh, accessible fare, featuring grab-and-go salads and sandwiches for lunch and adding shareable small plates and desserts for evening and post show service. www.front-bar.com

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is the nation’s premier ensemble theater. Formed by a collective of actors in 1976, the ensemble represents a remarkable cross-section of actors, directors and playwrights. Thrilling and powerful productions from Balm in Gilead to August: Osage County—and accolades that include the National Medal of Arts and 12 Tony Awards—have made the theater legendary. Steppenwolf produces hundreds of performances and events annually in its three spaces: the 515-seat Downstairs Theatre, the 299-seat Upstairs Theatre and the 80-seat 1700 Theatre. Artistic programming includes a seven-play season; a two-play Steppenwolf for Young Adults season; Visiting Company engagements; and LookOut, a multi-genre performances series. Education initiatives include the nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf for Young Adults, which engages 15,000 participants annually from Chicago’s diverse communities; the esteemed School at Steppenwolf; and Professional Leadership Programs for arts administration training. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, nearly 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success both nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. Anna D. Shapiro is the Artistic Director and David Schmitz is the Executive Director. Eric Lefkofsky is Chair of Steppenwolf’s Board of Trustees. For additional information, visit steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre, twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr and instagram.com/steppenwolfthtr.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

REVIEW: Spongebob The Musical, World Premiere Opening Night

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Last Sunday night we had a big Bikini Bottom adventure at the World Premiere Opening Night "yellow carpet" extravaganza for Spongebob The Musical. 




ChiIL Mama, Dugan, Sage, and her friend Vanessa all had rock star seats-- 2nd row center, for an epic evening of Broadway bound fun. Even the hard to please teen demographic loved this show! Highly recommended family friendly fun (ages 5+). ChiIL Mama's Chi, IL Picks List. Check out our original photos and full review below.


"The costumes were the most amazing part. Well the set was incredible too. And the guy who played Spongebob was hilarious. The casting and acting was great" Dugan (age 15)





"I don't usually like musicals, but this one was better than I thought it would be. Of all the ways they could have portrayed Spongebob, this one was great. My favorite part was Plankton's song where they did the whip & nae nae." Sage (age 13) " 




 



Check out ChiIL Mama's Full Set of Photos in the Slideshow here & favorites embedded below.



Pre-show Yellow Carpet featuring arrivals including:

Tom Higgenson, Chicago native and Plain White T’s lead vocals




Yolanda Adams, four-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Gospel legend


The Flaming Lips, three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning band




Tom Kenny, voice of TV’s SpongeBob SquarePants & wife Jill Talley, voice of Karen the Computer


Tina Landau, Director and Co-Conceiver (Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s The Wheel; The Brother/Sister Plays; The Tempest)
Tom Kitt, Music Supervisor (2010 Pulitzer Prize Winner and Tony Award® winner for Next to Normal; If/Then)








Kyle Jarrow, Book Writer (Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Love Kills; A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant)

Christopher Gattelli, Choreographer (Newsies; War Paint; South Pacific; The King and I)




David Zinn, Scenic and Costume Designer (2016 Tony Award® winner for The Humans; Fun Home; The Last Ship) *not pictured


From the early sneak peek with the Plain White T's we were hooked!



REVIEW
I can't rave enough about how crazy amazing this show really is. The writing is fantastic, the casting is spot on, and the score is a mind blowing meld of some of rock's hottest hit makers.

The SpongeBob Musical is utterly unique and entirely awesome, with original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of AEROSMITH, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, John Legend, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and a song by David Bowie. With additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton.

The costumes and set were my son's favorite elements and they were indeed spectacular. I'm still dazed and amused by the two floor to ceiling "Mousetrap Game Style" boulder release chutes flanking the stage. The skate ramps along the front and sides of the stage make for a perfect arena for some quadroller and skateboard arena rock from hair brained hair band, The Electric Skates. The staging for the scaling the volcano scene was sheer brilliance. 

In the costume department, The SpongeBob Musical is what I'd envision if someone said give me Dr. Seuss at an underwater rave party, and it's absolutely fabulous! The alterna-mom in me was elated that there were boys in tutus and chorus girl getups, androgynous girls, and every reef creature inbetween. The cast is a stellar range of sizes, shapes and colors, and the actors' hilarious facial expressions, and physical comedy shine without giant character heads or bulky theme park costumes. I'm elated that scores of kids and adults who come to this show will find characters they can relate to, empathize with, and emulate.

The feminist in me was thrilled with stem girl squirrel, Sandy, who brilliantly saves the whole town with her brainy calculations, all while being hunted by an angry mom of haters who want to throw her in the volcano for being a land mammal. In one of my favorite lines in the whole show, she refers to herself as the "scapesquirrel". It's still cracking me up days later, and I could see that becoming "a thing".  

Sure, there are deeper layers here, too, about how fear can create hatred, violence and religious extremists. Natural disasters can amplify people's natural tendencies so the greedy get greedier, the needy get needier, yet the smart, strong, and kind have a chance to shine. And the unlikeliest underdog may turn into the biggest hero, like a goofy, underestimated fry cook with management skills. 

Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows we highly recommend this show as great all ages, multigenerational fun. Catch it while you can. Chicago is so fortunate to get so many Pre-Broadway world premieres. We predict this is going to be a massive, award winning hit. It's already a hit in our books! Spongebob the Musical is only in town till July 7th, so don't miss this.  


ABOUT THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL
A legendary roster of Grammy Award winners. A visionary director and Tony Award®-winning design team. One of the world’s most beloved and unforgettable characters. Turn them all loose on Broadway and what do you get? The SpongeBob Musical!  The Pre-Broadway World Premiere of The SpongeBob Musical is currently playing Broadway In Chicago's Oriental Theatre (24 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL) through July 10, 2016.

Acclaimed Steppenwolf director Tina Landau and the groundbreaking designers behind Fun Home, Hedwig, and Spring Awakening have brilliantly reimagined Bikini Bottom for the Broadway stage, bringing the spirit of SpongeBob to life with humanity, heart, and pure theatricality. With an original score from some of the biggest names in pop and rock, The SpongeBob Musical explodes with energy.

Stakes are higher than ever before as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage.

Get ready to dive to all-new depths of theatrical innovation at The SpongeBob Musical, where the power of optimism really can save the world!

The SpongeBob Musical is co-conceived and directed by Tina Landau, book by Kyle Jarrow, orchestrations, arrangements & music supervision by Tom Kitt, with choreography by Christopher Gattelli.


TICKET INFORMATION


Tickets for The SpongeBob Musical at the Oriental Theatre are on-sale now.  A select number of premium tickets are available for many performances. Group tickets for 10 or more are available by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St., 18 W. Monroe St. and 175 E. Chestnut), the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (800) 775-2000, all Ticketmaster retail locations and online at BroadwayInChicago.com.

ChiIL Mama's Photo Favs:



Truly a treat to meet Wayne Coyne, lead singer, lead guitar and song writer for triple Grammy winning Flaming Lips.


We love that Flaming Lips play lots of all ages music fests, so we were able to take our kids to see them a number of times when they were small, at Lollapalooza, Summer Camp Music Festival and more. My kids adored seeing Coyne get into a giant "hamster ball" and roll around the audience. They're also known for confetti cannons and setting loose beach balls and giant balloons in the audience, so he should have felt right at home at The SpongeBob Musical! All we were missing was the human hamster ball.






Big shoes to fill! Father's day fun with little Lennon and his dad, Tom Higgenson, Chicago native,  frontman & lead guitar player for the band, Plain White T's.







Look at this pair! I've shot hundreds of rock stars' feet over the years, from festivals to photo pits all over Chicago and beyond, but this is the first father/son set! I find it fascinating to see where they're grounded and connect to the earth, and how much their style and personality comes out in their shoes.

Peace, Rock, and Spongebob Musical!








THIS guy is responsible for the laugh that haunts my nightmares! 


Thanks a lot, Tom Kenny, voice of TV’s SpongeBob SquarePants. No, seriously, it was cool to meet you. My 15yo son Googled you beforehand and pulled up pages of your voice credits. Fun stuff!

His wife, Jill Talley, is also the voice of Karen the Computer. I'll bet they mortify their kids doing silly voices at home and in public, but their teens are secretly proud of them. No doubt who those kids are related to!



There was a sea yellow in the audience, but Yolanda takes the GOLD for these shoes! 


"Super Sea Star Savior" songwriter Yolanda Adams was here in Chicago on the The SpongeBob Musical yellow carpet Sunday night at Oriental Theatre




Nickelodeon! 














Spongebob fans for Spongebob fans!


 














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