Theo Ubique Announces Final Season at No Exit Café

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s founding artistic director Fred Anzevino has announced the company’s  2017-18 season, its last in the No Exit Café (The company will move into a new home in Evanston for the 2018-19 season).
The 17/18 season will open in September with William Finn and James Lapine’s A NEW BRAIN directed by Anzevino, ALTAR BOYZ directed by Courtney Crouse in December, followed by the first professional Chicago production of  FINIAN’S RAINBOW in almost 20 years directed by Anzevino. The season wraps up with a summer cabaret highlighting the company’s tenure at No Exit Café.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s 17/18 season (from the press release): 

A NEW BRAIN
Music and Lyrics by William Finn, Book by William Finn and James Lapine
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Directed by Jeremy Ramey
Choreography by Cameron Turner
September 15 – October 29, 2017

An energetic, sardonic, often comical musical about a composer during a medical emergency, by the Tony Award-winning authors of Falsettos. Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital, surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor, and the nurses. While in the hospital, Gordon fears he will die with his greatest songs still inside of him; and so from his hospital bed, and in while in a coma, and all throughout his ordeal, he begins writing the songs. He also has several hallucinations that involve various people whom he has encountered.

ALTAR BOYZ
Music and Lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker
Book by Kevin Del Aguila (based on an idea by Marc J. Kessler and Ken Davenport)
Directed by Courtney Crouse
Music Directed by Jeremy Ramey
December 1, 2017 – January 14, 2018

Altar Boyz is a foot-stomping, rafter-raising, musical comedy about a fictitious Christian boy-band on the last night of their national ‘Raise the Praise’ tour. The Boyz are five all-singing, all-dancing heartthrobs from Ohio: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham. As they perform their signature hits such as ‘Rhythm In Me,’ ‘The Calling,’ and ‘I Believe,’ the Boyz question their loyalty to each other and ask whether or not faith is really holding them together. They finally deliver a message of unity, that ‘there is no star as bright as its constellation, no harmony in a single voice.’

FINIAN’S RAINBOW
Two-piano concert version
Music by Burton Lane, Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, Book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy
Book revised in concert form by Charlotte Moore
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Directed by Jeremy Ramey
March 9 – April 29, 2018

Aging Irish dreamer Finian McLonergan and his savvy daughter Sharon travel to America to bury a small pot of gold, which Finian believes will grow to yield millions. When they arrive in fictional Rainbow Valley in Missitucky, the McLonergans encounter goodhearted sharecroppers, bigoted blowhard politicians… and a romantic leprechaun! One of America’s classic and most original musicals, FINIAN’S RAINBOW remains as timely now as when it was first written. The charming score includes hits like “Old Devil Moon,” “Look to the Rainbow,” and “How Are Things In Glocca Morra?” Theo Ubique will perform the “two-piano concert version” created for New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre in 2004 by Charlotte Moore.

LAST CALL AT NO EXIT: A Summer Cabaret
June 15 – July 22, 2018
Director TBA
Music Direction by Jeremy Ramey
June 15 – July 22, 2018

Theo Ubique’s summer cabaret will be its last at the No Exit Café, the venue the company has called home since 2004. The cabaret will feature a selection of songs from the many musicals and cabarets that have been produced by Theo at No Exit – shows like Cabaret, Chess, Man of La Mancha, Evita, The Light in the Piazza, Passion, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rent; and revues including Always…Patsy Cline and salutes to songwriters like Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Marvin Hamlisch.

For more information on Theo Ubique’s 17/18 season visit theo-u.com.

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