Review: SOMETHING IN THE GAME at Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project
Making flesh-and-blood figures into heroes is always a tricky thing. We tend to highlight their virtues and ignore their all too human flaws, only for those flaws to present themselves later on. This can lead to a sense of cognitive dissonance, of feeling like we were never right to revere that person in the first place. But ultimately, our understanding that all people have their own particular flaws, and allowing both the positive and negative sides of a person to coexist, can sometimes lead to a richer, more truthful perception of the heroes we admire, as real human beings who struggled with the same things that we do. SOMETHING IN THE GAME, a new musical currently running as part of Northwestern University’s American Music Theatre Project, seeks to take a more well-rounded look at one particularly enduring hero: Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.
Review: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: LIVE IN CHICAGO! at American Blues Theater
Just as with my first experience watching the film, the story of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and the joy and connection these artists brought reminded me again that traditions are important. Clearly, this is one American Blues Theater have made their own, and I think I just might join them.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Reminds Us of What’s Important
Tis the Season!…for hundreds of Christmas shows. While each brings their own unique spin on the message of Christmas, I highly recommend IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE for its charm, beautiful storytelling, fantastic singing, and terrific ability to transport the audience to a snazzy time that still feels all too familiar.
LITTLE SHOP Makes for A Delectable Evening on Skid Row
American Blues Theater’s triumphant LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS will have Chicago audiences clamoring to head downtown to Skid Row. This intimately staged production has a full sound (with music director Austin Cook leading a four-piece band, you can feel the vibrations of the bass in the floor) and provides an all-encompassing, fully entertaining spectacle.
INSIDE LITTLE SHOP Part 3: Adventures in Tech
In our final days in the rehearsal space, we had a sitzprobe and a designer run which were both exciting and crowded. Between the cast, the band, and the creative/production team, there are more than 35 people involved in bringing this show to life.
INSIDE LITTLE SHOP Part 2: Puppet Power!
This week we began working with the two larger Audrey Two puppets and we were all surprised at how big they truly are. Sarah E. Ross (Puppet Designer and Producer Manager) had warned us that the largest was approximately 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, but actually seeing a puppet that large come to life in person was both thrilling and intimidating (for comparison: Jim Henson’s Big Bird is 8 feet tall). There remain a handful of questions and concerns about how to best share the stage with the large puppets that won’t be able to be fully solved until we’re in the space. For now, it’s just exciting that they look so amazing and that Matthew Sitz is such a natural at operating them.
INSIDE LITTLE SHOP Part 1: Welcome to the Little Shop
(Photo: Set model by Scenic Designer Grant Sabin) In this 4-part series, Assistant Director Elyse Dolan takes us behind the scenes of American Blues Theater’s production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, directed by Jonathan Berry. Part 1: Welcome to the Little Shop After the exchanging of quick hugs and hellos,...