Pictured: A rendering of the exterior of Theo Ubique’s new Howard Street venue. 

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, which recently vacated Rogers Park’s No Exit Café after 13 years, has announced its first season at its new Evanston home. Artistic Director Fred Anzevino made the announcement this evening at a gathering of company donors and friends that served as a farewell to the No Exit.

The new space boasts a flexible performance and seating area that will seat approximately 85 patrons – nearly 30 seats more than the previous capacity at No Exit. The City of Evanston is investing $1.2 million in TIF dollars, including all new plumbing, electric, HVAC, asbestos removal, restrooms, a catering kitchen, and bar. Bar and dinner service will be provided through a catering partner to be announced. “We are excited by this new avenue by which to expand on our idea of thematically pairing our menu and drinks to the current production,” said General Manager Adam Webster. The company’s ten-year lease with the city includes four options for five-year renewals.

Theo Ubique will forgo a fall production to allow for renovations to complete. The first show, opening in December, will be David Yazbek and Terrence McNally’s THE FULL MONTY, based on the film of the same name following unemployed steelworkers who perform as a troupe of male strippers. Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY follows in March, based on the novel by Robert James Waller in which an Italian war bride living in rural Iowa in 1965 falls in love with a globe-trotting photographer while her husband and children are out of town. The season concludes with the June opening of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell’s rock musical following a trans rock singer from East Germany whose suffered a botched sex-change operation.

Anzevino will direct THE FULL MONTY and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. The director for HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH will be announced soon. Resident Music Director Jeremy Ramey will handle all three shows.

Season tickets will go on sale soon at www.Theo-u.com.

Theo Ubique’s 2018-2019 Season (from the press release):

THE FULL MONTY
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek, Book by Terrence McNally, based on the motion picture released by Fox Searchlight Pictures and written by Simon Beaufoy, produced by Uberto Pasolini and directed by Peter Cattaneo
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Directed by Jeremy Ramey
December 7, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Based on the cult hit film of the same name, THE FULL MONTY follows a group of unemployed steelworkers from Buffalo who while spying on their wives at a “Girls’ Night Out,” see how much their wives enjoy watching male strippers. Jealous, out of work and feeling emasculated, the men come up with a bold and unclothed way to make some quick cash. In preparing, they find themselves extremely exposed; not merely physically but emotionally. As they conquer their fears, self-consciousness and prejudices, the men come to discover that they’re stronger as a group, and the strength that they find in each other gives them the individual courage to “let it go.”

THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, Book by Marsha Norman, based on the novel by Robert James Waller
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Directed by Jeremy Ramey
March 8 – April 21, 2019

In this musical adaptation of the novel, Francesca Johnson, a beautiful Italian woman who married an American soldier to flee war-ravaged Italy, looks forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm when her family heads to the 1965 State Fair. When a ruggedly handsome NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographer, Robert Kincaid, pulls into her driveway seeking directions, what happens in those four days may very well alter the course of Francesca’s life.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
Text by John Cameron Mitchell, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
June 14 – July 28, 2019
Director TBA
Music Direction by Jeremy Ramey

“The Angry Inch” is a hard-rocking band fronted by Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock ‘n’ roll goddess whose botched sex-change operation left her with just “an angry inch.” Using songs and monologues, Hedwig tells her story, which began in the former East Berlin where as a man named Hansel he met Luther, an American GI who promised to take the young man to the States on the condition that he switch his sex. After the bungled operation, Luther abandons newly named Hedwig in a Kansas trailer park, where she turns to music and meets geeky Tommy Speck, whom she takes under her wing and soon falls for. Tommy steals her songs, achieves rock star fame, and Hedwig is once again cast aside. She decides to demand redress and stalks Tommy’s world tour, performing in venues next door to the stadiums in which Tommy plays.