With full-court-press publicity, effusive corporate congratulations, City Hall blessings, a Broadway mini-show and a video preview, not to mention an unexpected standup comedy routine by Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), “a new era for theater in Chicago” (as its founders are calling it) has been launched in the downtown area.
Dubbed “Broadway in Chicago,” the new arrangement brings control of the Shubert, Cadillac Palace and Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental theaters under an equal partnership of the Nederlander Organization and SFX Theatrical Group, New York firms that are the two largest commercial theater producers and owners/operators in the United States.
To launch their partnership, the collaborators, in a Monday press conference at the Oriental, announced a lineup and showed a video glimpse of at least 15 shows through spring of next year, most of them in either the Shubert or Oriental. Beginning immediately, the management will offer several subscription packages covering all three theaters.
Much of the press conference happy talk concentrated on the benefits of variety of product and the flexibility of theater spaces provided by the joint management, with Christopher Hill, the city’s Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, praising the “exciting new partnership” in Chicago’s “vibrant theater district.”
Still to be judged, and watched carefully, are what impact the partnership will have on ticket prices and on general upkeep of the three playhouses.
For the immediate future, the season offered by the aggressive “Broadway in Chicago” team contains one world premiere, one pre-Broadway engagement, a flock of revivals and a couple strange birds, including a drum corps revue and a show based on old radio scripts. It’s not the stuff of dreams, and not all are of the “top-quality, sophisticated, exciting new shows” promised by Miles Wilkin, SFX Theatrical Group’s chief executive officer. But at least it’s product, which the Randolph Street corridor of theaters has been lacking in the last few months. How well the new arrangement works in the years ahead will depend in large part on how good the shows are and how often they are presented here; and that is something that will take more than good wishes to produce.
Natarus, jet-lagged after returning from a trip to China, provided welcome off-the-cuff relief to all the corporate-speak of the announcement ceremonies when, referring to the “Broadway in Chicago” theme, he said to the assembled New York executives who had flown in for the occasion, “We’re very pleased that you’re here. But you don’t understand. New York is not even in our vocabulary. You should call it `Loop in Chicago.'”
After a rambling attack on the confusion in New York airports, he went on to cite Chicago’s many “fine restaurants, fine hotels, fine travel agents and fine stores in which wives can shop and bankrupt their husbands.”
So, he finished, “Use your financial muscle. Put up your dukes, and bring shows into Chicago.”
This brought a response from the peppery old pro James M. Nederlander, chairman of the Nederlander Organization, who after noting the White Sox sweep of the Yankees, called on Chicago to support the new theater team “and give us a subscription base for longer runs. We should be running shows here for 16 weeks.”
Behind this ceremonial announcement were months of negotiations in which Nederlander, which owns the Shubert, and SFX, which owns the Oriental, hammered out a partnership. They were joined in the last few weeks by Fox Theatricals, which has sold its half of the lease in the Palace to Nederlander. (SFX owns the other half of the lease.) This leaves Michael Leavitt, short-lived producer of the Palace and president of Fox, officially out of the new organization.
Leavitt, who remains in charge at the smaller Briar Street Theatre in Chicago and is shepherding a Broadway-bound stage musical of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” for Fox, called the “Broadway in Chicago” deal “a good thing for Chicago. Fighting [for product] between the three theaters would be stupid.”
Jan Kallish, executive director of the not-for-profit Auditorium Theatre, which also books touring musicals, said, “The competition for shows will be tougher than ever; but we’ve got musicals booked here through 2002, and we have other options, like dance and our `Ovations’ series, to fill the dates in our performing arts center.”
Here, in chronological order, and not including a possible world premiere of a stage musical based on the movie “The Producers,” is what “Broadway in Chicago” has lined up for its new era:
– “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” composer Frank Wildhorn’s musical romance set in the French Revolution, already announced for Aug. 9-27 in the Shubert.
– “Foot Notes — The Concert,” a dance piece starring the sensational young tap artist Savion Glover, Sept. 27-Oct. 15 in the Shubert.
– Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: For its fall season, the company moves from a longer run at the Shubert to a shorter engagement in the larger Cadillac Palace, Oct. 3-8.
– Sundance Radio Theatre, staged radio scripts of old movies, from the Sundance Institute, Oct. 13-22 in the Oriental.
– “Annie Get Your Gun,” with former Chicagoan Marilu Henner starring in the hit revival of the Irving Berlin musical, Oct.17-29 in the Shubert.
“Blast,” a Riverdance-type revue using 52 young performers in marching bands and drum corps, Oct. 24-Nov. 5 in the Oriental.
– “Tallulah,” with Kathleen Turner as actress Tallulah Bankhead in a pre-Broadway run of her one-woman show, Nov. 14-26 in the Shubert.
– “A Tuna Christmas,” a two-man comedy about the 24 folks in a small Texas town, Dec. 5-17 in the Shubert.
– “The Rhythm Club,” a new musical set in the swing clubs of 1938 Germany. Music by Matthew Sklar, book and lyrics by Chad Beguelin, direction by Eric Schaeffer. Dec. 9-Jan. 7 in the Oriental.
– “Cabaret,” a return engagement of the musical revival, Dec. 12-24 in the Palace.
– “Fiddler on the Roof,” Theodore Bikel in a 35th anniversary production of the musical, Dec. 19-Jan. 7 in the Shubert.
– “Cinderella,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on the fairy tale, Jan. 16-28 in the Oriental.
– “Saturday Night Fever,” the stage musical based on the movie, Feb. 13-March 25 in the Oriental.
– “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour,” the superstar character created and portrayed by the Australian actor Barry Humphries, visits the “American outback” in her one-woman show, March 27-April 8 in the Shubert.
– “Mamma Mia,” the London hit incorporating songs by ABBA, from May 17 in the Palace.
