1. Darren Criss has been cast for three weeks worth of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In a profile in the New York Times, he pays homage to his work with the Chicago-based, University of Michigan-born StarKid productions; he’d like to see StarKid’s show Starship (or another project with the group), on Broadway in the next couple years. If not, it seems pretty clear that he’s being groomed in that direction himself. In fact, How to Succeed producer Craig Zadan said they’d “definitely be up for finding another show for Darren, once he is not tied down to Glee.”
2. Brian Spitulnik, the lovely fellow behind the McSweeney’s series “The Chorus Boy Chronicles”, relives the glory days of when he was living in Chicago but flew to New York to audition for La Cage aux Folles. He’s currently in the long-running production of Chicago on Broadway. It’s a story about drag, high kicks, and father-son bonding. (The touring production of La Cage, is, incidentally, not getting the best reviews; Hedy Weiss called it “a travesty”.)
3. Reviews of the traveling Addams Family remind us of it’s “near-disastrous pre-Broadway debut here in Chicago”, and note that “It’s still not as great as it should have been, but it’s better than it was” (TimeOut). But the Sun-Times writes, “that while national tours tend to be carbon copies of the Broadway edition, THIS touring production has been quite radically reworked and ideally cast. And in the process, the show has finally found its true self.” The show closed in Chicago January 1, so you’ll never know.
4. And the award for the Chicago theater reviewer who wrote the most “Best of” lists this year goes to...Kris Vire! Congrats Kris -- I believe the final tally was 4?
5. The Reader‘s Deanna Isaacs comments on Silk Road Project’s choice to change its name to Silk Road Rising (which Jonathan Abarbanel reported in May). Founder Jamil Khoury told Issacs that the company “wanted to figure out ways to marry this ancient art form, live theater, with modern technology,” and that the new name better reflected that vision.
Questions? Tips? Email kdries@wbez.org.
