Ring in December with Cary Grant, Holiday Movies and Spectacularity

You don't have to wait till Christmas to open these gifts. Yes, it's true -- the good stuff in December starts tonight.

It's Cary Grant Month on Turner Classic Movies all during December, and because December 1 is a Monday and Mr. Grant has a monopoly on Monday nights, the celebration begins tonight. TCM begins its Carypalooza with a pile of the early ones -- his feature film debut in This Is the Night (1932), two Mae West vehicles with She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I'm No Angel (1933), a war film called The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) where Grant serves as a rival for flying ace Fredric March, Hot Saturday (1932), a piece about the danger of small-town gossip, Suzy (1936), with Jean Harlow, and by the time it turns into December 2, The Toast of New York (1937), a historical piece about a robber baron in the 19th century, and Night and Day (1946), where he plays a very unrealistic version of songwriter Cole Porter. Things get even better later in the month, when the Cary Grant persona we all expect is on full display, with highlights like The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, Gunga Din, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, and North By Northwest. Check out the complete listing here.

As if it wasn't enough for TCM to give us all that Cary Grant, they're matching it with Ingmar Bergman movies wall to wall on Wednesday December 3. Bergman movies are in a different universe from the Hollywood fare featuring Mr. Debonair, but serious film buffs need to see Smiles of a Summer Night, the charming film that inspired A Little Night Music, the beautiful and pensive Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal and its exploration of life, death and a medieval game of chess, and the intense psychological dramas Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence.

You can also get traditional holiday fare like The Nutcracker ballet, playing from December 4 to 7 in the Tryon Festival theatre at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana. This one is performed by the Champaign-Urbana Ballet with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra with conductor Stephen Alltop.

Also opening December 4 is an "operatic farce" by Charles Mee called Wintertime. This slightly crazy piece about pairs of lovers all descending on the same cabin features a cast of ten, with David Barkley, Wen Bu, Aaron Clark, Nancy Keener, Lincoln Machula, Jeff McGill, Diane Pritchard, Kate Prosise, Deb Richardson and Evan Smith under the direction of Timothy O'Neal at at Urbana's Station Theatre. Wintertime runs through December 20 at the Station.

And on December 5, you can see Live Window Vignettes from members of Playwrights Anonymous as part of First Friday celebrations in downtown Bloomington. These window plays will happen at 5:30 pm on Friday at the Herb Eaton Gallery. Click here to see Playwrights Anonymous's Facebook page.

That Friday is also the day the Holiday Spectacular returns to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. It really is spectacular, with a cast of thousands (okay, at least a hundred) including tappers, angels, wooden soldiers, father/daughter numbers and some fantastic voices, like Bob Mangialardi and Joe Penrod. The BCPA promises "all the blockbuster features that long-time attendees have come to love, such as the precision-dancing wooden soldiers, the mass choir nativity and an all-male a capella group" plus a whole bunch of surprises.

If you enjoyed seeing the Battling Gridleys as portrayed by Kathleen Kirk and Jeremy Stiller in October's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, you can see Kirk and Stiller back in those roles when the newly restored Gridley Mansion is opened to the public for a holiday tour. You can read about the historic home renovation here. Owners Keith and Diane Thompson have partnered with Easter Seals to offer this mansion tour from 5 to 7 pm on December 11. The cost is $10 per person, with all proceeds going to Easter Seals. The tour of the premises at 301 East Grove Street will include work from local artists, info from Lincoln experts and light refreshments.

And that's just some of the entertainment available to keep you in the holiday spirit.

JEKYLL & HYDE Opens Tonight at Eastlight in East Peoria

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, the scary horror/sci fi novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, may seem like odd material for a Broadway musical. But when you find out that Frank Wildhorn was behind it, things become a little more clear.

Jekyll & Hyde was actually Wildhorn's first stage musical success -- before its premiere at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990, Wildhorn was best known for writing a hit single for Whitney Houston and adding a few songs for the stage version of Victor Victoria -- but by 1999, Wildhorn had three shows on Broadway at the same time, with Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War all in theatres on the Great White Way.

All three shows feature Wildhorn's trademark pop power ballads and dark, sweepy themes of identity and conflict, leading the way to Dracula the Musical, Wonderland and Bonnie and Clyde, the 2011 musical that scored a Theatre World Award for Jeremy Jordan (of Newsies and TV's Smash), with Tony nominations for his costar, Laura Osnes, and for Wildhorn's score (with lyrics by Don Black).

Wildhorn is credited with conceiving of Jekyll & Hyde with Steve Cuden, writing the music, and co-writing the and lyrics with Cuden and Leslie Bricusse. That score include huge, breakout songs like "This Is the Moment" and "Someone Like You," and a song called "Confrontation" where the actor playing Dr. Jekyll does a duet with himself and his alter ego of Mr. Hyde. Now that's not something you see every day.

East Peoria's Eastlight Theatre opens its production of big, bad Jekyll & Hyde tonight with a 7:30 pm performance. Chip Joyce directs, with a cast that includes Jarod Hazzard as both halves of the Jekyll/Hyde personality, River Stanford as Emma, Jekyll's fiancee, and Julia Myers as Lucy, the less reputable romantic interest originally portrayed by Linda Eder, who was married to Wildhorn from 1998 to 2004 and is widely considered the foremost interpreter of his songs.

Others in the Eastlight cast include Bruce Colligan as Utterson, Jekyll's friend and lawyer; George Maxedon as his father-in-law-to-be Sir Danvers Carew; and Ryan Campen, Aaron Elwell, Eric Gore, Jeff Joyce, Joe Nohl, Kelleen Purdin, Carole Rogers, Rex Urban, Scott Whitmore and Kevin Wickart as various associates and victims of either Dr. Jekyll or the dark, destructive Mr. Hyde. Jerrod Barth, Brianna Cross, Jessica Duffy, Jameson Duggan, Cody Jacobs, Anna Nabhan, Lacy Papazis, Jessie Pilcher, Blisse Stanford, Matt Stubbs, Christopher Tam, Tamera Turner and Jacob Van Hoorn make up the ensemble.

You can get more information by visiting the event's Facebook page or the Eastlight website, or arrange tickets online by clicking here.

JOSEPH Holiday Tradition Returns to Eastlight

East Peoria's Eastlight Theatre brings back its perennial favorite, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with performances beginning November 30.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began its life as a short "pop cantata" for a boys' school performance in London, and then became a concept album. After Jesus Christ Superstar made a name for Lloyd Webber and Rice on stage, Joseph, too, became a full-length musical, with successful productions in London's West End, on Broadway and around the world. It even spawned a show called Any Dream Will Do on British TV where potential Josephs battled for the right to play the title role in the 2007 West End revival.

As Eastlight notes, the Lloyd Webber/Rice Joseph is based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. Joseph was the 11th son (out of 12) of Jacob. He was also the favorite, which did not sit well with his 11 brothers, who plot to kidnap him and sell him into slavery in Egypt. But the plot backfires on them when Joseph rises to prominence as a dream interpreter for Pharoah. Back in Canaan, his brothers have fallen on hard times, and their miseries lead them to grovel at the feet of the Pharoah's right-hand-man, who happens to be the brother they betrayed so long ago.

For Eastlight, Brandon Chandler plays Joseph, while Tami Frow-Meister acts as the Narrator, Joel Shoemaker plays Potiphar and Deric Kimler takes on the role of the Pharaoh. Jeremy Kelly directs a cast that includes a youth chorus, one of the ways Joseph is a family-friendly show.

A scene from Eastligh's 2011 Joseph

This musical is sung-through, with very little dialogue, and the score covers all different musical styles. Eastlight has made it work for them for over 20 years, offering performances during the holiday season. This year, they'll begin with a 7:30 performance on the 30th, followed by seven more shows from December 1 to 9. Tickets to all performances are available here.

They are also offering a "Joseph Experience" at their closing performance at 2 pm on the 9th, when audience members are invited to participate by way of a sing-along. Prop bags to made the experience even more interactive will also be available for purchase.