Equity Jeff Award Nominations Announced

The committee for Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Awards has announced their nominees -- 158 of 'em -- honoring Equity productions that opened between August 1, 2016 and July 31, 2017. There are 33 different categories for Jeff Awards, ranging from large-scale musicals and plays to actors, designers, directors and solo performers. In an interesting twist, all four Solo Performance nominees come from Greenhouse Theater Center.

Nominees with local connections include ISU alums Joe Court (nominee for Best Sound Design for 10 Out of 12 at Theater Wit), Gary Griffin (two Best Director nominations, for Hand to God at Victory Gardens and Parade at Writers Theater), Theresa Ham (nominated for Best Costume Design for both Disney's The Little Mermaid at Paramount Theatre and Mamma Mia! at Marriott Theatre), Jeffrey Kmiec (Best Scenic Design nominee for The Little Mermaid), Angela Weber Miller (Best Scenic Design nominee for Captain Blood at First Folio), William Osetek (Best Director nominee for Chicago at Drury Lane), Linda Reiter (nominated for Best Solo Performance for Rose at Greenhouse), and Gene Weygandt (another Solo Performance nominee from The Greenhouse, for Uncle Phillip's Coat), along with Eureka College's Cat Davis (nominated for her Lighting Design of The River Bride at Halcyon) U of I's Jonathan Butler-Duplessis (nominated as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for both Little Mermaid and Parade) and Bri Sudia (also with two nominations, as Best Actress in a Musical for Wonderful Town at the Goodman and Paramount Theatre's Sweeney Todd). IWU alum Evan Dolan was part of the ensemble in that Sweeney Todd, which picked up a nomination as Best Musical.

Here are some of the major nominees:

PRODUCTION (Play-Large)
Blues for an Alabama Sky, Court Theatre
East Texas Hot Links, Writers Theatre
Hand to God, Victory Gardens Theater
Man in the Ring, Court Theatre
Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre

PRODUCTION (Play-Midsize)
Born Yesterday, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
The Columnist, American Blues Theater
End of the Rainbow, Porchlight Music Theatre
It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, American Blues Theater
Silent Sky, First Folio Theatre

PRODUCTION (Musical-Large)
Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions
Crazy for You, Drury Lane Productions
Disney's The Little Mermaid, Paramount Theatre
Parade, Writers Theatre
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre

PRODUCTION (Musical-Midsize)
Disney's Mary Poppins, Mercury Theater Chicago
In the Heights, Porchlight Music Theatre
The Scottsboro Boys, Porchlight Music Theatre

PRODUCTION (Revue)
Marry Me a Little, Porchlight Music Theatre
Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Spamilton, The Royal George Theatre

ENSEMBLE
Blizzard '67, 16th Street Theater
East Texas Hot Links, Writers Theatre
It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, American Blues Theater
The Scottsboro Boys, Porchlight Music Theatre
Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Spamilton, The Royal George Thea tre

NEW PLAY
Michael Cristofer, Man in the Ring, Court Theatre
Selina Fillinger, Faceless, Northlight Theatre
Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Northlight Theatre
Ike Holter, The Wolf at the End of the Block, Teatro Vista
Antoinette Nwandu, Pass Over, Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Madhuri Shekar, Queen, Victory Gardens Theater
Charles Smith, Objects in the Mirror, Goodman Theatre

DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
David Darlow, Born Yesterday. Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Gary Griffin, Hand to God, Victory Gardens Theater
Charles Newell, Man in the Ring, Court Theatre
Ron OJ Parson, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Court Theatre
Ron OJ Parson, East Texas Hot Links, Writers Theatre
Chuck Smith, Objects in the Mirror, Goodman Theatre

DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL OR REVUE
Jim Corti, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre
Matthew Crowle, Crazy for You, Drury Lane Productions
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Gary Griffin, Parade, Writers Theatre
William Osetek, Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions

PRINCIPAL ACTOR IN A PLAY 
Allen Gilmore, Man in the Ring, Court Theatre
Allen Gilmore, Objects in the Mirror, Goodman Theatre
Erik Hellman, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Northlight Theatre
Daniel Kyri, Objects in the Mirror, Goodman Theatre 
Mike Nussbaum, Relativity, Northlight Theatre
Alex Weisman, Hand to God, Victory Gardens Theater

PRINCIPAL ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Clyde Alves, Crazy for You, Drury Lane Productions
Patrick Andrews, Parade, Writers Theatre
Alex Goodrich, She Loves Me, Marriott Theatre
Paul-Jordan Jansen, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre
Nathaniel Stampley, The Bridges of Madison County, Marriott Theatre

PRINCIPAL ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Cassandra Bissell, Silent Sky, First Folio Theatre
Chaon Cross, The Hard Problem, Court Theatre
Angela Ingersoll, End of the Rainbow, Porchlight Music Theatre
Elizabeth Ledo, Bright Half Life, About Face Theatre
Eliza Stoughton, Born Yesterday, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Lisa Tejero, W;t, The Hypocrites

PRINCIPAL ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Kelly Felthous, Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions
Bri Sudia, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre
Bri Sudia, Wonderful Town, Goodman Theatre
Kathy Voytko, The Bridges of Madison County, Marriott Theatre
Aerial "Mon'Aerie" Williams, Black Pearl: A Tribute to Josephine Baker, Black Ensemble Theater

SOLO PERFORMANCE
Will Allan, Circumference of a Squirrel, Greenhouse Theater Center
Linda Reiter, Rose, The Greenhouse Theater Center
Simon Slater, Bloodshot, The Greenhouse Theater Cen ter
Gene Weygandt, Uncle Phillip's Coat, The Greenhouse Theater Center

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY 
Marton Csokas, Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre
Keith Kupferer, The Mystery of Love & Sex, Writers Theatre
Adam Poss, Queen, Victory Gardens Theater
Tommy Rivera-Vega, Parachute Men, Teatro Vista

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL 
Larry Adams, Crazy for You, Drury Lane Productions
Jonathan Butler-Duplessis, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Paramount Theatre
Jonathan Butler-Duplessis, Parade, Writers Theatre
Alex Goodrich, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Marriott Theatre
James Earl Jones II, She Loves Me, Marriott Theatre

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Kristen Bush, Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre
Kymberly Mellen, The Columnist, American Blues Theater
Lia Mortensen, The Mystery of Love & Sex, Writers Theatre
Caroline Neff, Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Felicia Boswell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Paramount Theatre
E. Faye Butler, Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions
Angela Ingersoll, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Marriott Theatre
Iris Lieberman, Cabaret, Theatre at the Center
Meghan Murphy, Mamma Mia!, Marriott Theatre

ACTOR IN A REVUE
Austin Cook, Marry Me a Little, Porchlight Music Theatre
Justin Keyes, Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Yando Lopez, Spamilton, The Royal George Theatre
Evan Tyrone Martin, I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett, Mercury Theater Chicago

ACTRESS IN A REVUE 
Michelle Lauto, Spamilton, The Royal George Theatre
Donica Lynn, Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Meghan Murphy, Smokey Joe's Café, Drury Lane Productions
Bethany Thomas, Marry Me a Little, Porchlight Music Theatre

SCENIC DESIGN (Large)
William Boles, Native Gardens, Victory Gardens Theater
Linda Buchanan, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Court Theatre
Jeffrey D. Kmiec, Disney's The Little Mermaid, Paramount Theatre
Jack Magaw, East Texas Hot Links, Writers Theatre
Courtney O'Neill, Harvey, Court Theatre
Todd Rosenthal, Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre

SCENIC DESIGN (Midsize)
Angela Weber Miller, Captain Blood, First Folio Theatre
Greg Pinsoneault, In the Heights, Porchlight Music Theatre
Christopher Rhoton, End of the Rainbow, Porchlight Music Theatre
Grant Sabin, Born Yesterday, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Joe Schermoly, Naperville, Theater Wit

COSTUME DESIGN (Large)
Theresa Ham, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Paramount Theatre
Theresa Ham, Mamma Mia!, Marriott Theatre
Rachel Healy, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Court Theatre
Susan E. Mickey, Shakespeare in Love, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Sully Ratke, Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions

COSTUME DESIGN (Midsize)
Kristy Leigh Hall, Pygmalion, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Izumi Inaba, A Comedical Tragedy for Mister Punch, The House Theatre of Chicago
Kate Setzer Kamphausen, In the Heights, Porchlight Music Theatre
Bill Morey, End of the Rainbow, Porchlight Music Theatre
Mieka van der Ploeg, The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, The House Theatre of Chicago

SOUND DESIGN (Large)
Mikhail Fiksel, The Hunter and the Bear, Writers Theatre
Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, Julius Caesar, Writers Theatre
Andre Pluess, Man in the Ring, Court Theatre
Richard Woodbury, Uncle Vanya, Goodman Theatre

SOUND DESIGN (Midsize)
Joe Court, 10 Out of 12, Theater Wit
Heath Hays, The Room, A Red Orchid Theatre
Grover Holloway, The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, The House Theatre of Chicago
Jeffrey Levin, The River Bride, Halcyon Theatre

LIGHTING DESIGN (Large)
Nick Belley and Jesse Klug, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount Theatre
Bart Cortright, The Hunter and the Bear, Writers Theatre
Lee Fiskness, Chicago the Musical, Drury Lane Productions
Greg Hofmann, Jesus Christ Superstar, Paramount Theatre
Jesse Klug, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Paramount Theatre

LIGHTING DESIGN (Midsize)
Erik Barry, Circumference of a Squirrel, Greenhouse Theater Center
Christine Binder, Bright Half Life, About Face Theatre
Cat Davis, The River Bride, Halcyon Theatre
John Kelly, I Am My Own Wife, About Face Theatre
Michael Stanfill, W;t, The Hypocrites

The Jeff Awards will be handed out November 6 in a ceremony hosted by Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook.  Tickets are available for that ceremony. For more information on what's included or how to purchase tickets, check the main Jeff Awards page.

GYPSY Stripped Bare at Chicago Shakes

Director Gary Griffin has made a cottage industry of producing Stephen Sondheim shows at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. Over the years, he's been at the helm of A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Follies, Sunday in the Park with George... And now he's done double duty with Gypsy, the classic stage-mother musical from 1959 with music from Jule Styne and Sondheim lyrics, and Road Show, the newer piece that used to be called Wise Guys and Bounce and maybe even Gold before settling on Road Show. Gypsy was in CST's main Courtyard Theater through last Sunday, while Road Show opened upstairs on March 13 and runs till May 4.

Gypsy has been getting rave reviews during its run, with much praise of Louise Pitre, the one who played Mama Rose, the pushy, brassy, ballsy stage mother at the center of the show. It's a star turn to be sure, written for Ethel Merman, with the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti Lupone taking on "Rose's Turn" over the years. Bette Midler also played the role in a 1993 television version of Gypsy I quite liked. Not a big fan of Rosalind Russell in the 1962 movie, however.

And that's the thing with Gypsy. Its success lies almost entirely with the woman playing Rose. The plot, based on the autobiography of performer Gypsy Rose Lee, involves Mama Rose's continued struggle to push her daughter -- first the blonde and bubbly Baby June and then shy, awkward Louise, the one who turns into Gypsy Rose Lee -- into stardom in vaudeville. Rose's own dream to succeed in show biz makes her shove her kids, willing or not, onto increasingly grim stages, with a schlub of a manager named Herbie and an assortment of other starstruck chorus kids along for the ride. Rose is a force of nature, someone who pays no attention to anything but what she wants, but somehow manages to convince the people around her to go along for the ride. She can't manufacture stardom for her daughters, but she does get a foot in the door, and she does convince Herbie to take the scraps she dishes out. And that's why Bette Midler was so good, because hers was different from the other indelible performances, but still had charm and charisma to go with the muscle underneath. That Herbie could stick around, that Louise could knuckle under as long as she did... It worked.

Louise Pitre, on the other hand, was all muscle. Wiry and small, feisty and fierce, she played the role with a will of iron and no compromises. The warm, husky tone to her voice, reminiscent of Rosemary Clooney of all people, worked against the Iron Maiden persona, but that was the only thing that did. That meant that the chip on Rose's shoulder, the dysfunction in her past, was easy to imagine, but a reunion with her daughter and some sort of rapprochement at the end? Not bloody likely.

Strengths of this production included Kevin Depinet's scenic design, with a warped proscenium arch to give Chicago Shakespeare's Courtyard Theater and its thrust the atmosphere of an aged and worn out vaudeville stage, with all kinds of set pieces -- posters, chandeliers, show biz artifacts -- suspended in the fly space, acting as a representation of Rose's messy past and future, all literally hanging over her head.

The full orchestra this kind of show would've seen on Broadway -- 28 pieces -- was also pulled back to an orchestra of 14, intended to reflect the size of a vaudeville or burlesque orchestra of the time, according to Griffin's program notes. That change was successful for me, and certainly worked with the scene-stealing low-rent strippers Tessie Tura (Barbara E. Robertson), Mazeppa (Molly Callinan) and Electra (Rengin Altay) who popped up in the second act.

I was not as fond of the way the two big transition scenes built into Gypsy were staged. The first gives us Baby June and Her Newsboys magically transforming from children into young adults to show the passage of time without real changes to the act, while the second involves Louise moving from an awkward girl pushed into burlesque to the polished, glamorous Gypsy Rose Lee she becomes. Baby June becoming Dainty June was accomplished without magic at all, just the new corps arriving, greeting the younger versions of themselves, and then taking over, while the Louise/Gypsy change seemed to happen all at once, with actress Jessica Rush going out a kid, embracing her inner star almost immediately, and never really developing the act or showing off the trademark curtain move (where she disrobes and tosses the dress from behind the curtain with a certain flourish). Instead, she stood there in a nude body stocking with some glitter on her chest, revealing all. Neither transition was magical, let's put it that way.

Other bits of staging were more successful, with the musical numbers in general working well, and the big songs like "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn" blasting us into our seats with entertainment. And "You Gotta Get a Gimmick," wherein three sweet but sleazy strippers strut their stuff, brought down the house.

Program notes also tell me that for Road Show, Griffin has gone with the approach director John Doyle famously applied to Sondheim's Company and Sweeney Todd, where cast members played instruments to accompany themselves on stage. It's not my favorite idea. And it makes me not all that excited to see Road Show. But who knows? Maybe it will be just the ticket to bring that difficult material to life. At least Griffin keeps on trying with the Sondheim shows. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Chicago Shakes Announces Who'll Be Playing CYRANO and Mama Rose

Chicago Shakespeare Theater announced its 2013-14 schedule back in March -- from Cyrano de Bergerac to The Merry Wives of Windsor, Gypsy, Road Show and Henry V -- but now we have the all-important news of who'll be wearing Cyrano's nose and who'll be taking Rose's Turn.

Harry Groener

So, first off... Cyrano! Harry Groener, the Broadway star who appeared on television as the evil Mayor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and on Chicago stages in The March at Steppenwolf and The Madness of George III at Chicago Shakes, will play the role of the smart, romantic hero with the gigantic nose. Groener will be directed by Penny Metropulis, who also took the reins on George III, for which Groener won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor.

The CST press release quotes Artistic Director Barbara Gaines as saying, "We have long wanted to bring this beautiful play to our audiences at Chicago Shakespeare, but we hadn’t found our Cyrano or the director to realize the complexity of this character. That is, until we experienced the chemistry and the artistry of Harry Groener and Penny Metropulos." Gaines continues, "Cyrano is a role of a lifetime and a story that touches every heart. The stars have aligned to reunite this powerhouse team who, when combined with a first rate cast and the award-winning team of designers, will breathe fresh life into this masterwork."

Cyrano de Bergerac is scheduled for Chicago Shakes' Courtyard Theater from September 24 to November 10. You can check out the rest of the cast here -- it includes Wendy Robie, who appeared in our very own Illinois Shakespeare Festival last summer.

Louise Pitre

Gypsy is the first of two Stephen Sondheim-related shows on the schedule, as Sondheim's Road Show, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre back in 2003 as Bounce, follows in the Spring. And Associate Artistic Director Gary Griffin will direct both for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Although we don't have a complete cast for Gypsy yet, the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones has gone on the record to say that Louise Pitre, who originated the role of Donna in Mamma Mia! on Broadway, will play Rose, who may just be the pushiest stage mother of all time.

The Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim score for Gypsy includes barnburners like "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Let Me Entertain You," with Styne's music and Sondheim's lyrics fueling Arthur Laurent's unsentimental book about how entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee rose above her mother's ambition for younger sister Dainty June to forge a career of her own. Famous Roses on Broadway have included Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti Lupone, while Rosalind Russell did the movie and Bette Midler was an excellent TV-movie Rose.

How will Pitre do? We'll have to wait till February 2014 to find out. That's opening night for this Gypsy, scheduled to run through March 23 in the Courtyard Theater.

For information on the whole 13-14 lineup, click here.

2013 Humana Festival Array of New Plays Announced

As promised, Actors Theatre of Louisville has announced what new plays will be on the schedule for its 2013 Humana Festival of New American Plays next spring.

This time out, there will be full-length plays from Jeff Augustin, Mallery Avidon, Will Eno, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Sam Marks, with a piece created for Actors Theatre's Apprentice Company by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath and Anne Washburn. There will also be a program of 10-minute plays, with Sarah Ruhl the only announced playwright so far, since Actors Theatre's 10-minute play competition is still underway and one or more of the other plays may be chosen from that contest.

New Actors Theatre Artistic Director Les Waters will direct Will Eno's play, called Gnit. As you might guess from the name, Gnit is a new take on Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen's rambling adventure about a shiftless sort of man who travels around the world, running into a king, dairymaids, trolls, brownies, nixies, gnomes, Bedoins, madmen, missionaries, the Sphinx and the Devil. This Gnit promises to be a "rollicking and very cautionary tale about, among other things, how the opposite of love is laziness."

Appropriate is the title of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' new play, although without hearing it said aloud, I don't know if the piece is supposed to be the adjective appropriate, as in suitable or fitting, as opposed to the verb appropriate, as in, borrow without permission. Given that the play's action begins when the three adult children in the Lafayette family "descend upon a crumbling Arkansan plantation to liquidate their dead patriarch’s estate," I'm going to guess it's the verb appropriate, the one that is just a stone's throw from steal.

Gary Griffin, who is the Associate Artistic Director at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, where he recently directed a phenomenal production of Sunday in the Park with George, will be at the helm of Appropriate, his first directing gig at Actors Theatre.

Meredith McDonough, Actors Theatre's Associate Artistic Director, directs The Delling Shore, Sam Marks' look at competing novelists -- one successful and one struggling -- and their daughters, who also aspire to write. It's really hard not to take sides when push comes to shove, when wordplay becomes just as cutting as knives.

Cry Old Kingdom, about an artist trying to survive in Papa Doc Duvalier's Haiti, marks Jeff Augustin's professional debut as a playwright. It will be directed by Tom Dugdale, recipient of the 2012 Princess Grace Award in Theater with La Jolla Playhouse.

You can probably surmise from the title of Mallery Avidon's O Guru Guru Guru or why I don’t want to go to yoga class with you that it involves yoga or the lack thereof. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, O Guru Guru is a "disarming look at the precarious process of becoming yourself." Whether that means yoga or not.

The subject matter of the apprentice showcase, conceived by Amy Attaway and Sarah Lunnie, directed by Attaway, and penned by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath and Anne Washburn, is also apparent from the title. Sleep Rock Thy Brain is about... Sleep! Or at least the "rich complexities of the sleeping brain," explored through science, spectacle and theatrical invention.

Last year's apprentice piece was about food, and we got brownies on the way out. Maybe this year, they'll give us pillows. That would be exciting.

The Humana Festival, which is supported and sponsored by the Humana Foundation, begins February 27 and runs through April 7, 2013. Various packages and weekend deals are available for different audiences throughout that time period, with specific information on who goes when here.

ICEMAN and FOLLIES Score Big at the Jeff Awards

Chicago's annual Joseph Jefferson Awards were handed out for Equity productions on Monday at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre, with the Goodman Theatre's production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and Follies, the Sondheim/Goldman musical produced at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, each taking home six statuettes.

The Second City's We're All in This Room Together revue and The Doyle and Debbie Show, a lonesome road production in association with Jim Jensen and Lisselan Productions, which played for a few months at the Royal George Theatre, each won two.

Illinois State University alumni also won two awards, with Gary Griffin winning for his direction of Follies, and Kevin Depinet picking up an award for his scenic design for Iceman at the Goodman. Depinet earned his MFA at ISU, and his local set designs included Beast on the Moon at Heartland Theatre.

Follies was named Best Musical (Large), with director Griffin,  Musical Director Brad Haak, Costume Designer Virgil C. Johnson, Actress in a Principal Role Caroline O'Connor and Supporting Actress Hollis Resnick all named winners.

In addition to Depinet's Scenic Design award, Iceman won Best Production of a Play (Large) as well as Best Director for Robert Falls, Best Ensemble for the acting crew, Best Supporting Actor for Brian Dennehy, and Best Lighting Design for Natasha Katz.

Lee Hall's The Pitman Painters won Best Play (Midsize) for its TimeLine production, while Doyle and Debbie was named Best Musical (Midsize). Brian Arntson, one of the creators of Doyle and Debbie, won as Best Actor in a Principal Role in a Musical.

Other acting awards went to Larry Yando for his performance as Roy Cohn in Court Theatre's Angels in America, Diane D'Aquila from Chicago Shakes' Elizabeth Rex, Timothy Edward Kane in Court's An Iliad, Alex Goodrich in HERO, the Musical at the Marriott Theatre, and Natalie West in The Butcher of Baraboo at Red Orchid Theatre. Edgar Blackmon took top honors for performers in the Revue category for Who Do We Think We Are? at Second City.

For Best New Play, Ayad Akthar's Disgraced tied with Sarah Gubbins' The Kid Thing, while HERO the Musical, with book by Aaron Thielen and music and lyrics by Michael Mahler, won as Best New Musical. Oren Jacoby's Invisible Man was the winner in the Best New Play (Adaptation) category.

You can see all the winners here and test yourself on how many of these productions you saw.

On Sunday, My Thoughts Turn to "Sunday," Coming Soon to Chicago Shakes

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's Associate Artistic Director, Gary Griffin, has made a cottage industry of directing Sondheim shows at Chicago Shakes, with much acclaimed productions of "Follies" last year and "Pacific Overtures" and "Sunday in the Park with George" before that, upstairs in the smaller theater.

Griffin and Sondheim will be back in business later this month, with a new "Sunday in the Park with George" in the larger Courtyard Theatre at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier. Given how wonderful Griffin's black-box production was back in 2002, this one on the main stage is eagerly anticipated. Tickets are on sale now and likely to go fast, if the "Follies" pattern is repeated.

"Sunday in the Park with George" is a natural for Chicago audiences, given that the painting ("A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," seen below) which serves as inspiration for the Sondheim/Lapine musical hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago. You can (and should) check out the painting and the musical in the same trip. Seurat worked in tiny dots of color in a technique called "pointilism," which informs the style and themes of "Sunday in the Park with George."

The cast for this production includes Broadway star Jason Danieley (once noted for having "the most exquisite tenor on Broadway" by Ben Brantley of the New York Times) as artist Georges Seurat, and Carmen Cusack, probably best known for playing Elphaba in the touring production of "Wicked" that came through Chicago, as Dot, Seurat's model and muse.

Others in the cast include Chicago favorites Sean Fortunato, Kevin Gudahl and Heidi Kettenring. And Illinois Wesleyan University School of Theatre Arts has informed us that Sarah Bockel, who graduated from their Musical Theatre program in 2010, is also part of the ensemble as an understudy for several roles, including those played by Elizabeth Lanza, herself an IWU alum from 2007.

"Sunday in the Park with George" happens to be the second show I saw on Broadway, and I have fond memories of it and my own reaction to it. If you are involved in any kind of artistic endeavor, its messages about art, the creative process, color and light, the fleeting nature of life, putting the pieces of one's life and work together, and ultimately moving on, can be very moving and profound.

People strolling through the trees

of a small suburban park

on an island in the river

on an ordinary Sunday

Sunday...

Sunday...