Joel Shoemaker Takes On HAIRSPRAY at Eastlight

My friend Joel Shoemaker has been cast in Eastlight Theatre's Production of "Hairspray," the John-Waters-by-way-of-Marc-Shaiman-Scott-Wittman-Mark-O'Donnell-and-Thomas-Meehan stage musical. I am not all that familiar with Eastlight, which is over in East Peoria, so I asked Joel to write a little about his experience there, now that they're heavily into rehearsals and preparing for their August 5 opening. Here's what Joel had to say, in his unique way...


I have magic saliva. For real. I’ve been a magician since I was seven years old, so on one level this is definitely appropriate. I need you to know I’m being completely serious though. My dentist, actually the hygienist – cute as a flipping button, incidentally – she told me so. Something about recalcification, the dentist guy later confirms.. But that term is far too highfalutin. Bulky. Too, medical. Too termy. Yuck yuck yuck. Obviously, I prefer having magic saliva. So please, when you see me on the streets, licking Washington who turns out none too eager to turn into Franklin or even Abraham for me – hey, I got bills to pay, same as you. I can’t help it only one of us is, for real, magical. Judge away, bystander, I understand you’re jealous. I’ve been there (September thirteenth nineteen ninety eight a.d.) – just don’t call it recalcification. It’s magic.

According to Wikipedia, the wellspring of official, expert-laden research we all know and love, HAIRSPRAY was originally a gift from John Waters. Waters, suffice it to say, sounds like a bit of an odd duck. This film, from 1988, appears to be one of his only non-X-rated movies. Racy duck, too! That said, it is on some list of greatest all-time films. So, brilliant duck. Quack. The musical version of HAIRSPRAY first appeared on Broadway in 2002.

Then, the film-turned-musical turned film, AGAIN, in 2007! The coolest part of all of this is that Jerry Stiller, one of my personal heroes, played Wilbur in the original film and Mr. Pinky – a role for which I’m currently in rehearsals – in the ’07 film where Christopher Walken, one of EVERYONE’S personal heroes, stepped into the role of Wilbur. Does it get any better than that? The question is stupid. The answer, NOPE.

Eastlight Theatre is a relatively young theatre, from what I can tell – with online history dating back to 1992 – which hosts its productions in a high school in East Peoria. I saw RENT there a few years ago and I immediately noticed that this place was different. Extremely high-quality productions that spare no expense to bring their audience, well, to Broadway. It’s what the website says, after all: “It’s Broadway, Our Way.” Moreover, it’s the only theatre I know even so much as willing to stage RENT, not to mention recent productions of XANADU and AVENUE Q! A theatre addict like me, well, I merely wanted to audition. And now, somehow, I wind up trying to fill a long-time hero’s hefty pink shoes.

My saliva, clearly, isn’t magic. The fact that, without regard to the infrequency at which I take part in sundry components of a proper dental hygiene regimen (during my childhood this was expertly executed in tandem with the delivery of Mom and Dad’s beloved TV Guide which was, what, weekly? So that’s not too bad for a kid, but, please, fear not. I’ve obviously grown much wiser. My teeth actually matter to me. Now, I subscribe to at least four magazines.), I’ll never have a cavity is nothing more than biology or chemistry or whatever branch of my least favorite subject. Probably not Earth. What can I say, I just ate six pink pixy sticks. I may be blessed. But I’m not magic.

Live theatre is magic. HAIRSPRAY is magic. Pure. Simple. Fun. And you should do yourself a favor and experience the regional premiere of it at Eastlight Theatre in East Peoria. To find out how, visit www.eastlighttheatre.com/hairspray.htm

About Joel Shoemaker: A 2006 graduate in Elementary Education with a minor in Theatre Arts and Drama from Eureka College, Joel Dwight Shoemaker presently works at Heartland Bank & Trust Company as a Loan Document Specialist and at Bloomington Public Library as a Library Assistant. He's been acting onstage since 1998, as a freshman in high school. Favorite roles include Moonface Martin in ANYTHING GOES, Kreon in ANTIGONE Carmen Ghia in THE PRODUCERS and Frederick Barrett in TITANIC, not to insinuate that all roles weren't equally magnificent. They weren't. He really IS a magician and really IS available for any occasion you might require such a thing - contact him via e-mail at magicianactor@gmail.com

"Follies" Tickets Now On Sale at Chicago Shakes

The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones broke the news a few days ago that casting had been announced for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater's much-anticipated production of "Follies,"the legendary musical about a reunion of showgirls (a la Ziegfeld) at the soon-to-be-demolished theater where they all once performed. Stephen Sondheim's score and James Goldman's book are nostalgic, funny, sad and lovely, all at once.

It doesn't get better than "Losing My Mind," middle-aged Sally Durant's torch song for the love she has never been able to get over, "Broadway Baby," whose lyrics gave my blog its name, "I'm Still Here," the showbiz survival anthem, the sensational "Who's That Woman?" perhaps better known as the Mirror Dance, or "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through" the quartet wherein the young counterparts of the four main characters (Sally, her husband Buddy, her old best friend, Phyllis, and Ben, Sally's lost love, who married Phyllis) sing cheerfully (and cynically) about what they see ahead for themselves.

Gary Griffin, who has been interpreting Sondheim at Chicago Shakes for the past ten years, with fabulous work on "Pacific Overtures" and "Sunday in the Park with George," will direct a cast including Broadway veterans Brent Barrett and Robert Petkoff as as Ben and Buddy; Susan Moniz, who has called Chicago her home for over 20 years and been nominated for more Jeff Awards than you can shake a stick at, as Sally; and British-Australian actress, singer and dancer Caroline O'Connor, who has played both Broadway and London's West End, as Phyllis. Chicago favorites Mike Nussbaum, Hollis Resnick anrd Marilynn Bogetich will play Dmitri Weismann, the Ziegfeldian character, Carlotta, who belts out "I'm Still Here," and Hattie, the Broadway Baby, respectively. You can check out the whole cast here.

Even better news than the casting, however, is that tickets are now available, as well. Click here to read more about the show and pick your dates.

"Follies" opens at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on October 4 and runs through November 6. That's not a whole lot of performances, so you are well-advised to get your tickets now, before they sell out. "Follies" is a favorite of a lot of people, me included. So don't wait. Get over to Chicago Shakes now and order those tickets!

Stylish, Emotional "Winter's Tale" Comes to Life at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival

“The Winter’s Tale” falls into Shakespeare’s later period, when even the comedies were tinged with sadness. And, yes, “The Winter’s Tale” was classified as a comedy in the First Folio, although that seems a little odd today, when we might think this story of a tyrannical husband and king who almost loses everything quite tragic.

The king, one Leontes, has a beautiful wife, Hermione, and a young son, and everything seems right in his kingdom of Sicilia. But then his old best pal, Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, visits. Leontes sees Polixenes chatting and laughing with the very pregnant Hermione, and he is suddenly consumed by jealousy, so consumed that he ignores what everyone else tells him and convinces himself that the baby she is carrying belongs to Polixenes. Leontes tries to get one of his aides to poison Polixenes, but when that plot doesn’t come off and Polixenes escapes back to Bohemia, Leontes throws his very pregnant wife in jail and, when their baby is born, orders a courtier to take his tiny daughter far, far away and abandon her.

A nice shepherd finds the baby, now named Perdita (which means “lost"), the guy who left her gets eaten by a bear, and back in Sicilia, poor Hermione is dragged in front of the whole court and denounced as an unfaithful trollop. Even though the Oracle of Apollo takes her side, Leontes will not be moved. A courtier enters to announce that Hermione and Leontes’ young son, Mamillius, has died. At the news, Hermione collapses. Her friend, the stalwart Paulina, tells everyone that Hermione, too, has died from her grief and unhappiness. And finally, with his son and daughter and wife lost to him, finally Leontes sees how crazy he’s been. Finally, Leontes is sorry.

Quite the comedy, right?

Well, the second half is a bit cheerier. It’s 16 years later, little Perdita has grown into a lovely woman living with the kindly shepherd, Leontes has been sitting in Sicilia kicking himself around the block for his perfidy, and Polixenes has been back in Bohemia bringing up his son. The son falls in love with Perdita, Polixenes gets mad to think his royal child is mixed up with a lowborn shepherd’s daughter, threatening death and destruction, and everybody hoofs it back to Sicilia to sort things out.

In the play’s final reveal, Paulina brings Leontes a statue of his late wife, which she says is the very image of the lovely Hermione. Paulina pretends to cast a spell to bring the statue to life, and the family – Leontes, Hermione and Perdita – are together for the first time.

Fathers and daughters, irrational jealousy, miraculous reconciliations… Familiar Shakespearean ideas.

For the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, director Deb Alley has chosen to set the action during the period of Napoleon’s Empire. That means Leontes looks like he could be a Bonaparte, and his autocratic ways and steely dominion over his kingdom and his wife seem credible and real.

It also means that Rachel Laritz’s costume design includes lovely gowns for the ladies and dashing jackets and boots for the men that wouldn’t look out of place in a Jane Austen novel.

Among the cast, John Taylor Phillips does excellent work as Leontes, torturing himself with suspicion and then with distress over what he’s done. His Hermione, Melissa Graves, is quite fierce and strong, and the two of them together create a wonderfully moving, magical reconciliation scene.

Stephen Spencer gives us a charming, jolly Polixenes, someone you can see as the life of the party when he and Leontes were young. That helps explain why Leontes, perhaps less socially smooth than his old friend, would now look upon Polixenes acting a little flirty with his wife and see something sinister.

Alley has also given a significantly different interpretation to Sicilian lords Cleomenes and Dion, the two men Leontes sends to consult with Apollo’s Oracle on the question of Hermione’s fidelity and his own future. In this “Winter’s Tale,” they seem to be Scottish explorer ladies, out to find adventure in the unknown world. I’m clueless why they’re popping up in Sicilia in what seems to be 1810, but the actresses in the roles, Molly Rose Lewis and Jessie Dean, turn into spooky spiritualists when it comes time to divulge the prophecy, in a very compelling scene.

Thomas Anthony Quinn, as Leontes' estranged aide, Camillo, and Jan Rogge, as the faithful Paulina, add textured, warm performances and sympathetic characters to the mix. And little Shaun Taxali is quite adorable as young Mamillius.

I also enjoyed the three comic rustics in the piece, with David Kortemeier, Gerson Dacanay and Santiago Sosa bringing the shepherd, his son, and con man Autolycus to life more vividly than I recall from previous productions.

I would call this a stylish, emotional “Winter’s Tale,” clear on the idea that men like Leontes, who put power and control above everything else, will ultimately destroy what they care about most. Though Leontes is lucky enough to find his wife and daughter again, he has also lost his son and wasted 16 years.

Watching the Illinois Shakespeare Festival “Winter’s Tale” on a sultry summer evening, it’s still easy to feel the chill of Leontes’ terrible mistakes.

THE WINTER’S TALE
By William Shakespeare

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival at Ewing Manor

Director: Deb Alley
Costume Designer: Rachel Laritz
Scenic Designer: Michael Franklin-White
Lighting Designer: R. Lee Kennedy
Sound Designer: Aaron Paolucci
Stage Manager: Stephanie Wilson
Vocal Coach: Robert Ramirez
Dance Choreographer: Greg Merriman
Assistant Director: Brandon Ray

Cast: Gerson Dacanay, Jessie Dean, Michael Gamache, Melissa Graves, Nicholas Harazin, Nile Hawver, Josh Innerst, Mollie Rose Lewis, Kate McDermott, Dylan Paul, Melisa Peyera, John Taylor Phillips, Zach Powell, Thomas Anthony Quinn, Jan Rogge, Laura Rook, Santiago Sosa, Stephen Spencer, Andy Talen, Shaun Taxali.

Running time: 2:40, including one 15-minute intermission.

Performed in repertory through August 5.

For tickets and other information, visit the Illinois Shakespeare Festival website here.

"Fabulation" Will Return...

Since New Route Theatre's "One Shot Deals" are one-night only, once you've read the review of something terrific like Lynn Nottage's "Fabulation, or, the Re-Education of Undine," it's too late to see it yourself. But this just in from New Route:

"The one shot deal series will continue next year but will be shortened to four workshop productions at the Eaton Gallery. New Route Theatre will expand our program to include a full two week run season of four shows. FABULATION will be one of 2012 full run season productions. Watch for details."

That means New Route is planning right now to bring "Fabulation" back next year for a two-week run. Fingers crossed it all works out!

Other news just in from New Route: "The August 'One Shot Deal Series' production will be SEND THE LIGHT conceived and written by Don Shandrow with songs by Phil Shaw and incidental music by David Berchtold. SEND THE LIGHT is a celebration of the change electricity brought to rural America in the 1930's. Join us at the Eaton Gallery on August 10th at 7:00 PM and experience this amazing story."

So mark your calendars now-- August 10 for "Send the Light" and sometime next year for "Fabulation."

Update #2: "Into the Woods" in Normal

So, yes, I'm a little late on the opening of this one, too. But the good news about "Into the Woods," a Normal Parks and Recreation Summer Music Theatre production, is that it's continuing next week. That means you still have a chance to see Cinderella win (and lose) her prince, Rapunzel let down her golden locks, Jack get up to his Beanstalk hijinks, Little Red Riding Hood run into the Wolf, the Baker and his Wife take on the evil Witch next door, and everybody who can survive in this dark fairytale land learn that "happily ever after" isn't necessarily all that happy, but no one is alone, not even in the woods.

"Into the Woods" is a popular and much-beloved show, featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The score is wonderful (it's Sondheim, isn't it?) with a lot to say about parenting and community and the frailty of romance and love. My favorite song in the show is "Agony," the duet by the two princes (who were, after all, raised to be charming, not sincere) lamenting the annoyance factor in always going after girls who are stuck in unreachable towers or behind impenetrable thickets of briar. Or enclosed in glass. Or guarded by dwarves. It's a tough life.

Like all Normal Parks and Rec Summer Theatre productions, "Into the Wood" is performed by high school students at the Connie J. Link Amphitheater at 611 S. Linden Street in Normal. The Amphitheater itself is tucked in behind the maintenance buildings at that address, near the Constitution Trail. Park there and walk over to the Amphitheater with your lawn chairs, or bring a blanket to sit on the ground.

Performances continue tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 pm, as well as next week, July 21-24, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available on-site ($4 for adults, $2 for students, while seniors and children under the age of 5 are free), and there are apparently concessions for around a dollar. Details here.

Note: Nothing about this production says "Into the Woods Jr," the shorter, more kid-friendly version. But I have my suspicions they are indeed doing "Jr." I guess I won't know unless I go out there and see. As billed, I can only assume it is the three-hour, full "Into the Woods."

Update #1: Ain't Nothin But the Blues TONIGHT

Okay, so I am behind. This is a very busy weekend, as you already probably know, what with the Lincoln festivities and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival continuing and the usual Things to Do and People to See when the weather gets this hot and everybody wants to hit a pool or make a picnic or something that screams SUMMER.

Well, have I got SUMMER for you. It started yesterday, but it continues today and tonight, till 11:30 pm if their Facebook page is correct. "It" is the Ain't Nothin But the Blues Festival, with food and merch and harmonica, guitar and vocal lessons, so that you, too, can get down with the blues.

But the big deal is the acts coming to perform for you, of course. Tonight's performers include Cee Cee James, Bryan Lee and Janiva Magness.

Ain't Nothin But the Blues takes place at the General Electric Employee's Club, 1750 General Electric Road, in Bloomington, and you are invited to sit in a lawn chair or stroll around the lake to listen to the music.

All the details are here, including ticket prices and where to park and sponsors and vendors and bios of the performers.

And I'm sorry I'm tardy, because I'm sure this is a great party and a cool way to beat the heat.

Lincoln's Bloomington Festival Starts Tomorrow

Lincoln's Bloomington Festival, this year commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, begins tomorrow at six different sites in town.

The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, Bloomington Public Library, Burr House Bed & Breakfast, David Davis Mansion, IWU's Ames Library and McLean County Museum of History are all celebrating in different ways, with events planned from 10 am Saturday, July 16, (when President and Mrs. Lincoln show up in a carriage on Washington Street by the Museum) till 4 pm on Sunday, July 17.

Most events are free (and the one that's not, the Bob Bray/Jared Brown-penned play called “The Affray - Lincoln’s Last Murder Trial” at the McLean County History Museum, is sold out) and they range from bullet-making demonstrations on the lawn of the Ames Library to a Civil War fashion show at the Bloomington Public Library, scavenger hunts, movies, tea, music and dance, military drills and bugle calls, and several different events with reenactors who will present the Lincolns as well as Frederick Douglass, Jefferson Davis and Civil War generals like Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean County History Museum and the David Davis Mansion. And all of it will be pulled together by carriage rides from the McLean County History Museum and wagon rides among and between all the sites, although you are warned that these rides are popular, so you aren't guaranteed a ride.

You are invited to dress in your own Civil War era clothing and tip your stove-pipe hat as you visit all these different events.

The complete schedule is available here with some supplementary information here.