“New Faces Sing BRoadway- 1984”

[rating=5]Where does all the talent come from? That is the question that theater audiences ask as they walk out of every local theater in town. One answer is that young actors/performers come TO Chicago seeing it as “the land of opportunity”. With solid companies like Theo Ubique, the Mercury Theater, Marriott Theater, Drury Lane Theatre, The Paramount, and of course Porchlight Theatre. Porchlight, under the direction of Michael Weber, not only presents a full season of musicals but every so often presents a special night introducing some of the wonderful young talents to us via his “New Faces Sing Broadway” series.

This evening, we were witness to the year on Broadway-1984. The hostess for the evening was Honey West, who also brought a wonderful version of “I Am What I Am” ( La Cage aux Folles) to the sold-out house at Evanston’s Space Cabaret.

The theme of the evening was of course 1984 and the show was driven by the words from the greatest wordsmith on Broadway, Stephen Sondheim from his musical of that year “Sunday In The Park With George”. By the way, if any area theater is thinking of doing that show ( one of my favorites) the young man who did “Finishing The Hat”, David Gorson-Johnson was wonderful. In fact, Jane remarked as we left the Space after the show, that this group of performers might have been the best of the best to date, and we have seen some wonderful New Faces shows. Many of those who got their start in these one-nighters ( really two performances and venues) have gone on to great success, both on the local scene and on  Broadway.

While this is a sort of Cabaret Concert, director Tommy Novak added some clever production numbers.”Mashup: Cats/A Chorus Line” done by Teddy Gales ( quite the comic), and Nikki Krzebiot was adorable. There were some sing-alongs from “Oliver” and “Ease On Down The Road” ( The Wiz) getting the audience involved. They also had a quiz on Broadway where two audience members came up on stage and won prizes. Lots of fun for all.

The shows were ones that most of us were familiar with: “Mame”, “Nine”,”Evita, “Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”  and a few that were not big hits or even remembered like “Baby”, “The Human Comedy” ,”The Rink”, “Marilyn ,An American Fable”, “Doonesbury” and one that I doubt anyone recalls, “The Quilters”. Even those songs that were unfamiliar were fun to listen to as presented by these fabulous performers.

Remember these names because you will be seeing them in a theater very soon: Isabel Garcia, Nora Navarro, Luiza Vitucci, Justin Grey McPike, Patrick O’Keefe, Lincoln J. Skoien and Mai Hartwich. These are in addition to the aforementioned Gorson-Johnson, Gales and Krzebiot.

The evening was ninety minutes of Broadway magic and can also be seen Wednesday, April 26th at The Den Theatre located at 1331 N. Milwaukee Avenue

773-697-3830

www.porchlightmusictheatre.org  for tickets and information.  You will have “The Time Of Your Life”.