What a weekend! Broadway In Chicago has a total of 5 shows running concurrently since Friday night! XANADU had its first preview on Friday and the audience loved it – they shot up at the end of the show to give it a standing ovation. The show looks better here in Chicago than it did on Broadway, but you all know that I am extremely prejudiced. Really, it is a smaller theatre so the entire production seems much more intimate and the experience is a little more in your face than it was on Broadway. We had such great audiences over the weekend, they all loved it.
We also said goodbye to DIRTY DANCING and GREASE. This week we say hello to SPAMALOT at the Auditorium. GREASE closed Sunday and SPAMALOT loads in and has its first performance on Tuesday. Richard Chamberlain is starring in the show and it will be his first performance ever in SPAMALOT, right here in Chicago! We open to the press on Wednesday, so keep your eye out for the reviews in the papers.
I begin this week with a heavy heart as this is the final week of WICKED. This Sunday, January 25 at 2:00 p.m., WICKED will close after 1500 performances & 3.5 years. There will be a lot of closing articles on the show. I would consider finding them and saving them as they are sure to be collector’s items, just like the Obama special sections! There will be a great party for the cast, crew, and staff of Broadway In Chicago. This is a show that we all consider as family. Next Monday I will give you the down low on who cried. I can’t tell you how much this show has meant to Broadway In Chicago and for the City of Chicago – and me. As they say in the song “I have been changed for good.”
It is all okay though – Chicago closes their hometown WICKED but inaugurates a hometown President! Oh that reminds me Broadway In Chicago has a huge one day sale tomorrow that you should not miss $44.00 to all the upcoming shows. Click here for more details!
-Eileen