Broadway producers grant Timber Lake exclusive rights to Chicago the musical

From press release

MT. CARROLL, Ill.—Timber Lake Playhouse’s (TLP) management team, Artistic Director James Beaudry and General Manager Melissa Mattingly Parsons have announced that the producers of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Chicago have given TLP the exclusive rights to produce the show in Mt. Carroll this summer. Chicago will open the playhouse’s 49th season June 3.

“We were stunned and honored when we found out,” said Beaudry. “No one is getting the rights to this show now because the national tour and Broadway productions are still selling out. But I wrote a letter explaining that our regional audience often doesn’t have access to a lot of national tours, and we would like to bring this brilliant and spectacular show to them.”

TLP will be one of the only professional theater companies in the country to produce Chicago this season.

“We are in a unique time in human history,” wrote lead Broadway producer Barry Weissler about the show. “The world appears to be falling apart around us. … Sometimes, the best thing you can do for an audience is to give them a chance to breathe, to make them laugh, to rejuvenate them.”

At the height of the roaring ’20s, in a world where the latest scandal leads to instant celebrity, Chicago is the story of chorus girl Roxie Hart and vaudevillian Velma Kelly in a battle of song and dance numbers and vaudeville comedy acts as they await trial for the murders of their cheating men.

Chicago is now considered one of the best American musicals ever created. Written by Bob Fosse, John Kander and Fred Ebb, who had worked together previously on Cabaret, it includes such show-stopping songs as “All the Jazz,” “When You’re Good to Mama,” and “Razzle Dazzle” and the most astonishing dancing Broadway has ever seen. The comedy has won six Tony Awards, six Oscars and become the longest-running revival in Broadway history.

“When we thought we wouldn’t be able to produce Chicago, we planned on opening our season with another great show, Hairspray, instead,” Beaudry explained. “We only have a limited two-week window this year during which we can present Chicago. We still want to give our audiences a chance to enjoy Hairspray. We are planning on opening our 50th season in 2011 with that show. TLP’s first season was in 1962, and Hairspray takes place that very year. Hairspray will be a great way to kick off our year-long celebration.”

TLP’s 49th season in 2010 will continue with the classic American musical, Oklahoma!, and Kander and Ebb’s newest musical comedy, Curtains. Two plays—Steel Magnolias and Love, Sex & the I.R.S.—will be presented. The season will close with the new musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Nationwide casting for Timber Lake’s production and resident company gets under way this week. For more information about TLP auditions, visit www.timberlakeplayhouse.org and click on “Auditions & Jobs.”

Make a reservation for a group through the TLP Box Office. Group prices are as follows:12-30 people, $18 per ticket; 30 and more, $17 per ticket; and Opening Night Special, $15 per ticket for groups of 20 or more.

Subscriptions, gift packs, gift certificates and dinner coupons for the 2010 season are also available. Contact the TLP box office by calling (815) 244-2035 (TLP accepts Visa and MasterCard), e-mailing boxoffice@timberlakeplayhouse.org or mailing a check or money order to Timber Lake Playhouse, P.O. Box 29, Mount Carroll, IL 61053.

For more information, visit the Timber Lake Playhouse Web site at www.timberlakeplayhouse.org.