CH&P Gamble on “Good Times”
Call it theatrical daredeviltry. In a surprising move for this trio of commercial producers, Michael Cullen, Sheila Henaghan, and Howard Platt have stepped up to bat with a commercial transfer of The Good Times Are Killing Me, an off-off-Loop production that comes with no New York track record and no name star to move tickets. The show, written by cartoonist Lynda Barry (who’s recently become a Chicagoan, by the way), is a collection of vignettes about growing up in the 1960s. The producing threesome traditionally has gone after the latest off-Broadway hits, such as Steel Magnolias, The Nerd, and Driving Miss Daisy.
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The fourth New Art Forms Exposition is under way this weekend on Navy Pier under the aegis of the Lakeside Group, producers of the annual spring extravaganza Art Expo. A gathering of galleries displaying 20th-century decorative and applied arts, this year’s New Art Forms event is somewhat larger than last year’s with 70 dealers participating, up from 61 in ’88.
More galleries signed up despite a hefty 30 percent increase in booth fees, with the average jumping from $2,000 to $2,600. “We hadn’t been making any money on the event,” notes Kristin Poole, who is running the expo for Lakeside.
In this his first major downtown venture, the Snuggery honcho has rethought his suburban club concept for the presumably more sophisticated in-town clientele. Unlike Snuggery venues, Excalibur will feature live entertainment in its rock ‘n’ roll cabaret and a gourmet-type menu in its restaurant, the Galerie. With dishes such as fresh grilled-fish salad and spicy sweet ribs in a ginger-mango sauce (does it grab you?), the Galerie will cater to both lunch and dinner business. Chef Tom Schraa formerly cooked at the Fairmont Hotel.
A Canadian Phantom opened in Toronto earlier this month, starring Colm Wilkinson, who created the role of Jean Valjean in the original English production of “Les Miz.” A Los Angeles company of Phantom opened last May, starring Michael Crawford, the original Phantom, who may repeat the role for the Auditorium opening, sources say.
As for the Pavarotti disappearing act, some big-time Lyric contributors were evidently pleased by general director Ardis Krainik’s hardball response to Pavarotti’s chronic cancellitis: according to Lyric marketing director Susan Mathieson, they upped their contributions after Krainik announced she was breaking off artistic ties.
