About This Show
Theatre Building Chicago presents STAGES 2005: a festival of new musicals, a three-day musical extravaganza features nine new works including musicals by homegrown Chicago writers Georgann Joseph & Janet Preus as well as Dave Hudson and Paul Libman.
PARTICIPATING SHOWS
BRINGERS
(Music by Paul Libman, Lyrics and Concept by Dave Hudson)
Inspired by the poetry of Carl Sandburg, this original musical joyfully explores the repeating cycle of life in the Midwest. Bringers draws on American music traditions from folk to jazz, evoking the images and emotions of the American landscape. — 2005 Richard Rodgers award, best new musical
Summer Shorts — A Double Bill of One Acts
THE BIG ENDING
(Book, Music and Lyrics by Peter Shrubshall & Richard Free)
THE BIG BEGINNING
(Music by Ross Källing, Book and Lyrics by Scott Guy)
TBC puts on its summer shorts, offering two new musicals in brief one-acts! Straight from London’s Mercury Musical Developments and Los Angeles’ Academy for New Musical Theatre comes an irreverent double-bill about dying musical theatre producers and dead playwrights.
THE DEVIL AND DEXTER WEBSTER
(Book & Lyrics by Alex Wexler and Music by Bill Parsley)
In return for fame and fortune, Hollywood hopeful Dex Webster signs away his soul to Malatoff Dyáblik, film producer and Devil incarnate!
EVER AFTER
(Book by Georgann Joseph, Music by Janet Preus, Lyrics by Georgann Joseph & Janet Preus)
Karen, a thirty-something attorney, sets out to find the perfect man with the help of her best friend, who thinks that Karen has been sabotaging herself when it comes to love.
THE FROG PRINCE
(Book & Lyrics by Charles Leipart and Music by Eric Schorr)
Some women marry princes and some women marry frogs. In this wacky, romantic and contemporary version of the classic Grimm fairytale, our Princess meets a frog she is determined to turn into a Prince!
PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
(Book by Richard B. Evans & Kate Hancock, Music by Richard B. Evans, Lyrics by Kate Hancock)
Irish village life turns upside down when a stranger confesses he’s killed his father. Hero or villain? Irish comedy, romance, music and dance meet Broadway!
THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF DR. CRIPPEN
(Book by David Mallumud & Michael L. Cooper, Music by David Mallamud, Lyrics by Michael L. Cooper)
Set in the dark world of the Edwardian British music hall Crippen tells the unbelievable but true story of a murderous doctor and his doomed wife.
TEVYE
(Book by Jim Eisenman & Tom Adams, Music by Tom Adams, Lyrics by Jim Eisenman)
Oy vey, what took so long? Tevye, musical theatre’s beloved Papa, is back in this poignant new story of his struggle to reconcile family and faith with life… in America.
