Displaying items by tag: Chicago Musical Theatre Festival

Kokandy Productions is delighted to announce its 2025 season, including two fully produced musicals and the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival.

Spend next summer in Paris (Montmartre, to be exact) with the Chicago premiere of Amélie, based on the 2001 film of the same name. Kokandy presents the charming tale of Amélie and the fantastical world of whimsy and romance that surrounds her. The entire Chopin basement, including the lobby, bar and cafe, will envelop audiences in Amélie's journey.

Just in time for Halloween, Kokandy embraces gothic horror with a revival of Jekyll & Hyde – the first Chicago staging of the macabre musical in over 15 years. The epic and sweeping score takes the company to the Chopin Mainstage for the first time, creating a chilling chamber for this haunting tale.

Full productions in the 2025 season will be presented at The Chopin Theater, 1543 W Division St. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Single tickets will go on sale Friday, April 1, 2025 at www.kokandyproductions.com.

After a successful return in 2024, Kokandy is also pleased to steward the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival (dates and venue TBD). CMTF spotlights musical writers, composers, producers and fans with a festival of concert readings of exciting and challenging new works. Throughout the year, the company will continue the popular Kokandy Book Club, an intimate salon series celebrating theatre, music and community presented at The Understudy, 5531 N. Clark St. in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood. Each meeting will focus on a well-known play or musical – investigating the plot, themes and relevant tangents through a mix of musical theatre and pop/rock performance.

Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham says, "In 2025, we're looking to escape. A technicolor trip to France, a lamplit stroll through late-night London. No matter how far we go, we cannot escape ourselves. At first glance, Amélie's romantic daydreams seem to have nothing in common with Dr. Henry Jekyll's haunting hypotheses, and yet... both seek to explore what's hiding inside. This is an eclectic season for dreamers and nightmare enthusiasts alike. And with the idiosyncratic intimacy of Amelie against Jekyll's epic scope, we're challenging ourselves as a company to be both smaller and bigger than we've been before. Good and evil, light and dark, upstairs and downstairs – can't wait to play!"

Kokandy Productions' 2025 Season includes: 

Spring 2025 – Date/Venue TBA

Chicago Musical Theatre Festival

The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival (CMTF) features concert presentations of new musicals from Chicago and across the country. Originally produced by Underscore Theatre Company and now under the leadership of Kokandy Productions, the festival is a celebration of new work, designed to highlight emerging musical theatre creators.

July 17 - September 28, 2025
Amélie

Book by Craig Lucas

Music by Daniel Messé

Lyrics by Nathan Tysen & Daniel Messé

in the Chopin Downstairs Studio

Amélie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy and mayhem. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realizes that to find happiness she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart. Be inspired by this imaginative dreamer who finds her voice, discovers the power of connection, and sees possibility around every corner.

October 10 - December 21, 2025
Jekyll & Hyde

Conceived for the Stage by Frank Wildhorn & Steve Cuden

Book and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

Music by Frank Wildhorn

Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson

on the Chopin Theater Mainstage

An evocative tale of two men – one, a doctor, passionate and romantic; the other, a terrifying madman – and two women – one, beautiful and trusting; the other, beautiful and trusting only herself – both women in love with the same man and both unaware of his dark secret. A devoted man of science, Dr. Henry Jekyll is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve some of mankind's most challenging medical dilemmas. Rebuffed by the powers that be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons along with the man that the world would come to know as Mr. Hyde.

About Kokandy Productions

Founded in 2010, Kokandy Productions seeks to leverage the heightened reality of musical theater to tell complex and challenging stories, with a focus on contributing to the development of Chicago-based musical theater artists, and raising the profile of Chicago's non-Equity musical theater community.

The company's artistic staff is comprised of Derek Van Barham (Producing Artistic Director), Scot T. Kokandy (Executive Producer), Adrian Abel Azevedo and Leda Hoffmann (Artistic Associates) and Jeff Meyer (Webmaster/Graphic Designer).

For additional information, visit www.kokandyproductions.com.

The Chicago Musical Theater Festival is produced by the Underscore Theater Company as a forum for musical theater creators and artists to bring new musicals to the stage in a more low risk environment. In its second year, the fest features thirteen new works all sharing the stage in over 60 performances at The Den Theater.

Dirty Girl is presented by the New American Folk Theater, and was written by Anthony Whitaker. It is a retelling of the classic Cinderella story set in a fictitious trailer park in Georgia, 1987. Jennifer dreams of going to her prom, but has no date, no dress and no support from her step aunt or step cousins, Tami and Tammy, who lovingly refer to her as Dirty Girl. Lucky for her, her fairy god cousin by marriage comes to her rescue with a delightfully 80’s prom dress and a date with the most popular high school jock. But the prom is not the happily ever after Jennifer dreamed of and she learns that in real life there are no magical solutions to your problems and you have to find your own happy ending.

As the show shares the stage with thirteen other musicals during this festival, the set is very minimal. It is a black box style theater and they creatively maneuver a few chairs, a bench and a table to transport us from the trailer, to the school cafeteria, to the mall and of course the prom! The commitment of the actors to their over the top characters helps to fill the otherwise simple space.  

The show entertains with witty humor in both the dialog and songs, boasting more 1980’s references than you can count. The strongest singers are definitely the two main characters, Jennifer (Sarah Gise) and Randy/Troy (Kirk Jackson). Overall the acting was good, embracing the caricatures of the trailer park friends and family. Grant Drager’s portrayal of Tami is fantastic and just what you would want the trailer trash version of an ugly stepsister to be, while Coco Kasperowicz’s Tammy seemed to fluctuate in and out of character. The choreography was pretty kitschy with moves more commonly seen in an elementary school dance recital but somehow it seemed to work with the exaggerated stereotypes of the show. The costumes were colorful and just a bit tacky (as they should be!) with a bit of rebellious goth punk fashion tossed in for good measure.

Amidst all the overblown characters and silly songs, the show still draws you in and makes you care. When Jennifer takes ownership of her happy ending and reunites with Troy, the nerd who adores her, for a quiet night in watching a recording of the Dukes of Hazard special, it will warm your heart.

It may not be the clean and polished musical many are used to, but Dirty Girl is funny and full of characters that you will love or love to hate. If you grew up in the 80’s it will be especially entertaining, bringing back memories of neon spandex, taffeta prom dresses and big hair and sure to get a few laughs out of you.

Catch an upcoming performance Dirty Girl at The Den Theater as part of the Chicago Musical Theater Festival:

Wednesday, July 8^th @ 9:30pm

Saturday, July 11^th @ 5:30pm

Thursday, July 16^th @6:00 pm

Sunday, July 19^th @ noon

Underscore Theatre Company is in the midst of their second annual Chicago Musical Theatre Festival at The Den Theatre where it is host to thirteen brand new musicals submitted by a slew of local theatre companies. Though some musicals presented come from theatre companies more polished than others, the event is a fantastic passage for the development of new, creative theatre productions in the Chicago area. A handful of submitted plays are production-ready while some are completed works. Some of the theatre companies involved include the New American Folk Theatre (“Dirty Girl”), American Demigods (“Fanatical”), Duplicity Ensemble (“Marble, GA”).

Day two of the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival introduced “One Thousand Words”, a musical with the book and lyrics by Michael Braud and music by Curran Latas. When a reporter, Richard Hanks, is assigned to write a thousand words about two men in love during World War II, he is at first disappointed because he’d rather be in Pakistan covering the current tension in the area. After his editor dangles a carrot in front of the horse-drawn carriage by semi-promising she would send him on the overseas assignment once he successfully handles the task at hand, Hanks decides to write the story of the year and delves into the lives of these two men whose story comes from an intimate photo of the two while in World War II. After tracking down Warren, now eighty-years-old, he is taken back to the 1940s where he hears the story of two men who hid their love for each other before, during and after wartime and the circumstances and obstacles that they had to face. Hanks becomes transfixed by Warren’s story and possibly affected much more than he expected.

The story is simple enough. It flows well without confusion and the dialogue is fairly engaging. Its songs are not likely to be remembered afterwards for their melody though they did strengthen certain points in the show by capturing the appropriate tone of the moment despite singing that is best described as hit or miss. The set is as minimalistic as they come furnished with only a couple crates, leaving much to the imagination, as the space it used for each and every production in the festival and requires a quick turnaround.  

Joe Hornberger does give a strong performance as “Warren” and is one of the better singers in the cast, while Justin Stevens pairs up with him nicely as “Daniel”, his lover. At first one might think the two a bit miscast and unlikely as lovers, but the pair begins to make more and more sense as the story progresses and become quite believable. One needs to keep in mind that thirteen musicals are sharing the same space for multiple performances in a few weeks’ time, so there might be missed spotlight marks, minor production tweaking per show and somewhat barren sets. The main purpose is for Chicagoans to experience and support local theatre in development and hopefully be entertained while doing so. One Thousand Words contains enough positives to keep it interesting.   

One Thousand Words can be seen at The Den Theatre:                                    

Tuesday, July 07, 2015 9:30 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2015 2:00 PM
Thursday, July 16, 2015 8:00 PM
Saturday, July 18, 2015 5:30 PM

For more information on the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, visit www.cmtf.org. 

Underscore Theatre Company proudly presents the second annual Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, featuring 13 world-premiere musicals by local artists. These musicals showcase Chicago’s emerging musical theatre artists. Chicago is home to musical theatre creators, giving the artists a safety net to fall back into when they make risky decisions and experiment with the performing arts. There was a disclaimer in the program. It stated that if theatregoers were to see a musical, it may not be any good. After all, musicals are risky business and very challenging.

Brian is an IT technician at the corporate headquarters of American Smoothie. He feels like his coworkers do not appreciate him and all the work he does for them. Poor Brian arrives to work every morning with demands such as, “Help me open this document!” or “Fix my computer!” He looks forward to speaking with Brie, his coworker, because he has eyes for her. Speaking to Brie is easier said than done and there are too many obstacles in the way. First, Brian’s inability to make a situation light and not-awkward, and second, Chad. Chad is Brian’s worst nightmare. Chad has loads of personality, always bright, and is a charitable human. Everyone at work has a large personality. Brian’s boss, Jerry, is very eccentric. Coworker, Samantha, has a bird fetish. Coal, Brian’s roommate and best friend, is a dedicated puppet game show host. Throw all these characters together in a play, things are bound to go wrong.

That was the shortest summary I could muster, skipping all the ridiculous details, without straying too far. This script went in so many directions, I could barely keep up. Although it was very creative and somewhat comical, the holes in the plot and the weak presence on stage was more apparent. It seems as if the cast missed out on bonding experiences and went straight into rehearsing. It made for rigid and timid presences on stage.  

However, some characters are worth noting. Brian (Brian Elliot) and Samantha (Cami Rene Philgreen) possess very strong voices. Chad (Jonathan Wilson) and Jerry (Michael Palmenderi) provide comic relief from a very confusing script. The ideas were great, but they didn’t blend and left me very confused.

The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival will be presented June 30 - July 19, 2015 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets are available at www.cmtf.org

Not too long ago, Rahm Emanuel and Jesús "Chuy" Garcia were running head to head in the 2015 Chicago Mayoral election. Many thought this was the opportunity to get someone new into the office that actually related to the quintessential Chicagoan who cared about our public schools, opposed red light cameras, and had a new perspective on things. Well, the people spoke and reelected Mayor Emanuel into office for another four years. 

Whether you like Rahm or not, you must check out the musical “How to Run for Mayor”, which is part of the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival running until July 19th. The musical is about a recent college graduate, Kim, who looks high and low for a job. Her solution: become a viral sensation by running for mayor. 

Of course her promises of what she would accomplish as mayor are unrealistic but is something that millennials are drawn to. She quickly gets thousands of views and hits the 12,500 signatures needed to be on the ballot due to her trusty campaign manager.

The play has an actor that looks eerily similar to Emanuel, just taller but does a great job at showing his arrogance. 

As a political junkie, I appreciate that the play touched on our government system that is totally broken, the lack of interest in voting, and problems with candidates that have so much money and power that they are tough to push out of the office. 

“How to Run for Mayor” features fine acting performances by Trent Eisfeller as Rahm, Steve Lords as Chief of Staff, Grace Palmer as Kim Capello and Ryan Semmelmayer as Charlie Martin.

This musical is a funny and cheeky perspective on elections today. Hurry and purchase tickets to the show playing at The Den Theatre at www.cmtf.org. Upcoming shows of “How to Run for Mayor” are held on July 10, 12, 15, and 18th and runs approximately 60 minutes. The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival features thirteen brand new plays and is sure to have something for everyone.