Displaying items by tag: The Chopin Theatre

Kokandy Productions is pleased to conclude its 2024 season with an immersive production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's classic Into The Woods, the first Chicago storefront production of the beloved musical in over a decade. Directed and choreographed by Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula, Into The Woods will play October 10 – December 22, 2024 at The Chopin Studio Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at kokandyproductions.com. 

Journeying Into The Woods are Kevin Webb and Sonia Goldberg as The Baker and The Baker's Wife, Stephanie Stockstill as The Witch, Madison Kauffman as Cinderella, Kevin Parra as Jack and Anna Seibert as Little Red. Pulling double (or more) duty are August Forman as Narrator/Mysterious Man, Shea Hopkins as Cinderella's Prince/Wolf, Makenzy Jenkins as Rapunzel's Prince/Steward, Ismael Garcia as Rapunzel/Florinda, Britain Gebhardt as Jack's Mother/Lucinda and Emily Goldberg as Cinderella's Stepmother/Mother. The company of players is completed by swings Gabby Koziol, Jackson Mikkelsen, Halli Morgan, Michael Penick, Julie Peterson, Elizabeth Rentfro and Evan B Smith.

Escape into a fantastical fairytale adventure where wishes come true, but not always for free. A trove of storybook characters' paths intertwine as they chase their deepest desires through an enchanted forest. However, once they receive their happily ever after, the unintended consequences of granted wishes unravel their worlds.

Weaving a euphoric score including the songs "Giants in the Sky," "On the Steps of the Palace," "No One Is Alone" and "Children Will Listen" with a darkly humorous book, Into the Woods is a sophisticated musical twist on beloved childhood fables.

"What will we find when we wander into these woods?" asks director and choreographer Derek Van Barham. "A company of players, a beloved musical and a little magic. Our hope is that by re-orchestrating for 2 pianos and a cast of 12 (half of them doubling) we can focus on the intimate and immersive nature of the show, capturing the desperate need to be seen, to be remembered and to gather together to share (and receive) a good story."

Music Director Nick Sula adds, "Many of the characters in this musical are introduced in pairs - The Baker and The Baker's Wife, Jack and Little Red, the two Stepsisters, the two Princes - so it felt natural to include the music, the musicians and the instruments themselves as a mirror of that. Our team of three pianist/orchestrators collaborated to create a unique sound with a two-piano, four-(or more!)-hand approach that features a duo of acoustic grand pianos. We are delighted to share the full depth and breadth of Stephen Sondheim's music with our audiences in this hauntingly majestic and intimate re-imagination." 

The production team includes G "Max" Maxin IV, (Scenic Design and Lighting Design), Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design), Matt Reich (Sound Design), Mike Patrick (Sound Consultant), Jakob Abderhalden (Properties Design), Chels Morgan (Intimacy Choreographer), Syd Genco (Makeup Design), Keith Ryan (Wig Design), Ariana Miles and Evelyn Ryan (Orchestrators), Nicholas Reinhart (Production Manager), Shane Roberie (Casting Associate), Lynsy Folckomer (Sound Engineer), Ryan Stajmiger (Assistant Director), Kendyl Meyer (Stage Manager), Ethan Colish (Assistant Stage Manager).

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Title: Into The Woods

Book by James Lapine

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed and Choreographed by Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham

Music Direction by Nick Sula

Cast (in alphabetical order): August Forman (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Ismael Garcia (Rapunzel/Florinda), Britain Gebhardt (Jack's Mother/Lucinda), Emily Goldberg (Cinderella's Stepmother/Mother), Sonia Goldberg (The Baker's Wife), Shea Hopkins (Cinderella's Prince/Wolf), Makenzy Jenkins (Rapunzel's Prince/Steward), Madison Kauffman (Cinderella), Kevin Parra (Jack), Anna Seibert (Little Red), Stephanie Stockstill (The Witch) and Kevin Webb (The Baker).

Swings: Gabby Koziol, Jackson Mikkelsen, Halli Morgan, Michael Penick, Julie Peterson, Elizabeth Rentfro and Evan B Smith. 

Musicians: Ariana Miles (piano) and Evelyn Ryan (piano).

Location: The Chopin Studio Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Thursday, October 10 at 7 pm, Friday, October 11 at 7 pm, Saturday, October 12 at 7 pm, Sunday, October 13 at 5 pm, Monday, October 14 at 7 pm, Sunday, October 20 at 5 pm, Monday, October 21 at 7 pm, Thursday, October 24 at 7 pm and Friday, October 25 at 7 pm

Press performance: Saturday, October 26 at 7 pm

Regular run: Sunday, October 27 – Sunday, December 22, 2024

Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 pm; Sundays at 5 pm. Please note: there will be added performances on Wednesday, November 27 at 7 pm and Monday, December 9 at 7 pm; there will not be a performance on Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving).

Tickets: Previews $25 (with code PREVIEW). Regular run $45 general admission, $55 reserved seating. Students/Seniors $35. There will be a limited number of $15 tickets (with code ARTIST) available to artists for each performance. Tickets are on sale now at kokandyproductions.com.

About the Artists

Derek Van Barham (Director/Choreographer, he/him) is the Producing Artistic Director of Kokandy Productions. Directing credits include Children of Eden in Concert (Broadway In Chicago), Spring Awakening (Flint Rep); Sweeney Todd, American Psycho and Head Over Heels (Jeff Awards and Jeff nomination, Kokandy); The View Upstairs (Circle Theatre); Miracle by Dan Savage, Poseidon (Hell in a Handbag). Choreography credits include Evil Dead (Jeff nomination), Coraline the Musical, Ghost Quartet, Shockheaded Peter and Coraline the Musical (Black Button Eyes). He was previously named one of Windy City Times' 30 Under 30, and one of Newcity Magazine's 50 Players 2024. MFA: CCPA/Roosevelt University. derekvanbarham.com | IG @dvbarham

Nick Sula (Music Director and Orchestrations, he/him) is an award-winning pianist, arranger and music director. Music Direction credits include the Jeff Award-winning production of Sweeney Todd with Kokandy Productions, for which he earned the Jeff Award for Outstanding Music Direction; Anything Goes with Porchlight Music Theatre [Jeff nomination]; Ghost Quartet [Jeff nomination], Nevermore, Amour, Coraline (Black Button Eyes Productions); Myths & Hymns, The Glorious Ones [Jeff nomination], Pippin (BoHo Theatre); His & His, Boys in Briefs, Broadway at the Broadway (Pride Films and Plays); Merrily We Roll Along, Head Over Heels, The Pajama Game, The Pirates of Penzance (CCPA). Nick can be heard performing with vocalists at theaters and cabaret venues around Chicagoland such as Davenport's Piano Bar and Skokie Theater. As a professor of musical theatre he serves as a music director, instructor and vocal coach at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

About Kokandy Productions

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

The company's artistic staff is comprised of Derek Van Barham (Producing Artistic Director), Scot T. Kokandy (Executive Producer) and Adrian Abel Azevedo & Leda Hoffman (Artistic Associates). The Board of Directors includes Preston Cropp, Scot T. Kokandy, Danielle Sparklin and Katie Svaicer. 

For additional information, visit www.kokandyproductions.com. 

When my husband announced that his company holiday party this year was 80s themed, my first thought was that it had been done before. I’d donned enough leg warmers and sported enough side ponytails at enough parties. My second thought was why not the 90s? Surely in 2023 people want to worship another decade? But when I read Chicago was getting American Psycho: The Musical, I dug out my favorite oversized blazer and headed to Wicker Park to watch the book-turned-movie-turned-musical that encapsulated and glorified the very decade I dared to criticize..

The cast was led by the showstopping talent of Kyle Patrick as Patrick Bateman, the stylish and sadistic center of American Psycho. Patrick’s performance was riveting, one couldn’t take his eyes away from him. He perfectly captured Bateman’s devilishly attractive and hypnotic presence, pulling you in with his charm and wit, turning psychotically evil effortlessly before falling back into his charm. The range Patrick displayed as Bateman was nothing short of breathtaking. The murderous chemistry between Patrick and John Drea as his nemesis Paul Owen was haunting and electric, their bravados embodying the 80s and their fight staging choreography scarily convincing. The play was accompanied with an indulgent soundtrack with original numbers like “Cards” and “Not a Common Man” along with seminal 80s bangers Everybody Wants to Rule the World and of course Hip to Be Square. You were dancing in your seat along with the cast.

The play was set appropriately on a cat walk, white business cards adorning the path, the cast using the cat walk to seamlessly transition from the Tunnel nightclub Tunnel, to the gym, to the office, to Paul Owen’s apartment, the entrances draped cleverly with white tarp. The choreography, directed by Breon Arzell, was nothing short of art. Arzell was able to take extremely difficult and violent scenes and make them hauntingly captivating. In one particularly sexually violet scene (read the book or watch the film if you are curious about this referenced scene), an adonis-like Patrick puppeteered two women, played by Emily Holland and Quinn Simmons, through a series of graceful movements, simulating a sexual throupling without being obscene, and navigating the violence with dignity, masked through the art of dance. Such scenes were made to be very effective thanks to Kokandy's incredibly talented Intimacy Coordinate Kirsten Baity and Fight Choreographer Kate Lass. 

(left to right) Kyle Patrick and John Dreain Kokandy Productions’ Chicago premiere of American Psycho: The Musical

The book-turned-movie-turned-musical has real staying power. Comments Director Derek Van Barham,  It’s horror, it’s satire, it goes for the guts and getsinto your head. And it’s all tinged with that David Lynchian unease of ‘What is actually happening?’ Extending that question of uncertainty into the live experience, we’re playing with what we show vs. what we don’t show, what you see vs. what you think you saw. A lot is going to be left up to the audience.” American Psycho: The Musical has many themes that are still applicable and relatable today. If I concede that the musical glorifying the 80s is still relevant and significant in 2023, then by proxy the 80s are still relevant and significant today, meaning I must find neon bangle earrings to match my leg warmers this holiday season…

Kokandy Production's American Psycho: The Musical runs through November 26, 2023 at The Chopin Studio Theatre (1543 W. Division St., Chicago). Tickets are available at https://www.kokandyproductions.com/american-psycho/.

*Extended through December 10th

He’s everyone’s favorite optimistic sponge—and he has his own musical. Kokandy Productions' SpongeBob the Musical at the Chopin Theatre is the perfect family summer night out, or the perfect night out for any fan of Nickelodeon’s lovable Bikini Bottom characters.

With bright, colorful costumes and staging, this show is busy and fun to look at. All the blue fringe hanging from the ceiling makes you feel like you’re under the sea, and the costumes invoke the well loved cartoon characters while keeping the looks original and interesting.

(left to right) Frankie Leo Bennett, Sarah Patin, andIsabel Cecilia Garcíai nKokandy Productions’ The SpongeBob Musical. Photo by Evan Hanover.

Living in a pineapple under the sea has never been more stressful. SpongeBob and his friends, the dim-witted Patrick Starr and the bright-witted Sandy Cheeks, take on a volcano that’s about to erupt and threaten Bikini Bottom’s very existence. They get help (and hindrance) from their friends and frenemies, like SpongeBob’s boss Mr. Krabbs and his daughter Pearl, his eternally cranky neighbor Squidward, the Krusty Krabb’s nemesis Plankton and his personified computer wife Karen, plus ever-changing ensembles of other fan favorite background characters from the cartoon.

Normally known for their darker productions, like last year's Sweeney Todd, Kokandy Productions instead brings a bright, colorful, child-friendly story to the stage this summer. But like many of their other productions, there is a high level of inventiveness and physicality in the props and costumes. Directed by JD Caudill, Kokandy's SpongeBob the Musical is an energetic and animated production.

And a lot of that energy comes from the cast, with Frankie Leo Bennett as a lovable and quirky SpongeBob, Sarah Patin as a self-assured Sandy, and Isabel Cecilia Garcia as a dopey but well-intentioned Patrick.

(front, center) Quinn Rigg with (back, left to right) David Lipschultz, QuinnSimmons, Shane Roberie, Maddison Denault, Nicky Mendelsohn, Kelcy Taylorand, TommyBullington inKokandy Productions’ The SpongeBob Musical. Photo by Evan Hanover.

Though the entire cast from the stars to the ensemble are great, my personal favorite is Quinn Rigg as Squidward. Maybe it’s just that as I’ve gotten older I have more of an affinity for the character's cynicism, but Rigg impeccably pulls off the cartoon squid in human form—and even channels John Mulaney. Or maybe Squidward has always sounded like John Mulaney and this show just made me realize it. 

We all know and love SpongeBob, but what about the music? Instead of one composer or a composer + lyricist duo, the score of this show was written by a slew of famous artists, but not reusing their songs in a jukebox musical way. The songs are original, and each one is written by a different artist. There are songs by Panic! at the Disco, Sara Bareilles, T.I., Plain White T’s, David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Yolanda Adams, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, and more. So, whether you like the music will depend on what genre(s) of music you like. It takes you from pop to rap to folk to electronic.

It’s a wild ride.

SpongeBob the Musical is playing through September 3, 2023 at The Chopin Theatre. Tickets available at Eventbrite.