I’m sitting behind the Mamma Mia! audition table at the Equity Office in downtown Chicago. Choreographer William Carlos Angulo is on another job and has Aubrey Adams and Alejandro Fonseca here in his stead putting his choreography on this group of young men filling this packed audition room. They are dancing to the title song! Angulo’s recently acclaimed dances in West Side Story bring a new vigor and freshness to Paramount’s production, and I behold here again his approach positively doing the same thing! Alejandro plays “Indio,” a Shark gang member, and Aubrey is “Anybodys” in WSS, and it is also great to see Shark “Chino” Anthony Sullivan and Jet “Diesel” Aaron Patrick Craven here auditioning too! (I miss them!) Lots of new faces in the room, and some of these guys have incredible voices and really sing! Same can be said for the ladies and gents at yesterday’s Equity Principal Auditions with a capacity morning turn out of first timers and great Chicago leading players. So good to see who wants to get into the mix early on. I so do appreciate it!
During lunch, I’m alone now and thinking how this space will be filled with gorgeous ladies for the dance call! Company Manager Kaylee Oost walks in asking what’s my blog about and mentions how here we are at the beginning of creating and building a new season! The big announcement of our roster of shows was yesterday, and you can get the scoop, as well as renew your subscription or pre-order a new subscription, right here.
With a line-up of Mamma Mia!, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Sweeney Todd, and Jesus Christ Superstar, it’s hard to imagine a more disparate, contrasting season of music for Paramount Theatre’s Broadway Series Season Six! From the happiest of lighthearted family fare to the ultimate in passion and drama, 70s pop rock to the sublimely orchestrated, we continue to serve on our promise to present to you the highest caliber of theatre artists onstage and behind the scenes, delivering on the acclaim perpetuated by critics and audiences alike over our first five years: fresh, bold productions you will never forget!
OK! Here we go! Bring on the dancing girls!
Love and thanks,
Jim