Splashy shows take center stage this holiday season

The holidays are rapidly approaching. Along with coordinating elaborate turkey dinners and frantically finding gifts on holiday wish lists, there are also entertainment considerations to be made. And they should be done sooner rather than later if you want to get good seats to the best shows.

To get into the seasonal spirit, you can go with old standbys of "A Christmas Carol" or "The Nutcracker." But if you're looking for something different, consider how the Chicago area is blessed with a big bouquet of Broadway offerings this holiday season. You can choose from Broadway classics, shows with well-known stars, new Broadway shows making Chicago debuts and New York-bound productions staging world premieres in the Windy City.

Some Enchanted Evenings

One of Broadway's biggest successes of the past two years is also strangely in town for the shortest amount of time. That show is Lincoln Center Theater's seven-time Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific."

This Pulitzer Prize-winning musical only plays eight shows at the Rosemont Theatre from Nov. 24-29, although the time is quite appropriate: The show's USO-styled follies number featuring the song "Honey Bun" takes place on Thanksgiving.

Metropolitan Opera baritone David Pittsinger plays the exiled Frenchman Emile de Becque in Rosemont after performing the role more than 130 times on Broadway. Pittsinger chalks up "South Pacific's" success 60 years after its original Broadway debut largely to its superlative score.

"Think about it. Every single song is a hit," Pittsinger said. "From 'Bali Hai' to 'Some Enchanted Evening' to 'This Nearly Was Mine' to 'I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair.'"

Pittsinger also says local audiences shouldn't feel shortchanged "because it's the same show. The costuming, the sets and choreography. It's been kept very, very true" to the Broadway revival.

Waltz to it

Most opera houses lay claim to "The Merry Widow" nowadays, but it was Broadway in 1907 that first introduced America to Franz Lehar's 1905 comic operetta blockbuster.

Playing a full year at New York's New Amsterdam Theatre (a record-breaking run in those days), "The Merry Widow" spawned a waltzing dance craze across America. Its hit tunes like "Vilja" and "The Merry Widow Waltz" can still be hummed by generations of fans.

Considering "The Merry Widow's" Broadway pedigree, the Lyric Opera of Chicago opted to feature musical comedy veterans to craft its brand new production which runs for 11 performances between Dec. 5 and Jan. 16.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater associate director Gary Griffin (who directed "The Color Purple" on Broadway and "The New Moon" for New York's Encores!) helms this new production, which also features sets by Tony Award-nominee Daniel Ostling and costumes by Mara Blumenfeld (both frequent collaborators with director Mary Zimmerman).

The Lyric is also using an English translation by Sheldon Harnick, famed for his lyrics to beloved musicals like "Fiddler on the Roof" and "She Loves Me."

"It's a charming, delightful piece," said Lyric Opera of Chicago general director William Mason, who is happy to bring "The Merry Widow" back to the Lyric after a 23-year absence.

"I hope musical theater fans rediscover operettas and realize that they are not second-rate," Griffin said. "'The Merry Widow' offers a remarkable evening of music and warmhearted ideas about love."

New York bound

Local theater audiences who regularly pride themselves on saying "We saw it first in Chicago" should get really excited about two shows making their world premieres here before heading to New York.

Cirque du Soleil's "Banana Shpeel" hopes to appeal to audiences at the Chicago Theatre from Nov. 19 to Jan. 3 before an intended opening at New York's Beacon Theatre in 2010, while the Broadway-bound musical "The Addams Family" sets up house from Nov. 13 to Jan. 10 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.

Cirque du Soleil is taking a big risk with the vaudeville-inspired "Banana Shpeel."

"It's a very big departure for Cirque du Soleil, and this show will premiere in Chicago, which is something we've never done," said Cirque du Soleil publicist Reggie Lyons.

Indeed, Cirque du Soleil is best known for its touring outdoor big-top tent extravaganzas ("Kooza," "Varekai") and long-running custom-built Las Vegas spectacles ("O," "Mystere"). But with "Banana Shpeel," Cirque du Soleil is trying a proscenium-framed theater show that ties into the Montreal-based company's drive for more indoor-style entertainment.

Recent examples include the arena restaging of "Saltimbanco" (seen this year at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates) and the holiday show "Wintuk" at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"Banana Shpeel" reunites "Kooza" creators Serge Roy (Cirque's creative director) with David Shiner (a Tony Award-winner for the 1993 Broadway revue "Fool Moon").

"We've got different acts and lots of clowning. We've never had that much clowning in our shows," Roy said, promising that the show will be "light and fun." "There's no pretension with this."

Broadway in the Loop

Over the holidays Broadway in Chicago hosts two major tours in the Loop, while it prepares to say good-bye to a long-running smash.

"The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein" is the official title for the 2007 stage musical based upon Brooks' 1974 spoof film classic.

"Young Frankenstein" wasn't as rapturously received by critics during its 14-month Broadway run as Brooks' 12-time Tony Award-winning hit adaptation of "The Producers." But "Young Frankenstein" did win a 2008 Best Musical award from the Outer Critics Circle, and tour audiences might be more friendly when it plays the Cadillac Palace Theatre now through Dec. 13.

As a bonus, the tour features "Young Frankenstein's" original Tony Award-winning stars of Roger Bart ("You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," "Desperate Housewives") as Dr. Frankenstein and Shuler Hensley ("Oklahoma!") as The Monster.

"In the Heights" was the brand new musical that took the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical (along with three others for its score, orchestrations and choreography). It also marked the Broadway debut for the talented young composer, lyricist and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda.

"In the Heights" concerns the diverse New York neighborhood of Washington Heights as some denizens face enormous change thanks to a winning group lottery ticket. This contemporary musical brings a taste of New York to the Cadillac Palace Theatre from Dec. 15 to Jan. 3.

And don't forget that time is running out to catch the dedicated Chicago run of the 2006 Tony Award-winning hit "Jersey Boys." After two successful years, this biographical jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons shutters Jan. 10 at the Bank of America Theatre.

Broadway up close

The Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place hosts two Broadway stars for intimate shows through December.

Unlike on Broadway, Chicago audiences rapturously embraced pianist and actor Hershey Felder in his one-man Broadway show "George Gershwin Alone," which ran for a year at Chicago's Royal George Theatre.

Now Felder is back with his latest composer tribute, "Beethoven, As I Knew Him." It's a one-man drama about the final two years of Ludwig von Beethoven's life as told by an assistant 43 years after the composer's death. It plays from Nov. 13 to Dec. 20, while Felder revives "George Gershwin Alone" for a run from Dec. 23 to 30.

Playing on Felder's Monday off nights from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14 is "Peter Gallagher, Don't Give Up on Me." This one-man musical concerns Gallagher's backstage experiences on Broadway and in Hollywood with his acting idols like James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, Peter O'Toole and more. Alternating throughout is a string of classic song standards.

The bright lights of Broadway shine strongly around Chicago this season, so take advantage of the spotlight while it lasts.