Paramount's success tops 2015's suburban theater news

Among the biggest local theater stories this year was the continued dominance of Paramount Theatre in Aurora.

With its 18-piece orchestras and stunning sets that rival some Broadway tours, Paramount — after only five years — has emerged as a force to be reckoned with both artistically and commercially.

The company made history in 2015 when, in its first year of equity eligibility, it received more Joseph Jefferson Award nominations than any other company. In October, the Jeff Committee named Paramount's revival of “Les Miserables” the best musical production and director Jim Corti the best director. The theater won a total of five Jeff Awards, second only to The Hypocrites' six for its epic “All Our Tragic.”

Hail and farewell

But while Paramount soared, another suburban theater stumbled. Fox Valley Repertory closed abruptly in October after 11 years in residence at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.

Theater representatives attributed the closing to “unexpected circumstances” in an Oct. 1 email.

Former managing director Patrick Stinson — who took over in July and resigned about two weeks before FVR closed — later confirmed financial problems contributed to the demise of the company that grew out of Noble Fool, a comedy-based ensemble that relocated to St. Charles from Chicago in 2005.

Unpaid royalties and late payments to designers prompted Stinson's recommendation that the theater — which he described as “hemorrhaging money” — file for bankruptcy.

It's unclear, however, whether representatives took his advice. FVR issued a statement thanking its patrons and students. “We could not have made our amazing performances without you. Thank you for sharing this journey with us,” it read in part.

Other good-byes:

• “Simply put, it's time to move on for us.” With that statement Signal Ensemble Theatre, a respected Chicago storefront ensemble, announced it will close in February after 13 seasons. The decision follows changes in the company's operations and ensemble, said co-artistic directors Ronan Marra and Joseph Sterns in a prepared statement.

• Also in Chicago, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. co-founder and artistic director Richard Cotovsky announced the theater would cease producing in 2016, at the end of its 30th season. Cotovsky said the loss of the company's longtime Angel Island home played into the decision to shutter the storefront theater mainstay.

• Lastly, Redmoon Theatre closed abruptly Monday after 25 years. Known for its grand, ambitious spectacles, the company struggled financially in recent years and never recovered from 2014's ill-fated Chicago Fire Festival.

Leadership change

After overseeing 90 main stage productions and dozens of children's shows, Steel Beam Theatre founder and artistic director Donna Steele handed over management and artistic direction of the St. Charles company to director and theater educator Marge Uhlarik-Boiller in October.

Uhlarik-Boiller, who directed her first Steel Beam production in 2012, was named resident director in 2014.

Established 15 years ago, Steel Beam was named for the support beam contractors installed after opening up a wall to create the stage. Steele's decision to step down was a personal one. Having recently acquired her equity card, she will pursue acting full time, but says she'll be in the audience for as many productions as possible.

Broadway bound?

Of the three shows with Broadway aspirations that opened this year in the Chicago area, only one made it to New York.

• “On Your Feet” the bio-musical chronicling the success of Cuban crossover singer/songwriter Gloria Estefan and her producer/composer husband, Emilio, had audiences dancing in the aisles during its pre-Broadway premiere in Chicago last June. Sweet, straightforward and unsurprising, the show had a buzz-worthy November opening on Broadway and has played at more than 70 percent capacity ever since. As of mid-December, it was the seventh highest-grossing show currently running on Broadway.

• “Beaches” — the musical adaptation of Iris Rainer Dart's 1985 novel, which also inspired the 1988 film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey — had its pre-Broadway tryout at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace in July. The show, which bowed in 2014 at Virginia's Signature Theatre, chronicles the lifelong friendship between a powerhouse singer/actress determined to be a star and her more conventional best friend.

Variety reports a Broadway transfer is pending, depending on theater availability, but no dates have been announced.

• The first pre-Broadway tryout of “First Wives Club” — the musical based on the 1996 film and Olivia Goldsmith's novel about longtime friends whose husbands leave them for younger women — was at San Diego's The Old Globe Theater in 2009. The second tryout for the show — written by TV's Linda Bloodworth Thomason with a score by seminal Motown composer/lyricists Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland — took place in Chicago last March. The expectation was for the show, which received middling reviews, to move to Broadway. So far, that hasn't happened. It's unlikely it will, at least in its Chicago incarnation, seeing as two of its stars, Faith Prince and Carmen Cusack, are attached to Broadway musicals set to open in March.

• There's no Broadway transfer in the offing for Marriott Theatre's “October Sky,” at least not yet. But the premiere of this adaptation of the 1999 film — with an appealing score by Michael Mahler and a gently humorous book by Aaron Thielen — confirmed the Lincolnshire theater's long-standing commitment to new works.

On the move?

Northlight Theatre officials announced in October that after 18 years in residence at Skokie's North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, they are considering returning to Evanston, where the company was founded more than 40 years ago.

Executive director Tim Evans said the city approached Northlight more than two years ago about moving back to where actor Mike Nussbaum, director Frank Galati and arts management consultant Greg Kandel first established it in 1974. No final decision has been made, however.

Evans cited space limitations, the company's desire for a second stage for new or experimental works and the need to grow its audience — about one-fourth of which hails from Northwest suburban Cook and DuPage counties — as reasons the company might relocate. The Evanston city council would have to approve plans for the build-out, which Evans estimated would cost between $4 and $8 million and take three to four years.

• Earlier this year, Goodman Theatre announced a $15 million expansion that will transform the space above the adjacent Petterino's restaurant into classrooms, rehearsal space and a hands-on Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) laboratory. The expansion, which will allow the theater to expand its education programs from two to nine, is scheduled to open in 2016.

‘Where there's smoke ...'

“There's satire.” Members of The Second City adopted that phrase after a fire that originated in the Adobo Grill Aug. 26 spread through air vents and destroyed about 40 percent of the company's offices but did not damage the main stage.

The theater reopening about three weeks after the fire was a testament to the company's can-do attitude, cooperation from Chicago's theater community and help from City Hall, said executive producer Andrew Alexander. Second City's 104th revue, “Fool Me Twice, Deja Vu” opened as planned in December.