'Mistress' breaks the cycle of no new musicals

Step into any conversation with a producer or theater owner about American music theater and eventually the topic gets around to the ongoing and catastrophic shortage of new work. They just aren't producing enough new musicals, on Broadway and off, they will tell you. And there aren't enough new musicals in the pipeline. Then, in the next breath, they will announce a season packed with all the same old shows, plus a few revivals of long-forgotten "classics."

Which is why it is so refreshing that the folks at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park are producing a bona fide new work. The show is called "The Mistress Cycle," and it is receiving its world premiere.

"The show has only been done in workshops," director Kurt Johns says, "and was part of The Music Theater Festival in New York.

"We were looking for a small musical to do," he said. "I was looking at off-Broadway shows. Then I saw the title of this show, 'The Mistress Cycle,' and I thought 'Ohhh, what is that?' "

It didn't hurt that the show has a cast of only five. Or that, as it happened, Johns had worked with one of the women who was in the workshop production in New York. Johns contacted the writers of the show, Jenny Giering and Beth Blatt, and asked for a video.

"I watched the video, and I was really intrigued," Johns said. "They also sent me the CD of the music, and the music is just gorgeous. I said to (Apple Tree Executive/Artistic Director) Eileen (Boevers). 'Lets put it in the season!' And here we are a year later, and we are putting it up."

It was all very exciting, he said.

"We got a crack at being their regional (pre-Broadway and off-Broadway) premiere."

Johns said the play is not quite a book musical.

"It's kind of a review but with strong, specific characters and clear motivations. The show concerns five women who have all suffered at the hands of men they are involved with. There are five stories in all."

It is a very emotional show, he said.

"The show starts at a gallery exhibit of one of the woman's photographs. She meets a man. They hit it off. He makes an overture to her, and then she finds out he is married," he said.

"The other women come along. I think of it as the ghosts of his past mistresses coming to help her in her current situation. It is a very emotional show. We have not been able to get through the last two numbers in the show without everyone getting all teary and emotional. It's very beautiful."