'Dear Evan Hansen' part of Broadway in Chicago's upcoming season
Broadway in Chicago's 2018-19 season announcement was accompanied by good news and bad news.
The good news: The Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen," the darling of Broadway's 2016-17 season, is coming to Chicago as part of a national tour. The bad news: Chicago area audiences will have to wait about 11 months to see it.
The musical is about socially anxious teenager Evan, whose letter to himself ends up in the possession of another teenager who committed suicide. When people assume the two were good friends, Evan finds himself comforting the dead teen's family and perpetuating the lie.
"Dear Evan Hansen" runs from Feb. 12 to March 10, 2019.
The season begins Sept. 11 with the pre-Broadway premiere of "Tootsie," a musical by composer David Yazbek ("The Full Monty," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels") and writer Robert Horn ("13." "Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance"). The show is based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman as an out-of-work actor who disguises himself as a woman to get a role on a soap opera. Santino Fontana (The CW's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend") stars.
"Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory," which combines a new score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman with songs from the 1971 film - including "The Candy Man" and "Pure Imagination" - plays the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St. Chicago, from Oct. 2 to Oct. 21.
Broadway favorite and Tony Award-winner Betty Buckley stars in the national tour of last year's award-winning revival of "Hello, Dolly!" The Jerry Herman musical, which runs Oct. 23 to Nov. 17, is based on Thornton Wilder's play about a well-meaning, meddling matchmaker.
A revival of "Miss Saigon" follows on Nov. 13 and runs through Dec. 8. The musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. is based on "Madame Butterfly" and set during the final days of the Vietnam War.
"The Play That Goes Wrong" - a backstage comedy described as a Sherlock Holmes-Monty Python mashup - plays the Oriental Theatre from Dec. 4 to 16. It's about a fictional theater company's disastrous opening night performance of a 1920s murder mystery.
Broadway in Chicago off-season specials include the return of "The Book of Mormon," which runs Nov. 20 to Dec. 2. In addition, director Bartlett Sher's 2015 revival of "Fiddler On The Roof" - featuring a contemporary framing device and choreography from Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter - plays the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago, from Dec. 18 to Jan. 6, 2019.
Current season subscribers can renew their subscriptions now by phone (312) 977-1717 or online at broadwayinchicago.com. New subscriptions go on sale March 28, with six-show packages starting at $144. Subscribers receive reduced ticket prices and parking discounts among other benefits.