Little Shop Tour in Chicago

Posted: 6/21/05 at 1:28pm

Little Shop of Horrors opens tonight in Chicago-- I don't know if it's because it's not selling well or because it's playing a great big barn (Auditorium) but there are some really excellent ticket deals out there! I've seen "buy one get one free" deals from B'way in Chicago, and then this morning I picked up Hottix for the Balcony that were only $15 apiece! Sure the balcony at the Auditorium is waaaaaay up there, but for $15? I'm there!

So, look for a Little Shop of Bargains near you now!

Hottix Updated On: 6/21/05 at 01:28 PM

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 1:37pm

Great tour! I was lucky to see it in Cincinnati when I was visiting CCM and it is coming to Cleveland in November.

[suddenlyseymour]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 1:41pm

i can't wait to see it when it comes to buffalo, i really hope tari is still in it though

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 1:47pm

Joe - I changed my season tickets and the printed price was $10.00 - hysterical. When do you go?

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:02pm

I'm excited to see this production again after seeing it in new york. I go July 2nd!

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:07pm

I did the buy one get one free..I'm going with a friend and the parents on the 29th! YAY..and then I'm gonna try the Wicked Lottery :)

[timote316]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:09pm

It was a fun show to see.

As is customary whenever I talk about a show I saw in Boston, I must give the shameless self-promotional plug. I wrote a review in my blog. Go see!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:14pm

Thanks for the heads up, Joe. I was gonna pass on this one, but now I will have to check it out.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:42pm

I would hardly call an opera house designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan (with a young Frank Lloyd Wright as the apprentice) a barn. (Though I know you meant it in regards to size). Little Shop is a show that really needs a small venue, and is really going to be out of place in the Auditorium. They should have moved "Wicked" to the Auditorium...since they were re-building sets they could have easily just replicated (gear for gear, nail for nail) the Broadway set at the Auditorium and moved the tour to LA as planned.

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:47pm

Absolutely Fosse, my bad! I didn't mean to disparage the beautiful Auditorium in any way--it just seems waaaaaay too big for this show.

And I am seeing it tonight! Me, the Boyfriend and the "mother-in-law!" Hope they like it!

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:53pm

I love the Auditorium, but I cannot believe that Little Shop is going in there. The upper lobby is a great place to have a drink before the show, but has anyone noticed the floor is not level up there. I will be there Tuesday with my daughter.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 2:56pm

They couldn't have the sit down production of Wicked at the Auditorium theatre because Broadway In Chicago doesn't own the theatre. It is still operated and owned by the Roosevelt University. It is to my understanding the Broadway In Chicago can only rent it out for a little amount of time, not for over a year.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 3:34pm

Well, yes and no. In order to hamper competition with the Chicago Theatre, Broadway in Chicago made an arrangement with the Auditorium Theatre to be the SOLE presenter of Broadway shows at the Auditorium (not even the Auditorium can book B'way shows themselves). But the real issue is money. Roosevelt was unhappy with the Auditorium Thgeatre Council's underbooking the venue (the previous President hated Broadway, and only booked shows that were under return engagement obligations). The other shows that were booked lost money. I have no doubt that Roosevelt would gladly have a sit-down production of the cash cow that is "Wicked". The only thing that may have prevented it (besides Clear Channel's arrogance) is confirmed future bookings.

[xxnewgirlxx]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 3:38pm

How long is Little Shop's run here in Chicago? I've never seen the stage production...how true is the film to the musical?

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 3:39pm

But wouldn't putting a long running show in the Auditorium put the Joffrey Ballet out of a venue?

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 3:48pm

To get way off base, but we have bound legal briefs in our office from a 1927 Supreme Court case against the Auditorium Theatre.

Posted: 6/21/05 at 3:48pm

Two weeks New girl.

My favorite thing about the Auditorium is the lobby-- or lack thereof. When Congress was widened, there wasn't enough room for a sidewalk, so a chunk of the lobby was removed to serve as a sidewalk. Which is why the front wall of the theatre butts right up to Congress parkway now.

With Lion King & Wicked tying up the "new" theatres and the LaSalle under construction, the Auditorium is the only game in town right now.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 4:00pm

God, I hate the Auditorium. It's like watching a movie of a stage production. The "lobby" is so dark and gloomy and the layout reminds me of a sporting arena. The house is quite beautiful, but it was built acoustically for classical music, not visual performance. I've got a ticket in the balcony for Thursday, but I'm going to try and sneak into an empty orchestra seats. There's always loads of empty seats in that place.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 5:41pm

You are slightly wrong. While it is indeed practically perfect acoustically, it was built for visual performances. It was designed and built as an opera house. The first home for the Chicago Opera Company (or whatever it was called; it wasn't the Lyric back then). The theatre has over 4000 seats, which is why there tend to be many empty seats. When shows like "Phantom" and "Miss Saigon" where there, there was nary a seat to be found. Even "Show Boat" and the return engagements of "Phantom" Les Miz" and "Miss Saigon" were able to practically fill it up. But as for the Joffrey, they are supposed to be moving to the theatre in Millenium park I thought.

Posted: 6/21/05 at 5:51pm

4,000 seats? Really? No wonder it seems so huge! I recall seeing Bye Bye Birdie (I think) there and marveling at the hundreds of empty seats- now that I know the capacity I bet there were thousands of empty seats.

And That is my thought exactly, Matt-- we will be "Moving Down!" I saw an amazing performance by Phillip Glass there and bought VERY cheap seats and strolled down to a more prime location. The ushers must be used to it as no one asked to see our tickets.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 5:52pm

How odd. The literature I read on the theatre said it was built for classical music performances, but didn't mention anything about opera. But honestly, I don't remember where I read about it. It may have been the newspaper in an article regarding its reopening. Either way, it still sucks for visual performances. I saw King and I (mezzanine) and Evita (orchestra) there and if I didn't have a season ticket, I wouldn't waste my money seeing another musical in that place.

[bwayballerina]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 6:56pm

I've seen two ballets at the Auditorium, and they fit in nicely. I think I was in the lower balcony, I don't remember exactly. I'll be seeing Little Shop on the 29th (matinee) thru the theatre camp I'm in. It'll be interesting to see how it fits into the huge theatre- I was actually quite surprised when I found out it was going in the Auditorium, but it's really the only open theatre.

Posted: 6/22/05 at 10:13am

Saw the show last night. The cheap seats I bought were in those weird little side rows above the boxes. We were at a 90 degree angle to the stage. We moved over more towards center when the row across from us was empty during the prologue. A man came over during intermission and said they were his seats, so we went back to our little side view. Don't know where he sat during act I. All in all it was OK. There were lots of empty seats, but still a pretty big crowd for a Tuesday night.

In general I thought the show was OK. Performances were all strong. The sound sucked though. It was very quiet through out and some passages were just unintelligible. Mushnik was particularly hard to understand.

The cast was all good-- I didn't bring my program home so I won't have actors names. Both Audry & Seymour were excellent. The urchins were spectacular. The guy who plays all the smaller roles seemed to be having fun.

The set was OK but looked small on that huge stage. I thought the plant was great, but never really got as big as I've seen it in other productions. I thought the ending was a big let down-- Audry 2 was great with the branches crawling across the stage, but the effect of the actors faces in the plant looked particulary silly to me. I thought this was the production where Audry 2 really took over the whole theatre-- it was pretty small here.

All in all, I'd recommend it, especially if you can get cheap seats and they fix the sound.

Good crowd, lots of youngsters and everyone seemed to have a good time.