City Lit Theater (Chicago, IL)
In this musical version of the exploits of Mr. Toad, an amphibian obsessed with motor cars, his steadfast friends, Rat, Mole and Badger, attempt to break Toad of his terrible habit, against the background of a class struggle in the Wildwood. Featuring an eclectic score made up of rock, reggae, tin-pan alley, spirituals and a Gilbert and Sullivan send-up, The Wind in the Willows is a masterpiece for all ages.
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The last date listed for The Wind in the Willows was Sunday January 3, 2010 / 3:00pm. (view all dates)
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the play was great. the singing and the stage setting was awesome!
i enjoyed the play a lot
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This was a cute adaptation of the book. The description says is a show for all ages. We took our four year old. He liked the singing but I wouldn't call this a play for children. It's probably better for older kids and adults. The animals were not dressed as animals so he was confused.
Toad and Rat were great.
We attended the preview, which lasted almost 2 and a half hours and every moment was marvelous. My four year old granddaughter loved it and went home singing and my college age son thought it was awesome, so it is a production for every age. I have already recommended it to friends at work and it was truly one of the best musical theater performances I've attended in recent years.
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An intimate 99 seat theatre with unobstructed sight lines from every seat. No seat is more than 22 feet from stage. City Lit boasts comfortable upholstered theater seats, air conditioning and concessions available in the lobby. City Lit is handicapped-accessible.
Website: http://www.citylit.org/home/index.html
The Wind in the Willows centers on the exploits of Mr. Toad, an amphibian obsessed with motor cars, and his steadfast friends Rat, Mole and Badger, who attempt to break him of his terrible habit. It also concerns a class struggle in the Wildwood between these creatures and the weasels, ferrets, and stoats.
Adapter, composer and director Douglas Post uses story theater techniques to preserve pieces of Grahame’s narrative, humor to heighten the absurdity of an animal community that carries on like Edwardian gentlemen, and an eclectic score made up of rock, reggae, tin-pan alley, spirituals, and a Gilbert and Sullivan send-up. Post’s adaptation received its world premiere at the old Organic Lab Theater in Chicago in 1985, and had Chicago revivals in 1986 and 1989. Since then, it has received over 200 productions around the world. In the U.S. it has been produced at Theater Off Park in New York, The Cleveland Play House, Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities in Colorado, and Lamb’s Players Theatre in California. It has also been produced in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, most recently, Shanghai, China. It has not been seen in Chicago for twenty years.
The cast for The Wind in the Willows is Jessica Anne Cook, Anthony Di Pisa, BJ Englehardt, Harmony France, Jennifer T. Grubb, Michael Herschberg, Megan Keach, Edward Kuffert, Katie Mack, Annie Passanisi, Ed Rutherford, Thomas M. Shea, and Jeremy Trager. The musical arrangements are by Kevin O'Donnell, vocal direction and additional vocal arrangements by Andra Velis Simon. The show's choreography is by Brenda Didier. The designers are Matthew Cummings (props), Alan Donahue (set), Sarah Hughey (lighting), and Ricky Lurie (costumes).
City Lit specializes in literate theatre, including stage adaptations of literary material. Its 30th Anniversary Season is funded in part by the Alphawood Foundation; the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development; the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; the City of Chicago Office of Cultural Affairs CityArts program; the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and a passel of individual donors.
City Lit was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1980 by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. At the time it was the only theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material, a form that has since become quite popular. Over 30 seasons, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, biography, essays, and drama in performance, and presented a wide array of voices, from classic writers such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Colette, and P. G. Wodehouse to such contemporary writers as Alice Walker, W.P. Kinsella, Lynda Barry, Raymond Carver, Edward Albee and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. As an Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt organization, it keeps its ticket prices below the actual cost of operation and production, and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.