Isn’t that something else? It’s like “Dancing with the Stars” meets circus disco.

This weekend, I’m seeing Idle Muse Theatre Company‘s Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure at The Side Project, and then slipping into some classic Golden Age musicals, starting with Carousel at Light Opera Works on Saturday, followed by Annie Get Your Gun at Ravinia, starring Patti LuPone, on Sunday.

And, as always, I’ll report back along the way.

Enjoy your weekend!

Annie Get Your Gun is one of those musicals that’s overloaded with gems. From “There’s No Business Like Showbusiness,” to “I Got Lost In His Arms” and back to “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” it’s golden age Broadway through-and-through. I’m confident LuPone will knock those big showstoppers out of the (Highland) park. Long live Irving Berlin, and God bless Ethel Merman (the original Annie Oakley when the show premiered on Broadway in 1946).

Brian Stokes Mitchell was set to be LuPone’s Frank Butler at Ravinia, but for “scheduling reasons” we get Patrick Cassidy, who played the role for a spell in the 1999 Broadway revival opposite Cheryl Ladd (Bernadette Peters had moved on from her Tony-winning performance by that point). Lonnie Price will direct the semi-staged concert, which begins performances tomorrow night and runs through Sunday. I’m going Sunday.

Price actually directed LuPone in a one-night only concert of AGYG (yay acronyms!) at the Vivian Beaumont theatre in 1998 opposite Peter Gallagher. Rosie O’Donnell featured LuPone and Gallagher on her daytime talk show following the acclaimed concert, and it’s an often-played clip at gay bars during showtune video evenings:

Several concertgoers claimed that security had forced them to vacate the lawn at the end of the concert, even though it was only about 8:30 p.m. and the tinkle of glasses could be heard from the nearby tent housing the benefit dinner.

“Adding to the insult was that, in the remaining twilight on the lawn, the Ravinia staff immediately started shooing everyone home,” wrote Mac Birch of Downers Grove. “No chance to finish our wine or enjoy some candlelit friendship.”

Ravinia refuted that claim. “That’s not true at all,” said [Nick] Pullia [Ravinia’s director of communications]. “That’s not our policy. People should not have felt pressured to leave.”

- via Chicago Tribune

Really? Then what exactly was happening when THREE officials on golf carts drove by as we finished our post show dinner with friends at 8:20 p.m. to tell us we “had to leave, the park was closing.” And then proceeded to watch us pack up?

I love Ravinia and am looking forward to Annie Get Your Gun, but please don’t call your audience members liars.

This will actually be a reunion of sorts. This superstar Sondheim repertory group has performed many of his major pieces over the past 10 years, including Sweeney Todd (LuPone and Hearn), A Little Night Music (LuPone and Hearn), Sunday in the Park with George (Cerveris, McDonald and LuPone), Passion (LuPone, Cerveris and McDonald) and Anyone Can Whistle (LuPone, Cerveris and McDonald). In 2006, LuPone debuted her Mama Rose in the Ravinia production of Gypsy, which featured a brassy Jule Styne score fitted with lyrics by a then 25 year-old Sondheim.

I was lucky to catch nearly all of these performances (except Sweeney, as it was before I moved to Chicago), and I’ve since captured my memories here. These events were the highlight of my summers.

Some may have described these as concerts, but to me they were fully realized productions. These actors, in an extremely short amount of rehearsal time under the magical directorial hand of Lonny Price, gave compelling characterizations complete with costumes, wigs and staging. There were no scripts in hand. In fact, the only thing that indicated these were concerts was the fact that the amazing Chicago Symphony Orchestra sat onstage with the actors. And who could complain about that?

Price will direct this concert on July 31, and I can’t wait to see what he has planned. I’m sure it won’t be a “stand and sing” type of event. I’d imagine, and hope, he has a few tricks up his sleeve. However, with stars like these four, you don’t need any gimmicks to create theatrical magic.

Tickets and more information on this highly anticipated concert can be found here.

To conclude, let’s let LuPone, in her own distinct way, explain what it’s like to perform Sondheim’s work. (It looks like this was filmed last summer before her Kurt Weill concert at Ravinia, which I was fortunate to also catch):

Brian Stokes Mitchell will be her Frank Butler, and Lonnie Price will direct the semi-staged concert.

Price directed LuPone in a one-night only concert of AGYG (yay acronyms!) at the Vivian Beaumont theatre in 1998 opposite Peter Gallagher. Rumor is she was gunning (yay puns!) for the show’s soon-to-be-produced revival and that the benefit concert was a fancy audition. However, the Weisslers went with the more commercially viable Bernadette Peters instead.

Rosie featured LuPone and Gallagher on her daytime talk show following the acclaimed concert at the Vivian Beaumont. It’s an often-played camp clip at gay bars during showtune video evenings — for the various and obvious reasons evident from the clip below:

Patti and the CSO presented a very tasteful evening of Kurt Weill songs, featuring his rarely performed “Seven Deadly Sins.” Truthfully, “Sins” was a bit of a snore. Originally a ballet, it’s a terribly modern piece with two women playing “Anna.” The dancer is the naive, impulsive Anna who gets into all sorts of sin, and the singer (LuPone) is the wise Anna, commenting on the dancer Anna’s sinful ways. (The dancing wasn’t performed.) The male quartet Hudson Shad played Anna’s family, with a bearded bass portraying Anna’s mother (?). Patti sang an English translation of Brecht’s libretto.

While it was interesting to hear this rarely performed work, I didn’t find it particularly compelling. Lots of extremely similar music passages to another Weill/Brecht piece: The City of Mahagonny.

That said, I applaud LuPone’s fearlessness in doing something new and complex. She’s always willing to take a risk, and I respect her for this. While visibly anxious (she even acknowledged her nerves during the second act), her voice was strong and confident. In fact,  I don’t think I’ve ever heard Patti so in command of her instrument. (I know Beth is rolling her eyes at that statement.)

In an interview with Hedy Weiss earlier this week, LuPone hinted that a more realized production of “Sins” may be in the works. Very interesting.

Side note: Ravinia now features jumbo screens, a major plus to lawn listeners. I’m guessing for bigger acts like Blondie and Bonnie Raitt, they lug out lawn screens, but for this they just had the pavilion screens. It was nice to sit on the lawn behind the pavilion and watch the concert comfortably:

After intermission, Patti came out to perform a handfull of Brecht’s American works — mostly from the Broadway stage. Many we’ve heard her sing before on the “Patti LuPone: LIVE!” album (I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Lost in the Stars, My Ship, Surabaya Johnny.)

The arrangements, while lush and rich, seemed a bit leaden for Patti — and she kept looking back at Maestro James Conlin for tempos. Her “Mack the Knife” wasn’t my favorite. However, her encores, which she sang with Ravinia CEO Welz Kauffman on piano, were very nice. Especially “Je Ne T’Aime Pas.” Subtle.

Ok. I missed the powerbelting. I was waiting, with baited breath, for her to sing “The Saga of Jenny” from Lady in the Dark. Great belting potential. But, nope.

Debbie does Drury Lane

I just wanted to use that title somewhere. I’m so tacky.

So, Debbie Reynolds. She’s a one-of-a-kind treasure. Boundless energy. Eternally youthful. She loves the audience, and the audience loves her for loving them, and she loves them for loving her, they just love each other. And that’s showbiz, kid.

Yeah, Jamie and I were the youngest by a few generations. Debbie (or Mary Frances Reynolds, as is her birth name) had house lights brought up to scope out her audience. She spotted me and asked me if I was single.

Really, it was a  mutual admiration society. Even to the point of rather than performing an encore, the audience crowded to the stage and she bent down and shook people’s hands and took pictures. In fact, pictures — with flash! — were taken throughout the show. She welcomed it — even posing mid-song for a photo op.

(A far cry from the previous evening’s performance, I should note, where I was told three times not to take pictures — with my blackberry standing outside of the pavilion without flash at three different locations.)

Her loose patter made the afternoon. Her singing…notsomuch. She doesn’t have much of a voice, and unfortunately chooses songs that are out of her league — including a Judy Garland medley for her finale. But her extremely devoted audience didn’t seem to mind.

I’m reviewing the show for Edge (?), so expect more details in the near future.

(Neveryoumind that the cheapest tickets for the event are just shy of a grand. Obscene. However, I’ll weasel my way in somehow. I got connections. They don’t call me “Ravinia Bob” for nothing.)

I’ve caught nearly every Sondheim concert with this superstar Sondheim repertory group over the last seven years, and thought I’d take a few moments to recall each performance:

Hearn and LuPone in "Sweeney Todd"

Sweeney Todd
Ok, this one I didn’t see as it was before I moved to Chicago. But, thankfully, the concert was recorded in San Francisco and preserved on DVD with most of the Ravinia cast intact. So, win! LuPone and Hearn starred as Lovett and Sweeney, and with LuPone giving a more “classic” interpretation of Lovett than her Tony-nominated turn in the John Doyle revisionment (I make up new words all the time) in 2005. I am sad that I missed Hollis Resnik as the Begger Woman, as I love her so, but oh well.

The success of this Sweeney concert, which began its life with the New York Philharmonic earlier that year, was the impetus to launch the Sondheim Ravinia Concert series.

A Little Night Music
This was my first time seeing this lush, lusty, lilting show. LuPone, as Desiree Armfeldt, looked a bit like a Sicilian Dolly Parton, what with her big blonde wig, super-tan skin and push-up bra. Hearn sang gloriously and had terrific chemistry with his former Sweeney co-star, and Hollis returned to play a wry, fragile Charlotte. Marc Kudisch delivered his patented blowhard baritone leading man schtick, ending “In Praise of Women” by kicking his pants in the air and catching them. Bittersweet performance from Zoe Caldwell as Madame Armfeldt, completely going up on her lyrics during “Liaisons,” but with nearly ideal line readings otherwise. However, the standout performance was Sara Ramírez as Petra, doing a KILLER “The Miller’s Son.” Oh, just look for yourself:

Side note: I caught Ramírez’s cabaret performance the following year at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, and she recalled how absolutely nerve-wracking it was to perform that difficult song with LuPone — her idol — onstage watching her. (The song directly follows “Send in the Clowns,” LuPone’s big number in Night Music.) She said LuPone was so supportive of her during Night Music rehearsals, and then launched into a lively rendition of “Meadowlark” in her honor.

Sunday in the Park with George
This was my least favorite of the series, as it seemed the most under rehearsed, with director Lonny Price doing too many strange things — like having multiple “Dots” and “Georges” filling the Pavilion stage for no other reason than to fill the stage. Audra was glorious as Dot, Cerveris was in over his head and didn’t know his lines, and LuPone slummed it, playing Yvonne and Blair and showing us her fantastic rack, as she’s wont to do:

LuPone (and her bust) as Blair Daniels and Cerveris as George in "SITPWG"

Ravinia cast of "SITPWG"

After the show, Kari, Gator and I flirted with Cerveris, with one eye looking over his shoulder waiting for LuPone to emerge. She never did.

Passion:
PBS filmed Lonny Price’s staging of this complex Sondheim show when they recreated it at Lincoln Center a few summers ago. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’ve seen it. LuPone gave a surprisingly sensitive and very well-sung Fosca. Cerveris didn’t win me over with his Georgio, but that’s not surprising since the character is a tool for the extent of the evening, and, as you can tell by now, I’m a little mystified by all the Cerveris love. Audra was a revelation as Clara, making her both alluring and deeply selfish. Gloriously sung, natch.

Cerveris and LuPone in "Whistle"

Anyone Can Whistle
This show was all about the ladies. LuPone was FIERCE as Cora Hoover Hooper, all decked out in pink, diamonds and an amazing red wig, and Audra nailed all her big songs and scenes. She also looked stunning in her red gown and bobbed wig during “Come Play Wiz Me.” Cerveris slimed it up in a Miami Vice jacket and horrid mullet wig. He forgot his words during “Everybody Says Don’t.”

Gypsy
While not technically part of the Sondheim series, as it was more of an excuse for LuPone to play Rose than to celebrate the show where he penned the lyrics, it was the highlight of my Ravinia experience. I’ve written about it extensively. To sumarize: I recall it as my most happiest summer weekend ever. To hear LuPone singing that score for the first time ever, to be privilege to that — in the front row, no less — and backed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with a rapt audience of fanatic Gypsy/Lupone/Sondheim fans and friends…

It was quite the experience. Lots of wine, too.