...can't sleep...browsing Playbill online... and whoa!

IT'S FINALLY OFFICIAL. Patti's Turn at City Center this July.

Playbill News is reporting, 'round Midnight here:

"...Tony and Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone, who triumphed in last summer's Ravinia Festival production of Gypsy, will get the chance to perform her Rose for New York audiences this summer.
The New York Times reports that City Center will present the Arthur Laurents-Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne musical as part of its new Encores! Summer Stars series, a spin off of the popular Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert series.
Laurents, who wrote the book for what is considered one of the finest American musicals, will direct the production, which is scheduled to begin performances July 9 for a limited run through July 29. The official opening night will be July 12..."

I'm so knee deep in soggy, chilly, filled with giant ego's, all encompassing, break neck paced pre-production that this news somehow seems pure and honest like real theatre is alive and justified. Seriously. I will be up to my eyebrows in principal photography in July. JetBlewIt taught me to fear the weekend jaunt when schedule is immovable... Will the geniuses I work with understand?

I'm a little concerned with Laurents directing... Oh, to be the piano gal at rehearsals! I hope Mr. Laurents allows her a warm Herbie and a real Louise. Jack Willis and Jessica Bogart were wonderful at Ravinia last summer.

There's been talk of celebrity casting...

Again, from Playbill news online a few weeks ago:

"...Question: Are you going to be involved in the "rumored" City Center production this summer with Patti?

Jessica Bogart: I hear they're looking for celebrities, which I'm totally bummed about because I would love to do it. I hope maybe I'll get really lucky and all of those fancy people will say no. [Laughs.]
Question: You never know. Maybe one of them will get a movie role.

Jessica Bogart: Right — even better, if Scarlett Johansson says yes and the day before she backs out, and they call me, desperate..."

I must get back to bed, but this news has lightened my brain somehow.

Patti, in a role she was born to play, I think. In one of my all time, top of the heap, favorite Musicals, at Ravinia last summer. The first time she played Rose. The Universe provided me a second row center isle seat. Much direct eye contact through out from Miss Lupone. Divine. I'll never forget it.

finally the sky is blue again...

...and the grey buildings have a colorful backdrop again today. Grey on grey is interesting only for so long. Today, from a rooftop at Randolph and State, I paused and took a few photographs of grey arrows pointing towards blue infinity...

Loooong days at work, short sun stays above the skyscrapers, cold Chicago weather and the lack of recent theatrical adventures to take me out of my world may not make a dull gal, but it makes this gal a lil more crabby, a lil less focused and a lot more ready for the change of seasons. Apparently, a change of scenery is out of the question.

Luckily, I do enjoy Chicago. And, as a quick flight to Narnia may have been ruled out, I'm lucky enough to have a job that takes me to new places within my old city on a daily basis. I try to keep my eyes opened even tho sometimes it seems safer to squint.