Porchlight Music Theatre's First Annual Holiday Sing Along December 15, 2008

PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE ANNOUNCES
FIRST ANNUAL
HOLIDAY SING-A-LONG
Special public event features Chicago’s top actors singing their favorite holiday tunes

CHICAGO— Porchlight Music Theatre, Chicago’s most awarded musical theatre invites guests to enjoy their first annual Holiday Sing Along Monday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont, Chicago. Porchlight Music Theatre’s award winning actors will sing popular holiday songs and invite guests to join in the fun. Tickets are $20 in advance and may be purchased by calling 773.325.9884 or emailing PorchlightTheatre@yahoo.com. Tickets will be $25 at the door.

Scheduled to perform at the Holiday Sing Along will be award winning cabaret artist Stephen Rader, Lara Filip, Nicholas Foster, Ryan Lanning and Heather Townsend. The show is directed by Christopher Pazdernik with musical direction by Michael Frain.

About Porchlight Music Theatre
This season Porchlight Music Theatre is taking audiences around the world on a musical journey. Artistic Director L. Walter Stearns announces a season of musicals with exotic settings and diverse themes. Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures is an epic tale of the Westernization of Japan and plays from March 14 to May 3, 2009. The season finale, Once on This Island, a Caribbean-themed musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Aherns, plays May 9 through June 28, 2009.

Porchlight Music Theatre has established a national reputation for presenting grand stories in intimate settings, showcasing the brightest, up-and-coming talent and developing new music theatre work. The 2008–2009 season of musical journeys performs at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 West Belmont.
Porchlight audiences next travel to Japan with Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures. An epic musical that spans 120 turbulent years of Japanese history, Pacific Overtures is the sweeping depiction of the nation’s first contact with America through the modern age. Nominated for 10 Tony Awards, Pacific Overtures is considered to be the artistic pinnacle of the legendary collaborations between Sondheim and director Hal Prince. The groundbreaking, passionate Asian-inspired score contains material Sondheim considers his best.

The season will culminate in the Caribbean with the calypso-inspired musical Once on This Island. The Tony Award winning composers of Ragtime transport the story of the Little Mermaid to the Caribbean islands. This romantic musical tells the story of a poor peasant girl who falls in love with an upper-class gentleman. The island gods of Love, Earth, Water, and Death try to manipulate the young lovers on a fateful journey that tests the strength of their love. Once on This Island received eight Tony Award Nominations in 1991, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book.

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The 2008–2009 Season of Porchlight Musicals will be produced at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 West Belmont (at Racine). Season subscriptions are available by contacting Porchlight Music Theatre at porchlighttheatre@yahoo.com or (773) 325-9884.

Porchlight Music Theatre is Chicago’s music theatre leader; producing award-winning interpretations of classic musicals and cutting-edge new works on intimate stages. The company has staged 36 shows including four world premieres, among them, The Teapot Scandals, its first work developed through Off the Porch, Porchlight’s new works program, as well as seven Chicago premieres. Porchlight earned the most Jeff awards of any Chicago music theater and the most After Dark Awards of any Chicago theater in 2007. An Equity theater since 2004, the company has already received a total of 29 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations resulting in 11 Jeff Awards.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Alaron, the A.R.T League, the Arts Work Fund at the Chicago Community Trust, the William Blair & Company Foundation, Capri Capital Partners LLC, a City Arts Program 2 Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council (a state agency), the MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Mummert Consulting Group, 900 North Michigan Surgery Center, Peoples Energy, and The Saints.
PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE’S
2008–2009 SEASON
Musical Journeys—A Season of Musical Destinations

Pacific Overtures
Book by John Weidman
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Previews March 14
Press Opening March 18
Performances continue through May 3, 2009

Once on This Island
Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Based on the novel, My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy
Previews May 9
Press Opening May 11
Performances continue through June 28, 2009

Ticket Information:
Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:45pm and Sundays at 2:30pm. Single tickets are $35 with discounts available for students and seniors. For Single Tickets call Theatre Building Chicago’s Box Office 773-327-5252 or www.TicketMaster.com.

Travel the World Subscription Passports are available through the Porchlight Music Theatre Business Office 773-325-9884.

Group Sales Discounts are available through Group Theater Tix at (312) 423-6612 or
(866) 809-3075.