Follow Us On Twitter
Emerald City Theatre will cap its most successful season in its 10-year history with a brief summer remount of its 2005/06 season finale The Jungle Book, July 12-14. Performances of Emerald City's hit family musical will move from the company's regular home at the Apollo Theatre, to the Athenaeum Theatre Mainstage for three shows only: Tuesday through Thursday, July 12-14 at 11 am.
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale The Jungle Book is the first - and possibly greatest - jungle adventure of all time. Long before Simba claimed the Prideland, before Tarzan swung on vines, Kipling spun fantasies of life deep in the wilds on India. This is his beloved story of Mowgli, a baby lost in the jungle. Sponsored by a panther and adopted by a family of wolves, Mowgli grows up with cobras, jackals, monkeys and bears. But the tiger, Shere Khan, fears the man-cub and the laws of the jungle become vital to Mowgli's survival.
The Jungle Book is by Emerald City's creative team of Alyn Cardarelli and Steve Goers. Director and Choreographer is Ernie Nolan (who is currently at Kansas City's Coterie Theater choreographing Stephen Schwartz' new family musical Geppetto and Son.) The cast includes Chicago stage and cabaret veteran Stephen Rader as Shere Khan, with Isaiah Brooms, Brian Dongarra, Kent Haina, Vincent Rideout, Joshua Sumner, Star Velazquez, and Ted White. Designers are Christopher Ash, set; Joe Court, sound; Marc Dunworth, props; John Horan, lights; and Kate Stransky, costumes.
The Jungle Book was the grand finale of the 10th anniversary season for Emerald City Theatre Company, Chicago's largest professional theater devoted entirely to families. Emerald City's 2005/06 season also boasted the world premiere musicals Stellaluna and Other Tales and A Nutcracker Christmas -the company's number #1 box office success in its 10-year history – along with Charlotte's Web and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
Emerald City's 2006/07 season kicks off in October with a new adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, filled with adventure, spectacle and puppetry. In November and December, Emerald City will bring back last season's smash hit musical A Nutcracker Christmas by Ralph Covert (of Ralph's World) and G. Riley Mills. Play three is TBA. Next is the fun and wacky musical, The Stinky Cheese Man and other fair(l)y (stoopid) tales (February-April), then Narnia, a musical based on C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (April-June.)
Emerald City Theatre Company's 2006/07 season will be performed at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave., in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Five show subscription plans - on sale now - are $40 for children, $50 for adults. Single tickets go on sale to the general public on August 1. Single tickets are $10 for children 12 and under; $13 for adults? For more information, call Emerald City Theatre Company, (773) 529-2690, or go to www.emeraldcitytheatre.com
Founded in 1996, Emerald City Theatre Company is Chicago's largest professional theater devoted entirely to families, now playing to an annual audience of 80,000.
Named Chicago's best theater for children by Where Chicago Magazine, Emerald City creates innovative, affordable theater experiences that bring families closer together and inspire children everywhere. All Emerald City productions feature professional directors, actors, writers and designers focused on delivering a theater experience the entire family can enjoy. It's for these reasons countless Chicago-area families have had their child's first live theater experience with Emerald City and come back again and again.