Stephen Flaherty

Composer Stephen Flaherty will be honored in person at the Bailiwick Theater Mainstage, 1229 West Belmont, on Monday, March 19, 2007 with a musical revue of classic Broadway songs written by the team of Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, including numbers from their renowned shows like My Favorite Year (which will run at Bailiwick from March 8 to April 14, Ragtime, Once On This Island, Seussical, A Man Of No Importance, Dessa Rose and several others.  Featuring a talented cast of top Chicago theatre performers in solo, duet and ensemble numbers, the program will include selections ranging from Flaherty and Ahrens’ earliest hits to their latest show -- The Glorious Ones, which premieres in the spring.
 
Why We Tell Our Story is in the Bailiwick Mainstage at 7:30 On Monday, March 19. Tickets for this benefit event are $50 for VIP Reserved Seating, and $30 for General Admission, and can be purchased by calling 773-883-1090, or reserving on-line at www.bailiwick.org.  The event raises funds for Bailiwick's musical productions, which have won Best Musical at the Jeff Citations for 2004 (Dr. Sex), 2005 (Parade) and 2006 (Kiss Of The Spider Woman), and in 2007 include My Favorite Year and the American Premiere of Jerry Springer – The Opera.
 
My Favorite Year, which Flaherty and Ahrens transformed the beloved Peter O’Toole movie into a heartwarming musical comedy for Broadway, tells the charming story of Benjy Stone -- a freshman writer for a comedy TV show in 1954, when such shows were broadcast live to an audience of 20 million viewers.  Benjy is assigned the task of keeping tabs on the boisterous movie star Alan Swann, during the rehearsals for Swann’s guest appearance, which is a week full of hilarious mishaps and touching revelations.
 
For the Flaherty/Ahrens event, Bailiwick will turn its mainstage theatre into a cabaret setting for this special musical revue.  The theme of the evening, presented by a celebrity emcee, will be the masterful way that this songwriting team is able to tell such rich, human stories in a variety of settings around the world.   From the passionate Caribbean natives of their early hit Once On This Island, the pre-Civil War setting of Dessa Rose, the Dublin community theatre scene of A Man of No Importance, and the delightful children stories of Seussical, Flaherty and Ahrens always manage to capture the style and traditions of a variety of peoples. A prime example of this storytelling talent is their 1997 award-winning classic Ragtime, based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel about the convergence of three diverse cultures at a pivotal time in American history.
 
Chicago has benefited from a mini-festival of Flaherty and Ahrens shows during the past year, with recent productions of Seussical and the Jeff Award-winning Loving Repeating: a Gertrude Stein Musical, plus an upcoming revival of Ragtime by Porchlight Music Theatre, and the Bailiwick production of My Favorite Year.  This special tribute will sample songs from each of these scores, plus several others, and the audience will experience stories of life, hope and determination from these memorable Broadway shows.  Directed by David Zak, with musical direction by Robert Ollis, this promises to be a fun, lively tribute to an inspired songwriting team that has worked together for over 20 years.
 
My Favorite Year is part of the Bailiwick@25 Celebration, and will conclude with the American Premiere of Jerry Sprnger  - The Opera, opening on May 14, 2007.