Chicagoans smile; Mother Nature is cooperating with spectacular weather for three premier summer culminating special events. The historic Bud Billiken Parade, in its 95th year, celebrates African-American culture in Chicago since 1929. The parade starts at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 10, 2024. It features bands, floats, food, and entertainment and supports the community’s youth, education, health, and economic vitality. Led by Grand Marshal Jason Weaver, star of “The Chi,” the parade route starts at 39th Street and South King Drive in Bronzeville and travels three miles south to 55th Place in Washington Park. If you cannot be among the fortunate thousands in person to witness the largest African American Parade in the USA, WLS-Channel 7 and ABC7Chicago.com will live broadcast the parade from 10:00 a.m. to Noon.
The Chicago Air and Water Show on Saturday and Sunday, August 10-11, is the largest, oldest, free air and water exhibition in the United States. The prime viewing is on North Avenue Beach from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The star line-up includes the Navy Blue Angels and Army Golden Knights with RJ Gritter Gritter, the Trojand Phylers, and more. On Monday, August 12, 2024, at 6:15, Broadway in Chicago returns to Millennium Park at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion for a FREE preview of the coming sixteen hot Broadway shows.
This is one of my favorite summer events. The Free Broadway in Chicago Summer Concert is sponsored by ABC 7 Chicago. It is presented in collaboration with the (DCSAE) City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The preview of Hot shows from Broadway allows you to choose which of the sixteen shows you cannot miss.
Back To The Future: The Musical, winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, is playing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, located at 151 West Randolph Street, from August 13 through September 1, 2024. According to its original film star, Michael J. Fox, it is a two-hour, forty-minute spectacular production with an intermission. It is suitable for ages six and up.
From October 22 through November 3, 2024, the Cadillac Palace Theatre presents Some Like it Hot, a 2-hour and 30-minute show including an intermission. This winner of four Tony Awards®, including Best Choreography, Best Costumes, and a Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theater Album, is suitable for ages 12 and up. It is a glorious production set during Chicago’s prohibition area. For those who love musicals it is something you can’t miss. The New York Times describes it as “A Super-Sized, All-Out Song-And-Dance Spectacular!”
A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL is suitable for all ages and plays at the Cadillac Theatre from November 12 through November 24, 2024. It is two hours and 15 minutes long, including an intermission. It is the uplifting true story of Neil Diamond’s humble beginnings to becoming a pop-rock icon. If you are a Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Jersey Boys fan, you will be delighted by the songs defining Neil Diamond’s stellar career.
Juliet, a show for ages eight and up, is perfect for the holiday season and appears at the Cadillac Palace Theatre from December 3 through December 15. This is a bold new musical imagining life for Juliet after Romeo’s demise. This imaginative, fresh take on Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare’s greatest love story, is from the Emmy Award® winning writer David West Reed, from Schitt’s Creek. The music is by Max Martin & Friends with iconic pop anthems “Since U Been Gone,” “Roar,” Baby One More Time,” “Larger Than Life,” “That’s The Way It Is,” and Can’t Stop The Feeling!”
Starting in the New Year, the Tony Award®-winning musical Shucked arrives at the CIBC Theatre at 18 West Monroe on January 7 through January 19, 2025. It has a runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes with an intermission. Although recommended for ages ten and above, it contains adult themes and corny innuendos. Broadway in Chicago describes the production as “about an unlikely hero, a loveable con man, and an a-maize-ing battle for the heart & soil of Cob County.”
Next summer, from June 10 through June 22, 2025, I plan on seeing Kimberly Akimbo, the winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, at the CIBC Theatre. This new musical is about a funny, dysfunctional family and a character with a rare genetic dysfunction. It will have you laughing and crying. The runtime is 2 hours and 30 minutes with an intermission and is suitable for ages 12 and up.
Chicago is privileged to host the World Premiere of the Biomusical Ali at the CIBC Theatre from May 18 through May 25. Twenty-six members of The Apostolic Church of God Praise Team, 6320 South Dorchester Avenue, from the Woodlawn neighborhood, will accompany Ali for this performance.
TITANIQUE, a cheeky imitation of the film Titanic, is driven by Celine Dion’s pop songs. In cooperation with the Porchlight Music Theatre subscription season, it will play Broadway in Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place for a limited eight-week engagement, March 25 through May 18, 2025.
This preview will also include returning favorite selections such as Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Come Away, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Hadestown, Les Misrable, Mean Girls, and Ain’t Too Proud–The Life And Times of The Temptations.
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, it returns to the Cadillac Palace Theatre from July 9th through August 2, 2025. The show is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission, and is suitable for ages six and above.
Please plan for this fabulous ninety-minute free event. Here are some suggestions from Boadway in Chicago: There is a security perimeter at Millennium Park. We advise arriving as early as possible to this event, as we expect a huge crowd that regularly reaches capacity. Gates will open around 4:30 p.m. Seating in the bowl is first come, first serve, and fans begin lining up several hours before the scheduled concert start time of 6:15 p.m.
All guests for the event will be required to enter through special entrances off of Randolph and Monroe streets. See letters A, B, E, and G.
Have Fun, and See you there!
The 1927 musical Good News in song lyrics popularized the mantra “The Best Things in Life are Free.” Yes, they are. Broadway in Chicago proved that at Millennium Park on Monday, August 12, 2024. ABC 7, Broadway in Chicago, in collaboration with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), sponsored a free concert showcasing spectacular talent for the upcoming 2024/2025 Hot from Broadway show season. Mother Nature, not to be upstaged by the stellar entertainment, provided perfect weather on this ideal summer evening.
Val Warner and Hosea Sanders were joyful, gracious, funny, hospitable hosts welcoming the stars and audience to a special treat, a sample of Broadway’s best. Warner also entertained us with some serious acting chops in a short skit. The sixteen shows covered the gamut from comedy to drama, Tony winners, novel productions, international hits, encore returns, and a World Premiere Ali at the Nederlander Theatre on April 22, 2025. Each act featured a ginormous video screen with a montage of highlight clips of the show. The actor or actors would then take the stage and perform a highlight of the show. The orchestra, led by Michael Fisher, was fabulous. If you were not among the 11,000-capacity crowd this past Monday, do not miss this free event next year.
Two winners, George Spiegel and Jazmin Rhodes, and two runners-up, Ethan Wankel and Mary Kate Schoessling, of the Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards, opened the evening with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” They also performed with actors from Hades Town. Ana, my Godchild, and niece from Maui, was in town and delighted to share this event with me. Her favorite production numbers were Ali and Juliet. We were both pleasantly surprised that Lonnie Ali, Muhammad’s wife, was onstage to introduce the Broadway-bound World premiere of Ali. She was beautiful and eloquent. She reminded us of Ali’s love for Chicago, where he won the Golden Gloves and lived for a long time on the south side. She said that he was not just a fighter in the ring but a champion for social justice and equality. Juliet has popular music that is so familiar you want to sing along. Emily Bautista’s performance from Les Miserable nearly brought me to tears. The audience was ecstatic over American Idol winner Nick Fradiani’s “Sweet Caroline.” He is Neil Diamond in A Beautiful Noise. It was the perfect, exhilarating finale to this evening.
Photos: Courtesy of Broadway in Chicago
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