2023 – 2024 SEASON
ANNOUNCING OUR 29th SEASON
Our 2023 – 24 season will look a little different than it has in seasons past, but it is no less exciting. This season will be one of both artistic excellence and fiscal sustainability, as we build toward a strong future at Chicago’s home for music theatre. We look forward to welcoming you to our home in the Gold Coast, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, The House of Blues for our special fundraising concert and the historic Studebaker Theater.
THE COLE PORTER FESTIVAL – A CELEBRATION OF THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
October 16 – March 4, 2024
Various locations around Chicago
Culminating in Porchlight’s 2024 run of Anything Goes, The Cole Porter Festival will feature a variety of events and activities including a retrospective Cole Porter in Hollywood, a newly curated Behind the Show Backstory multimedia presentation created by Artistic Director Michael Weber focusing on the creation and evolution of the musical Anything Goes, A Roundtable Discussion focusing on Porter’s work as seen through his lens as a gay artist working in the 1920s-50s, a revisit of Cole Porter and the Golden Age of Radio featuring rare broadcasts of Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate and more free and ticketed events to be announced.
ANYTHING GOES
January 13 – February 25, 2024
Ruth Page Center for the Arts
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Original Book by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse
New Book by Timothy Crouse & John Weidman
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber
Choreographed by Tammy Mader
Music Directed by Nick Sula
Starring internationally renowned powerhouse Meghan Murphy as “Reno Sweeney”
Chicago will get a kick out of this 90th anniversary production of Cole Porter’s smash-hit musical comedy, Anything Goes. Launching Porchlight’s 29th season, this legendary toe-tapping voyage across the Atlantic is filled with laughs, romance, intrigue and, of course, lots of tap dancing in this farcical and merry, musical classic. Porter’s iconic score includes a shipload of tunes that built the Great American Songbook including “Anything Goes,” “Friendship,” “You’re the Top” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.”
Photo by Joe Mazza
PORCHLIGHT IN CONCERT: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
May 11 & May 12, 2024
The Studebaker Theater
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber
Music Directed by David Fiorello
Porchlight celebrates the 40th Anniversary of one of Stephen Sondheim’s most celebrated works with a new special event concert staging. Audiences will experience Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer-, Tony- and Oliver-winning musical masterpiece with the original Broadway orchestrations and an all-star cast – live on the historic Studebaker stage. Based on Georges Seurat‘s painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” which is on display just down the street at the Art Institute of Chicago, this limited engagement brings to life the rich score telling the story of the months leading to the completion of Seurat’s famous work in 1886 and the effects of the artist and the art on people over the following 100 years.
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And the return of our spring fundraising concert…
CHICAGO SINGS BROADWAY POP II
Monday, April 15, 2024
House of Blues Chicago
Directed by Artistic Director Michael Weber & Producing Artistic Associate Frankie Leo Bennett
Music Directed by David Fiorello
Back by popular demand with an all-new program! This year’s annual fundraising concert will dive into more Broadway songs that have found their way onto the popular music charts and popular songs that have been heard on Broadway. Join Porchlight for a night of unforgettable music with a new set list performed by Porchlight favorite stars on the legendary House of Blues stage.
THE 2023-2024 SEASON IS DEDICATED TO JIM JENSEN IN RECOGNITION OF HIS OUTSTANDING GENEROSITY AND 12 YEARS OF DEDICATED BOARD SERVICE.
