Displaying items by tag: Nick Sula

Broadway In Chicago and Kokandy Productions announced that the critically acclaimed revival of the 10-time 2025 Jeff Award–nominated musical JEKYLL & HYDE will make its Broadway In Chicago debut at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place (175 E. Chestnut St.), September 8—October 25. The engagement follows last year’s completely sold-out and extended Chicago run — which marked the musical’s first staging in the city in more than 15 years. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Brenda Didier.

JEKYLL & HYDE will be included in the next Broadway In Chicago season package, on sale this April. Groups of 10 or more may purchase tickets now by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling 312-977-1710. See below for additional ticket and performance schedule information.

The entire original cast will return for the Broadway Playhouse run, including Jeff Award nominees David Moreland (Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde), Ava Lane Stovall (Lucy Harris), and Emily McCormick (Emma Carew).

The full design team and orchestra are expected to return with all the specific elements for the Broadway Playhouse production to be announced at a later date.

Murder and chaos are pitted against love and virtue in this sweeping gothic musical.

The epic struggle between good and evil comes to life on stage in the musical phenomenon, Jekyll & Hyde. Based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson and featuring a thrilling score of pop rock hits from multi-Grammy- and Tony-nominated Frank Wildhorn and double-Oscar and Grammy-winning Leslie Bricusse, Jekyll & Hyde has mesmerized audiences the world over.

Lou Raizin, President and CEO of Broadway In Chicago, said, “This collaboration with Kokandy Productions reflects what makes Chicago’s theatre community so powerful — artists and institutions working together to elevate bold storytelling and expand access to exceptional live performance. JEKYLL & HYDE is a thrilling example of the depth of talent in our city, and we are proud to bring this acclaimed production to the Broadway Playhouse for a broader audience.”

Scot Kokandy, Executive Producer of Kokandy Productions, added, “To say we are excited is an understatement. Last year’s production of JEKYLL & HYDE was the most ambitious production we have attempted to present, and we are ecstatic and honored to partner with Broadway In Chicago to bring it back this fall.”

Derek Van Barham, Producing Artistic Director of Kokandy Productions and Jeff Award-nominated Director of JEKYLL & HYDE, noted, “We were overwhelmed by the initial response to our JEKYLL & HYDE.  Clapping, cheering, standing ovations in the middle of the show — it was like being at a rock concert for everyone's favorite band. Directing this amazing cast at the Broadway Playhouse and seeing our production grow on this stage means the world to me. And that it’s returning during the Halloween season makes it a wickedly delicious treat for Chicago.”

JEKYLL & HYDE JEFF NOMINATED CREATIVE TEAM
Derek Van Barham (Director) is the Producing Artistic Director of Kokandy Productions. Directing credits include Children of Eden in Concert (Broadway In Chicago), Amélie, Into the Woods, Alice by Heart, Sweeney Todd, American Psycho, Head Over Heels (3 Jeff Awards and 2 Jeff nominations, Kokandy); Spring Awakening (Flint Rep); Rock of Ages (Metropolis); The View Upstairs (Circle Theatre); Miracle by Dan Savage, Poseidon (Hell in a Handbag); Carrie, Bat Boy, Merrily We Roll Along (CCPA/Roosevelt University). Choreography credits include Evil Dead (Jeff nomination), Coraline the Musical, Ghost Quartet and Shockheaded Peter (Black Button Eyes). He was previously named one of Windy City Times’ 30 Under 30, and one of Newcity Magazine’s 50 Players 2024. MFA: CCPA/Roosevelt University. IG: @dvbarham

Nick Sula (Music Director) is an award-winning pianist and music director, proud to return to Kokandy Productions where he served as music director for the Jeff Award-winning productions of Sweeney Todd (Jeff Award for Outstanding Music Direction), Into the Woods (Jeff Awards for Outstanding Music Direction and Orchestrations), as well as the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival. Other Chicago theatre music direction credits include: Anything Goes (Jeff nomination) with Porchlight Music Theatre; Ghost Quartet (Jeff nomination), Mary Rose, Nevermore, Amour and Coraline with Black Button Eyes Productions; Myths & Hymns, The Glorious Ones (Jeff nomination), Hello Again, La Cage aux Folles and Pippin with BoHo Theatre. As a professor of musical theatre he serves as a music director, instructor and vocal coach at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Brenda Didier (Choreographer) is thrilled to collaborate with Derek (DVB) for the first time and to return to Kokandy after choreographing Grand Hotel in 2018 (Jeff nomination). Direction and/or Choreography credits include work with: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Goodman, Marriott, Paramount, Porchlight Music Theatre, Mercury Theater, Theo and many others. Tour: Kenny Rogers Christmas Tour, Cirque Shanghai: Navy Pier Skyline Stage and productions in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and the New Victory Theatre in New York. Ms. Didier made her TV Choreography debut with T-Mobile's national holiday commercial "Home for the Holidays." She is a multiple Jeff Award recipient in both Direction and Choreography (Equity and Non-Equity wings) and Artistic Director/Founder of The Lincolnshire Academy of Dance, now in its 28th Season. "Thank you to Derek, Nick, Shane, Scot and our incredible cast, design team, band and crew! Thank you for supporting live theatre! Love to Mike, Mom, family and friends!”

TICKET INFORMATION & PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
JEKYLL & HYDE will be included in the next season package, on sale this April. Current subscribers can add tickets to their season package when renewing by visiting BroadwayInChicago.com or calling 312-977-1717. Groups of 10 or more may be purchased now by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling 312-977-1710. Individual on-sale dates and performance schedules to be announced this spring.

ABOUT BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
Broadway In Chicago was created in July 2000 and over the past 26 years has grown to be one of the largest commercial touring homes in the country. A Nederlander Presentation, Broadway In Chicago lights up the Chicago Theater District entertaining up to 1.7 million people annually in five theatres. Broadway In Chicago presents a full range of entertainment, including musicals and plays, on the stages of five of the finest theatres in Chicago’s Loop including the Cadillac Palace Theatre, CIBC Theatre, James M. Nederlander Theatre, and just off the Magnificent Mile, the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place and presenting Broadway shows at The Auditorium.

For more information, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com .
Follow @BroadwayInChicago on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , Bluesky #BroadwayInChicago

ABOUT KOKANDY PRODUCTIONS
Founded in 2010, Kokandy Productions seeks to leverage the heightened reality of musical theatre to tell complex and challenging stories, with a focus on contributing to the development of Chicago-based musical theatre artists, and raising the profile of Chicago's non-Equity musical theatre community.

The company's artistic staff is comprised of Derek Van Barham (Producing Artistic Director), Scot Kokandy (Executive Producer), Nicholas Reinhart (Associate Producer), and Adrian Abel Azevedo & Leda Hoffman (Artistic Associates). The Board of Directors includes Preston Cropp, Scot Kokandy, Danielle Sparklin and Katie Svaicer. 

For additional information, visit www.kokandyproductions.com . 

I’ll admit it: I knew little about “Into the Woods” before seeing the new production at Chicago’s Chopin Theatre. I’m not particularly fond of the composer, Stephen Sondheim. I’d bailed early watching the 2014 film with Meryl Streep. So I challenged myself to find out why it is so popular. And now I know: it’s really good.

At a venue like Chopin Theatre, in the intimate downstairs theater, you’ll have a chance to appreciate the dark humor of the book by James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Sondheim. No doubt you will come away as I did, experiencing the power mined from a most creative mash-up of four familiar fairy tales, and very much liking its dark, funny humor. 

Lapine and Sondheim tap four classic fairy tales—Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella—building a cast of characters that for the first time meet each other. And we discover on stage they have a lot in common. 

Among the cast are two princes, Shea Hopkins as Cinderella’s Prince and Jonathan Allsop as Rapunzel’s Prince, who bond in their shared quests. Princessy figures Cinderella (Madison Kauffman) and Rapunzel (Ismael Garcia) share the spotlight. And then there are the younger innocent players, Little Red (aka Riding Hood, Anna Selbert) and Jack (Kevin Parra) of Beanstalk fame. Both get into trouble for not following their mothers’ orders.

And of course we see those mean-spirited characters, The Witch (Stephanie Stockstill) who entrapped Rapunzel in that stairless tower and Cinderella’s Stepmother (Emily Goldberg)—though these two don’t really connect. 

Bits of the classic stories are recounted, but “Into the Woods” faces us squarely with the shadowy parts. Yes Rapunzel let down her long hair for that prince and they fell in love. But there is more in Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I reread them all after seeing the show): The Witch cuts off Rapunzel’s hair, banishes her to wander a wasteland, and tricks the Prince into climbing up. He falls into a thornbush and pierces his eyes. Another element I hadn’t recalled until my rereading of Rapunzel: a couple aiming to have a child are the origins of the long-haired beauty’s predicament. (This couple seems to be drawn from the original tale, in which the husband surrenders Rapunzel to compensate The Witch for his theft from her garden.) In the play, that husband becomes The Baker (Kevin Webb) who with The Baker's Wife (Sonia Goldberg) goes on a quest in order to have a child. 

Sondheim and Lapine take these stories into uncharted territory in Act 2 as the characters suffer retributions unleashed for their selfish acts. As originally told, after Jack sells a cow for those magic beans, he climbs into the Giant’s lair and robs him, then kills the Giant as he pursues him down the beanstalk. The play adds a riff to that tale: the Giant’s widow (Honey West) chases Jack and wreaks havoc in the kingdom in her pursuit of justice. 

The stories are woven together into a cohesive whole guided by Narrator, played so remarkably well by August Forman, who doubles as Mysterious Man. It is the strength of Forman’s performance that makes the many moving parts fit together; they are onstage continuously and tirelessly. It’s truly remarkable to behold. 

Kokandy Productions’ show, directed and tightly choreographed by Derek Van Barham, meets the demands of this funny and inventive book by Lapine, with music and lyrics by Sondheim. Entrances and action are timed with exacting precision. 

A pair of grand pianos are center stage, with keyboardists Ariana Miles and Evelyn Ryan replacing full orchestration, and fully integrated to the action around them. Kudos to these two for their exemplary artistry. 

What’s not to like in “Into the Woods”? Just one thing: that Wolf? His ears are way too round and small. 

At its 1986 Broadway debut, “Into the Woods” was seen by many as an allegory for the havoc wreaked by the early AIDS crisis. It’s easy to see why during Act 2. Sondheim has demurred from that interpretation, and now nearly 50 years later, there is nothing explicitly alluding to AIDS. Our contemporary climate crisis fits aptly into interpretations of the play now. And that is a tribute to the work’s timeless character, and longstanding appeal.

“Into the Woods” runs through December 22, 2024 at The Chopin Theatre in Chicago.