Displaying items by tag: Kayla Boye

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre presents Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story, written by and starring Kayla Boye, directed by Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber, choreographed by Tammy Mader and music directed by Linda Madonia, Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. The running time is 75 minutes with no intermission. Shake it Away: The Ann Miller Story is a special event presented during Porchlight’s The Irish … and How they Got That Way, January 31 - March 15.  Tickets for Shake it Away are available now at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org for $25. More information on Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story is available at ShakeItAwayPlay.com

On a soundstage at the infamous 1970 MGM Studios auction, dancer/singer/actress Ann Miller revisits the Golden Age of Hollywood and discovers her second act as a Broadway star while filmdom’s treasures — including the legendary “ruby slippers,” the “Cotton Blossom” show boat, Clark Gable’s “lucky trench coat” and more — are sold for pennies on the dollar. Featuring selections from the Great American Songbook, this love letter to entertainment is written by and stars Kayla Boye, who has appeared at Porchlight Music Theatre in Can-Can, Little Me, Billy Elliot and New Faces Sing Broadway 1969. 

Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story returns to Chicago after a critically acclaimed world premiere tour that included the Hollywood Fringe in Los Angeles (Hudson Theatres, June 10 - 15, 2025), Off-Broadway’s “East to Edinburgh” in New York (59E59 Theaters, July 15 - 19, 2025) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (theSpace at Surgeons’ Hall, August 1 - 9, 2025). This March 3 performance will feature new material not seen in the production’s previous performances in Chicago, Hollywood, New York and Edinburgh.  

Kayla Boye says, “I am so glad to be returning to Porchlight with Shake It Away and grateful to be collaborating with this terrific team. Ann Miller’s life exemplified resilience and optimism, which she shared through her incredible talents and authenticity. From films such as Kiss Me Kate, Easter Parade and On the Town, to productions such as Mame, Hello Dolly and Sugar Babies, she showed us what it meant to shake the blues away. I hope audiences find her story to be one of hope and joy, as I have.”

ABOUT KAYLA BOYE, Writer/Actor

Kayla Boye’s production ofCall Me Elizabeth, a critically acclaimed solo show about the life of Elizabeth Taylor, was streamed by BroadwayHD and Porchlight Music Theatre during the pandemic and continues to tour internationally following sold-out runs Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Mexico’s San Miguel Solo Theatre Festival. Additional credits: The Wizard of Oz (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), South Pacific (Drury Lane Theatre), Holiday Inn, Guys & Dolls, Cinderella (Fireside Theatre), On the Town (Capital City Theatre), Pippin (Mercury Theater Chicago), Anything Goes, Gypsy, Mame (Music Theater Works), Not Now Darling (BrightSide Theatre), A Christmas Story (Citadel Theatre), Man of La Mancha, Annie, The Addams Family (Bigfork Summer Playhouse), The Drowsy Chaperone, Bye Bye Birdie, Carousel (The Huron Playhouse), Mary Poppins, Chicago, Curtains (The Youngstown Playhouse), and “Winnie” in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (City Lit Theater). Awards: Best Choreography, Chicago Musical Theatre Festival (Wonder Women: The Musical). Her work has been awarded grants from Illinois Arts Council and the Arts Midwest Touring Fund.

ABOUT MICHAEL WEBER, Director

Michael Weber is a nationally recognized, award-winning director, producer, actor and educator. He currently serves as artistic director of Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre where he recently directed Sunday in the Park with George starring Broadway’s Kathy Voytko and Tony Award-nominee Sean Allan Krill and he was resident director of the Chicago premiere of Titanique. He recently directed the Off-Broadway and European premieres of Call Me Elizabeth written by and starring Kayla Boye as “Elizabeth Taylor.” Under his artistic leadership, Porchlight Music Theatre was awarded Chicago’s Jeff Award for “Best Production” six times. He previously served as artistic director for the inaugural season of Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place (now Broadway in Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse) and at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana. The recipient of two Joseph Jefferson Awards, he has been nominated for nine awards and he wrote and directed 14 Joseph Jefferson Awards ceremonies (2006-2018). Weber’s regional acting credits include The Merry Widow (starring Renée Fleming) at Lyric Opera, Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy (both starring Patti LuPone) at Ravinia Festival, The Winter’s Tale and Henry V at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and more. He is author of the play WAR of the WELLeS (about Orson Welles’ infamous radio broadcast) and he is a longtime pledge host for PBS station WTTW channel 11.

ABOUT TAMMY MADER, Choreographer

Tammy Mader is a proud member of SDC, the union of professional Stage Directors and Choreographers. Credits include: Bye Bye Birdie, Hairspray (Jeff Award), Next To Normal, Sunset Blvd., Gypsy, Spamalot, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Jeff Nomination), Buddy; The Buddy Holly Story, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Jeff Award), Meet Me In St. Louis, Kiss Me Kate (Jeff Nomination), Anything Goes (Jeff Nomination), and My One And Only (Jeff Award) at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace; Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Meet Me In St. Louis, Grand Hotel and The Full Monty at Drury Lane Water Tower Place; Guys & Dolls and Invisible Man at Court Theatre; Singin' In The Rain, My One And Only (Jeff Nomination), 42nd St. (Jeff Award), Beauty and the Beast for Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre; Animal Crackers for Baltimore’s Center Stage, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? for Drury Lane Theater in Evergreen Park; She Loves Me, Singin’ In The Rain (Jeff Nomination), Grand Hotel, 42nd St., Meet Me In St. Louis, and Swingin’ On A Star: The Johnny Burke Musical at Theater at the Center, Elizabeth Rex at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Porchlight Music Theatre’s Anything Goes, Mack And Mabel and Assassins. 

ABOUT LINDA MADONIA, Music Director

Linda Madonia is currently the company manager for Porchlight Music Theatre. She also has music directed the ICONS Gala Celebrating Leslie Uggams and previously worked on Broadway in your Backyard, Anything Goes, Cabaret and A Chorus Line, all with Porchlight. Other projects include Annie, Guys and Dolls, Legally Blonde: The Musical, Shrek the Musical, Mamma Mia! and Camelot at Music Theater Works and Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages and Sister Act at Mercury Theater Chicago. Linda is the vocal coach for the master’s degree program in music theatre pedagogy at Carthage College and owns American Eagle Productions, which has been at the forefront of theatre education in the Chicago area for the past 35 years in Chicago.

ABOUT OFF THE PORCH

​​Created and led by Porchlight Music Theatre artistic associates, Off the Porch follows the great tradition of Chicago theatre by offering an open and safe environment for the exploration and creation of new musicals, adaptations and plays with music. Through this series, Porchlight nurtures local, regional and national talent by providing artistic resources to support the development of new musical works and by cultivating and showcasing the new work of composers, lyricists and playwrights. Recent productions include Making Marilyn Miller - An Immersive Musical, October 8 and 9, 2025, and pre-tour invited rehearsal of Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story, June 1, 2025. 

ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE

Porchlight Music Theatre, now in its 31st season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.” 

Porchlight's history over nearly three decades includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. 

Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form. 

The company’s many honors include 179 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 50 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022). 

Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city. 

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre presents Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story, written by and starring Kayla Boye, directed by Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber, choreographed by Tammy Mader and music directed by Linda Madonia, Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.  at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. The running time is 75 minutes with no intermission with tickets available now at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org for $25. More information on Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story is available at ShakeItAwayPlay.com