Chicago Production of OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES Begins Limited Engagement at Royal George Theatre September 24, 2013: Tickets On Sale Now
The producers of the hit Off-Broadway show OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES arekvelling to announce that the upcoming engagement at Chicago’s Royal George Theatre will feature a quintet of familiar (and not-so-old) faces: Dara Cameron, Alex Goodrich, Tim Kazurinsky, Renee Matthews and Gene Weygandt. OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES begins performances on the Main Stage of the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted Street, Tuesday, September 24, and officially opens Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30p.m.
Created by Peter Gethers and Daniel Okrent, OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES is directed byMarc Bruni (Associate Director, The Book of Mormon Chicago) and showcases the five actors in a revue that pays tribute to and reinvents classic jokes of the past and present. Think you’ve heard them all before? Not this way. The show also features comic songs — brand new and satisfyingly old – as well as tributes to some of the giants of the comedy world and to OldJewsTellingJokes.com, the website created by Sam Hoffman that inspired the show. The Off-Broadway production of OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES opened to rave reviews in May 2012 at the Westside Theatre where it continues to play to sold-out houses.
“Having spent last season with the Mormons, I can’t wait to spend this one with Chicago’s Old Jews! This is an extraordinary cast of joke tellers who will deliver a hilarious and heartwarming production,” said Bruni. “And at these prices, why don’t you have your tickets already?”
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
Dara Cameron (Debbi). Dara’s recent Chicagoland credits include: South Pacific, Hero (2012 Jeff Award nomination), Cinderella, Fiddler on the Roof, Little Women at the Marriott Theatre; Sunset Boulevard, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Wizard of Oz at Drury Lane Oakbrook; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Theatre at the Center; It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph! at American Blues Theatre
Alex Goodrich (Reuben). Alex won the 2012 Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actor – Musical for Hero at the Marriott Theatre. Other credits include shows at Indiana Repertory Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, Next Theater, Chicago Children’s Theater and Provision Theater
Tim Kazurinsky (Nathan). Tim is an alum of Second City and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Film appearances include Neighbors, Somewhere in Time, and three Police Academyfilms. TV shows: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Married With Children and According to Jim. He also co-wrote the screenplays for About Last Night…, For Keeps, and The Cherokee Kid.
Renee Matthews (Bunny). Renee was recently seen as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof at the Paramount Theatre and in Showboat at Lyric Opera. She is a recipient of a Jeff Award and After Dark Award for her role as Jeanette in The Full Monty at Drury Lane Water Tower. In a national tour, she presented the one-woman show Molly Picon’s Return Engagement based on the life of the late Yiddish actress. Other credits include Arsenic and Old Lace, Grease and Singing In The Rainat Drury Lane Oakbrook; Ruthless! and Over The Tavern at Noble Fool Theatricals; and Over The River and Through The Woods at both the Mercury Theatre and Theatre at the Center.
Gene Weygandt (Morty). Gene can currently be seen as P.T. Barnum in Barnum at The Mercury Theater. He portrayed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the smash hit Wicked in Chicago and on Broadway. Also on Broadway he created the role of Paul in big: The Musical. A three-time Jeff Award recipient (Me and My Girl, Little Shop of Horrors, A Day in Hollywood), Gene is also a prolific voice actor. Regional credits include Annie, Xanadu, Snapshots, Hairspray, The Light In The Piazza. Film: The Birdcage, The Babe. TV: Boss, The Beast, Cybill, Home Improvement, Murphy Brown, Drew Carey, Ellen, Coach, USA High.
Peter Gethers is President of Random House Studio, as well as an editor and publisher at Random House, Inc., a screenwriter, television writer and producer, novelist, and non-fiction author of the bestselling trilogy about his Scottish Fold cat Norton: The Cat Who cheap viagra online Went to Paris, A Cat Abroad and The Cat Who’ll Live Forever. His new novel, Ask Bob, will be published in August 2013. He, too, is a founding member of the Rotisserie Baseball League, the 1980 group that started the fantasy sports craze.
Daniel Okrent is a writer and editor, and best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times. He also invented Rotisserie League Baseball, and wrote several books, including Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, which served as a major source for the 2011 Ken Burns/Lynn Novick miniseries “Prohibition.” Most of his career has been spent as an editor, at such places as Alfred A. Knopf and TIME, Inc. His book Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center was a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in history.
Marc Bruni will direct The Explorers Club for Manhattan Theatre Club in May. Other directing credits include Pipe Dream (Encores!), Fanny (Encores!), Ordinary Days(Roundabout), In the Mood (Berkshire Theatre Festival), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Paper Mill/Philadelphia Theatre Company), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas(Paper Mill), Such Good Friends (NYMF Directing Award), High Spirits (York Mufti),Glimpses of the Moon (Oak Room) and five shows for the St. Louis MUNY: The Music Man(Kevin Kline Award Nomination), Sound of Music (Kevin Kline Award Nomination), Legally Blonde, My One and Only, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He has served as Associate Director on numerous Broadway shows including Nice Work If You Can Get Itand the 2011 Tony™ winning revival of Anything Goes. He is the associate director for the current Chicago engagement of The Book of Mormon at the Bank of America Theater.
In addition to Okrent, Gethers and Bruni, the rest of the creative team is David Gallo (Scenic and Video Design); Jeff Croiter (Lighting Design); Alejo Vietti (Costume Design); Peter Fitzgerald (Sound Design); and Adam Wachter (Musical Supervision and Arrangements). It is produced by Daniel Okrent and Peter Gethers, and Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch and Marc Routh.
Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch and Marc Routh have produced and managed a wide range of productions for more than 27 years including – A Little Night Music, Hairspray, The Producers, Stomp, The Norman Conquests, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Little Shop of Horrors, The Weir, The Sound of Music, Smokey Joe’s Café, Angels in America, Oleanna, Love Letters, Driving Miss Daisy, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Penn & Teller and many others. Their shows have been awarded 36 Tonys, 47 Drama Desk Awards, 38 Outer Critics Awards, 4 Grammys™, 8 Olivier Awards and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. They have the rare distinction of having won Tony Awards in all four “Best” categories – play, musical, revival of a play and revival of a musical.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AND TICKET INFORMATION:
OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES will be performed at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted Street, Chicago, September 24 – November 24, with the following schedule: Tuesdays – Fridays at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 5 & 8pm; and Sundays at 2 & 5pm. Starting the week of October 7, Wednesday matinees at 2pm will alternate with Tuesday evening performances.
Tickets are priced at $49 (weekdays) and $59 (Friday-Sunday). All prices do not include a $1 facility fee. Tickets are now on sale by calling (312) 988-9000; visiting the Royal George Theatre box office, or online at Ticketmaster.com. Discounted tickets for groups of 10 or more are available by calling Group Theater Tix at 312-423-6612 or visiting www.grouptheatertix.com.
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