The Music Theatre Company Presents Final Musical in Concert Series "The Baker's Wife" and Artists in Concert Productions This February

HIGHLAND PARK –The Music Theatre Company (TMTC), Highland Park’s Equity theatre, 1850 Green Bay Road, completes its 2012-2013 Musicals in Concert Series with its final production in the series, The Baker’s Wife, directed by Dominic Missimi with music direction by Matt Deitchman. The Baker’s Wife runs Friday, Feb. 1 – Sunday, Feb. 10 and performance times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are available for $35.

NOTE: Following the Feb. 1 performance, there will be a post-show discussion with Theatre Critic Robert Bullen (Huffington Post/ChicagoTheatreAddict.com) and director Dominic Missimi. 

Also upcoming at TMTC is the Artists in Concert series featuring solo performances by Heidi Kettenring (Monday, Feb.11 at 8 p.m.), Jess Godwin with Janelle Kroll (Saturday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.) and Christine Mild (Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m.) with tickets available for $35, $20 and $15, respectively. All tickets to any TMTC production may be purchased at TMTC’s box office, 847.579.4900 or www.themusictheatrecompany.org. Group rates are also available.

ABOUT THE BAKER’S WIFE

From the creator of Wicked, PIPPIN and Godspell, Stephen Schwartz’s The Baker’s Wife boasts a beautiful score featuring songs including “Meadowlark,” “Where is the Warmth?” and “Proud Lady.” TMTC welcomes Jeff Award-winning Director Dominic Missimi to direct this intimate musical in concert. Based on the film La Femme de Boulanger by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono, The Baker’s Wife’s music director is Matt Deitchman.

The Baker’s Wife is the third and last production in the current season’s Musicals in Concert series, which presents musicals – rare, new or little seen titles — in a concert setting featuring live music and some of Chicago’s finest performers. The entire narrative of each musical is performed during the performance.

The cast includes Sarah Bockel, Bill Chamberlain, David Elliott, Emily Grayson, Peter Kevoian*, Nancy Kolton, Jerry Mills, David Sajewich, Kate Staiger, and Peter Vamvakas.

(*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association.)

Dominic Missimi, Director

Missimi has staged more than 35 productions for The Marriott Theatre where he most recently directed Pirates of Penzance and has received a number of Jeff Awards and nominations for his work there. He has staged operas and musicals around the country, including work with the Michigan Opera, Sarasota and Orlando Opera companies and for the North Carolina School of the Arts. He also directed the national tour of Maury Yeston's Phantom for Phoenix Theatre. Other Chicago credits include work with Drury Lane Evergreen Park, Drury Lane Oakbrook and the Chicago Opera Theatre.

Missimi founded The Music Theatre Program at Northwestern University where he has taught for 32 years, as well as the American Music Theatre Project, an organization dedicated to the development of new musicals. For his outstanding work as a director and educator, Missimi has been recognized by the Chicago Drama League and the Sarah Siddons Society, where he recently was honored with the title of Executive Director.

Matt Deitchman, Music Director
Deitchman returns to The Music Theatre Company where he assistant music directed and played piano for and conducted the extension of PIPPIN. He will also be music directing The Pajama Game at TMTC this spring. Deitchman is an actor, composer, and music director who has worked with, in various capacities, The Marriott Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Bailiwick Chicago, Provision Theater Company, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, and The House Theatre of Chicago.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS IN CONCERT SERIES

Heidi Kettenring with Doug Peck on Piano
Monday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $35

Chicago audience favorite Heidi Kettenring performs in solo concert at TMTC. Kettenring has most recently performed in The School of Lies and Sunday in the Park with George at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, HERO the Musical at The Marriott Theatre, and was featured in the Chicago production of Wicked. She is a five-time Jeff Award nominee and the recipient of both the Sarah Siddons Chicago Leading Lady Award and an After Dark Award. Joining Kettenring on piano is Doug Peck, winner of five Jeff awards for Musical Direction for his work on The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess; Caroline, or Change; Carousel; Fiorello! and Man of La Mancha.

Jess Godwin with Janelle Kroll
Saturday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20

Girl next door and singer/songwriter Jess Godwin joins TMTC with pop singer/songwriter Janelle Kroll recently of CW's "The Next." Gapersblock.com describes Godwin as “…a fiery redhead with a multidimensional voice that at one moment is soft and sweet, then strong and powerful at the next.” Godwin’s 2011 single “Katy’s Side” was featured on two episodes of E!’s reality hit series, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

Kroll performs regularly around the Chicago area, including the House of Blues and Mayne stage, and was featured in the Steppenwolf Garage production of Want.

Christine Mild
Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $15

Chicago-based actress and singer Christine Mild brings her powerhouse voice to TMTC, performing a mix of pop, folk and musical theatre songs. Mild has most recently been seen in The Pirates of Penzance at Marriott Theatre, the national tour of Nunset Bouelvard: The Nunsense Hollywood Bowl Show, and in Always, Patsy Cline at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre.

ABOUT THE MUSIC THEATRE COMPANY

The Music Theatre Company explores the musical in the interest of expanding the canon of musical theatre through fully staged productions, commissions of new works and musical experiments.

The Music Theatre Company production history includes: The Jeff-nominated production of Merrily We Roll Along, PIPPIN, The 9/11 Report: A Bipartisan Musical Fantasia by Michael Mahler & Jessica Redish, Erika's Wall by Sophie Jaff & Kathy Tagg, B.R.A.T.T. Camp by

Bobby Cronin, The Last Five Years in Concert and a variety of readings of new musicals including new titles by Josh Schmidt, David Simpatico and Alan Schmuckler. The Company also annually presents its 48-Hour Musical project every August: four new fifteen-minute musicals written and rehearsed in 48 Hours.

The Baker’s Wife, the final production in the Musicals in Concerts Series runs Friday, Feb. 1 – Sunday, Feb. 10 with performance times of Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are available for $35.

The schedule for the Artists in Concert series includes Heidi Kettenring, Monday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m., Jess Godwin with Janelle Kroll on Saturday, Feb.23 at

8 p.m. and Christine Mild on Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m. with tickets available for $35, $20 and $15, respectively. All tickets may be purchased at The Music Theatre Company’s box office, 847.579.4900 or www.themusictheatrecompany.org. Group rates are also available.

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