Porchlight Music Theatre’s Porchlight Young Professionals are proud to announce their next special event, Wicked Watch Party, Monday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Davis Theater, 4614 N Lincoln Ave. The watch party includes a live on-stage conversation / Q+A featuring Wicked cast veterans: Broadway’s “Wonderful Wizard” Gene Weygandt and Broadway In Chicago’s “Nessarose” Heidi Kettenring and hosted by Porchlight Music Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Weber and Producing Artistic Associate Frankie Leo Bennett before the curtain rises for an exclusive screening of “Wicked.” Funds raised at this screening go to support Porchlight Music Theatre’s artistic and educational programs. Tickets are now available for $25 at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
“The Porchlight Young Professionals are looking forward to sharing the experience of seeing one of the most popular musicals of the last 20 years now as a motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande with an exclusive Porchlight screening,” said Porchlight Young Professionals Chair Nate Groonwald. “And, with the pre-screening Q+A offering a rare glimpse of what it means to be part of this global phenomenon with Gene, Heidi and xx, it’s going to be an unforgettable experience for “Wicked” fans and newcomers to part one of Director Jon M. Chu’s vision of Oz.”
(L to R) Heidi Kettenring in Broadway in Chicago's WICKED (photo courtesy of Broadway in Chicago) and Gene Weygandt (photo by Joan Marcus)
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
The Porchlight Young Professionals (PYP) is an ensemble of young professionals who share a passion for advancing music theatre in Chicago as well as the innovative and transformative art happening at Porchlight.
The PYP inspires the next generation of Porchlight’s theatre patrons and serves as ambassadors through fundraising, event planning and committee involvement.
Current members include Nate Groonwald, chair; Adam Zaucha, vice chair; Rosie Schultz, secretary; Lisa Villani-Gale, fundraising chair, Lynn Barlow, Lanie Bayless, Annie Mitran Brennan, Kellie Buffington, August Compton, Cody Czmyr, Madeline Davis, Meggie Keiser, Jonah Levi-Paesky, Becca Sheehan, Yessenia Sosa and Emily Werner.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre, entering its 30th 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 178 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.
The 30th Anniversary Season is Sponsored By Elaine Cohen & Arlen Rubin and Brenda & Jim Grusecki.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actor’s Equity Foundation; Allstate; Arlen and Elaine Cohen Rubin Charitable Fund or the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City; Chicago Free For All Fund; Chicago Park District/Night Out in the Parks; Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation; Comcast/Xfinity; ComEd; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; The MacArthur Foundation ; Mesirow Financial; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints; Dr. Scholl Foundation; the Shulman-Rochambeau Foundation; the Shubert Foundation; Uvae Kitchen & Wine Bar and Bukiety.
The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency. Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Allstate; Baird Foundation; BDO USA; Google; Jackson National Life Insurance and The Saints.
PORCHLIGHT UPCOMING EVENTS ...
Monday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave.
Tickets: $45
Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
The Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St.
Tickets: $75 (includes a pre-show wine and cheese reception at 6:30PM)
Directed by Producing Artistic Associate Frankie Leo Bennett
Music Directed by Carolyn Jean Brady
Hosted by Adrian Aguilar
The popular New Faces Sing Broadway series returns in Porchlight’s 30th Anniversary Season. Chicago’s up-and-coming talent join Broadway’s Adrian Aguilar for a 90-minute revue of the hottest shows on Broadway today including Hell’s Kitchen, The Notebook, Death Becomes Her, The Outsiders and others as well as trivia contests with prizes.
January 16 – March 2, 2025
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Stephen Schellhardt
Music Directed by Heidi Joosten
Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a Pulitzer finalist, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, emotional and revolutionary musical. Based on Alison Bechdel’s critically acclaimed graphic novel, Fun Home shares how Bechdel unlocks memories, milestones and mysteries of her youth as she begins to write her first graphic novel. With a compassionate score and a brilliant script, Fun Home tells the story of seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
Chicago Premiere
Presented in association with Broadway In Chicago
March 25 – May 18, 2025
Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St.
Co-Written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue.
All aboard NYC’s must-sea musical comedy! When the music of Céline Dion makes sweet Canadian love with the eleven-time Oscar®-winning blockbuster film “Titanic,” you get Titanique, off-Broadway’s most award-winning splash hit, which turns one of the greatest love stories of all time into a hysterical musical fantasia. Want to find out what really happened to Jack and Rose on that fateful night? Just leave it to Céline Dion to enchant the audience with her totally wild take, recharting the course of Titanic’s beloved moments and characters with her iconic song catalog. Sailing on fierce powerhouse voices in show-stopping performances of such hits as “My Heart Will Go On,” “All By Myself” and “To Love You More” – backed by the unparalleled energy of a full live band – Titanique is a one-of-a-kind theatrical voyage bursting with nostalgia, heart and campy chaos.
CHICAGO SINGS 30 YEARS OF PORCHLIGHT
Monday, May 12, 2025
House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: $75 – $175
The spring fundraising concert fittingly concludes the season with an unforgettable night of live performances commemorating 30 years of Porchlight with performances by Chicago theatre luminaries, the presentation of the 2025 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago and more.
Please note: Performances, actors and dates are subject to change.