Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce that next Movie Musical Monday discussion about the movie “Funny Girl” will be hosted by Porchlight Music Theatre Board Member and retired Chicago Public Library Foundation CEO Rhona Frazin with special guest multiple Emmy Award-winner Bruce Vilanch, Monday, June 7 at 7 p.m. CDT. The link to RSVP for the Monday Zoom discussion is available at https://www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre. For more information on Porchlight’s online and live offerings including Movie Musical Monday, please go to PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
(L to R) Rhona Frazin, host, and Bruce Vilanch, special guest for June 7 at 7 p.m. Movie Musical Monday: "Funny Girl."
For more than a year, Porchlight has hosted Movie Musical Mondays weekly via Zoom. Conceived as a “book club” for movie musicals, Porchlight asks attendees to watch a selected film, RSVP to receive the Zoom link and come prepared with questions, comments or just to enjoy the live conversation. Since May 2020, almost 50 films from the Golden Age of movie musicals to recently released musical films have been discussed with attendees participating in conversations with a variety of hosts and special guests. “Funny Girl,” starring the Academy Award-winner Barbra Streisand, in the role she created on Broadway, is the subject for the Frazin-Vilanch led conversation.
The June schedule of Movie Musical Mondays includes:
Monday, June 7 at 7 p.m. CDT
“Funny Girl” (1968)
Host: Rhona Frazin (Porchlight Board of Directors)
Special guest: Bruce Vilanch (Emmy Award-winner, actor, comedian)
Monday, June 14 at 7 p.m. CDT
“Xanadu” (1980)
Host: Bill Larkin (Porchlight’s “A Class Act” and “A Funny Thing…”)
Special guest: Aaron Holland (playwright & ATC’s “Xanadu”)
Monday, April 21 at 7 p.m. CDT
“The Prom” (2021)
Host: Frankie Leo Bennett (Porchlight Revisits 1776; School at Porchlight)
Special guests: Tommy Bullington (Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi and host, 'An Absolute Gag' podcast) and Devon Hayakawa (Porchlight's New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 and member, Ring of Keys)
Monday, April 28 at 7 p.m. CDT
“How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” (1967)
Host: Justin Brill (Broadway's Rent; Porchlight Revisits Minnie's Boys) and
Special guest: Shanna Vanderwerker (Broadway's Wicked, Porchlight's Sunset Boulevard)
ABOUT RHONA FRAZIN, host
Rhona Frazin has been a leader in Chicago’s non-profit community for more than 50 years and is the retired CEO of the Chicago Public Library Foundation. At Porchlight Music Theatre, she serves on the Board of Directors, chairs the Development Committee and is a member of the Marketing & Engagement Committee. During her time with Porchlight, Frazin has led efforts to increase audiences and donor bases as well as creating partnerships in the private and business sectors. Frazin's dedication to Porchlight and its mission was seen most recently with her participation and support of its 2020 ICONS Gala which was the most successful special event in Porchlight's 25 year history.
ABOUT BRUCE VILANCH, special guest
(from Bruce Vilanch, himself:)
Bruce Vilanch has been lavender for quite some time, except in moments of high passion, when he becomes puce. Audiences may have seen him during his six-year stint on Hollywood Squares, where he was just to the left of Whoopi, if that's possible. Or during his two years on Broadway and the road, singing, dancing and ironing as Baltimore housewife “Edna Turnblad” in Hairspray. He has written 23 Oscar telecasts, winning Emmys for two of them and collecting four more for other pieces of undisputed brilliance on your TV set. He is, in fact, an EGOT of award show writers, he hasn't won all four, but has written all four shows four times over. Vilanch was a child actor who dodged rehab, he started his career as a journalist until talked out of it by Bette Midler, with whom he's been collaborating for an alarming number of decades. He's written for a lotta people -- including a drag queen named Lotta People -- and this was chronicled by no-less than Harvey Weinstein in a documentary called “Get Bruce!,” although Harvey never got him. He has been planning the sequel, “HAD BRUCE,” which will involve a much larger cast.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre 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.”
Now in its 26th season, Porchlight's quarter-century production history includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight’s commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites.
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations, most notably the ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. 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 45 Jeff awards, as well as 33 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 12 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards, and was honored with eight nominations in both technical and artistic categories and won three awards in its inaugural year in this tier, most notably Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies.
Through the global pandemic, Porchlight has 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. For the 2020-2021 season, Porchlight’s fall schedule included all-new ticketed virtual programs including Broadway by the Decade, New Faces Sing Broadway 1987, Chicago Sings Rock & Roll Broadway, New Faces Sing Broadway 1961 and the return of The Ruffians’ Burning Bluebeard as well as collaborations with Hershey Felder and L.A. Theatre Works. Porchlight continues to announce new premium and free offerings in 2021.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actors’ Equity Foundation; Allstate; Bayless Family Foundation; Michael Best & Friedrich LLP; Chapman | Spingola, LLP; Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Gen Ops Plus; Elegant Event Lighting; Glimpse Vision; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation; The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at Prince; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints and Dr. Scholl Foundation.
The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including abbvie; Allstate; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Peoples Gas; Pepsico; Polk Bros Foundation and The Saints.