Porchlight Music Theatre announces young performers and dancers who will be joining its previously announced slate of Porchlight favorites and special guests at its annual fundraising concert celebrating Porchlight’s 30th anniversary, Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight, Monday, May 12 at 7 p.m., with a 5:30 p.m. reception, at the House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St. Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight is co-directed by Porchlight’s Artistic Director Michael Weber and Producing and Casting Associate Frankie Leo Bennett with David Fiorello as music director and Morgan DiFonzo as choreographer.
Attendees may experience the night with a main floor ticket, $200 per person, that includes reserved table seating on the main floor and access to the pre-show cocktail hour with complimentary drinks and appetizer buffet before the performance or a back of the house ticket for $175 per person, that includes reserved highboy seating and access to a pre-show cocktail hour with an appetizer buffet and open bar. In addition, a limited number of box seats are available for sponsors. Sponsorships are available now by reaching out to Kellie@PorchlightMusicTheatre.org and tickets are now on sale at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight includes live performances by Chicago music theatre’s best loved artists highlighting three decades of Porchlight productions including Into the Woods, Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Ragtime, A Chorus Line, Sophisticated Ladies, Cabaret, the presentation of the 2025 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago to Heidi Kettenring by last year's recipient Roberta Duchak and more.
The new, additional cast includes, from Fun Home, young performers Eli Vander Griend, Austin Hartung, Charlie Long, Hayes McCracken, Tessa Mae Pundsack and Meena Sood. In addition Ari and Leo Ratner will join their mother Genevieve Thiers for Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight. The dance corps, including Choreographer Morgan DiFonzo, are Ivan Bracy Jr., Emily Ling Mei and Nataki Rennie.
Previously announced cast includes, in alphabetical order, Adrian Aguilar, Neala Barron, Lydia Burke, E. Faye Butler, Devin DeSantis, David Girolmo, Angela Ingersoll, James Earl Jones II, Clare Kennedy McLaughlin, Juwon Tyrel Perry, Alexis J. Roston, Kelvin Roston Jr., Lorenzo Rush Jr, Stephen Schellhardt, Erica Stephan and other special guests.
ABOUT THE GUY ADKINS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF MUSIC THEATRE IN CHICAGO
For more than 10 years, Porchlight Music Theatre celebrates an individual who has made an exceptional and lasting contribution to the state of the art of Chicago music theatre, with the prestigious Guy Adkins Award. Guy Adkins was an award-winning Chicago actor who passed away in 2010. Among his significant stage credits were Oklahoma! Windy City and A Funny Thing Happened… at Marriott Theatre; The Taming of the Shrew at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Pericles, Twelfth Night, The Invention of Love and the title role in Hamlet at Court Theatre; The Time of Your Life at Steppenwolf and the world premieres of the musicals The Return of Martin Guerre and The Visit, both at The Goodman Theatre. The Chicago Sun-Times called Adkins, “…a smart and invariably graceful actor” and The New York Times called him “outrageously talented” for his turn at “Puck” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. Porchlight commemorates Adkins’ spirit and life with this annual award and celebrates the many gifts he shared with our theatre community and the world.
Past recipients include:
- Brenda Didier, 2018
- Rachel Rockwell, 2017
- E. Faye Butler, 2016
- Roberta Duchak, 2024
- Rick Boynton, 2023
- Jim Corti, 2022
- Felicia P. Fields, 202
- Gary Griffin, 2019
- Dominic Missimi, 2015
- Paula Scrofano, 2014
- Douglas Peck, 2013
- Hollis Resnik, 2012 and
- L. Walter Stearns, 2011.
ABOUT HEIDI KETTENRING, 2025 Guy Adkins Award Recipient
Heidi Kettenring has been a Chicago based actress and singer for over 25 years. Favorite Chicago credits include “Dolly” in Hello Dolly, “John Dickinson” in 1776, “Anna” in The King and I, (Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre); “Ann” in All My Sons, “Harper” in Angels In America (Court Theatre); “Ilona” in She Loves Me (Writer’s Theatre); “Eulalie Shinn” in The Music Man (Goodman Theatre) as well as countless shows at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre (Oakbrook and Evergreen Park), Theatre At The Center, American Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Fulton Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, TheatreWorks Palo Alto and Peninsula Players. Ms Kettenring was “Nessarose” for three years in the Chicago sit down of Wicked. National Tours: Disney’s Beauty And The Beast. Film and television: “Man Of Steel,” “Chicago Fire” and “Cupid”. Ms. Kettenring has a Karen Carpenter Concert through Artists’ Lounge Live. She has received a Joseph Jefferson Award, 10 Jeff nominations, the Sarah Siddons’ Chicago Leading Lady Award, an After Dark Award, the Richard M. Kneeland Award and two Broadway World Awards. Heidi is a Northwestern University graduate and married to actor David Girolmo.
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.
Porchlight Music Theatre announces young performers and dancers will be joining its previously announced slate of Porchlight favorites and special guests at its annual fundraising concert celebrating Porchlight’s 30th anniversary, Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight, Monday, May 12 at 7 p.m., with a 5:30 p.m. reception, at the House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St. Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight is co-directed by Porchlight’s Artistic Director Michael Weber and Producing and Casting Associate Frankie Leo Bennett with David Fiorello as music director and Morgan DiFonzo as choreographer. Attendees may experience the night with a main floor ticket, $200 per person, that includes table seating on the main floor and access to the pre-show cocktail hour with complimentary drinks and appetizer buffet before the performance or a back of the house ticket for $175 per person, that includes reserved highboy seating and access to a pre-show cocktail hour with an appetizer buffet and open bar. In addition, a limited number of box seats are available for sponsors. Sponsorships are available now by reaching out to Kellie@PorchlightMusicTheatre.org and tickets are now on sale at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
The 30th Anniversary Season is sponsored by Elaine Cohen & Arlen Rubin and Brenda & Jim Grusecki.
Chicago Sings 30 Years of Porchlight is sponsored by Art Garwin, Michelle & Steve Cucchiaro, Chuck & Diane Laff, Joe Higgins & Scott Hoesman, Tamara & Jay Sims, Todd Arp & Brian Donlan, Brandon John Harrington, James Jensen, Bill Gilmer & John Blackburn, Kit Barbaro and Joel & Jeri Rothman. The pre-show reception is sponsored by Uvae Kitchen & Wine Bar.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actors’ Equity Foundation; Allstate; Arlen and Elaine Cohen Rubin Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City; Comcast/Xfinity; Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation; Free for All; Glimpse Vision; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; Uvae; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints; Dr. Scholl Foundation; Service Club of Chicago and The Shubert Foundation.
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; BDO; Comcast; Google; Jackson National Life Insurance and The Saints.
PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE 2024 - 2025 EVENTS ...
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.