Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce Jim Corti as the recipient of the 2022 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre. The award will be presented during this year’s annual Chicago Sings fundraising concert, Chicago Sings Stephen Sondheim, Monday, May 23, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), 220 E. Chicago Ave. This year’s Chicago Sings concert offers two opportunities to experience Chicago’s music theatre and cabaret performers saluting Stephen Sondheim. The first is “It’s a Hit” Live Experience, for $150 per ticket, with benefits including a reserved seat in the Edlis Neeson Theater for the performance and pre-concert reception, and the “Color & Light” Lounge Experience, for $50 per ticket, hosted by the Porchlight Young Professionals, which includes a stream of the performance in a lively lounge created on the second floor of the museum. Tickets for both experiences are available now at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
Chicago Sings Stephen Sondheim will be a fundraising celebration of the life and art of the great composer and lyricist who changed the world of American music theatre with performances directed by Porchlight Music Theatre Artistic Director Michael Weber with music direction by David Fiorello and the presentation of the Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago.
This year, Paramount Theatre’s Artistic Director Jim Corti is the recipient of the Guy Adkins Award for his exceptional and lasting contribution to the state of the art of Chicago music theatre.
Past Guy Adkins Award recipients include Felicia P. Fields, currently starring in Porchlight’s Blues in the Night through March 20, director/choreographers Brenda Didier and Rachel Rockwell, actors E. Faye Butler, Paula Scrofano and Hollis Resnik, music director/conductor Doug Peck and directors Gary Griffin, Dominic Missimi and L. Walter Stearns. The committee that chooses the annual award winner is composed of past recipients and other leaders in Chicago’s music theatre industry.
ABOUT CHICAGO SINGS STEPHEN SONDHEIM
“It’s a Hit!” Live Experience includes
- Reserved seat in the Edlis Neeson Theater to see this special concert live and in person
- An exclusive pre-concert reception on the MCA’s second-floor tented terrace overlooking the sculpture garden with complimentary food and wine
- Elegant piano entertainment during the reception
- Viewing of the Nick Cave exhibit showcasing Cave’s unique fabric sculptures
“Color & Light” Lounge Experience includes
- An exclusive viewing party of the streamed Chicago Sings concert, hosted by the Porchlight Young Professionals, in the MCA’s second-floor lounge space
- Viewing of the new Nick Cave exhibit showcasing his unique fabric sculptures only one week after its opening at the museum
- Mingling with young art enthusiasts and have fun with our Lounge ost and interactive piano accompanist
- Complimentary wine and snacks.
ABOUT JIM CORTI, 2022 GUY ADKINS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF MUSIC THEATRE IN CHICAGO RECIPIENT
Jim Corti is Paramount Theatre’s artistic director and inaugurated Paramount's Broadway Series with President and CEO Tim Rater in fall 2011 with their critically acclaimed production of My Fair Lady and a subscriber base of 12,500 patrons. In 2015, Paramount's Broadway Series became Jeff Award eligible. Since then, Paramount has garnered 68 nominations with 19 wins, including three consecutive Best Large Musical awards for Les Misérables, West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. Corti helmed all three, and won Best Director for two of them, Les Misérables and Sweeney Todd. Prior to the pandemic, Paramount subscriptions had risen above 41,000 with a record- breaking 350,000 patrons in attendance in 2019. He also directed Paramount's Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, Rent, The Who's Tommy, Oklahoma!, Mamma Mia!, Million Dollar Quartet, Once, The Producers (Jeff for Best Director), Newsies and Groundhog Day: The Musical. A Broadway veteran, he appeared in the original New York casts of Ragtime and Candide, joined the long running A Chorus Line and toured nationally in Urinetown, Cabaret and Bob Fosse's Dancin'. Other highlights include being the only director to have two productions in the same year in the Chicago Tribune's list of 10 Best Shows for Drury Lane's Cabaret and Writers Theatre's Oh, Coward! in 2009. He remains the sole honoree to have won Jeff Awards as an actor (Marriott's Grand Hotel), choreographer (Drury Lane's Singin' in the Rain) and director (Paramount's The Producers, Sweeney Todd and Les Misérables, Drury Lane's Sweet Charity and Northlight Theater’s Blues in the Night).
ABOUT STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Follies (1972), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into The Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994) and Road Show (2008), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99), Moving On (2001), and Sondheim On Sondheim (2010) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist. For film, he composed the score of “Stavisky” (1974), co-composed the score for “Reds” (1981), and wrote songs for “Dick Tracy” (1990). He wrote songs for the television production “Evening Primrose” (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973), and the play Getting Away With Murder (1996), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls Of Summer (1956), Invitation To A March (1961), Twigs (1971), and The Enclave (1973). His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: “Finishing the Hat” (2010) and “Look, I Made A Hat” (2011). In 2010, the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed The Stephen Sondheim Theatre in his honor. Stephen Sondheim died November 21, 2021.
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 27th 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 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 recently launched its first summer performance schedule in 2021 that included a sold-out performance of New Faces Sing Broadway 1979 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, the premiere of its outdoor music series Broadway in your Backyard, performed throughout Chicagoland this summer and special appearances at Sundays on State and Navy Pier’s Chicago Live Again.
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Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actors’ Equity Foundation; Allstate; Bayless Family Foundation; Michael Best & Friedrich LLP; Chapman | Spingola, Attorneys at Law; Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Gen Ops Plus; Elegant Event Lighting; 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; Dr. Scholl Foundation and the Topfer Family 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.
