Wicked Win

For years my friend Sue, an actress from the original Chicago cast of Tony and Tina's Wedding, and I were volunteer ushers for the Saints (highly recommended for anyone with a passion for theater and without the extensive funds needed to indulge it). Our schedules have been taken over with other pursuits lately, and now when we get together for shows, we're more often paying for them. Still, Sue's connections and instincts for a theater bargain turn up many good deals. The latest involved us winning the privilege of buying $25 day-of, first-row seats (usually $85) to see Wicked at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph, last night. (Our luck continued when we went to 312 Chicago in the Hotel Allegro, 136 N. LaSalle, for dinner without a reservation, happily accepted a couple of seats at the chef's counter rather than wait the hour and a half for a table, and were treated to a most excellent complimentary giant scallop, wild mushroom, and Parmesan appetizer.)

So—wow! What a tremendous production. From the highly inventive behind-the-scenes Wizard of Oz story; to the first-rate cast with Ana Gasteyer (previously of Saturday Night Live) and her stunning voice in the lead, Steppenwolf ensemble member Rondi Reed, and Heidi Kettenring, who's a regular in local Marriott Theater productions in Lincolnshire; to the eye-popping costumes and sets (all details available in the first row!)—it was worth our three attempts at the ticket lottery and then some.

And, the Ford Center, on the site of the tragic 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire, is entirely breathtaking. After rambling through the building gaping from various angles, sitting and waiting for the show to start, I couldn't help thinking about how the Iroquois was billed as "absolutely fireproof," remembering just how many things went wrong that day when 602 people perished, eyeing the curtains, and taking note of the exits. Then, at intermission when person after person remarked on the unusually frigid gust of air rushing out of a particular ornamental vent in the lobby, I thought of the chill people still claim to get in "Death Alley" behind the theater even on hot summer days. It's there that many theatergoers rushing to escape the 1903 flames fell or jumped to their death when they made it to the fire escape exit, and there was no fire escape waiting for them. 125 bodies were later found piled in the alley. (Read more about the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chapter 4 of David Cowan's Great Chicago Fires, and the ghost stories connected with "Death Alley" in the "An Inexplicable Residue: The Endurance of Tragedy" in Ursula Bielksi's Chicago Haunts.)

Whew. Anyway...to win your own $25 first- or second-row tickets to Wicked, here are the details from the Broadway in Chicago website: "Day-Of-Performance Drawing Gives Fans a Chance to See WICKED for Only $25 WICKED announces a day-of-performance drawing for seats in the front two rows at $25 each. The drawing will take place Tuesdays through Thursdays at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre box office and Fridays through Sundays at the Borders Books and Music, located adjacent to the theater at 150 N. State St. Entry forms will be available on the day of the performance at the specified drawing location during regular business hours. Two hours prior to each performance names will be drawn – totaling seats. The names drawn will have the opportunity to purchase one or two tickets at $25 each. You must be present and cash and photo-ID are required. Please note the WICKED drawing for the first week of performances will take place at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre: Friday, April 29 – Thursday, May 4 and will then continue as announced above."

Note: The original Oriental Theatre opened in 1926 on the site of the Iroquois Theater, and featured both movies and live productions. It was renovated, refurbished, and then reopened in 1998.

Forthcoming Books

A brief rundown on our coming 2005 releases: The Politics of Place: A History of Zoning in Chicago, by Joseph Schwieterman and Dana Caspall and published with editorial and production support from DePaul University's Chaddick Institute, offers itself as a primer in Chicago zoning, just as the city's zoning ordinance is set for its first major revision in decades. LCP worked with another local institution, The Chicago Maritime Society, on another fall issue: From Lumber Hookers to the Hooligan Fleet: A Treasury of Chicago Maritime History. Our third autumn title is the revised and updated second edition of Marilyn Pocius's A Cook's Guide to Chicago.

Alongside these books will be the premier installments of our new postcard book series, books of 24 color postcards on themes perhaps too narrow for a larger treatment, but worthy of preserving and documenting in images. We like the idea of people being able to enjoy these thematic photographs at a price more accessible than that of a coffeetable book, then being able to save them or use them/pass them on. Our first topics? Vintage neon signs, the Lincoln Avenue motels, and that most contested of Chicago traditions—snowstorm parking space savers. Stay tuned.

For 2006, we have the following tentatively-titled books: The City Clubs of Chicago, Lisa Holton's history and guide to Chicago's elite business and social clubs; Kathie Bergquist and Robert McDonald's A Field Guide to Gay and Lesbian Chicago (to coincide with the Gay Games coming to our city next year); Karen Hanson's Ms. Juke's Guide to the Chicago Blues, our first music title and the best proposal for a music book we'd received in ten years; Rick Kogan's self-explanatory The Billy Goat on that famous Chicago tavern, journalists' haunt, and tourist shrine; Danny Smith's On the Job: Working for the CPD, an oral history of a subculture he's known his whole life; and an audiobook combining and reworking the best stories from Ursula Bielski's Chicago Haunts and More Chicago Haunts. We'll also be more releasing 3–4 more postcard books on subjects still to be finalized.

Paulina, Paulina, Paulina

In the introduction to our latest edition of A Native's Guide to Chicago, I talk about the many ways the Chicaophiles who write our guidebooks happen upon just the right knowledge to include. One technique is leveraging other people's knowledge—from the people you know to the pros and semi-pros to everyone you meet. Overhearing the information exchanged by cellphone users on trains and similar public eavesdropping fall under this banner. More often than not it's a combination of many things, the repetition of encounters in disparate situations that add up to the lightbulb clicking on: this is a place that natives and those-in-the-know know about.

It's always fun too to hear confirmation of native knowledge. Earlier this month, I heard one such establishment mentioned three times within a week (on the train, in the line for the restroom at the lake, in Wilmette): The Paulina Market, 3501 N. Linicoln Ave., known for choice meats, sausages, and specialty preparations. Originally a German Butcher, Paulina has over the years expanded to carry other ethnic meats and gourmet products. When I worked as Resi's Bierstube's weekend waitress for three years when starting Lake Claremont Press, Paulina was their sausage-dealer of record. Chef and food writer Marilyn Pocius (A Cook's Guide to Chicago) also trumpets the meats of Paulina. Other favorites quality sharks Resi's and Pocius have in common: The Baltic Bakery (especially their Lithuanian Rye available at Jewel), 4627 S. Hermitage, and Wally's International Market, a mostly Polish supermarket and butcher, 6601 W. Irving Park Rd. and 3256 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Looking for Passion and Expertise

Every year about 500 queries, proposals, cocktail party pitches, and partial and finished manuscripts float our way for the 5–7 books we release annually. Among those are some great ideas we've never heard of before, and we're likely to pull those for more in-depth consideration. Just as often we give contracts to writers covering a topic we've been pitched several times previously, but who got something "just right": credentials, angle, content, enthusiasm...most often, the whole package. Then, there are topics that readers ask us about, but we've yet to get the right—or any—proposal on the subject. Some of our favorites in this category include: the history of country music and country music recording in Chicago, early Chicago free speech forums, a history/oral history of Riverview Park that better captures its magic than the books already out there, Chicago's UFO history (there is one!), regional Native American tribes, and a history of/tribute to Chicago's house music origins and the WBMX era. More information on submitting book proposals to us can be found on our Web site at: http://lakeclaremont.com/publishing/submit.htm.

North Shore Getaway

While most savvy Chicagoans are familiar with the summertime escape that Highland Park's Ravinia provides, fewer know about the Starlight Theatre in Wilmette's Gillson Park, across Sheridan Road/Linden Avenue from the Bahá'í Temple (now officially the Bahá'í House of Worship).

Our family first discovered Gillson Park in the late 70s/early 80s because of their Frisbie Golf Course (!), and that led to an awareness of their free weekend entertainment (concerts, dancing, revues, musicals). While the FGC no longer exists, the park and beach make a spectacular daytime field trip for urbanites trying to get away from it all. Shows are performed at night in the "Wallace Bowl"—a kind of stone amphitheater surrounded by lawn space. Ravinia-style picnicking takes place before the performances, but note that blankets and recliners are not permitted on the grass (lawn chairs only).

This year's main production is the Broadway musical Into the Woods, running Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. (July 7–9, July 14–16, and July 21–23), with LCP's very own web guy (and my brother), Ken Woodhouse, playing Cinderella's father. They'll also have a Beatles tribute band (British Export), The Blooze Brothers (a Jake and Elwood tribute), The Barefoot Hawaiians, and the U.S. Air Force Military Command Band on stage before the summer's out.

July 3 FYI

A friend and I staked out a prime lakefront spot on July 3 for the city's annual fireworks display. Like others settling in for the long haul, we customized our space: 10 x 10 canopy, blanket esplanade, four-person tent, coolers positioned to delineate our territory (stopping short at the police tape and other stakes-and-string boundary definers of most other big groups). Our first attempt at this important undertaking—providing a day-long base camp for pals taking side trips to the Taste of Chicago and, more important, offering rockstar fireworks seating for those who saunter in last-minute—yielded these insights: It's easier than you'd think. It's great to sit around on blankets all day and do almost nothing. Your people will heap an embarrassing amount of gratitude on you for your space-saving efforts. CPD will make a display of checking coolers for illicit beverages, but only when there's enough density for it to be a true show of authority (say, after 6 or 7 p.m.).

1) Easy, easy. We arrived at 8:30 a.m. not knowing what to expect. We weren't the first people there, but some of the first, and we did get the spot we scoped out as ideal the week before. Other top spots were still available at 11:30 a.m., and there was plenty of grass space for small groups yet around 4 p.m. After that time, you could feel that million-or-so fellow Chicagoans steadily fill in the space around you until maximum density was reached 10 minutes into the 15-20–minute show. 2) It's great to sit around on blankets all day and do almost nothing. Yeah. Plenty of good people watching. 3) About the embarrassing amount of gratitude. We went home with much of the food and drink we brought for our 20 guests. Most, appreciative of the luxury of their own personal space-savers, brought their own meals and refreshments. They really couldn't stop thanking us for our day of relaxing. 4) Police and flagrant imbibing. Everyone was doing it, but the bicycle cops chose our neighbors who may have been doing it most openly. Opened their coolers, then opened up every can and bottle of beer and dumped them out while hundreds watched stunned. Hey, it's illegal to drink any beer that you didn't spend 9 Taste of Chicago tickets on!! When the officers cycled on, the party next door resumed with the overlooked keg they had cooling in their pup tent. Heh. Heh.

Chicago Overheard

Most times I find myself in a group of all Chicagoans, the conversation eventually turns for a time to both local politics and food recommendations. It was no different last week celebrating a friend's birthday at the newly remodeled Candlelite, near the Evanston border.

This group was primarily school teachers (CPS and near-in suburban school districts), and their beefs were with all the wrought iron fences surrounding city parks, CPS bureacracy, technology inadequacies in CPS classrooms, and the amount of $$ spent on Millennium Park. Their food recommendations centered on Opart Thai, which all were familiar with through their separate circles. The shu mai appetizer and eggplant in oyster sauce were their raves; my favorite at Opart is their green curry with tofu, one of the best I've ever had.

Anyone familiar with the old Candlelite will be happy to know they've kept their old neon signs, their pizza, and that feel of being mostly a bar, but yet a place you can bring the kids to eat. A whole Little League crew was there the same night snacking on thin crust pies and receiving awards. This place must have some of the best fries in the city (a basket that can be shared among 4 is only $1.95). Tuesdays are 1/2-price pizza, and Wednesdays come with live music after 9:30 (a group from the Old Town School was there the night of our gathering).