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Chanute, Two Point Zero
Mar. 2nd, 2005 01:13 amYou guys are amazing. I had to follow up on all those tidbits about the Chanute play, so I hit the library tonight and looked up a 1987 Chicago Tribune article about it.
Octave Chanute was an accomplished civil engineer, and a key pioneer of American aviation:
He was a co-author of the plans for the elevated transit system in Manhattan, he built the first bridge over the Missouri River, he was the chief engineer for the Chicago & Alton railroad and a number of others and he built the Union stockyards in Chicago and Kansas City.
[...]
When Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, the superstructure of the plane they flew was, to a large degree, designed by Chanute, who had developed it through hundreds of experimental glider flights off the sand dunes near what is today Gary, Ind.
Thomas Boyle, a Chicago real-estate guy who loves to write songs, developed a musical about Chanute:
Boyle went to Warren Casey, a proven musical ace, for guidance. Casey is one of the co-authors of ``Grease,`` the most successful musical comedy in history; the show, as we all know, was written and made its debut here and Casey still has a home here.
There's the Grease connection we were wondering about.
Casey also suggested Boyle take his first draft to the Playwright Center, which Casey had helped to found, and give it a reading there
[...]
Boyle raised $150,000, then teamed up with director David Bell, who revised the book with Boyle. Together, they presented ``Chanute`` in December, 1981, at the World Playhouse on South Michigan Avenue, which now is the site of the Fine Arts movie theaters.
The show ran eight weeks, but the reviews were not raves. The Sun-Times critic wrote, ``The score might have a future, but the show--no,`` and The Tribune`s Richard Christiansen described it as ``a sometimes sweet, touching work of faith and optimism that runs on too long on too little material . . . ``
(Unfortunately, the library's database didn't go back further than 1985, so I didn't get to read the original reviews.)
In 1987, he was ready to seek backers for a revised version of the show:
He says he`s confident. ``The first show was really more of a revue than a real musical comedy,`` he says. ``We had only six parts and six pieces in the orchestra. The new show has been completely rewritten. It will have 20 in the cast, including dancers, and a full, 20-piece orchestra.
In December 1991, the new show, "A Chanute Christmas," opened at the Avenue Theater in Chicago. I didn't manage to find any reviews of it.
Other tidbits: Thomas Boyle is the son of the late Congressman Charles A. Boyle, and the uncle of actress Lara Flynn Boyle of The Practice.
Octave Chanute was an accomplished civil engineer, and a key pioneer of American aviation:
He was a co-author of the plans for the elevated transit system in Manhattan, he built the first bridge over the Missouri River, he was the chief engineer for the Chicago & Alton railroad and a number of others and he built the Union stockyards in Chicago and Kansas City.
[...]
When Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, the superstructure of the plane they flew was, to a large degree, designed by Chanute, who had developed it through hundreds of experimental glider flights off the sand dunes near what is today Gary, Ind.
Thomas Boyle, a Chicago real-estate guy who loves to write songs, developed a musical about Chanute:
Boyle went to Warren Casey, a proven musical ace, for guidance. Casey is one of the co-authors of ``Grease,`` the most successful musical comedy in history; the show, as we all know, was written and made its debut here and Casey still has a home here.
There's the Grease connection we were wondering about.
Casey also suggested Boyle take his first draft to the Playwright Center, which Casey had helped to found, and give it a reading there
[...]
Boyle raised $150,000, then teamed up with director David Bell, who revised the book with Boyle. Together, they presented ``Chanute`` in December, 1981, at the World Playhouse on South Michigan Avenue, which now is the site of the Fine Arts movie theaters.
The show ran eight weeks, but the reviews were not raves. The Sun-Times critic wrote, ``The score might have a future, but the show--no,`` and The Tribune`s Richard Christiansen described it as ``a sometimes sweet, touching work of faith and optimism that runs on too long on too little material . . . ``
(Unfortunately, the library's database didn't go back further than 1985, so I didn't get to read the original reviews.)
In 1987, he was ready to seek backers for a revised version of the show:
He says he`s confident. ``The first show was really more of a revue than a real musical comedy,`` he says. ``We had only six parts and six pieces in the orchestra. The new show has been completely rewritten. It will have 20 in the cast, including dancers, and a full, 20-piece orchestra.
In December 1991, the new show, "A Chanute Christmas," opened at the Avenue Theater in Chicago. I didn't manage to find any reviews of it.
Other tidbits: Thomas Boyle is the son of the late Congressman Charles A. Boyle, and the uncle of actress Lara Flynn Boyle of The Practice.
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