The Adventures of Twinks and Sparky: Snapshots in the windy city

I had been to Chicago before for an 8 week class in the 80's and I can't say that I was impressed with the City. However, we were excited to go this time because we were going to see the opening of the Steven Schwartz new musical scrapbook "Snapshots" at the Northlight Theater. Steven has a very prestigious resume. Among his successful past musicals are "Wicked", "Godspell", "Pippin", and many others. Snapshots is a new type of musical that they are calling a scrapbook because it uses songs from his previous shows with new lyrics and in a new presentation. This was our first venture into investing in a musical so we were nervous, excited and couldn't wait to see the results of all the production work that had been done.

First things first though. We were only staying in Chicago for two nights so we wanted to see as much as we could and get a feel for the city. Some friends who live there suggested the Architectural Boat Tour, which didn't sound very exciting but we took their advice. It was an amazing tour. I didn't realize there was a Chicago river that went through the center of Chicago and the building designs were really beautiful.

Richard, Jann and I went on the tour and learned some interesting things about the history of the Chicago river. When Chicago was first being settled, they had a lot of meat markets, industry and, of course, residential, and all the waste was thrown into the river. Since this was the source of drinking water, this caused a health problem. You would think the best solution would have been to stop throwing the waste in the river - but you would be wrong! The brains at the time decided to change the flow of the river. Instead of flowing into Lake Michigan, they re-engineered the flow to head away from the lake and have the fresh water from the lake provide the water they needed. Chicago waste now headed down river to
St. Louis ! Of course, St. Louis was not happy about this and was definitely not impressed with what was considered to be the most incredible engineering feat of the century. They sued and, surprisingly, lost. Obviously, eventually it has all been taken care of, but we thought it was an interesting titbit.

It was a nice cruise even though we had some rain. The boat provided everyone with ponchos free of charge to help stay dry.

We then headed to the Chicago tourist spot - Navy Pier - had lunch at Harry Carey's restaurant and drove back to Skokie along Lakeshore Drive. Harry Carey was the famous and long lasting announcer for the Chicago Cubs so there was a lot of sports memorabilia in the restaurant. Lakeshore Drive was surprisingly very scenic, right alongside Lake Michigan.

When we got back to Skokie, it was time to get ready for the theater. There was a cocktail party before the performance for the high donors to the theater and, of course, all of us involved in the production. The Northlight Theater is a beautiful theater and everyone was buzzing about the new production. Steven Schwartz was there, as well as all the producing team and we couldn't wait for the show to begin. "Snapshots" is about an older couple of empty nesters who have grown apart. He is a workaholic and is unaware that his wife is preparing to leave him. The action takes place in the attic where she has hidden her suitcase and when he comes home early and surprises her she hides the suitcase but spills a box of photos that catalog their life, from highschool friends, to young marrieds to where they are now. Their younger selves come to life from the snapshots and the highschool couple, the young married couple and the couple they are today all interact musically and verbally and review their relationship over the years. There were some funny moments and some very emotional moments, just like real life. I watched the audience as well as the show to try and guage reaction. It seemed it really hit home for a lot of couples and there were a lot of tears among the audience as they saw themselves on the stage. Glad to say that there was a spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the show and the 6 actors were really good and deserved all the kudos.

After the show, there was a private opening night party at Bloomingdales. All the buzz from the party was very positive for the show and it was a lot of fun. We got to meet the actors and, of course, Steven Schwartz and now we await the reviews.

What a great experience.