Spring, Rent Coming to Town

Two tidbits of touring-theater news: Spring Awakening, Duncan Sheik's ribald, iconoclastic rock opera, will play in Chicago August 4-16, 2009. Mark your calendars--Spring Awakening is amazing. Like most great rock operas, Awakening has 19th century German source material and is mostly about screwing, but is a little about dying and growing up, too. Take a listen to "The Bitch of Living", which is one of our faves from the show.

Rent is making a return trip through Chicago in 2009, too, this time with original cast members Adam Pascal as Roger and Anthony Rapp as Mark. They'll be 38 and 37 years old, respectively, for the tour, and will have been playing these parts for 13 years.