A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM.
Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no dancing.
Dream City is the story of Chicago in a Gilded Age not unlike today, when immigrants, women, and minorities fight for inclusion in an economy controlled by the wealthy. The 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition World’s Fair seemed to offer all Chicagoans opportunities for participation, visibility, and jobs, from the architects who design it to the workers who build it. The music reflects the 1890s, when Ragtime, Marches, Ballads, Barbershop Quartets and Art Songs were all the rage. Characters include activist Ida B. Wells, socialite Bertha Palmer, architects Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and John Root; entrepreneur Sol Bloom, and assassin Eugene Patrick Prendergast. Come visit the Fair!
The staged reading is one of ten new works by Chicago writers that comprise the Chicago Writers’ Bloc biennial festival. Tickets are $20 (general admission) and available at https://www.theaterwit.org/tickets/productions/513/performances. The performance, 1 hour and 30 minutes with intermission, is at Theater Wit (1229 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago).
