New Age Vaudeville

New Age Vaudeville was an American professional theater troupe that was part of the Chicago comedy boom of the 1980s.

New Age Vaudeville
New Age Vaudeville with Bobby McGuire, Todd Erickson, Peter Neville, Megan Cavanagh, Amy Mckenzie, and Richard O'Donnell
MediumTheatre, Television, Film
NationalityAmerican
Years active1983–1987
GenresSketch comedy
Notable works and rolesAn Evening with Elmore & Gwendolyn Putts - The Neighbors Next Door (book, music, lyrics: Richard O'Donnell)
The TV Dinner Hour (book, music, lyrics: Richard O'Donnell)
Dr. FunnyBones’ Carnival of Life (book, music, lyrics: Richard O'Donnell)
Just Visiting (book, music, lyrics: Megan Cavanagh, Richard O'Donnell, Amy McKenzie, Todd Erickson, Bobby McGuire, Peter Neville, and Tom Purcell)

History

In March 1983 while in New York City, Peninsula Players’ Tony award-winning producer, James B. McKenzie hired actor/writer Richard O'Donnell to create, develop and act in the Comedy Cabaret (a proposed after-show review) scheduled to premiere in the forthcoming summer’s upcoming season at Door County’s Peninsula Players Theater in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. The Comedy Cabaret, produced by Amy McKenzie, was so successful in its first season that it returned to Door County the following summer as New Age Vaudeville, in its own 100-seat theatre at the nearby Glidden Lodge in Baileys Harbor.

Following the initial season at The Peninsula Players Richard O’Donnell and Amy McKenzie took their troupe to Chicago for the winter, establishing themselves at CrossCurrents, in their new 100 seat Art Deco theatre located at 3206 N. Wilson. Throughout its 4-year run, O'Donnell co-produced and wrote while McKenzie co-produced and directed numerous productions starring themselves and actors Megan Cavanagh, Todd Erickson, Bobby McGuire, Peter Neville, Michael Dempsey, Caroline Schless, Lisa Keefe, Tom Purcell (head writer, Colbert Report and Executive Producer Late Night with Stephen Colbert), and Del Close.

Cult-hits

Sited by The Chicago Tribune as "...a rarity, an ensemble`s ensemble,[1] they gained a reputation for their wizardry in blending 50’s sitcom norms with comic impersonations.[2] An Evening with Elmore & Gwendolyn Putts - The Neighbors Next Door and The TV Dinner Hour (featuring Del Close on video tape doing Late Night with God)[3] were among their biggest cult-hits. Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune hailed both works as "Among the most polished and clever productions of the season, a pair of devilishly inventive and challenging shows that won over critics and audiences."[4]

Members

(*denotes original member)

Noted Accomplishments

Successfully negotiated the first Actors' Equity (AEA) cabaret contract in Chicago.

First comedy troupe in Chicago to use video monitors playing pre-taped intros and filler. Upon their inception Del Close warned O’Donnell that their inclusion would ruin the medium. Years later, the IO Theater opened the Del Close Theatre on Clark Street which included a permanent television monitor on stage.[5]

gollark: That could be solved with multiple off-topics.
gollark: You have to see *some small amount* of them, which is much more manageable.
gollark: Oh, NOW it pings me somehow?
gollark: You have a reasonable point that you can be nice to people inside a conversation but (possibly inadvertently) non-nice to those outside it. I think niceness within conversations is more important, as people outside them can more easily choose not to participate in them, but this doesn't work excellently. Banning discussion of anything some people do not like reading is *a* fix for some of this, but I don't like the tradeoffs, given the wide range of things in this category. Isolating that elsewhere is also not good for various reasons I indicated before. A generalized rule-4-y approach could end up doing basically the same thing as preemptively banning it, and people seem dissatisfied with "ignore the channel for a bit". Thus, I'm unsure of how the issue can be solved nicely and it's worth actually investigating the options.
gollark: What a strange name.

References
  1. Kogan, Rick (May 3, 1987). "Vaudeville Troupe Takes Leave of City". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  2. Bommer, Lawrence, (November 14, 1986) An Evening with Elmore and Gwendolyn Putts, Chicago Reader, Vol 16, No. 8
  3. Bommer, Lawrence, (April 2, 1987), Theatre: The TV Dinner Hour, Windy City Times
  4. Kogan, Rick (May 3, 1987), "VAUDEVILLE TROUPE TAKES LEAVE OF CITY", Chicago Tribune
  5. O’Donnell, R.,(2004), My Summer With Del, Issue 17: The Comedian Issue, StopSmiling, page 48-51
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