“I don’t think we had a choice in terms of what our resources were and getting the film done,” says Arkush, who is one of the most accomplished directors working in television today. However, the director didn’t specifically set out to make an L.A. In 1978, during a 20-hour marathon shoot in this very venue, Arkush captured punk rock vanguards, the Ramones, in some of the most wildly electric concert footage ever filmed.Īs the famous Sunset Strip venue would suggest, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Arkush’s 1979, fan-favorite about a rock ‘n’ roll band taking over oppressive Vince Lombardi High School, is clearly a Los Angeles film. “Just ask anybody who has spent a lot of time in both of them.Director Allan Arkush arrives at the Roxy wearing an appropriate article of clothing: a T-shirt emblazoned with a with a black-and-white illustration of Johnny Ramone posed in his iconic bent-knee, split-leg guitar stance. “The two cities are so much alike,” Ross says, speaking from his office there. And Second City is, of course about to produce a new show by a very famous Canadian brand, Margaret Trudeau.īut Toronto hits tend to do well here. Chicago Shakespeare Theater soon will have “Six the Musical,” also from London. Upcoming at the Apollo Theater is “Dejembe! The Show,” an interactive percussive entertainment that is touting its popularity in London, and an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey. Ross is not the only producer bringing shows to Chicago that have not needed New York to sell tickets. Thus it does not have to be a hagiography. “Four Chords” was not run past anybody and did not need approval. The benefit for an audience is that the shows can be more independent. That is true of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Broadway’s new Michael Jackson musical (if that ever happens) and the upcoming Britney Spears musical headed to Chicago this fall, “Once Upon a One More Time.” But Ross doesn’t need so-called “grand rights,” given that he’s dealing with a specific news event (the recording of the iconic Ramones album, “End of the Century”) that has been widely covered by journalists and is fair game for a show. It’s the only way to get permission to use the full catalog. Most major jukebox shows - like the new Broadway attraction themed around The Temptations - are authorized by the subject, or, if the subject is deceased, an estate. There’s another interesting issue here, too. In Ross’ mind at least - we will all have to see - the show thus is big enough to satisfy fans of the Ramones and their interest in the famous story where Spector held the band hostage in order to get the album as good as it could possibly be, but not so big that the production budget makes it economically impossible. “Four Chords” isn’t a full-blown juke-box musical, like, say, “Jersey Boys” (which you can catch at the Auditorium Theatre this weekend), but a play followed by a concert. ![]() ![]() Ross also argues that he has found a sweet spot between Broadway and off-Broadway. “One of my rival producers in Toronto,” Ross said in an interview this week, “described my marketing plan as, ‘if a dog can pee on it, I’m there.’” And, coming soon, the Ramones will be jockeying for attention with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, because Ross is bringing a new show, “Four Chords and a Gun,” a play about the punk band’s famous studio collaboration with Phil Spector to the mid-sized Broadway Playhouse, just behind the Water Tower mall. Over the holidays, you surely saw Allan - the self-styled ‘iMagician” - on Chicago cans. I threw away a Diet Coke on a trip to Boston the other week - and there was that scarf again. Anyone who walked around downtown Chicago during one of the several runs of Ross’ massively lucrative Potter parody, “Potted Potter,” couldn’t have missed Hogwarts as they hit the (likely dysfunctional) trash compactors on Michigan Avenue. If there’s one common denominator to the marketing plan of the young Canadian producer Corey Ross, it’s a love of garbage receptacles.
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