Robbie Ellis

Broadway Rocks! – Grant Park Music Festival – July 31, 2024

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Robbie Ellis of WFMT emceed the pre concert talk, featuring conductor Lucas Waldin for the first 10 minutes before he had to leave to prepare for the concert.

Then the program went off the rails. Ellis and his other two guests, neither of whom I have any clue about, started comparing jukebox musicals to elements of Harry Potter. Half the attendees, myself included, had no idea what they were talking about.

Then, just as I was ready to bail, Ellis turned the discussion to a jukebox musical coming to town in 2025. Without going into detail, let me say that I, and the Porchlight Music Theatre (co producer of said show, Titanique, with Broadway in Chicago) Board of Directors sitting next to me, let our presence and enthusiasm be known, leading to a short dialogue with Ellis, who praised Porchlight, leading to cheering from the crowd.

It was then on to the concert itself, which consisted of a wonderful array of songs, energetically performed, and more costume changes by Lakisha Jones and Chloe Lowery in 90 minutes than I make in a year.

It was two shows in one, as a woman sitting three rows in front of me relived her youth throughout, while the man who appeared to be her husband sat stoically next to her, apparently no longer excited by her singing and chair dancing to the music.

Spring Forward – International Music Foundation (IMF) – Union League Club – March 27, 2019

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As Master of Ceremonies Robbie Ellis informed us, the IMF event we were attending was to raise money for the International Music Foundation, which puts on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, the Rush Hour Concerts, the Do-It-Yourself Messiah, Make Music Chicago, Live Music Now!, and coming this summer, concerts with Gallagher Way Chicago; not for the International Monetary Fund (also IMF), which apparently is doing okay without the need for a fundraising event, as its website says it currently has one trillion dollars available to lend to its member countries.

Perhaps the International Music Foundation should give up its 503(c) status and resurrect itself as a country to qualify for a loan. Unless, and maybe even if, the Music Foundation attempted this by ceding its physical space (i.e. offices) in order not to impinge on U.S. territory (though I wonder if the offices could be turned into a consulate – query, can you have a consulate without a physical home country?), the Music Foundation might not be able to declare independence without United Nations approval. I’ll let the lawyers work that out.

Becoming a country could add a second fundraising technique to the Music Foundation’s arsenal, however, as displayed in the book and movie The Mouse That Roared, wherein the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, on the verge of bankruptcy, declares war on the United States, with the expectation of a rapid defeat that would lead to the inevitable post-war aid from the U.S. to help the Duchy rebuild.

Until the Music Foundation can implement my suggestions, however, it will have to rely on fundraisers. This one included performances by Marguerite Lynn Williams (harp), Richard Lin (violin) with Chin-Yi-Chen (piano) Diana Newman (soprano) with Brian Locke (piano), and Ellis, with Locke on piano, performing his own Symphony No. 1 in Eb, a comedic performance that I cannot do justice in trying to describe, but highly recommend you listen to as providing a perfect ending for this recap.