Chicago Reels In a Big Fish, Horror Film M Gets a Campy Makeover & More Cross-Country Highlights

Regional theater offerings are heating up! In this week’s Countrywide Guide, Broadway.com highlights five hot tickets, including the world premiere of the Broadway-bound musical Big Fish, a reunion of an award-winning playwright and actress in D.C and an unusual send-up of Fritz Lang’s M in Boston.


CHICAGO, IL
Norbert Leo Butz Tells Tall Tales in Broadway-Bound Big Fish
If you can't wait until September to catch Big Fish on Broadway, hop a flight to Chicago for the show's world premiere at the Oriental Theatre. Based on the novel and popular film of the same name, Big Fish stars two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz as Edward Bloom, Kate Baldwin as his wife and Bobby Steggert as his son. Take a journey through Bloom's extraordinary and unbelievable life (via a score by Andrew Lippa and a book by screenwriter John August) April 2 through May 5.


WASHINGTON, DC
Joaquina Kalukango Heads for The Mountaintop
Actress Joaquina Kalukango broke out in the off-Broadway production of Katori Hall’s Hurt Village before starring in Eve Ensler’s Emotional Creature. Now, she is re-teaming with Hall for the two-hander The Mountaintop at Arena Stage. Co-starring Bowman Wright as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the play is a fictionalized account of the evening before the civil rights leader's 1968 assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. See Wright and Kalukango, cast as a mysterious maid named Camae, March 29 through May 12.


BOSTON,MA
Ryan Landry Gives M a Drag Noir Facelift
Fritz Lang's horror masterpiece M, which focuses on a serial killer who preys on children, is getting a camp makeover thanks to Boston/Provincetown treasure Ryan Landry. The Huntington Theatre Company presents this gender-bending and puppet-filled noir production March 29 through April 27. Written Landry and directed by Caitlin Lowans, M stars David Drake, Karen MacDonald, Larry Coen and more. Sounds like creepy fun!


NEW HAVEN, CT
JFK, Sinatra & a Mafia Boss Fall for the Same Girl 
William Mastrosimone’s Ride the Tiger centers on Judith Exner and the three high-profile men she ensnared: President Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and Windy City crime boss Sam Giancana. My Name is Asher Lev director Gordon Edelstein helms the world premiere play, a dramatized account of Exner's affairs. Broadway vets Douglas Sills (Jack), Jordan Lage (Sam), Paul Anthony Stewart (Frank) and John Cunningham join All My Children alum Christina Bennett Lind at Long Wharf Theatre March 27 through April 21.


SACRAMENTO, CA
Avenue Q Says Goodbye “For Now”
Who would have believed that a musical about insecure, horny puppets would perfectly capture what life is like for post-college 20-somethings? It’s no wonder the Tony-winning musical Avenue Q is still playing in New York 10 years after it premiered. But for West Coast audiences hungry for some Q, this is your final call. Runaway Stage’s mounting in West Sacramento ends its run at the Black Box Theater on March 31. It would suck to be you to miss this hilarious musical.