Chef's Theater: A Musical Feast Employs New Ingredients Beginning May 13 | Playbill

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News Chef's Theater: A Musical Feast Employs New Ingredients Beginning May 13 New recipes sometimes require adjustments, and so it is with the format of the new hybrid musical theatre/live cooking show, Chef's Theater: A Musical Feast.

The unique Supper Club show in Manhattan's theatre district mixes cooking class with legit cabaret — song and supper, if you will. It underwent some changes after May 9.

Starting May 13, a new regular "cast" made up of Mylinda Hull (42nd Street) and Paige Price (Saturday Night Fever) will sing and also assist a famed chef in the kitchen (Rick Moonen of Manhattan's rm that weekend).

As was the case since preview performances started March 30, a special musical guest will also perform. Shannon Lewis and Jim Walton (who form a trio with Price in the current version show) exit the Supper Club May 9.

Producer Marty Bell told Playbill On-Line "it was always the intent to change the show every 10-12 weeks" to keep it fresh for "repeat business."

"We're just doing it a little earlier," he said, speaking about the opening section of the show that features a trio of singers that will become a duo by May 13. Response from critics and audiences indicated to Bell and his partners that there was more interest in the chef/preparation than in the musical numbers, so the current five songs in the first part of the show will probably be reduced to three.

Also after May 9, a brunch show will no longer be offered. A new schedule for the late-night dessert show was also announced: Starting May 14, the dessert buffet with special musical guest, plays 11 PM Fridays and midnight Saturdays.

The changes are largely about the schedule, although new musical numbers are being explored for the entertainment portion of the experience. In recent performances, the show opened with a new song, "A Meal to Remember," by Ragtime writers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

The new Chef's Theater schedule is 7:30 PM Tuesday-Friday, with two seatings Saturdays at 5:30 and 8:30 PM. To implement the content changes, May 11-12 are dark days.

Rick Moonen from Manhattan's rm is chef, with musical guest Alice Ripley (Sunset Boulevard, Side Show). The week of May 18-22, David Burke of davidburke and donatella, rules the kitchen, with Adam Pascal (Rent, Aida) as musical guest.

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Chef's Theater: A Musical Feast, a unique live experience that is part cooking show, part tasting event and part legit cabaret, opened April 14 at the Supper Club in Broadway's theatre district. Producers West Egg Entertainment, Marty Bell, Greg Smith and Stephen Fass and executive producer Joe Allegro serve up the show, which brings famous-in-the food-world chefs to prepare a meal (with commentary), after which the audience eats, drinks and listens to songs sung by a special guest star from the New York stage.

The meal prepared onstage will be duplicated backstage by the hundreds by a staff in the Supper Club's kitchen (the restaurant portion of the event is Restaurant Associates, the respected foodservice company. Vino and dessert are all part of the experience. As on cable's Food Network, an overhead view of the chef's work will be projected on a large TV screen for the crowd.

Marty Bell of West Egg Entertainment was one of the producers of Sweet Smell of Success, The Last 5 Years, A Class Act and is working on the musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He told Playbill On-Line he and his producers hope Chef's Theater will pop up around the country.

Tickets can be purchased through Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting the Supper Club box office at 240 W. 47th Street.

 
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