I'm really amazed Sondheim doesn't get done more in Community Theatre, given the buzz it produces. A well-known and respected area CT director is doing ITW this summer, and not only are people coming out of the woodwork to audition (myself included) but I've been getting barraged by friends with requests to help choose and prepare audition songs for this.

And as I was reflecting on this this morning, I was thinking "the last time people around here were so ginned up over a CT show was last year... for Sweeney Todd."

I know it's hard music and challenging stuff, but your actors will be excited, and create the buzz for you, and your available talent pool is bound to be deeper.

I'd give my left arm to take anything in Assassins and you could go up to the Elbow for Hapgood in Anyone Can Whistle...

Heh, I'm from LA originally (San Pedro) but I've been out in the Chicago 'burbs for the last 16 years.

It actually draws pretty well, too, from what I've seen (especially Sweeney and ITW, and Assassins is a natural draw).

In fact, my girlfriend and I are tossing around the idea of producing Assassins next year.  We have a potential 165-seat auditiorium space in Chicago we can get for essentially free, and we think actors would be willing to pay a small production fee to help fund the outlay (it could even potentially be a deposit).  The tricky bit would be lining up musicians, though we think we'd have a pianist already lined up.  It's handy that she's run a production company before.

Add me to the list of people doing ITW this summer - although I have to say, overall I'm not a huge fan of Sondheim shows, but I'll make an exception any day for ITW. :)

I'm going to have to second the savvy audience thought. It depends on your market, I think. I'm working in central Wisconsin and R&H is still the word of the day.

Our local CT did Sweeney as the season opener in the fall of '08 and took a bath in it. The cast, myself included, was totally jazzed. The audience, not so much. I've been involved in some pretty crappy productions, and I think I recognize them pretty well, and this one wasn't. It just didn't go over.

But on the other side of the coin, I'd rather roll the dice on a production that performers are passionate about than try to second guess what an audience will like any day.

The difference of a few miles.  I was in a production of Sweeney about 20 minutes south of Lake Geneva, just over the border in Illinois last year, and the audiences LOVED it.