Chicago Sports

NEW YORK — The stage musical about the making of the classic film “Jaws” has speared its leading man —Jarrod Spector.

Tony-nominated Spector, whose Broadway credits include “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and “The Cher Show,” will play Steven Spielberg in “Bruce.”

“Bruce,” based on “Jaws” screenwriter Carl Gottlieb’s 1975 memoir “The Jaws Log,” will premiere at Seattle Rep, with previews beginning May 27 and an opening night set for June 8. It is named after the nickname given to the 25-foot mechanical Great White Shark stars of “Jaws.”

The musical centers on a young Spielberg facing poor weather, dangerous water, hostile locals, an exploding budget, endless delays and a highly dysfunctional Bruce to make “Jaws.”

In a statement, Spector said it is a “real honor to portray perhaps the foremost genius in all of filmmaking” and that the musical is “about the group of brilliant artists who stared down every obstacle imaginable to somehow emerge with this genre-defying masterpiece. I just hope Mr. Spielberg doesn’t mind that his singing voice sounds an awful lot like my own.”

“Bruce” has music by Richard Oberacker and story and lyrics by Oberacker and Robert Taylor, the team behind the 2017 Broadway musical “Bandstand.” It will be directed and choreographed by Donna Feore.

Spector grew up in Philadelphia, attended Princeton University and trained at Atlantic Theater Company. He made his Broadway debut as Gavroche in the original production of “Les Miserables.” He played a record-breaking 1,500 performances as Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys” on Broadway. He starred as Sonny Bono in “The Cher Show” stage musical during its world premiere run in Chicago in 2018.

Read More

A look at all the best from individual players throughout the state from this past season, including plenty who raised their stock and status.

Best player: Braden Huff

Like so many of the postseason accolades being handed out from this past season, it’s Glenbard West once again when it comes to the best individual player.

Huff, the skilled and versatile senior heading to Gonzaga, was his best in the biggest games. And has been noted so many times this season, Huff is a generational-type talent in how he plays the game at his size.

Too bad the national evaluators and recruiting services failed to take notice.

Runner-Up: Ty Rodgers

The Illinois commit transferred in from Michigan at the start of the school year and simply carried a Thornton team that would have otherwise struggled.

The Wildcats finished 23-6 behind the stat-sheet-stuffing play of Rodgers, a rugged, athletic and unselfish star.

Biggest senior stock riser: Amarion Nimmers

The Rock Island guard was an afterthought after playing very little off the bench for the Illinois Wolves in the spring and summer on the AAU circuit. But he was a star all winter long, earning Division I offers and interest.

The 6-2 guard was a record-setting player at a school with a long and established basketball history. He broke the single season record for points in a season with 744 and single-game record with 45. He also finished as the second all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,369.

Runner-Up: Bobby Durkin

What a senior season the Hinsdale South transfer put together for state champion Glenbard West.

The 6-6 Durkin settled in with the Hilltoppers and became the most consistent scoring threat behind Player of the Year Braden Huff.

His state tournament run, which included a record-breaking performance in the state semifinals with seven three-pointers and 30 points in the win over Bolingbrook, has opened eyes. Both Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois have offered with other Division I interest still simmering.

Honorable mention: Jonah Hinton

A no-namer coming into the season– at least outside the DuPage Valley Conference — Hinton remained one of the most overlooked players in the area, even after a spectacular senior season.

But it was enough to skyrocket up the City/Suburban Hoops Report player rankings and land an offer from the best Division II program in the country.

Hinton, who averaged 20 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists, offers a blend of scoring ability in the backcourt while also making others around him better. The 6-1 guard is headed to Northwest Missouri State, a program that is shooting for its eye-opening and impressive fourth Division II national title in the last six years.

Coach Ben McCollum, a hot name this spring in the Division I coaching hiring cycle, won titles in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and is 31-5 this year and in the Division II Elite Eight.

Most underrated senior: Will Grudzinski

This was an all-area type caliber player who simply was overlooked as the season played out. Fortunately, Grudzinski and his Barrington team made a deep run and the 6-7 wing was seen by everyone in the State Finals in Champaign.

Time and time again the versatile Grudzinski came up big, especially down the stretch of the regular season and into state tournament play.

He averaged nearly 20 points and chipped in five rebounds while knocking down 102 three-pointers for a team that finished third in the state.

Grudzinski shined in the state semifinal loss to Young, scoring 24 points with four three-pointers. He scored 23 points to beat Rolling Meadows and combined for 51 points in two regional wins.

Grudzinski is quite the steal for Division III Washington University in St. Louis.

Biggest junior stock riser: Miles Rubin

The jump the 6-8 Rubin has made since his days at Homewood-Flossmoor, and even since his arrival at Simeon last June, has been impressive.

A defensive presence around the basket with his size, length and instincts, Rubin continued to show off an emerging offensive game over the course of his sophomore campaign. He finished the season averaging 15.5 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.

Runner-Up: Wesley Rubin

While his game and body are both different, the twin brother of Miles Rubin was right with him as a stock-rising player in the junior class.

Wesley Rubin shows some skill and footwork with a bigger body as he averaged 13 points and six rebounds.

Honorable mention: Brock Harding

The pure point guard from Moline opened eyes on the recruiting front while playing last summer with Mid-Pro Academy on the AAU circuit. But the 5-11 Harding only enhanced his stock and growing rep with a standout junior season for the Maroons.

Harding knows how to play and has a great feel for making his teammates better, though he continues to unlock his own offensive game. The junior point guard put up impressive numbers a true floor general, averaging 19.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists for a team that went 28-5.

Biggest sophomore stock riser: Angelo Ciaravino

DeAndre Craig, a junior guard and bonafide all-state caliber player, is the catalyst for the Caravan. But Ciaravino is an up-and-coming player and prospect in the sophomore class.

The 6-5 sophomore was instrumental in helping Mount Carmel to a 28-5 record as he averaged 12.5 points. He chipped in eight rebounds and four assists while shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc.

Ciaravino is a fast-rising prospect in the class and should make significant strides between his sophomore and junior seasons.

Runner-Up: Shaheed Solebo

A complete unknown heading into the season, the Lane sophomore emerged in the Public League as a bonafide prospect by the midway point of the year.

While the overall numbers might not jump out at anyone — he finished the season averaging 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.6 steals — the super intriguing Solebo took off in the second half of the season.

Since holiday tournament time in December, Solebo averaged 18 points. In three January games against ranked opponents, the 6-4 Solebo had 22 points and eight rebounds against Orr, scored 21 points against Clark and 17 against Young.

Read More

Marc-Andre Fleury’s time in Chicago has ended after less than nine months.

The Blackhawks traded the legendary goalie to the Wild on Monday — hours before the NHL trade deadline — for a conditional second-round draft pick.

The pick could become a first-rounder if the Wild reach the Western Conference Final and Fleury wins four or more games in the first two playoff rounds, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported.

Fleury finishes his Hawks tenure with a 19-21-5 record, 2.95 goals-against average and .908 save percentage — an unremarkable and largely unsuccessful footnote in his Hall of Fame-bound career.

But he still managed to become arguably the most popular Hawks player to teammates and fans alike in years, demonstrating the power of immensely likable personality and steadfast character.

The Maple Leafs, Capitals and Oilers, among other teams, had pursued Fleury for months as new Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson tried to recoup a first-round pick for his top trade chip. But Fleury’s unofficial no-trade clause and apparent unwillingness to join any of those teams ultimately forced Davidson’s hand.

For a while, it seemed a trade might not come to fruition after all. But Minnesota’s late-emerging interest changed things. The Wild traded goalie Kaapo Kahkonen to the Sharks in a surprising separate trade Monday, meaning Fleury and Cam Talbot will now compose their goaltending duo for their postseason run.

This story will be updated.

Read More

The Chicago Blackhawks are trading goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the Minnesota Wild for a conditional first-round draft pick, a source told ESPN on Monday, confirming multiple reports.

Fleury was the goalie to get this trade deadline, but only if he wanted to be gotten. With his modified no-trade clause, the three-time Stanley Cup winner held the cards, and it appeared he wanted to go only to a contender. He has a connection to Minnesota, having played with Wild general manager Bill Guerin on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

1 Related

Fleury almost didn’t end up in Chicago. After the Blackhawks traded for him in July in a cap-saving move by Vegas, he took his time to decide whether to report. He finally decided to play for the Original Six franchise, even if its future was muddled. By all accounts, he enjoyed his time in the Windy City and was reluctant to leave for just any team.

Chicago had playoff aspirations coming into the season, but a dreadful start pretty much doomed it. Fleury has been a bright spot, both on the ice and in the locker room. The Flower now moves on to chase his fourth Stanley Cup.

Read More

You’ve just “Got to Be There.”

That’s what producers of the critically acclaimed Broadway musical “MJ” are hoping fans of Michael Jackson will be feeling in their hearts when the show arrives in Chicago next year. “MJ” is set to play the James M. Nederlander Theatre (24 W. Randolph) July 15-Sept. 10, 2023, the show’s first stop from Broadway.

Set in 1992 just two days before Jackson set out on his Dangerous world tour, the jukebox musical –directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Christopher Wheeldon (the Joffrey Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”) with a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage (“Ruined,” “Sweat”)–celebrates Jackson’s music with more than three dozen tunes that would come to define the “King of Pop.”

The show, which stars Myles Frost, boasts sets by Tony and two-time Emmy Award winner Derek McLane, lighting design by six-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz, costumes by Tony and Emmy Award winner Paul Tazewell, sound design by Gareth Owen, projection design by Peter Nigrini, and hair and wig design by Charles LaPointe.

The musical opened in February on Broadway following several delayed stops and starts last year due to the pandemic shutdown of all theaters and later COVID-19 breakthrough cases within in the company. It was originally slated for its pre-Broadway run in Chicago in 2019, but was canceledfollowing the controversy and fallout over the release of the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.”

The show is being produced by Lia Vollack Productions, the Michael Jackson Estate and Broadway in Chicago (BIC).

Tickets are available now for groups of 10 or more by calling Broadway In Chicago group sales at (312) 977-1710 or emailing [email protected]. Individual tickets will go on sale at a later date.

Read More

At least four people were killed and a 1-year-old girl was among 15 others wounded by gunfire in Chicago over the weekend.

The child was riding in the back seat of a car about 6:30 p.m. Friday in the 5500 block of West Wrightwood Avenue when someone fired shots from a white SUV, Chicago police said. The girl was grazed in the head and taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital in good condition, police said.Several hours later, two people were found shot to death after a SWAT team responded to a well-being check in South Chicago on the South Side around 9:45 p.m. A SWAT team responded to the 8400 block of South Mackinaw Avenue after officers heard five shots during a well-being check and took cover, police said. No officers were injured, authorities said. A man and a woman, 30 and 20, were found with gunshot wounds to the head and were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Officers had been responding to a call of a woman possibly being held against her will by her boyfriend, police said. Folashade Mordi, 25, was driving in the 2400 block of South Homan Avenue about 11:45 p.m. Friday when she was shot in the left side of the chest, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.A man was shot to death Sunday afternoon in Roseland on Far South Side. The man, whose age was unknown, was shot in the chest about 5:15 p.m. in the 100 block of East 111th Street, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead, police said. He has not yet been identified.A 17-year-old boy was walking through an alley in the 5600 block of South Sawyer Avenue about 7:40 p.m. Friday when he was struck in the lower right leg by gunfire, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was in good condition, officials said.A second 17-year-old boy was standing on the sidewalk about 6 p.m. in the 3000 block of East 83rd Street when three males approached him and some opened fire, police said. He was struck in the leg and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said.Less than two hours later, a third 17-year-old was near a sidewalk about 7:35 p.m. in the 5600 block of South Sangamon Street when someone shot him in the thigh, police said. He was taken to the University of Chicago, where he was in good condition, police said. About an hour later, a man, 30, was sitting in his white Jaguar waiting for someone in the 100 block of East Cullerton Street about 8:55 p.m. when one of five gunmen shot him in the thigh and dragged him out of the car after he refused to get out, police said. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was in good condition, police said. The gunmen fled the scene in the Jaguar, officials said.A man was shot early Saturday morning after an argument over a traffic crash in South Austin on the West Side. The man, 32, had gotten into a crash in the 5400 block of West Washington Boulevard about 12:20 a.m. when the driver of the other car opened fire following an argument, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to the left calf, police said. He was listed in good condition, officials said.

At least nine others were shot in Chicago from Friday, 5 p.m. to Monday, 5 a.m.

At least two people were killed and 25 others were wounded in Chicago shootings last weekend, including seven injured in an attack in South Chicago.

Read More

MESA, Ariz. – Celebrated former Cubs pitcher Rick Sutcliffe squeezed into the back of the media scrum late last week and motioned to manager David Ross.

“Go ahead Sut,” Ross said. “I’m sorry, he’s going to pull rank.”

Sutcliffe, suppressing a grin, had a bone to pick with Ross.

For the first time in two years, the Cubs welcomed their wealth of guest instructors, a group full of Cubs legends and hall of farmers, back to spring training camp. Health and safety protocols at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic had limited the personnel allowed at 2020 summer camp and 2021 spring training.

“It’s the best,” Ross said of having them back. “That’s the first thing I said when they showed up. I missed that. I think the players missed that. Guys like Andre Dawson, Sut, Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg, when you’re able to introduce those guys, have those guys talk baseball around your group, there’s nothing better than that.”

For several days straight, Ross used the team huddle before stretch to read off one of the special guest’s credentials.

Last Thursday, it was Williams’ turn. In Sutcliffe’s retelling, Ross told the group: “We’re going to be here a while because I’m reading Billy’s. It won’t take long tomorrow – I’m reading Sutcliffe’s.”

Ross laughed when Sutcliffe interrupted his morning meeting with reporters to complain.

“His resume is a little bit longer than yours,” Ross said. “When you have a statue – I was just telling the truth. I like to tell the truth.”

Villar versatility

New Cubs infielder Jonathan Villar arrived in camp over the weekend. He signed a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2023.

“He had a really nice season last year,” Ross said of Villar, who primarily played third base, but also shortstop and second for the Mets in 2021. “Gives us some versatility to move around.”

Against a left-handed pitcher, the Cubs could play switch-hitting Villar at third base and move Patrick Wisdom to the outfield to get more right-handed batters in the lineup. Villar also gives them a left-handed bat against tough right-handed pitchers. The Cubs’ infielders are primarily right-handed hitters.

The Cubs have also made balancing workload a priority for middle infielders Nico Hoerner, Nick Madrigal and Andrelton Simmons. Adding Villar makes that even easier.

Late arrivals

Cubs pitcher Brailyn Marquez and Harold Ramirez have yet to report to camp, Ross confirmed Sunday. The manager announced last week that both were delayed because of travel complications.

Read More

Goalie Marc-Andre made 26 saves in the Blackhawks’ 6-4 loss to the Jets on Sunday. Calvin de Haan played over 19 minutes, Dylan Strome scored a goal and Dominik Kubalik had an assist.

On most nights, those statistics wouldn’t be anything too noteworthy. But this game was the final one before Monday’s trade deadline, when any number of those players could find new homes. Yet there they were, playing for a team well out of the playoff chase and years away from contending.

“Nobody’s held back. I put my phone on silent,” interim Hawks coach Derek King quipped before the game. “I haven’t heard a thing to be honest with you. You know I try to be honest with you as much as I can. I haven’t heard anything.”

Just because those players suited up Sunday doesn’t mean they’ll be Hawks after the trade deadline passes at 2 p.m. Monday. The most intrigue is around Fleury, a future Hall of Famer who could be the final piece of somebody else’s championship puzzle, but one who will only move if the Hawks find the right deal and he signs off.

Beyond Fleury, who has reportedly drawn the Wild’s interest, change is certainly coming to the Hawks. The Brandon Hagel trade wasn’t the end, but just the start of general manager Kyle Davidson’s mission to remake the roster, though it seems like cornerstones Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Seth Jones aren’t going anywhere.

“You don’t need to trade those guys either on me,” King said. “I hate seeing guys get traded because you start getting comfortable, your teammates are starting to become a team, the locker room’s tight. Everybody likes each other. There’s no hatred going on. It was starting to build right. It just happened to be this is the timing of it. All of a sudden you might lose some bodies.

“Hopefully guys like Kane, Toews and these guys – we don’t need to lose them. But again it’s a business. If trades do happen we deal with them as a staff.”

Read More

Less than four hours before curtain time at Black Ensemble Theater’s Saturday night performance of “It’s Just Like Coming to Church (Welcome to The Church of You),”news broke that Black transwoman activist Elise Malary’s body had been found along the Evanston lakefront. She had been reported missing on March 11; fliers with her photo are plastered on the storefront windows around BET’s Uptown space.

That’s the brutal, inescapable, real-life context of a scene when MJ Rawls, a Black, trans activist playing a Black, trans activist in BET’s musical revue, stands in a stark spotlight proclaiming that she has “fight every day, just to be.” After speaking on the immense challenges on her road to self-acceptance, Rawls then delivers a triumphant, passionate rendition of Lionel Richie’s “Jesus Is Love,” filling the theater with a defiant and celebratory mood. Whatever your thoughts on Jesus, you can’t deny the urgency and conviction Rawls brings to the music and the stage.

Penned and directed by BET’s Founding Artistic Director Jackie Taylor, “It’s Just Like Coming to Church” feels rather like a balm in a time of pandemic and war, when the awful news is so relentless we literally had to make up words to describe it, like “doomscrolling.”

The setup is simple: Preach (Dawn Bless) and Deacon (Vincent Jordan) are leading a choir of four griots, or African storytellers: Michelle (Rawls), Maven (Noelle Klyce), Leah (Ciarra Stroud) and Will (Deshaun Peters).

Each griot gets solo time to testify and sing. We learn about their joys and sorrows between songs, and are encouraged to praise something greater than ourselves along with them in song. “This ain’t no just-sit-there kind of place,” a charismatic, authoritative Bless informs the audience and, indeed, call-and-response is a defining characteristic of many of the numbers.

Taylor’s script is a series of monologues, ardently shoehorned around 16 songs of praise and thanksgiving by composers including Richie, Stevie Wonder and Roebuck “Pops” Staples. Taylor herself contributes “Love Yourself Until the End of Time,” an upbeat Pointer Sisters-esque bop.

Most of the music is a combination of soaring and solemn, as the griots give faces and voices to a series of societal issues. Deacon talks of the faith he found after a gun misfired and he was saved from getting shot at point-blank range. Leah recalls how her mother hated her own dark skin. Maven is tormented by the lies of “depression and anxiety,” which are embodied by a masked, tattered, malignant mummy. Rawls talks about finding the strength to live in her truth and transition.

With all-important music direction by Robert Reddrick, “It’s Just Like Coming to Church” creates a joyful noise throughout. Bless sets the mood in the opener, a rousing rendition of “Hold on Change is Coming,” its thundering, defiant optimism inescapable. Stroud’s delivery of “Never Alone” has the reach of a beacon as she delivers a plea for self-compassion in the face of devastating mental health issues. In Jordan’s massively vulnerable delivery, “Worth Saving” crescendos to a power that evokes the trumpets of Jericho.

The mood lightens with Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Shining Star,” given a boppy, upbeat treatment by Rawls and DeShaun Peters, who displays some suave footwork in Wonder’s “Tomorrow Robins Will Sing.”

Klyce moves with the fervent, emphatic grace of a praise dancer in “Never Would Have Made It.” And when the whole group gathers for the hymnic “Nobody Greater,” the sound can only be described as soulful.

That’s in large part to conductor-percussionist Reddrick’s four-piece band, which also includes keyboardist Adam Sherrod, bassist Wayne Jones, and guitarist Oscar Brown. Perched above the cast, they deliver a kind of rich, percussive heartbeat to the vocals.

Nobody is credited for the costumes, which are fairly subdued, at least by BET’s usual standards. Historically, there’s usually at least two high-glam costume changes. This time around, the ensemble is in beige street clothes for most of the production, although bookended by well-tailored, lightly bedazzled choir robes. It’s an aesthetic that–like the show itself–speaks on the sobering tragedies surrounding us, and the joyous triumphs the music promises.

Read More

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Yoelqui Cespedes couldn’t contain that big smile of his.

“I feel so happy,” he said.

It was moments after Cespedes had reached out over the plate and yanked a home run over the left field fence at Camelback Ranch Saturday, against Cleveland Guardians Double-A right-hander Thomas Ponticelli. Two days earlier, he homered against Cubs Triple-A lefty Ben Holmes.

On Sunday, Cespedes, playing center field, threw out Rockie Zac Veen trying to advance from first to third on a single. Cespedes’ one-hop throw needed to be perfect and it was.

Needless to say, the 24-year-old Cuban prospect has been the star of Sox spring training, four days in.

“I feel so happy because I never [thought] I would play this year in the spring training,” Cespedes said. “My mind was on the minor leagues, and then I’m playing with the big leagues. Right now, I feel so good.”

The minor leagues is where Cespedes will start the season and it’s possible he doesn’t play with major leaguers again until spring training 2023. But like every top prospect with big league plans and dreams, Cespedes is thinking sooner than later.

“Oh yeah, yeah,” he said. “I feel really good this year because last year I felt — the language and the season is a lot different than Cuba — and this year I feel more comfortable here because the pitchers, the speed [of the game] is almost the same.”

Credit the Spanish speaking Cespedes for talking to reporters in English after his home run. He’s still in the learning phase of his second language, and it takes courage and confidence to do it in front of microphones and cameras. Translator Billy Russo was alongside to clarify questions if needed, but it says something about Cespedes showing the moxy to handle it on his own.

“He’s very intelligent,” Ryan Newman, his manager at Advanced A Winston-Salem last season, said. “He has got a lot of direction from his [half] brother [former All-Star Yoenis Cespedes] — they’re very close. He’s very mature, and once he figures it out and makes the adjustment to how the game is played here in the states we’re going to see him take off.”

Even though he struggled during the Arizona Fall League, batting .181/.244/.222 in 19 games, talent evaluators are still buying in on Cespedes, who is No. 2 on Baseball Americ’s Sox prospect list behind 2021 first-round draft choice shortstop Colson Montgomery and No. 4 on MLB Pipeline’s list behind Montgomery, outfielder Oscar Colas and infielder Jose Rodriguez.

“Strong engine, big power, special, special player tools wise,” Sox hitting coordinator Andy Barkett said. “He needs to play in the minor leagues and figure out the strike zone and who he is as a player. Everybody has a different journey when it comes to development.”

Manager Tony La Russa, who watched Cespedes play in the Fall League, scoffed when told some scouts were not sold on Cespedes just yet.

“Oh, he takes a really good swing,” La Russa said. “He’s very compact and his explosion is the kind of thing where you get a lot of life off the bat.”

Cespedes is just trying to keep his approach at the plate simple, looking for a good pitch to hit and letting his athleticism take over. His path to the Sox outfield isn’t exactly wide open, with Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert planted in left and center for years to come and Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets and Adam Engel in the current right field mix. Then there’s Colas and Micker Adolfo among prospects also pushing for a spot.

All Cespedes knows is he leads the Sox in Cactus League homers and outfield assists right now.

So what if we’re only four games into the schedule.

Rounding the bases after Saturday’s homer, Cespedes was overwhelmed with joy.

“I said to myself, ‘Oh, I did it again!’ ” he said. “Let’s do it.”

Read More