Aug. 13--In 2002 at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago, a young actor from Naperville named Chris Herzberger appeared in a bizarre and now-forgotten commercial production of a musical called "Uncle Broadway." I called the show, which featured George M. Cohan rapping with Herzberger's alienated teen, a "dismal pastiche." But there has been nothing whatsoever dismal about Herzberger's subsequent career: he has rocketed his way to becoming a vice president at Universal Studios, charged with mining the formidable back catalog of Universal Pictures for the stage.
Which explains why Herzberger -- a good sport about the critical reaction to his Chicago stage debut -- is currently to be found camped out at the headquarters of the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire's operations in Buffalo Grove, overseeing a new stage musical version of the 1999 movie "October Sky."
Staged under the direction of Rachel Rockwell, "October Sky" is penned by the Chicago-based team of the writer (and Marriott co-artistic director) Aaron Thielen and the composer-lyricist (and actor) Michael Mahler. Thielen and Mahler previously worked together on the new musical "Hero," a mostly successful piece set in a comic-book store that premiered at the Marriott in 2012, was restaged at the Asolo Rep Theatre in Sarasota, Fla., last year, and now is wending its way onward (its creators hope), with a showcase reading scheduled in New York in coming weeks.
"I love being back in Chicago," the very genial and enthusiastic Herzberger said recently as we both stood outside the Marriott's prosaic offices, costume house and rehearsal space as a rehearsal went on inside. "It is really a great place to develop new work. Plus, I can visit my parents."
The film, with a cast that included a very young Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern and Chris Cooper, told the story of one Homer H. Hickam Jr., the prodigious son of a West Virginia coal mining community who purses a career in rocketry against the wishes of his father and who ends up as a NASA engineer. The story is mostly true -- "October Sky" is based on Hickam's own 1998 book, "Rocket Boys."
"October Sky" is actually an anagram of "Rocket Boys." Reportedly, Universal Studios changed the title to broaden the potential demographic, since the studio was worried about how many women over the age of 30 would buy tickets to anything called "Rocket Boys." The new title has been retained for the stage musical.
Be it "Rocket Boys" or "October Sky," it is not the only title in the Universal catalog to deal with a young man trying to break out of a coal-mining community -- that's pretty much the plot of "Billy Elliot," which just happens to be another title in a Universal Pictures catalog that also includes "Jaws" (a singing shark?), "Coal Miner's Daughter" (to continue the mining theme), and "Field of Dreams" (a title with potential, you'd think).
In an interview during a break from rehearsals, Thielen said that he felt "October Sky" was an ideal candidate for a musical for several reasons. "It is about a boy with dreams," Thielen said, also noting that the movie is known by many people, but by no means by everyone. "October Sky" was a modestly profitable $25 million movie, returning a total domestic gross of about $32 million.
Conventional wisdom on Broadway has it that blockbuster films are hard to make into musicals because there are too many preconceptions and expectations, whereas forgotten movies (and there are plenty in the Universal catalog) are also a struggle because they gain no traction at the box-office. "October Sky," Thielen opined, lands in the "sweet spot" of being a successful movie with enthusiastic fans, but not seeming over-exposed.
Disney, of course, was a trailblazer when it came to turning existing movies into musicals -- "The Lion King" being Exhibit A in how to make a fortune and play around the world for years. Since then, most of the big Hollywood studios have created business units like the one run by Herzberger. Some of the studios have deals with prominent Broadway producers -- in 2012, for example, Sony Pictures Entertainment signed a five-year deal with Scott Sanders Theatrical Productions, offering Sanders and his associates a first-look deal at the Sony backlist; "Tootsie" is one title long in development.
Herzberger, though, picks and chooses his partners based on the projects. "We are a small operation," he said of his Universal Stage Productions office in California, "and we need to partner with theaters like the Marriott in order to develop our titles. My job is to support everyone here -- to offer feedback and help where I can." He's been in Buffalo Grove throughout the rehearsal process.
The Universal checkbook, however, has yet to be opened for "October Sky." The studio (which now is owned by Comcast) gave the Marriott the rights and access to the creative materials for the movie, but it is not "enhancing" the production in any way, to use the industry jargon of what typically happens when a big player gets involved in the early development of the production. "This is strictly a Marriott production," Herzberger said. "And then we will all see what happens."
That's the standard disclaimer. Herzberger is not summering in Buffalo Grove just for the benefit of Marriott subscribers.
According to Thielen, the Marriott has always paid its own way when it comes to new musicals. "We've never worked with outside producers," he said, even though the Marriott has developed several other new shows over the years. That's quite different, for example, from the arrangement at the Drury Lane with "Beaches," which already had a commercial producer who paid some of the additional costs of working on a musical with Broadway potential. In the case of "October Sky," Marriott will benefit from future potential royalties, and Herzberger can open his checkbook once he sees what show develops; Universal will have total control of the show's future life, assuming it has one.
"I think Rachel, Aaron and Michael are the perfect team for this piece," Herzberger said.
Certainly, Rockwell greatly impressed with her superb recent production of "Billy Elliot" at Drury Lane (which Herzberger saw). And Mahler, who recently worked on updating the lyrics to "Miss Saigon" for the British producer Cameron Mackintosh, now has a national reputation as a songwriter.
Mahler said that his music for "October Sky" has some "West Virginia bluegrass influences," a style that did not fit "Hero," of course. He also said that he no plans to leave Chicago.
"Look at all the amazing opportunities I get to create new musicals," he said, "just by being here."
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@tribpub.com
