Lyric Opera of Chicago Wins Jeff Award for 'The Second City Guide to the Opera’ with Renée Fleming, Patrick Stewart

Lyric Opera of Chicago received its first-ever Jeff Award for The Second City Guide to the Opera, a joint comedy venture with The Second City improv comedy troupe.

The Joseph Jefferson Awards recognize excellence in Chicago theater and musical theater, not opera. Lyric Opera took a chance on this collaboration with The Second City, venturing into the unfamiliar areas of comical theater. The show that resulted won Best Revue of 2013, while director Bill Bungeroth received his second Jeff Award for Best Director.

The driving force behind this project was soprano Renée Fleming--Lyric Opera's creative consultant since 2010. It was her idea to bring together the world-renowned comedy troupe and opera company (both legendary Chicago institutions)...to see what kinds of creative sparks might fly.

At Fleming's request, actor Patrick Stewart signed on as co-host. "He's a good friend of mine," Fleming told Chicago Magazine. "[And] he has great stuff on YouTube."

Stewart, a veteran of the stage, television and film, is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series.

The resulting revue-style show featured ensemble members of The Second City, as well as Fleming and Stewart, in opera-themed comedic sketches. The revue was presented to a sold-out crowd of 3,700 in Chicago's Civic Opera House on January 5, 2013.

Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein said: "A crack ensemble of nine performers--seven actors from Second City, along with two singers from Lyric's Ryan Opera Center--had the crowd whooping with laughter throughout the 18 or so sketches and musical numbers that made up this smoothly-paced revue."

The success of The Second City Guide to the Opera led to a month-long run presented on a more intimate scale, without the big-name hosts. The resulting show, also called The Second City Guide to the Opera, opened on May 31, 2013 and ran through June 30.