Porchlight presents BEST MUSICAL - HOLIDAY EDITION

My former stomping grounds Porchlight Music Theatre continues to expand their programming beyond traditional musical theatre with the return of BEST MUSICAL! A Completely Improvised Musical Comedy in a new Holiday Edition! conceived by Second City veteran Matthew Loren Cohen . Presented as an off-night that ran alongside their mainstage offering this past spring, Best Musical was well-liked by critics and audiences alike.

BEST MUSICAL! – Holiday Edition! takes audiences to the "Bestie Awards" ceremony where the cast performs the "Best Song from a Musical" nominees from a grab bag of audience-suggested titles. The audience votes for their favorite song as performed in Act 1 and comes back after intermission for an entirely improvised musical comedy with lights, costumes and fully improvised music and choreography featuring the "Bestie" winning song. Each performance guarantees a completely different musical comedy with completely new songs every week.

The marriage of improv and musicals is definitely in-line with the new brand message "American musicals, Chicago style," that my pal Michael Weber focused the company with when he took over as Artistic Director in 2010.

"After studying at Second City and iO , I was looking for an opportunity for Porchlight Music Theatre to combine the best of Chicago improv with the rock solid musicianship we are known for," said Weber. "When Matthew Loren Cohen presented his idea of highly disciplined musical comedy with the hilarious possibilities of this unique improvisation structure, I knew we had our show."

A classically trained pianist, Cohen has served as a music director for various Second City revues, including The Second City Does Dallas at Dallas Theater Center and Less Pride... More Pork at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Cohen will be joined by new cast members from The Second City , iO and The Annoyance stages.

Weber sees the Holiday Edition as the next step in the longevity of Best Musical . "We tried it out with five performances last season and by the fourth performance the place was packed to the rafters. Time Out Chicago and The Reader discovered the show, gave us raves and the word-of-mouth was like wildfire. We knew right away we would be bringing it back and expanding the company but everyone had other gigs. When the company's schedules jived and it was November/December it was a natural to relaunch it with a holiday spin. After the holidays it will go back to the original version."

Best Musical – Holiday Edition performs at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., November 28 through December 26. Single tickets are $15, student discounts are $12 with group discounts available. All tickets are available online or by calling 773.327.5252 .