Since 1998, in addition to three annual productions, Music Theater Works also produces a fourth, more intimate show, in Northwestern's 450-seat Nichols Concert Hall or the McGall YMCA Children's Center, Second Stage.
[1] Under Kraus' leadership, the company's main emphasis in programming centered on American, French and Viennese operetta in English, and Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas.
[citation needed] From 1998, in addition to its three annual productions, the company has produced a fourth show, in Northwestern's smaller Nichols Concert Hall or the McGall YMCA Children's Center, Second Stage.
[4] In 2019, Hogenmiller and founding General Manager Bridget McDonough retired, to be replaced by Kyle Dougan as Producing Artistic Director.
[8] In its early years, the company staged all twelve of the full-length extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including an Elizabethan concept Mikado (1986)[9] and an Edward Gorey/Tim Burton-inspired Ruddigore (1996),[10] as well as the less frequently produced Utopia Limited (1984)[11] and The Grand Duke (1992).
Its repertory also included Emmerich Kálmán's The Duchess of Chicago (1998),[12] Jerome Moross' The Golden Apple (1995),[13] Karl Millöcker's The Beggar Student,[14] Oscar Straus' The Chocolate Soldier (1987)[15] and A Waltz Dream (1992)[16] (both with translations by Kraus and lyricist Gregory Opelka), Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland (1994)[17] and The Red Mill (1992),[18] and Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town (1996).