The Shows -

Streeterville

Streeterville was commissioned by Lookingglass Theatre, and produced by Timeline Theatre in 2001, winning that year's Joseph Jefferson Citation (AKA, Jeff Award) for Best Original Drama. This was Gary and Ralph's second Jeff Award, as they also won for their earlier drama Sawdust & Spangles.
The play is a historical drama following events in the life of George Wellington "Cap" Streeter, a Civil War veteran and itinerant sea captain who shipwrecked off the shore of Chicago's Gold Coast in 1886. As land silted in around his grounded boat, the Reutan, he initially began operating a tavern on the premises, which he could do because it was outside of the Chicago city limits. Eventually, 186 acres of land was created around the site. Cap Streeter declared it the "Independent District Of Lake Michigan," and began selling plots of land. This did not go over well with his rich neighbors in the Gold Coast and the city government, and ultimately led to conflict, including armed invasions between the parties. The story is a colorful and timeless illustration of the struggle between the "haves" and the "have nots."

The play was recently produced by Theater Hikes, a theater company which specializes in outdoor installations of plays. Their production was especially exciting, as it took place in the Streeterville neighborhood, where much of the real life action took place over one hundred years ago.

Ralph Covert & G. Riley Mills

The Hundred Dresses

Based on the beloved 1949 book by children's author Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses musical was originally commissioned by Chicago Children's Theatre, who have produced the show twice in Chicago, and are producing the current production at the Ruth Page Center. In 2009 it premiered at the Royal George Theatre and in 2010 was remounted at at the Northshore Center For The Performing Arts. It ran off-Broadway in 2012 in a production at the Peter Norton Space on 42nd Street. Northwestern University produced it in 2013, and again in 2014 as part of their Summer Stage Imagine U series. The play has been published by Dramatic Publishing, and is available for new productions.

Wanda Petronski, who has recent moved to town from Poland, is different from the other girls, with her funny accent and drab clothes. When the other girls tease her on the playground, she tells them she has 100 dresses at home in her closet. The girls have learn important lessons about teasing and tolerance.

A Nutcracker Christmas

The Chicago Tribune called A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas a  "Top 10 Holiday Show Pick!"  It was commissioned by Chicago's Emerald City Theatre, and first produced in Chicago in 2005, then again in 2007 and 2009. Published by Samuel French, it has been produced all around the country, recently in Orlando and Las Vegas. In 2009, Ralph's World was joined by hundreds of dancers and the actors from that year's production to appear in Chicago's Magnificent Mile parade, performing a version of the song Welcome To Christmas Wood on live TV as part of the nationally televised coverage of the parade. 
Covert and Mills' version of the classic ETA Hoffman story turns it on its head, making the Nutcracker a girl, and pairing her with Fritz Stahlbaum instead of his sister Clara. Fritz, who is obsessed with the video game Mousehunter 5000, scores an all-time record on the game, and inadvertently frees the evil Mouse King, who sets off on his quest to destroy Christmas once and for all. Fritz and the Nutcracker set off to find him and stop him.

The play script has been published by Samuel French, and is available for productions. In addition, in 2009 Chronicle Books published a picture book version of the show, which also includes a CD with recordings of six songs from the musical.

The Flower Thieves

The Flower Thieves was commissioned by the Midnight Circus, an acrobatic circus troupe whose work breaks boundaries by incorporating the narrative aspects of theater in their work. It premiered in 2001, and was mounted four subsequent times. The show utilized primarily instrumental music and acrobatic acts, including juggling, aerial acts, and slack wire walking. The music included a few songs with words, and the show had no dialog. The story was told with primarily movement and music!

The story was an original fairy tale which followed a young girl, Tatiana, the daughter of the Royal Gardener, who sets off on a journey through a war-torn kingdom to find her missing father and solve the mystery of who has stolen all the flowers and beauty in the land. Along the way she falls in with a shyster, a group of gypsies, and the exiled jester from the royal court. Together they make their way to the court of the King, where the shyster hopes to collect a royal bounty by making the King happy. He fails, but in the process Tatiana is able to bring everyone together in a heeling way, returning flowers and beauty to the Kingdom.

Live production footage here!

Hansel & Grendel

Hansel And Gretel was a 2008 commission by Emerald Theater Company. It is on one hand a classic retelling of the traditional story, with the added element that ETC needed the show to fill its Christmas show slot in the 2008 schedule, so the story is modified to take place at Christmas-time!

In Mills' and Covert's version, the witch has some very tasty villain songs, including the saucy I'd Like To Have You Both For Dinner, and the soulful rave-up Candy House. She has two magically coerced assistants, a  rat and buzzard name Boris and Nall. The title characters learn important lessons about bravery, following rules, and, of course, what it tastes like to eat pieces of a candy house.

Sawdust and Spangles

The Jeff Award winning Sawdust & Spangles was Ralph's first full length play written with G. Riley Mills, and premiered in 1998. It was a co-production of Power Tap and Prop Theater, and was mounted at Chicago's Firehouse Theater. The play was awarded 1998's Joseph Jefferson Citation (Jeff Award) for Best New Work. The poster art, left, was created by Ralph's friend Charise Mericle Harper, who also created the album art for many of The Bad Examples' and Ralph Covert releases. Sawdust & Spangles was subsequently reworked and published as a hard cover, illustrated picture book, with illustrations by Giselle Potter, who provided the album art for the first seven Ralph's World albums.

The play is a historical drama which follows the life of WC Coup, a real-life circus pioneer who ran away from his boyhood home in Indiana to join the circus. He subsequently ran his own traveling show, introducing many innovative to the circus, including the three ring circus and being the first to successfully transport a show on train cars. Coup also was hired by PT Barnum when the novelty museum impressario transitioned into the circus world. The site of the Great Roman Hippodrome Coup built and ran for Barnum is now the location of Madison Square Gardens in New York.The play follows Coup's life from the early wagon wheel train days, through his time with Barnum, and finally to Coup's final venture, building what at the time was the world's largest aquarium in New York City.