CHICAGO—It doesn’t get much better than spending an evening relaxing on lawn chairs or on a blanket on a grassy turf as you unwrap cold chicken and salad, pour out a glass of wine, and view a sunset over a city park. Indeed, a picnic in a garden square with friends and family is a lovely way to enjoy summer twilight. It gets even better if you add Broadway show tunes to the al fresco experience, which is what Chicago’s Porchlight Music Theatre has done with its “Broadway In Your Backyard” music series.
The idea for the outdoor dining and entertainment event started in 2021 during the COVID-19 clamp down when many theaters closed their doors. Porchlight’s artistic director Michael Weber thought that if people couldn’t gather in its inside auditorium, the theater would bring the magic of music outdoors to neighborhood parks.
