'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,' directed by Rob Ashford, getting rave reviews in Chicago

"Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil" is getting rave reviews from critics and audiences alike at the Goodman Theatre in the Loop.

Chicago audiences are the first to see the world premiere of the wildly popular show.

The Tony-winning director, Rob Ashford, said Chicago is the perfect place to launch the vibrant musical.

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First it was a best seller, then a hit movie, and now "Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil" has been born again with music.

"Anytime you're working on a new musical that's based on that kind of powerful source material it's very exciting to imagine, how do you bring that to the stage, and who do you do it with?" Ashford said. "Especially a book like 'Midnight,' a travelogue and a murder mystery, an introduction to the south and all of these types and people that inhabit that world that John Berendt found."

When you take a show out of town and the dreams are for Broadway, I wanna take it to a place that has a smart theatre-going audience. Chicago is the best town for that...

The author who started it all, John Berendt, was in town to help with the retelling of his story, and he was honored on opening night.

"He's constantly reminding us about little moments in the book, not because I like that part I want to put it in the musical, he's doing that to help keep us in line with those people he knew," Ashford said. "We have three different groups of people, some that... are interested in restoration, restoring what was, some that want to renovate what was, keep the good parts and renovate it for a new time and new people, and some people in the story like Chablis want a revolution, just get rid of it all and start over."

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Ashford spoke about what it was like to create a show from scratch.

"It's time consuming," Ashford said. "I've been working on this for 10 years, but you have to keep at it until you find the right combination of people, the right chemistry, time, the right actors, the right theater to premiere it. When you take a show out of town and the dreams are for Broadway, I wanna take it to a place that has a smart theatre-going audience. Chicago is the best town for that, because it has a theatre community and theatre is a strong part of the cultural life here, so why wouldn't you come here?"

"Midnight In The Garden Of Good & Evil" has been extended by popular demand. It's at the Goodman Theatre through August 11, where the theatre has been transformed into the lush Savannah landscape.