John R. Lazzara
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John R. Lazzara, aka “Johnny Lightning” was an old-school impresario whose impact on musical theater will reverberate for years to come. The southside native created the fabled Drury Lane Evergreen Park, establishing a south suburban Equity house that drew locals, legends and - every winter - top-tier ice dancers, when Lazzara turned the stage into an ice rink for a brief run. Lazzara died in February.
After earning a degree in marketing from the University of Indiana, Lazzarra launched his career with restaurants. In the 1970s, he opened two with his brother Ray, a pizza place inside an Oak Lawn Bowling alley and a themed restaurant - Annie Tiques - in a bankrupt Burbank Shakey’s. But Lazzara’s biggest project was Evergreen Park’s Drury Lane Theatre and Martinique Restaurant, an early adopter of the dinner theater model. He bought the 800-seat, in-the-round theater/chapel/banquet hall space in 1987, and staged Equity musicals for the next 16 years. For the duration, Lazzara was deeply involved with everything from casting to programming to ice-rink inspections. The venue became a magnet that drew top talent from Chicago and beyond. Drury Lane Martinique won four Joseph Jefferson Awards for productions of classic musicals including Singin’ in the Rain and La Cage Aux Folles. Debbie Reynolds, star of the 1952 film “Singin’ in the Rain,” performed her cabaret act eight times at the venue. Lazara also booked Lou Rawls, Phyllis Diller, Pat Boone and Jim Nabors for shows. The theater closed after the 2003 season, when Lazzara sold it. Through all his ventures, Lazzara worked hand-in-glove with his brother Ray, the latter integral to all of the endeavors of “Johnny Lightening.” Director Marc Robin worked with Lazzara through the 1990s, before becoming Producing Artistic Director for Pennsylvania’s Fulton Theatre. He remembered Lazzara on a social media post. “We could write several books on Johnny ‘Lightning’ Lazzara and, trust us when we say, they would be very interesting. We won’t. Instead we will say thank you on this public social media platform for taking a chance on 2 kids and introducing them to the beginning of their lives,” Robin wrote. |