Alan Henry - Page 21

Following last year's recording of CRAZY FOR YOU, this year - the Stratford Festival company of CAROUSEL recorded the festival's second original cast recording. The recording is now available for order and digital download on CDBaby. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, named the best musical of the 20th century by Time magazine, returns to the Festival for the first time in over twenty years in a vibrant production directed by Susan H. Schulman. Previews began Tuesday, May 5, at the Avon Theatre.

There's a party happening every day at The Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto - and that party is the Canadian production of Kinky Boots which opened Sunday night. The mostly Canadian cast, save for American newcomer Alan Mingo Jr. as Lola earned a standing ovation from the opening night audience.

BroadwayWorld's Alan Henry was at the opening night red carpet of KINKY BOOTS in Toronto! Check out our red carpet interviews with Cyndi Lauper, Daryl Roth, Jerry Mitchell, and more! Everybody say, YEAH! The Canadian premiere of the Tony Award-winning KINKY BOOTS officially opened tonight, June 28 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, after playing previews since June 16.

Factory Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino has invited five outstanding directors and champions of Canadian theatre to engage Toronto audiences with new, bold interpretations of six classic Canadian plays, stripped down to their most striking elements. Text, actors, audience - these are the fundamental building blocks for each production that will showcase the directors' visions for these Canadian classics, which should and must be experienced again.

The 36th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2014/2015 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 22 at Harbourfront Centre's WestJet Stage, hosted by the hilarious Gavin Crawford, whose eight seasons on CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes earned him numerous accolades and who recently won an ACTRA Award for his leading role in the film Two 4 One.

Julie Taymor is no stranger to being innovative in the theater. In 1997 she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her production of 'The Lion King.' That same night she also walked away with the prize for costume design. No one had ever seen a production on Broadway that was even remotely similar to 'The Lion King.' Taymor used to great effect techniques she had learned while studying masked dance-drama and puppetry in Indonesia (she had also studied these techniques at the American Society for Eastern Arts in Seattle.) Her combination of stunning visuals and expanded story telling led to an immediate hit - which is still running today and is one of the highest grossing musicals of all time.

On Wednesday afternoon, Toronto-based deejay Deamou5 (actually named Joel Zimmerman) sent a cease and desist notice via twitter to the Toronto Fringe Festival about an upcoming parody musical about a mouse who is discriminated against when he wants to become a disk jockey titled Deadmouse: The Musical.

It has been reported in The Toronto Star that A CHORUS LINE and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC will both play The Stratford Festival next season. Both Broadway musicals first appeared on Broadway in the 1970s and will surely make a splash at the festival next season. A Chorus Line will play on the Festival Stage and A Little Night Music will be at the Avon Theatre.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will present a concert featuring the music of Stephen Schwartz conducted by Steven Reineke - who's Broadway hit Wicked has been enchanting audiences in New York and around the world for over a decade. Schwartz's other big Broadway hit is the Tony Award winning Pippin, whose 2013 revival earned pseudo-Canadian Andrea Martin her second Tony Award.

It's rare that you walk out of a show knowing you've witnessed history - and that is just what those seeing The Sound of Music at The Stratford Festival will be experiencing. Stratford's staging of the classic show, by director/choreographer Donna Feore will be talked about for years to come.

BroadwayWorld Toronto Senior Editor Alan Henry interviewed TITANIC star Ben Heppner at The Princess of Wales Theatre prior to the show's opening in Toronto Sunday afternoon. Take a look at the interview below, which includes brand new production footage!

Titanic the Musical opened yesterday afternoon in Toronto, and was met by thunderous applause and a standing ovation following the performance. The musical, which opened in 1997 on Broadway and pre-dates the James Cameron film went on to win five Tony Awards including 'Best Musical' - but still closed at a significant financial loss on Broadway and was negatively received by critics.

It's 4 PM on a Friday, and George Masswohl is sitting at home in Stratford, Ontario - working on his taxes while wearing pajamas. What he doesn't know is that the phone is about to ring with an extraordinary offer. It's 1 PM local time in Vancouver and the Vancouver Opera is in a bit of a bind - the star of their production of Sweeney Todd (Greer Grimsley) is feeling under the weather and may not be able to do all of the upcoming performances.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when walking into Therefore Choose Life, a new play based on a true story by Broadway leading man Jake Epstein and his mother Kathy Kacer, produced by The Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. The play is about a man (Joseph, played by Avery Saltzman) who is married during the holocaust, and presumes his wife dead after being separated in a concentration camp. After the war he moves to Toronto and eventually remarries and has a son, never forgetting the love he lost. Thirty years later, just before his 25th wedding anniversary, he learns his first wife is alive and coming to see him. 

BroadwayWorld has learned this morning that casting we previously reported for the Toronto production of Kinky Boots has been confirmed. American Broadway touring vet Alan Mingo Jr. will star as Lola - the role originated by Billy Porter in the Broadway production. Graham Scott Fleming will play Charlie Price, the young man who inherits a shoe-factory from his father, only to learn it isn't financially stable.

BroadwayWorld Toronto has learned that American actor Alan Mingo Jr. will play Lola in the Toronto production of KINKY BOOTS. Mingo Jr. joins Graham Scott Fleming as Charlie Price, a casting which BroadwayWorld previously reported. The Toronto production is set to begin performances at The Royal Alexandra Theatre on June 16, 2015.

It's very rare that you see a performer so skilled in his/her craft that that performer can command the attention of two thousand patrons for two and a half hours single handedly. On Thursday night I had the pleasure of witnessing such a performance: that of Barry Humphries - or as he's best known, Dame Edna.

Marquee Theatrical Productions has staged Les Miserables as it's spring show at The Newmarket Theatre. The production, which opened Thursday, is wonderfully staged by director Alexander Galant - who's managed to bring a fresh perspective on the material and put together a production which retains all of which you love, while bringing in enough originality to keep it from being a carbon copy of the original.

BroadwayWorld Toronto has learned that the Broadway production of ALLEGIANCE will hold open auditions in Toronto. Previews on Broadway are set to begin on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 with opening night set for Sunday, November 8, 2015. Television and film star George Takei will star in the new musical which had its world premiere in a record-breaking engagement at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Allegiance has book by Marc Acito with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo. Helming the production is Olivier Award nominee Stafford Arima (London's Ragtime, Off-Broadway's Bare, Carrie, Altar Boyz).

Last week I had the opportunity to take advantage of the warmer weather and spend the day in the Niagara region and then take in The Phantom of the Opera at the Shea's Performing Arts Centre in Buffalo, NY. The Shea's Performing Arts Centre is a stunning venue just a couple of hours from the Toronto downtown core - and is well worth the trip to take in a show and spend some time exploring all the region has to offer.