New York City is filled with lovely parks. There's a particularly charming one tucked into a triangle on 106th Street and Broadway. It's planted with daylilies, impatiens, lacecap hydrangeas and dogwoods. One end of this peaceful oasis is dominated by a recumbent bronze sculpture which sits atop a flowing fountain. The park is dedicated to the memory of Isidore and Ida Strauss, the loving couple who perished together on the Titanic in 1912. Therefore it's appropriate to meet Victoria Clark for an interview at a café only a short distance from Strauss Park. After all, Ms Clark originated the role of Alice Beane in Maury Yeston's Tony Award winning musical TITANIC and sang Adam Guettel's "Statues and Stories" in LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, which won her the 2005 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical. This fine lady is never really far from statues, stories and the Titanic. (more...)
One of the nice perks about this job is getting to meet some extraordinarily talented people who you know will be giving some great performances to some very fortunate theatergoers. One of those people is Stacia Fernandez, who I met after a performance of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE. She was the understudy for Beth Leveal and put on an amazing performance. She is currently appearing in the new musical Lucky Guy at Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Connecticut. (more...)
Previews are now underway at Playwrights Horizons for the New York premiere of Our House, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck. With this work Rebeck has again displayed the ability to challenge and impress her audiences with her thought provoking and often hilarious dialogue and plot. The playwright has successfully made her mark in the theater, film, and literary world. (more...)
Film and TV star Lorenzo Lamas, known for bad boy roles in the past, cuts a commanding figure as Zach in Ogunquit Playhouse's 77th season opener of "A Chorus Line" through June 13 (more...)
It's the time of year where the Theatre World celebrates the best of the best and special recognition is bestowed upon certain individuals for their work. No...I am not talking about the Tony Awards...although I know where I will be that evening. I talking about the 19th Annual Kleban Awards, which will be presented in a private ceremony on June 1st, 2009. (more...)
Mr. Herman composed the scores for such Broadway musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles. He is a five-time Tony Award nominee and two time Tony Award winner, for La Cage aux Folles and Hello, Dolly! (more...)
Editor/founder of THE COLUMN and new Dallas BroadwayWorld.com correspondent, John Garcia recently interviewed TONY Award nominee Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, original stars of the history making rock/pop opera RENT. (more...)
?[title of show]? has always been the most intimate of stage experiences. Not only are we taking an inspiring musical journey that happens to be pretty much true, but all previous incarnations of ?[show]? also had the advantage of having the show creators playing themselves in their roles?one character even sings ?I Am Playing Me? early in the show. The original cast became Broadway celebrities through their juggernaut promotion of [show], which includes a still-going popular series of Youtube videos. So the notion of creating the show without the original cast is, at best, tricky and, at worst, suicidal. And yet the first regional production of ?[title of show]? opened last night at Playhouse Square?s 14th Street Theater and did just that. (more...)
During the week of April 27- May 1, 2009, top-rated morning program "Live with Regis and Kelly" are giving the show's nationwide TV audience a vicarious thrill when America's favorite co-hosts jump into the roles of some of the best Broadway characters during "On Broadway Week." (more...)
ANDRÉA BURNS (May 4) began her career touring the opera houses of Europe as Maria in West Side Story. Since then she has appeared on Broadway as Daniela in In The Heights, as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and as Vicki Nichols in The Full Monty. She has appeared in concerts at Carnegie Hall and many other symphonic halls across the country. She can also be heard on the original cast recordings of Songs for A New World, Saturday Night, Shine, Broadway Bound, The Broadway Musicals of 1953, and It's Only Life as well as her debut solo album A Deeper Shade of Red. (more...)
What does the current Phantom tour have in common with the "Wicked" tour, "The Lion King" tour and the "Peter Pan" tour with Cathy Rigby? Read on... (more...)
New York Musical Theater Festival will kick off its sixth season with a Gala Celebration of its first five years, called BEST OF THE FEST, on Monday, April 20th at 7 PM at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). (more...)
From the Obie Award-winning author Lynn Nottage comes RUINED, "a haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war," and the front-runner for a Pulitzer nomination. Set in the war-torn Congo, RUINED follows the everyday exploits of Mama Nadi (Saidah Arrika Ekulona), a businesswoman doing whatever she can to ensure her survival... and the survival of the women she shelters. Amidst the blood and lust is Christian (Russell Gebert Jones), a poetic man who yearns for something truer than the senseless gun-shots and mindless profiteering. (more...)
David's first formal association with Cirque du Soleil came in 1990, when he performed in Nouvelle Expérience, touring for 19 months throughout Canada and the USA and playing for another year in Las Vegas. Thanks to such antics as stepping through, on and over much of the audience and his classic improv-based staging of a mock silent-movie melodrama with four members of the audience, he is probably the best-remembered of Cirque's clowns. (more...)
Directed by Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, GUYS AND DOLLS began previews on February 5, 2009 and opened on March 1, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). GUYS AND DOLLS singer, actor and dancer Nick Adams, who plays 'Liver Lips Louis' spoke with the dynamic Trujillo about the journey of bringing the musical's color cast of characters to glorious life on the Broadway stage. (more...)
It's a known fact that actors like to talk. Stereotypically, they like to talk about themselves: about their latest endeavors, about their past performances and about their upcoming projects. Zach Grenier is a different kind of actor. He likes to talk about Ludwig Van Beethoven. The fact that he's currently playing the composer in Moisés Kaufman's brilliant play entitled 33 VARIATIONS has him talking about the play, too. It's a very special production and it's brought Jane Fonda back to Broadway after 43 years in film, television and activism. Still it is obvious that Grenier is in love with the art of acting and enjoys discussing his current project and the musical giant he portrays in it. (more...)