David Girolmo News

As a sequel to the first gala concert last week featuring some of the company’s most celebrated and beloved performers, MSMT presents two more special performances of its STARS #2 Concert on August 8-9. This second gala, directed once again by Curt Dale Clark with Ben McNaboe as Music Director, features four other nationally prominent artists who have been closely associated with the theatre - Felicia P. Fields, Heidi Kettenring, David Girolmo, and Gregg Goodbrod – in a program of story and song that dazzles and delights with its brilliance, humor, and warmth. One of Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark’s many talents is his ability to discover, retain, and nurture talent – from young artists to seasoned performers – and to create performances that tap into each individual artist’s best selves. This gala (as in the first) has been proof of that, as each artist is showcased in musical theatre numbers that have defined his/her careers. The evening is fast-paced, witty, and poignant by turns, allowing the audience to revel in the emotional ride that fine theatre provides.

“This has been a tough year and a half for so many, and the arts can help us rediscover our joy,” says actress Charis Leos, speaking enthusiastically about her upcoming appearance in one of Maine State Music Theatre Stars Concerts scheduled to celebrate the theatre’s return to live performing this summer. “It is a special gift for me to be able to perform again at a theatre that holds such a special place in my heart. To me it signals a return to the joy of the shared experience of live performance,” Leos adds. Leos is one of eight stars, chosen by Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, to perform two gala concerts, each with different repertoire and cast at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick in July and August 2021. The first runs from July 28-August 1 and features Charis Leos, Lauren Blackman, Robert Creighton, and Kingsley Leggs. The second runs from August 4-8 with Felicia P. Fields, Heidi Kettenring, David Girolmo, and Gregg Goodbrod. Both programs are directed by Curt Dale Clark, who says the concerts will “offer audiences a chance to revel in the songs and stories that have kept audiences flocking to the Pickard for decades.”

There is nothing like Celtic music to bring a lift to the step and a smile to the heart, and SONGS OF IRELAND, a new benefit concert streaming on the Fulton Theatre’s virtual platform, Fulton HD, delivers an hour of irresistible tunes performed with impeccable style, charm, and emotional depth by a stellar ensemble, who have a strong bond with Maine theatre. Directed and choreographed by Marc Robin, this beautifully crafted musical revue brings together Curt Dale Clark, Charis Leos, David Girolmo, Cary Michele Miller, Jay Poff, and Gillian Hassert, all of whom are favorites at Maine State Music and most veterans of either the 2016 THE IRISH AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY co-production with Portland Stage or Robin’s restaging at the Fulton Theatre in 2018.

Tickets for each of the online events are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. Links are available for viewing 72 hours after purchase.  Porchlight also announces the return of the popular series celebrating the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim@90 Roundtable with Michael Weber. The series returns Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. CST with a discussion on Road Show with guests Deanna Dunagan, Chris Jones and Michael Mahler.

Porchlight Music Theatre held PorchlightPalooza, a three-day virtual festival Friday, Aug. 21 - Sunday, Aug. 23,  in lieu of its cancelled March 23 ICONS GALA.

Porchlight Music Theatre has announced a new three-day celebration and fundraiser in honor of its 25th Anniversary, PorchlightPalooza, Friday, Aug. 21 - Sunday, Aug. 23, which will include performances from Chicago's best talents, an exclusive interview hosted by legendary newsman Bill Kurtis with the 2020 ICON Award recipient Joel Grey and more.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th Anniversary season continues with its new free virtual series 'Sondheim @ 90 Roundtable' with host Michael Weber, on Porchlight's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th Anniversary season continues with a new free virtual series a?oeSondheim @ 90 Roundtablea?? with host Michael Weber, debuting Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. CST on Porchlight's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/PorchlightMusicTheatre.

Join WGN-TV's a?oeAround Towna?? correspondent Ana Belaval and a star-studded line-up of more than 20 top Chicago stage performers for Chicago Offstage! Live at Home, a virtual streaming event debuting live on Season of Concern's new YouTube channel (https://tinyurl.com/soctube) on Sunday, April 19, at 6 p.m. CST.

As evidenced by the breadth of nominations for Broadway World's Annual Audience Choice Awards, Maine's theatrical landscape seems to grow and flourish with each new season. For a state as remote as we are, we boast two prestigious regional theatres now in their second half centuries a?" Maine State Music Theatre and Ogunquit Playhouse a?" which are leaders on the national regional scene and which have become destinations for travellers from far flung places. Add to these an array of countless other companies of every size and philosophic bent, and you have a colorful, rich artistic arena that grows more interesting each year. I am privileged to get to sample these performances as Broadway World's Maine editor and to be able to compare many of them favorably with shows I see across the country, in New York and London. These are my personal choices of the best in Maine for 2019, grouped by theatre company and show.

Porchlight Music Theatre presents Sunset Boulevard at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics and books by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, Sunset Boulevard stars Hollis Resnik and is directed by Michael Weber, choreographed by Shanna VanDerwerker and music directed by Aaron Benham.

Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce Sunset Boulevard at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street, has been extended through Sunday, Dec. 8.

a?oeFor nearly forty years this story has given faithful service to the Young in Heart; and Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashiona??..a?? These words from L. Frank Baum dance across the screen during the overture of MSMT's stunning new production of THE WIZARD OF OZ, reminding the audience of the perennial appeal of this beloved story. And as the curtain goes up, the audience is treated to arguably the largest, most lavish production in MSMT history with a cast of fifty (that includes twenty children and a dog), dazzling technical elements, staging and choreography to blow one away, and performances to melt the heart. a?oea??When I saw Marc Robin's production at the Fulton in 2016, I said, a?oeWe have to do this at MSMT. THE WIZARD OF OZ had not been on this stage since 1961, and it was time to give it a new life,a?? says Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark. Clark is one of the large panel, which also includes Marc Robin, Travis M. Grant, Carolyn Anne Miller, Susan Cella, Ian Knauer, and David Girolmo, who have come together in conversation with BWW's Maine Editor Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold in MSMT and BWW's final season collaboration of PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN at the Curtis Memorial Library on August 14th.

To stage the beloved cultural icon that is THE WIZARD OF OZ offers any theatre company a herculean challenge: one which requires stretching the imagination to the limits to create a universe where reality is redefined and fantasy is fulfilled. In short, it demands stunning stagecraft and brilliant artistic vision. And it is just that kind of theatrical magic which Maine State Music Theatre's new production co- directed by Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark boldly and beautifully realizes.

a?oeIn the musical they all learn that the thing they believe is missing is already inside of them. We all have within us everything we think we are deficient in a?" everything we need to become the person we are supposed to be.a?? Actor David Girolmo is speaking of the lesson his character, the Cowardly Lion, learns in the stage version of L. Frank Baum's iconic classic THE WIZARD OF OZ, which runs from August 7-24 in a spectacularly fantastical production co-directed by narc Robin and Curt Dale Clark at Maine State Music Theatre.

Just as Dolly Gallagher Levi makes a stunning entrance to the unforgettable strains of her signature song, so MSMT's new production of the Jerry Herman classic HELLO, DOLLY! takes command of the Pickard stage with a joie de vivre and heartwarming tenderness and delivers an evening sparkling with laughter, love, and life. In a production directed by Donna Drake, choreographed by Rhonda Miller and performed by an ensemble of true stars, HELLO, DOLLY! offers the audience a magnificently memorable score, daring and dazzling dancing, and a cast of embraceable characters whose story unfailingly tugs at the heartstrings.

"My favorite line in musical theatre history is the one where Irene says, 'Dolly, the world is full of wonderful things!' When I said it in rehearsal the first time to Charis [Leos], I broke down in tears. It's a thought I repeat to myself if I am down. Irene is saying, 'Take risks, go enjoy this wonderful world!'" Actress Lauren Blackman is talking enthusiastically about her upcoming portrayal of Irene Malloy in Maine State Music Theatre's new production of HELLO, DOLLY!, which runs July 17 - August 3, 2019, at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick. Blackman returns not only to a beloved role, but also to friends and a theatre company and community she calls "home." Last season, she appeared briefly in the gala 60th Anniversary Concert, but it has been almost four years since she graced the stage in a major role - last in 2015 as Marion in THE MUSIC MAN and before that in 2013 in MARY POPPINS. Those intervening years have, indeed, been fruitful ones for Blackman - filled with all kinds of wonderful things!

Maine State Music Theatre is going to Yonkers for its third show of the season, Hello, Dolly! from July 17 - August 3.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th Anniversary Mainstage season launches with Sunset Boulevard, October 11 - November 24

There is magic afoot at MSMT's Pickard Theater - and miracles! Not supernatural ones, but rather those that happen when a fresh new work of musical theatre dazzles the public with its excitement and beauty. And that is exactly what Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark's TREASURE ISLAND A MUSICAL ADVENTURE does as its charts an epic and extraordinary course that gives MSMT audiences a production that is grand, genuinely thrilling, and emotionally satisfying in a timeless way. Robert Louis Stevenson's novel has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, but none has been as compelling, as simultaneously classic and contemporary as this new musical version, which had its world premiere at the Fulton Theatre in 2018. This East Coast premiere of TREASURE ISLAND offers audiences an opulent production, a brilliant team of creatives, cast, and crew, who pour all their energies into crafting an adventure for the ages. Known for bringing 'Broadway to Brunswick,' with TREASURE ISLAND MSMT has produced a show that is worthy to inhabit any Broadway stage and to find a lasting place in the American musical repertoire.