Frank McCourt News

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick and Portland Stage (PS) in Portland, Maine announce a second partnership and artistic collaboration that will continue to broaden the connection between the two communities and deepen the program offerings for both theatres' audiences.

???????Young Dancemakers Company is a unique summer ensemble of ethnically diverse New York City teens, creating and performing their original choreography in free concerts at prominent theaters city-wide, July 26 through August 5th.  YDC will present its 22nd season of topical, bold, and witty dances, created under the experienced eyes of founder and Bessie-award winner Alice Teirstein and music director William Catanzaro.  All performances end with the lively 'Dance With Us,' in which audience members with dancing feet are invited onto the stage to improvise with the dancers, accompanied by percussionist Catanzaro.

Cabrillo Music Theatre Changes Its Name To 5 Star Theatricals

Young Dancemakers Company is a unique summer ensemble of ethnically diverse New York City teens, creating and performing their original choreography in free concerts at prominent theaters city-wide, July 26 through August 5th. 

Young Dancemakers Company is a unique summer ensemble of ethnically diverse New York City teens, creating and performing their original choreography in free concerts at prominent theaters city-wide, July 26 through August 5th.  YDC will present its 22nd season of topical, bold, and witty dances, created under the experienced eyes of founder and Bessie-award winner Alice Teirstein and music director William Catanzaro.  All performances end with the lively 'Dance With Us,' in which audience members with dancing feet are invited onto the stage to improvise with the dancers, accompanied by percussionist Catanzaro.

“The All Night Strut has a songbook to die for! It may not be as riotously funny as The Irish and How They Got Way was,” says Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, but I know from experience that the audience will leave the theatre exhilarated!” Clark, who will co-produce the show with Anita Stewart, Artistic Director of Portland Stage, describes the musical revue as “a collection of vignettes, each of which plays out before the next one begins. It is sort of like an evening of short stories that paints a colorful and poignant picture of 20th century America in the years of the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war.”

The Warner Theatre has announced its 2017-2018 Warner Stage Company season.  The Main Stage season opens in November with AVENUE Q and follows with ONCE, THE FULL MONTY and Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID.

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick and Portland Stage (PS) in Portland announce a second partnership and artistic collaboration that will continue to broaden the connection between the two communities and deepen the program offerings for both theatres' audiences. 

Irish Repertory Theatre presents the cell's production of CRACKSKULL ROW, by Honor Molloy.

Irish Repertory Theatre will present the cell's (Nancy Manocherian, Founding Artistic Director and Kira Simring, Artistic Director) production of CRACKSKULL ROW, by Honor Molloy.

Having had the privilege to serve as Broadway World's Maine Editor for more than three years now, I can say with pride that the state, though remote as it may seem from the epicenter of the theatre world, Broadway, is blessed to be home to so many thriving theatre companies who produce exciting, vibrant seasons. As I compiled my list for 2016 with many familiar names, I was also struck by the extraordinary consistency of excellence these companies maintain. Here are my personal choices of the best in Maine, grouped by theatre and show.

Internationally renowned musical phenomenon, The Four Phantoms, join the cast of theHoliday Movie Skating Spectacular: Where Did They Film That? The Holiday Music Journey performing at Stockton Arena tonight, November 9, at 7:30 p.m.  The Four Phantoms features artists from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical The Phantom of the Opera who performed globally in London, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Germany and Las Vegas.  The Four Phantoms are comprised of an extraordinary quartet of performers including Brent Barrett, Franc D'Ambrosio, Marcus Lovett and Ciaran Sheehan who will perform holiday numbers with the 'Queen of Popera,' Romina Arena, who is the show's starring guest artist. 

Internationally renowned musical phenomenon, The Four Phantoms, join the cast of theHoliday Movie Skating Spectacular: Where Did They Film That? The Holiday Music Journey performing at Stockton Arena onWednesday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m.  The Four Phantoms features artists from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical The Phantom of the Opera who performed globally in London, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Germany and Las Vegas.  The Four Phantoms are comprised of an extraordinary quartet of performers including Brent Barrett, Franc D'Ambrosio, Marcus Lovett and Ciaran Sheehan who will perform holiday numbers with the 'Queen of Popera,' Romina Arena, who is the show's starring guest artist. 

Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated actress Emily Watson ('Theory of Everything,' 'The Book Thief') is set to join National Geographic Channel's upcoming global anthology series GENIUS, from Fox 21 Television Studios

'We are the storytellers; we are the musicmakers; we are the dreamers of dreams.' With these words the cast of Frank McCourt's The Irish and How They Got That Way brings to a close a spellbinding evening of story and song that has the audience clapping, foot-tapping, weeping, and laughing in one of the most vibrant theatrical experiences in recent memory. The co-production of Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt's 1997 play with music marks a stunningly successful collaboration between Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage and promises to be a major hit for its brief four-week engagement. McCourt's one-hundred-minute drama tells the story of several centuries of the Irish experience on both sides of the Atlantic. No mere history lesson, however, as much knowledge as the play does impart, rather The Irish is a poetic, saucy, irreverent, and exquisitely beautiful tapestry of music, language, narrative, peopled with colorful characters and showcased in compelling song and dance.

Two of Maine's most revered cultural institutions, Portland Stage in Portland and Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick, are pleased to announce their co-production of Frank McCourt's THE IRISH... AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY.  BroadwayWorld brings you a first look below!

'There are two kinds of people in the world, as ye very well know,' Peter Cormican asserts in a lilting accent, 'those that are Irish and those that want to be.' The English-born actor, son Irish parents - a Protestant mother from Belfast and a Catholic father from Galway - is currently in Maine to make his Maine State Music Theatre/Portland Stage debut in Frank McCourt's play The Irish and How They Got That Way, directed by Marc Robin, which opens in Portland August 19th. The production, a bold new collaboration between two of Maine leading Equity companies, marks an exciting new chapter for both theatres and promises to be one of the season's biggest hits, as it has been in every town its played. Cormican is joined in our conversation by two of the other four principals from the a small cast that also stars Curt Dale Clark [see BWW interview 5/24/16], Charis Leos and Cary Michele Miller, (and features Cameron Wright and Emily Davis, Ernest Sauceda (fiddler) and two other musicians). Both Leos and Miller are MSMT veterans, but new to McCourt's play. 'This is my debut at Portland Stage,' Miller says with anticipation. 'I always look forward to working with Curt and Charis and Marc, and I am enjoying getting to know Peter. And I am always excited to learn new material and new music.'

Two of Maine's most revered cultural institutions, Portland Stage in Portland and Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick, are pleased to announce their co-production of Frank McCourt's THE IRISH... AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY.

'Sometimes in this business, it can seem you work and work and you aren't seeing results right away. Then all at once, everything comes to fruition at once, and that is a major boost to our company morale. That's exactly what has happened this season for MSMT,' says Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark. 'Of our main stage productions, we have three that will be firsts!' Clark, who is joined by director Marc Robin, actors Liz Shivener and Mike Backes, is speaking to a Brunswick audience at Curtis Memorial Library on June 15, 2016, at the first of the season's Peek Behind the Curtain series, which is moderated by Broadway World's Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold. He elaborates. 'This summer we will present the New England regional premiere of Mama Mia; we have extended our twelve-week season for the first time by co-producing with Portland Stage, The Irish and How They Got That Way, and together with the Fulton Theatre, we have created the East Coast Regional premiere of the new chamber music version of Ghost The Musical. It's been an extraordinary adventure!'

Before the concert event, BroadwayWorld sat down with Megan Fairchild, who will return to the Broadway world after her run in ON THE TOWN last year. Fairchild chats with us about ballet vs. theatre, returning to theatre for one-night only and much more!