Noah Himmelstein News

The world premiere of I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON / I AM HARVEY MILK came to the Strathmore featuring Kristin Chenoweth and Andrew Lippa.

I am enormously thrilled that Strathmore took this one on. It's not the kind of event the largely classical venue usually presents and I hope to see more risk-taking in the future. The pieces offer up stories that need to be heard, and there's no denying the music and performers are first rate.

When Andrew Lippa, the Broadway composer, was commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus to write I AM HARVEY MILK for its 35th anniversary in 2013, the hour-long work about the assassinated gay rights activist was called an oratorio. While it was a success from the start, people involved already thought it was ready to move on to something bigger. The result is I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON /I AM HARVEY MILK, which has its world premiere on April 23, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, MD, a Metro ride from Washington, DC, starring Kristin Chenoweth, and composer-librettist Lippa.

On Sunday, March 13th at 4pm, Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) presented the youth premiere of the new symphonic version of Children of Eden by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin and The Prince of Egypt). Schwartz himself worked as a guest mentor with the YAA high school-aged students. The cast, full symphonic orchestra, and chorus will include over 350 youth from all over the DC Metro area including 250 younger artists from North Bethesda Middle School. The performance took place at The Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Ln, North Bethesda, MD).

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Rolando Sanz and Strathmore, in association with Bruce Cohen, Robb Nanus and David Bloch will present the world premiere of I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk, a musical celebration of two American icons, for a two-night engagement on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24, 2016 at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Maryland).

Bay Street Theater has announced the three productions of the 2016 Mainstage Summer Season. The Mainstage season begins on May 31 and runs through August 28. Subscriptions are available by calling the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or online at www.baystreet.org.

The Award-Winning Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) is pleased to announce the world premiere production of ASTORIA STORIES, directed by Artistic Director Dev Bondarin.

On Sunday, March 13th at 4pm, Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) presents the youth premiere of the new symphonic version of Children of Eden by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin and The Prince of Egypt). Schwartz himself will be working as a guest mentor with the YAA high school-aged students. The cast, full symphonic orchestra, and chorus will include over 350 youth from all over the DC Metro area including 250 younger artists from North Bethesda Middle School. The performance will take place at The Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Ln, North Bethesda, MD).

Whether belting out musical hits, showcasing her classically trained coloratura soprano, or taking on songs with a country sort of flair, the versatile performer had the audience in the palm of her hands and for good reason.

The Award-Winning Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) is pleased to announce the world premiere production of ASTORIA STORIES, directed by Artistic Director Dev Bondarin.

Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce two of the three 2016 Mainstage Summer Season productions. The Mainstage season begins on May 31 and runs through August 28. Subscriptions are available by calling the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or online at www.baystreet.org.

Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) proudly announces the lineup for their 2015-2016 fifth anniversary season that will feature prominent guest artists from Broadway. Award-winning Broadway and Hollywood composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin), Stage Director Noah Himmelstein (An Inspector Calls) and Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (Big Fish, The Addams Family, I Am Harvey Milk) will each work directly with local high school students during the upcoming season on their fully orchestrated concert performances at Strathmore and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland. Please see more about when and how each mentor will be involved with the students below (after the break).

Hailed as "the theatrical equivalent of a page turner" (The Daily Mail), An Inspector Calls is a gripping, psychological thriller. The respectable Birling family is at home hosting a dinner party in honor of their daughter's recent engagement, when an unforeseen knock at the door brings a sudden stop to the celebration. Enter Inspector Goole, who brings word of the unexpected death of a young woman. The questioning of each family member begins, dark secrets are uncovered and slowly the mystery surrounding the untimely death unravels.

An evening of theater you will long remember.

Inspector Goole (Chris Genebach), already knows the answers to all his questions, yet his method, bullying confirmatory confessions out of the family members, is great theater. Until the advent of the Cockney-accented Goole, the King's English-speaking Birlings mostly fancy themselves honorable, kind, and praiseworthy. In reality, they are the beneficiaries of a caste system which, as Priestley depicts it, is a citadel against the poor, whose poverty is an inevitable outcome of the rules that the caste in the citadel impose. Goole exposes the unsavory truths of this arrangement, destroying all the Birlings' illusions of innocence in the process - perhaps, though the play also makes clear how evergreen and hard-to-eradicate such illusions are.

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Rolando Sanz and Strathmore, in association with Bruce Cohen, Robb Nanus and David Bloch will present the world premiere of I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk, a musical celebration of two American icons, for a two-night engagement on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24, 2016 at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Maryland).

Here is Ben Fankhauser (Newsies) and Nick Blaemire (Found) singing 'Brothers,' a new song by Alexander Sage Oyen from his original musical A Night Like This.  

Animus Theatre Company presents Leslye Headland's Sin Cycle Plays (Assistance; Bachelorette; Cinephilia; Reverb; Surfer Girl; and The Accidental Blonde) as part of its 2014 Reading Festival series, in association with Circle in the Square Professional Workshop, tonight, November 17, at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre.

Animus Theatre Company is pleased to announce that acclaimed film, television and stage star Alexis Bledel has joined the lineup for Leslye Headland's Sin Cycle Plays (Assistance; Bachelorette; Cinephilia; Reverb; Surfer Girl; and The Accidental Blonde), their 2014 Reading Festival series in association with Circle in the Square Professional Workshop, on Monday, November 17, at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre. Bledel will read the role of Veronica in The Accidental Blonde.

Animus Theatre Company is pleased to announce it will be presenting Leslye Headland's Sin Cycle Plays (Assistance; Bachelorette; Cinephilia; Reverb; Surfer Girl; and The Accidental Blonde) as their 2014-2015 Reading Festival on Monday, November 17, at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre, in association with Circle in the Square Professional Workshop.