Ravinia Festival News

The McAninch Arts Center (MAC), located at 425 Fawell Blvd. on the campus of College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, is pleased to announce its 2014 Grand Opening Season's Performance Series. The series is part of the MAC's 2014 Grand Opening season, marking the opening of the venue after a 14-month, $35 million renovation. The MAC's 2014 Grand Opening Season's Performance Series officially opens today, Feb. 8 with a performance by Grammy Award-winner 'Keb Mo'. Additional programming for the MAC, including the MAC's new Patio Stage summer season and the MAC's 2014-15 season, the first complete season in the newly renovated venue, will be announced in spring 2014.

This March, Lincoln Center presents American Songbook with 'Jim Caruso's Cast Party Goes to the Movies!', Great Performers concerts by pianist Murray Perahia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Gustavo Dudamel, and the Emerson String Quartet, plus Target Free Thursdays and Meet the Artist Saturdays. Details below!

From One Singular Sensation to The Way We Were, composer Marvin Hamlisch left a legacy of hits that have brightened Broadway and the musical catalogue of America forever. And, now, The Philly POPS is proud to present 'Marvin Hamlisch - A Musical Tribute' conducted by Larry Blank, Hamlisch's conductor, and three of his favorite singers ... Donna McKechnie, Jodi Benson and Doug LaBrecque. Taking place on Friday, March 14 (8 p.m.), Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16 (3 p.m.) in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center, Blank and the guest artists will not only present wonderful musical memories with the audience, they'll share personal recollections of Marvin Hamlisch as well.

In celebration of the most romantic day of the year, Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, will offer a three-course dinner and theatre package including tickets to the Mel Brooks Broadway hit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN on Valentine's Day. Treat your loved one to the comedic re-imagining of the Frankenstein legend and indulge Drury Lane's delicious menu items.

On Sunday, February 9 at 3:00pm, The Greenwich Village Orchestra, led by Metropolitan Opera conductor Pierre Vallet, will perform a concert to include excerpts form Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, Ravel's Sheherazade with Grammy Award-wining mezzo-soprano Sasha Cook, and Brahms' Symphony No. 4. Now in its 27th season, the ensemble performs at Washington Irving Auditorium (40 Irving Place) near Union Square.

Riccardo Muti, the preeminent conductor and the music director of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra, returns to Chicago in late January for two weeks of CSO subscription programs. Concerts with Maestro Muti begin tonight, January 30 at 8 p.m. and continue on January 31 and February 1.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin February 18 to 23, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Appearing together again after their Tony Award winning performances in Evita, Patti LuPone joins Mandy Patinkin onstage for eight performances. Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are two of Broadway's most venerated performers, having both won a Tony Award for their performances in Andrew Lloyd Webber's groundbreaking Evita in 1980. Since then they have both starred in film, television, the concert stage and back to Broadway. An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin brings them together again - at last. Press opening night is Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

Drury Lane Theatre presents the Mel Brooks Broadway hit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. The show opened January 23, and runs through March 16, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights below!

Drury Lane Theatre presents the Mel Brooks Broadway hit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. The show opened last night, January 23, and runs through March 16, 2014. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation's leading Latino dance organization since 1970, presents the latest installment of its choreographic institute, Instituto Coreografico, to be held January 21-29, 2014 at the company's headquarters at 167 W. 89th Street, NYC.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts presents an intriguing solo recital by renowned Brooklyn-based pianist SIMONE DINNERSTEIN. Dinnerstein's first major performance following the release of her new CD features the Bach Inventions as well as the NY premiere of a work by Nico Muhly. tonight, January 23, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director, Riccardo Muti, mourn the passing of the great conductor Claudio Abbado, who, among his many musical achievements, was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1985.

Tonight, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 19 at 3:00 p.m., in Zankel Hall, the critically acclaimed Takacs Quartet performs a complete Bartok string quartet cycle-a musical touchstone of the 20th century, composed over a span of three decades.

THE PEKING ACROBATS, a troupe of China's most gifted tumblers, contortionists, jugglers, cyclists and gymnasts, complemented by live musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments, will bring their 2,000-year-old tradition of acrobatics back to Houston Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Hall, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.

Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, presents the Mel Brooks Broadway hit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, previewing tonight, January 16, opening Thursday, January 23, and running through March 16, 2014.

Riccardo Muti, the preeminent conductor and the music director of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra, returns to Chicago in late January for two weeks of CSO subscription programs. Concerts with Maestro Muti begin on Thursday, January 30 at 8 p.m. and continue on January 31 and February 1. This program—on which Muti and the CSO are joined by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima—includes Schubert's Symphonies No. 3 and 4 along with the world premiere of a commissioned work for two cellos and orchestra by Giovanni Sollima. Maestro Muti's association with Sollima goes back over a decade, and includes previous performances together, as well as two prior world premieres: from Teatro alla Scala, which resulted in Sollima's Tempesta e Ritratti, premiered by Maestro Muti in 2001, and from Ravenna, for which Sollima composedPassiuni, premiered by Muti and the Cherubini Orchestra in 2008.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion will feature three Jeff-Award lauded performers in its lead roles, Artistic Director Fred Anzevino has announced. The role of Fosca, the sickly woman obsessed with a handsome young soldier in 19th Century Italy, will be played by Danni Smith, who just last year was honored with the Jeff Award for Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Bailiwick Chicago's production of the musical See What I Wanna See. Smith's win came after two previous nominations in the same category, for Theo Ubique's Pump Boys and Dinettes and Bohemian Theatre Ensemble's The Glorious Ones. Playing Giorgio, the military officer who is the object of Fosca's affections, will be Peter Oyloe, a three-time Jeff Award winner. Oyloe's recent win as best leading actor in a musical for 2013's Hank Williams: Lost Highway was preceded by wins for his leading role in Equus and supporting role in The Pillowman, both at Redtwist Theatre. Collette Todd, Jeff-nominated for her role as Giulietta in Theo Ubique's Aspects of Love and recipient of critical and audience raves for her leading roles in Light Opera Works' productions of Man of La Mancha, Oliver! and Annie Get Your Gun, will play Clara - the third member of Passion's love triangle. Ms. Todd will also understudy the role of Fosca.

Below, watch Broadway star Patti LuPone like you've never seen her before as we present: 'Love Cycle: A Soap Operetta', a 'mini'musical' made for PBS in 1984 which was never broadcast.