Reflections, songs and scenes from the past offered by Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence.
On July 30th, Blues Traveler will release Traveler's Blues a collection of re-imagined and re-charged classics from The American Blues Songbook (on Round Hill Records) and featuring special guests Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Warren Haynes and Keb' Mo' as well as Rita Wilson and John Scofield who join the band on their cover of the Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy.”
He may be Manhattan's leading multi-hyphenate, but on June 30th Michael Kushner will take off all the other hats in favor of his ACTOR hat, when he spends an hour or so celebrating Gay Pride with his Pride playlist at 54 Below.
There are just some people on this planet who naturally operate on a more creative level than the rest of us, and mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn is clearly one of those people. She is bringing her wildly inventive musical science show Science Fair: An Opera with Experiments to The Marsh on Saturday, March 6th. Conceived and performed by Chinn with pianist Erika Switzer, Science Fair pairs luscious operatic vocals with light-hearted humor and science lectures. Chinn herself describes it as “a classical cabaret of science songs with science communication staging, including live experiments and slide shows, a little audience participation and a general sort of Bill Nye fun.” Science Fair will be available for livestream at 5:00pm PST on March 6th, followed by a post-performance Q&A with The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman. Chinn will also appear two days prior to that on Stephanie’s MarshStream at 7:30pm on Thursday, March 4th to discuss this innovative work. For more information, visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.
BroadwayWorld caught up with Chinn last week from her home in the Hudson Valley, where she had just moved from New York City only two days earlier. A Northern California native with degrees from the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music, Shinn has enjoyed an unusually eclectic career, with credits as varied as touring around the world in Phillip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, playing Lady Thiang in The King & I on the West End, and performing with the experimental Wooster Group in New York. Given her resume, I had thought she might be fascinating to talk to, and she did not disappoint. I mean, what other opera singers do you know who do science in their spare time, just for fun? We talked about how Science Fair came to be, her passion for the creative process, and our evolving understanding around issues of racial and gender equity. In conversation, she is candid and accessible, brainy and funny, and always very, very thoughtful. Underlying everything is her enduring joy in pushing the boundaries of what it means to create musical art.
On Tuesday, March 9, Dress Circle Publishing will release of THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, VOLUME 4, the latest in a series by acclaimed historian and producer Jennifer Ashley Tepper. Can't wait to get your hands on it? Let BroadwayWorld hold you over with a special sneak peek!
Inspired by the success from their safe drive-in performances of La bohème in the Fall, which heralded the return of live, in-person, opera to San Diego County since the start of the pandemic, and provided over 300 jobs to many, San Diego Opera has announced a Spring season of safe, socially-distanced, drive-in performances.
The history of show business is loaded with couples who work as well offstage as they do on. These twosomes have brought their offstage magic to the stages of the cabaret and concert world.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is a cult-classic, a powerhouse genre-defining rock musical that truly rocks. Hed-Heads are still in love with her story 23 years later. In this exclusive interview, Oklahoma City's Hedwigs Matthew Alvin Brown and Jared Blount break down what this character means to them, and how she changed the narrative on live theatre.
Spread the word, Upper Eastsiders -- all six seasons of “Gossip Girl” are coming to HBO Max on January 1st.
Mulan is now available on Disney+! Let's see what the critics are saying...
As live theatre remains in lockdown, Independent Shakespeare Company (ISC) is morphing their Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival into a free, livestreaming program of four FESTIVAL EVENTS on Saturdays in August, and a hybrid stage production of ROMEO & JULIET Labor Day weekend. ISC's co-founders David Melville & Melissa Chalsma were most gracious in answering my emailed queries on their twenty-plus-years-old theatre organization.
Happy Gay Pride! BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest LGBTQ songs and anthems from 1920-2020. See if your favorite songs or artists made the grade!
BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest protest songs from 1939-2020. See if your favorite songs or artists made the list!
BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 101 greatest scenes in cinema from 1901 to 2020. See if your favorite movie moments made the list!
Julien's Auctions has announced the marquee lineup of Music Icons to take place on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20 live in Beverly Hills and online at juliensauctions.com.
BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the best musical theatre characters from 1940-2020; see if your favorites are on our list of the best characters from Broadway musicals.
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announced two commission awards for emerging composers Paul Novak and Dai Wei. They were chosen from six participants in ACO's 29th Underwood New Music Readings, one of the most coveted opportunities for emerging composers in the United States.
BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the best TV episodes from the 1950's to 2020; see if your favorites made the list!
The Beatles! Rihanna! Michael Jackson! Johnny Cash! Kanye West! The Rolling Stones! Aretha Franklin! Bob Dylan! Miles Davis! Nirvana! BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest albums from the rock and rap era (1950-2020); see if your favorites made the grade!
BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest theatrical works (non-musical) from 1920-2020; see if your favorites made the list!
An R&J Valentine's Day theme, an ongoing Beethoven celebration, and a CHOPIN PIANO CONCERTO that few at Charlotte Symphony had likely played before were the crisscrossing storylines at the latest classics series concert at Knight Theater.
Joe's Pub ends this week on a more chill note with Gary Lucas; Justin Vivian Bond's new show inspired by a Marianne Faithfull song; charismatic performer Susan Werner; country stars Bobby Pinson and RaeLynn as part of the Bob DiPiero Songwriters Series; and swinging, electrifying music, featuring Bernard Purdie along with entertaining stories retold by David Haney. Next week, the volume cranks up with Ryan Raftery's latest hilarious satire IVANKA 2020; the annual celebration of the intersection art and mental health Love is EleMental; Joe's Pub Working Group 2020 member Salty Brine continues their dazzling exploration of pop music with Living Record Collection - THESE ARE THE CONTENTS OF MY HEAD: The Annie Lennox Show; the third in a five-part concert series exploring Shakespeare's women, black female ambition, and music, Whitney White: Think, And Die; the Joe's Pub performance of the tour of MICHA Música In Transit; a concert from multi-award-winning platinum-selling musician Sarah Harmer with opener Chris Pureka; the fascinating coming of age story of a young woman growing up in New York City with Kelli Sae: Disco, Dicks And Dykes!; and BlackIssuesISSUES, an event that is as much a serenade and celebration of Blackness as it is an indictment of a system and society that is so toxic, it renders Blackness a burden.
Though SCR's admirable new production of the 1963 Broadway musical SHE LOVES ME, for the most part, still has many charming, beautifully-staged, and well-sung moments, it also somehow feels like it is slightly reigned in, as if there was a purposeful attempt to downscale some of its built-in whimsy and spirited vivaciousness---particularly in the first act where emotional expressions all seem to sit in the same middle areaa?? never tipping over to too angry or too sad or too happy or too, well, anything. Now on stage in Costa Mesa through February 22, 2020, the production---directed by the theater's own artistic director David Ivers---is genuinely entertaining, but still needs a huge shot of joy, romance, and pep to make it feel complete.
Today's subject Marva Hicks is currently living her theatre life onstage at Signature Theatre in the World Premiere Musical Gun & Powder. The production runs through February 23rd in Signature's MAX Theatre space. You'll be able to see my review of the show on Broadway World soon. Trust me it will be worth the wait.
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira took the stage last night for the halftime show at Super Bowl LIV.
The Village Playwrights Present LOVE IS QUEER, staged reading of 10 minute plays to celebrate Valentine's Day, on Monday, February 10 at 7 pm at St. John's, 81 Christopher St., NYC. Suggested donation $10. For reservations email villageplaywrights@gmail.com.
1983 | London Fringe |
Original London Production London Fringe |
1986 | West End |
London Revival West End |
1993 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1998 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
1999 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
1999 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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