Joseph Kesselring's dark comedy farce Arsenic and Old Lace dates back to 1941 and was made into one hilarious film starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra in 1944. Nevertheless, the comedy is timeless, so it stills holds up quite deliciously in 2015. One never tires of murder especially when it's played out in a spooky old Brooklyn mansion adjacent to a cemetery...and most of the Brewster family who inhabit it are most definitely certifiable. Elderly Abby Brewster (Mannette Antil) and her sister Martha (Sylvia Alloway) dispose of over the hill lodgers all alone in the world - to bring them peace and eternal happiness. They offer homemade Eldeberry wine laced with arsenic and think they're doing the old codgers a favor. It seems perfectly harmless to them. In fact, they already have 11 bodies buried in the cellar and are about to embark on a funeral service for number 12 who is resting comfortably in the windowseat of their living room. It helps when their nephew Teddy (Jim Barkley) - who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt - carries out their orders and buries the bodies, convinced that he's digging locks of the Panama Canal. When brother Mortimer (Jordan Byers) - a drama critic for a local paper - discovers the body by accident, he automatically assumes it's Teddy who has killed the man, never dreaming that his sweet aunts are responsible. The biggest problem for the family arises when Teddy's and Mortimer's brother Jonathan arrives on the scene. Jonathan (Brian Middleton) disappeared years ago, leaving a long trail of crimin
Following the success of critically acclaimed productions of THE PILLOWMAN,
NYIT Outstanding Revival Nominee 2015 TALK RADIO, and ONE FLEW OVER
THE CUCKOO'S NEST; Variations Theatre Group will present a newly adapted
version of the classic thriller, WAIT UNTIL DARK, never before seen within the
five boroughs of New York City, opening on October 30, 2015 at The Chain
Theatre.
'Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook,' the debut CD from soprano actress Karyn Levitt, will be available from Roven Records today, October 30.
Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game, published by Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, regales readers with a fascinating account of a secret game that foreshadowed the future of basketball. Written by Hoop Genius author John Coy and illustrated by Randy DuBurke, Game Changer tells the unforgettable story of two teams putting aside prejudice to play a good game of basketball.
Following the success of critically acclaimed productions of THE PILLOWMAN, NYIT Outstanding Revival Nominee 2015 TALK RADIO, and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST; Variations Theatre Group will present a newly adapted version of the classic thriller, WAIT UNTIL DARK, never before seen within the five boroughs of New York City, opening on October 30, 2015 at The Chain Theatre. Forty-seven years after WAIT UNTIL DARK premiered on Broadway, Jeffery Hatcher has adapted Frederick Knott's 1966 original, giving it a new setting. In 1944 Greenwich Village, Susan Hendrix, a blind, yet capable woman, is imperiled by a trio of men in her own apartment, tormentors who will stop at nothing to get what they want. As the climax builds, Susan discovers that her blindness just might be the key to her escape, but she and her tormenters must wait until dark to play out this classic thriller's shattering conclusion.
Obie Award winning Metropolitan Playhouse revives Arthur Richman's never-published hit comedy from 1921: THE AWFUL TRUTH. Directed by 2-time NYIT Award nominee Michael Hardart at the Playhouse: 220 E 4th Street, New York City
The New York Historical Society has announced its exhibitions and programs for September-October 2015.
Obie Award winning Metropolitan Playhouse revives Arthur Richman's never-published hit comedy from 1921: THE AWFUL TRUTH. Directed by 2-time NYIT Award nominee Michael Hardart at the Playhouse: 220 E 4th Street, New York City
Cape Playhouse Producer, Mark Cuddy, announced the entire 2016 season repertory to a hundred donors at a Celebration Party on Sunday night. It is the first time in its history that the full slate has been revealed during the previous season.
Returning Favorites Include Billy Stritch & Jim Caruso, Nicole Henry, Nicolas King, Aaron Weinstein & Bucky Pizzarelli, The Four Freshmen and Tommy Tune
'Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook,' the debut CD from soprano actress Karyn Levitt, will be available from Roven Records on October 30.
PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents “Neighborhood Week,” an entire week of classical orchestral and chamber music in some of Pittsburgh's most beloved locales. Beginning on Monday, August 31, the Pittsburgh Symphony will be bringing music to the community with different events each day through Friday, September 4.
All details about Neighborhood Week, including locations and ticket information, can be found at pittsburghsymphony.org/neighborhood.
The complete cast and creative team have been announced for The Comedy of Errors as The Old Globe's 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival continues the Globe's 80th Anniversary festivities as part of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration.
When the Sadler's Wells (now the Royal Ballet) first performed "Cinderella" on its triumphant 1949 debut performance at the old Metropolitan Opera, John Martin, the eminent New York Times dance critic, was not engrossed. He wrote that it was difficult to be enthusiastic about it, but "if it were stripped of all its dead wood, both musical and choreographic, it would run considerably less than the two and a half hours it now undertakes to fill."
Artistic director Mark Danni today unveiled that actress and singer Joan Ellison will perform a one-night-only concert Love Finds Judy Garland, Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 8 pm.
Anne Frank's world famous diary came to an abrupt end shortly before the Franks were discovered hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex at the top of Otto Frank's office building August 4, 1944.
PITTSBURGH – The wonderful world of Disney joins the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with high-resolution film clips and beloved music and songs for PNC Pops: Disney in Concert Tale as Old as Time, this weekend, June 19-21 at Heinz Hall.
The complete cast and creative team have been announced for the West Coast Premiere of Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, a new work by one of America's great comic playwrights, familiar to millions for Lend Me a Tenor and Crazy for You. Baskerville is directed by Josh Rhodes, who previously choreographed the Globe's productions of Bright Star and Working, as well as Broadway's It Shoulda Been You, First Date, and Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella. The Old Globe engagement will begin performances on July 24, with opening night on Thursday, July 30 at 8:00 p.m., in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Although originally scheduled to run through August 23, Baskerville has been extended by popular demand through August 30, 2015!
PITTSBURGH – The wonderful world of Disney joins the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with high-resolution film clips and beloved music and songs for PNC Pops: Disney in Concert Tale as Old as Time, June 19-21 at Heinz Hall.
Following successful showings in the past two seasons, The Old Globe will offer an encore presentation of Thinking Shakespeare Live!, a 90-minute exploration of the language of Shakespeare, today, June 6 at 11:00 a.m.
Anne Frank's world famous diary came to an abrupt end shortly before the Franks were discovered hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex at the top of Otto Frank's office building August 4, 1944.
The Old Globe will throw open its doors for a 2015 Summer Season featuring Shakespeare on stage and in film, continuing its celebration of the Globe's 80th Anniversary and Balboa Park's Centennial. All of San Diego is invited to join us for a series of free Monday night films relating to Shakespeare through the eras to celebrate both the Balboa Park Centennial and the theatre's 80th Anniversary. Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Beth Accomando, author of the KPBS blog Cinema Junkie, will alternate introducing the films.
The complete cast and creative team have been announced for The Old Globe production of William Shakespeare's delightful and romantic Twelfth Night. Rebecca Taichman, whose production of the time-traveling Time and the Conways fascinated audiences last April, is back to direct the first show of the 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival. The Old Globe engagement will begin performances on June 21 and run through July 26, 2015, with opening night on Saturday, June 27 at 8:00 p.m., in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.
Miller Theatre constantly seeks ways to enrich the concertgoing experience. This new season sees developments on two fronts: concert-as-theater, and artist residencies.
This month to commemorate Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Memorial Day, over 600 public television stations throughout the country will begin broadcasting War for Guam, the latest production by Columbia University faculty member, award-winning filmmaker, writer, and scholar, Frances Negrón-Muntaner.
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