Rags 2006 - Articles Page 10

October is packed with over 50 local productions opening on DC area stages. In fact, after the month is over, the writers of Maryland Theatre Guide, where I am the Editor and a columnist, will have reviewed over 80 shows, concerts and cabarets.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly will open the 2011-2012 Printing Partners Pops Series season with the world premiere of a new symphonic concert stage production titled Do You Hear The People Sing - The Dream Concert! featuring music from renowned Broadway lyricist Alain Boublil and Broadway composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, the creators of the hit musicals Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, in concerts Friday and Saturday, October 7 and 8, at the Hilbert Circle Theatre and Sunday, October 9, at The Palladium at the Center for Performing Arts in Carmel, Ind.

Long Wharf Theatre, under the director of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Interim Managing Director Joshua Borenstein, presents the Tony Award-winning musical Ain't Misbehavin' on the Mainstage from Oct. 26 through Nov. 20.

The Metropolitan Opera will present Tony Bennett in a special concert, the legendary singer's first appearance on the Met stage, on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Funny, rowdy and sexy. A rare revival of The Robber Bridegroom, with book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman, opens at International City Theatre on October 14. Low-priced previews take place on October 11, 12 and 13.

More than five years after its debut, the musical Jersey Boys continues to bring audiences around the world to their feet with the rags-to-riches tale of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. A global phenomenon, the record-breaking production has won awards for Best Musical on three continents, including the 2006 Tony® Award, while the platinum-selling Original Cast Recording album won a Grammy® Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2007. To celebrate the holidays, members of the award-winning Jersey Boys casts around the globe have come together to record a selection of Christmas classics in the style of The Four Seasons. This marks the first time that a Broadway show has released a holiday album.

In celebration of the artist's 85th birthday, Columbia Records/RPM Records/Legacy Recordings will release Tony Bennett - The Complete Collection, an extraordinary compilation chronicling the entire career of the great American pop vocalist as documented in the albums and singles he's made for Columbia Records (beginning in 1952 through the present), as well as his recordings for Roulette (an historic encounter with Count Basie and Orchestra in 1959), MGM (1972-73), Improv (Bennett's own label from 1973-76) and Fantasy (a pair of sublime titles with pianist Bill Evans, released in 1975-76).

In celebration of the artist's 85th birthday, Columbia Records/RPM Records/Legacy Recordings will release Tony Bennett - The Complete Collection, an extraordinary compilation chronicling the entire career of the great American pop vocalist as documented in the albums and singles he's made for Columbia Records (beginning in 1952 through the present), as well as his recordings for Roulette (an historic encounter with Count Basie and Orchestra in 1959), MGM (1972-73), Improv (Bennett's own label from 1973-76) and Fantasy (a pair of sublime titles with pianist Bill Evans, released in 1975-76).

On October 14, 2011 at 8:00pm, The New York Pops orchestra - famous for presenting popular music with a symphony orchestra of the highest quality - celebrates the music of Irving Berlin in a stirring program entitled 'Rags to Ritzes'. Under the baton of guest director Jack Everly, the concert kicks off the orchestra's 29th season with an evening of quintessentially American music.

Now in its 16 year, New England's critically-acclaimed presenter of American Music, American Classics (www.amclass.org), announces its 2011 - 2012 Season which will musically pay tribute to the 150 anniversary of the Civil War, baseball and the 100 birthday of Boston's beloved Fenway Park, and the glory days of America's Girl Groups.

As speculated about online and confirming BWW's previous reports that the actress was in negotiations, it's now official that Lauren Ambrose will indeed star as Fanny Brice in the new revival of FUNNY GIRL. The show will open in LA at the Ahmanson Theater on February 1, 2012, and is expected to transfer to Broadway thereafter. The new production will be directed by Bartlett Sher.

Following fifteen sold out shows, The Laurie Beechman Theatre will continue their hit series, SONDHEIM UNPLUGGED, for a sixteenth installment, Monday, July 25 at 7pm. In this special addition to the series, we'll be celebrating our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, having begun this journey of celebrating Sondheim in July of 2010.

According to Baz Bamingboye in his Daily Mail UK column, the Weinstein Company is planning a four-week workshop of the new musical, Finding Neverland, this fall in New York. The workshop, directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford is said to star Julian Ovenden as J.M. Barrie and Kelli O'Hara as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Bamingboye writes that 'if it works - and Ovenden and O'Hara are available - the Weinsteins will launch a big production for Broadway.'

Following fifteen sold out shows, The Laurie Beechman Theatre will continue their hit series, SONDHEIM UNPLUGGED, for a sixteenth installment, Monday, July 25 at 7pm. In this special addition to the series, we'll be celebrating our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, having begun this journey of celebrating Sondheim in July of 2010.

The Metropolitan Opera will present Tony Bennett in a special concert, the legendary singer's first appearance on the Met stage, on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Broadway/L.A. is pleased to announce that following a highly successfully L.A. premiere this past February, ROCK OF AGES, the five-time Tony Award nominated smash-hit musical, will return to Los Angeles for a strictly limited, face-melting one week engagement March 20 - 25, 2012 at the Pantages Theatre.

WESTCHESTER BROADWAY THEATRE is Proud To Present I DO! I DO! February 10 - March 20, 2011

According to an Equity casting notice, FINDING NEVERLAND will have a New York City reading May 24-31, and will feature direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Rob Ashford. Auditions for the project will be held by Tara Rubin Casting on February 23-24 for the roles of Peter, George, Jack, and Michael.

Based on the Jan De Hartog play, The Fourposter, the story spans fifty years, from 1895 to 1945, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael Snow throughout their marriage. I DO! I DO! is a remarkably intimate, romantic piece. We are invited into the bedroom of newlyweds Michael & Agnes who anticipate a wonderful blissful life…'Together Forever' as one of the early musical selections would have us believe. As we all know, reality sets in as the young couple struggle to maintain their happiness, passion, devotion and yes even a sense of humor, through all the joys, pains, trials and tribulations that they share in their 50 years of marriage.

The theatre's most outrageous, outlandish, uproarious, comic thriller, THE 39 STEPS, explodes onto the stage at TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theater of Silicon Valley. Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the book by John Buchan and the movie by Alfred Hitchcock, this hilarious spoof abounds with chicanery, espionage, dastardly murders, double-crossing secret agents, and devastatingly beautiful women. Called 'Absurdly enjoyable, gleefully theatrical...a perfect soufflé,' by The New York Times, THE 39 STEPS features four fearless actors playing dozens of roles and creating trains, planes, moors, and more, with little more than the coats on their backs in a wildly funny flight to the height of theatrical invention. Featuring Mark Anderson Phillips, Cassidy Brown, Rebecca Dines, and Dan Hiatt, with TheatreWorks Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley at the helm, THE 39 STEPS closes February 13 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and information, the public may call 650-463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

WESTCHESTER BROADWAY THEATRE is Proud To Present I DO! I DO! February 10 - March 20, 2011

La Jolla Playhouse announced the fifth production in its 2011/12 season: Finding Neverland, book by Allan Knee, with a score by the Grey Gardens writing team of Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics), directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Rob Ashford (Cry-Baby, Thoroughly Modern Millie).

For more information on any of the listings, visit www.wexfordopera.com, www.wexfordopera.com/news/blog, or www.wexfordoperahouse.ie.

The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 20th annual New York Jewish Film Festival at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater, The Jewish Museum, and The JCC in Manhattan, Jan. 12-27, 2011.

WESTCHESTER BROADWAY THEATRE is Proud To Present I DO! I DO! February 10 - March 20, 2011