Just So 1990 - Articles Page 14

Ghost the Musical had its Southeastern premiere on September 15th at the Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), North Fulton's only professional theatre. The musical is based on the hit 1990 romantic-thriller of the same title, starring the late Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg. The musical features a book and lyrics by Ghost screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, and music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), North Fulton's only professional theatre company, opened its 24th Season with the Southeastern premiere of Ghost The Musical just last week, and already news of the production is reaching far and wide.

This morning we are taking a look at the illustrious career of Dame Maggie Smith. I mean, she's a Dame after all; Queen Elizabeth doesn't just hand those out to anyone. Her career includes highlights from on stage, including 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' 'Private Lives,' and 'Lettice and Lovage;' to in films as 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,' 'Sister Act,' and 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel;' to her iconic role as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham on 'Downton Abbey,' for which she is nominated for an Emmy for the fourth-consecutive year.

Long Wharf Theatre, in conjunction with the Old Globe in San Diego, presents the world premiere of Steve Martin's Meteor Shower, directed by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, running from September 28 through October 23, 2016. The full cast has just been announced!

Many years ago he played the role of The Mute and Matt in the Sullivan Street Production of THE FANTASTICKS. Today, Reckell speaks exclusively with BWW about the challenges and rewards of returning to the stage after a thirty-five year absence!

Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) has just announced its sold-out production of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Fiorello! will transfer to Off-Broadway's East 13th Street Theater (136 East 13th Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues), home of Classic Stage Company.

Stage Left Theatre is pleased to announce the programming for its 35th season. The season begins with the world premiere of The Bottle Tree by Beth Kander directed by ensemble member Amy Szerlong. The Bottle Tree was developed through Stage Left's Downstage Left program, at the Ashland New Plays Festival and and has received an Honorable Mention on The Kilroys List for the past two years. Next, in the winter, Stage Left and Cor Theatre present a co-production of What of the Night? by Maria Irene Fornes, directed by Carlos Murillo. This epic meditation on poverty in America was a Pultizer finalist in 1990. Cor Theatre Artistic Director Tosha Fowler says of the partnership, 'With admiration for Stage Left's longevity and the exciting opportunities they provide to artists through their strong commitment to mission, we at Cor are thrilled to announce a collaboration of theatre that is bound to leave you breathless. Combining Stage Left's strength with our fearless aesthetic, Fornes' poetically primal voice, and Carlos Murillo's passionate vision, What of the Night is going to be our biggest leap yet.' Finally, the company will present LeapFest, its annual developmental festival featuring workshop productions of new plays, at a time to be announced later.

Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss today announced the schedule for Lincoln Center's seventh White Light Festival, running from October 16 through November 16, 2016. The international multidisciplinary festival, which takes its name from a quotation by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, is an annual exploration of the power of art to illuminate our interior and communal lives. 'I could compare my music to white light which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.' - Arvo Part

The 2016 Tony Awards are in the history books, so now it's time to look ahead at the 2016-2017 Broadway season. With new musicals and plays about to descend to Broadway and amazing revivals of classic plays and musicals ready to entrance a new audience, BroadwayWorld has rounded up everything arriving next season!

'What they did is nothing short of miraculous! I know because I was there as a friend, a colleague, an artist. I was there in that room as the magic was happening!' Award-winning actress E. Faye Butler is speaking of the Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre, of her old friends from their Rockford, Illinois days, Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark, and of the entire creative team and cast of the new chamber music version of the musical Ghost in which she now stars. The Bruce Joel Rubin-Glen Ballard-Dave Stewart show which opens at Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick on Thursday, June 9, is a reprise (and New England premiere) of the newly minted chamber adaptation presented at Lancaster's Fulton Theatre on April 21, 2016, after a year-long development process. One can feel the excitement and electricity in Butler's presence and her comments about this play with music which, she believes has given new life to both the original 1990 Jerry Zucker movie starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, and Whoopi Goldberg and the 2011 stage version. 'E. Faye is a force of nature!' MSMT Managing Director Stephanie Dupal proclaimed when she saw her in the premiere.

Tome Cousin is an interdisciplinary artist who has molded an award winning international career that includes collaboration and performance on Broadway, television, film, dance, theater, music, photography, and literature. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Dance History and Choreography and a Masters of Fine Art in New Media Art and Performance. He is an Associate Professor of Dance at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.

Legendary newsman Morley Safer has passed away at the age of 84, just one week after announcing his retirement from CBS's long-running news show 60 MINUTES. 

At long last, Music City Confidential is back to help you get caught back on the talk of the town - all the news that's fit to print about the Nashville theater community - and to immerse you in the minutiae of life in Theater City (a term we've been trying to copyright since we were in junior high with Thespis, Aristophanes and Martha Wilkinson).

HAMILTON proves that ethnically and culturally diverse casts can produce smash hits. However, before the performing arts community can pat herself on the back for being so accepting, she should turn her head to the right. All too often, inclusive theater excludes theater artists with disabilities. Dionysus Theatre founding artistic director Deborah Nowinski has spent decades pushing back against the mixture of prejudice and apathy that makes this so. Below, Nowinksi talks with BroadwayWorld about a most recent effort-her guidebook for educators and instructors seeking to create ability diverse casts- 'Your Role in Inclusion Theatre' and much, much more.

In tribute to Artistic Director Emeritus Ben Stevenson's 80th birthday, Houston Ballet stages Stevenson's lush version of the preeminent ballet THE SLEEPING BEAUTY for the first time in 5 years. In Ivan Vsevolozhsky's libretto, Carabosse, an evil fairy, curses Princess Aurora (the Sleeping Beauty). The princess sleeps for a hundred years, only to be saved when her handsome prince, Florimund, awakens her with a kiss.

The East West Players' latest, the world premiere of Giovanni Ortega's CRIERS FOR HIRE, most entertainingly introduces a wonderful injection of Filipino culture in early 1990's Los Angeles via a fusion of laugh-inducing situations and tear-duct-emptying relationships. Jon Lawrence Rivera quite ably directs his talented ensemble in Ortega's depiction of a group of professional funeral criers.

Nothing is ever quite what it seems. Matthew's wife, Lisa, is having an affair with Adrian, a British theatre director. Or perhaps the affair is part of the play being rehearsed. Or perhaps Matthew has imagined all of it simply to have something to report to Frank, his therapist. Finally, there is Cory-the mysterious woman who seems to shadow the others-who brings the story to its surprising conclusion. Or does she? The audience itself plays the role of detective in this hilarious "relationship thriller" about love, lust and the power of deception. But unfortunately, the PRIVATE EYES story is impossible to follow as it is so non-linear that you never know who to believe when.

Many may not be familiar with the musical Ghost. Ghost is the musical adaption of the 1990 movie by the same name, written by Bruce Joel Rubin. The musical garnered incredible attention over on Britain's West End. The show's music and overall structure is very different from most classic musicals, with much of the music shouldering away from the typical "show tune" genre. What audiences hear will sound more like Christian Rock, Gospel, and even Disco. "[The music] is definitely more demanding," says music director Kyle Carozza, "the vocal ranges necessary are higher, and there gets to be well over eight parts at some points. I don't dislike it (the style of music), but I like the big, belty, vibrato type of musical theatre better." When I prompted Kyle about whether or not teaching this genre was harder, he surprised me by saying, "No, I think it's somewhat easier. It's more choir-like and isn't as intricate as some musical theatre."

DALLAS, TX(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2016) - Ravi Batra, author of End Unemployment Now: How to Eliminate Joblessness, Debt and Poverty Despite Congress, has made a career out of making accurate forecasts. He claims an over 90 percent success rate in his predictions that seem to be borne out by what he has written in the past. For instance, in two books penned in 1978 and 1980, he foresaw the fall of Soviet communism before the end of the century, a forecast that earned him the medal of the Italian Senate in 1990.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Cameron Mackintosh's current Broadway revival of  Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil's legendary musical LES MISERABLES will end its acclaimed run on Sunday, September 4, 2016 at the Imperial Theater (239 West 45th Street).  The current Broadway version of LES MISERABLES is the only production of the musical currently playing in North America and stars Alfie Boe, the acclaimed star of the London 25th Anniversary Concert, as Jean Valjean through February 28.  John Owen-Jones, who is currently starring as The Phantom in Mackintosh's London production of The Phantom of the Opera, and has played Valjean both on Broadway (in 2007) and in London, will succeed Boe in the role beginning March 1 for the duration of the show's Broadway run.  This new production of the musical will have given 1,026 performances over two-and-a-half years.  In total, since the 1987 opening of the original production, LES MISERABLESwill have played 8,202 performances on Broadway. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Whether you are with family and/or friends, or by yourself with a carton of turkey flavored Ben & Jerry's (don't act like you wouldn't eat that), there is plenty to be thankful for on this holiday. So, in the spirit of thanksgiving, I decided to put together a list of 10 pop culture people, clips, videos, ideas, and moments for which I am thankful. They are in no particular order, because, like family on Thanksgiving, you obviously know which ones you like better, but it wouldn't be in the holiday spirit to share that information publically.

Just in time for the holidays, as they say . . . the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (galeca.org) today announced its membership's picks for their second “GALECA Ten Best” list: The 10 Best LBGTQA Films GALECA Every Non-LGBTQA Person Should See!

Broadway's new suspense thriller Misery, starring two-time Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Award winner Bruce Willis and three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf and written by two-time Academy Award winner William Goldman, opens tonight, Sunday, November 15, 2015, in a strictly limited 16-week engagement.

FOREVER PLAID: PLAID TIDINGS is a holiday sequel to the 1990 Off-Broadway show, FOREVER PLAID, written by Stuart Ross. I have not seen the original show, but can now promise that it is totally unnecessary to have seen the original in order to enjoy the heaven out of the sequel. It is an uncanny and unsuspectingly hilarious holiday musical. The underlying plot is quite bizarre, but the script is so well written that no one seemed to care. The sequel continues from the original storyline, where a clean-cut, male quartet has been sent back to earth (following an unfortunate bus accident with a group of Catholic schoolgirls); this time to bring harmony and good cheer to an inharmonious planet.

Bad Habit Productions continues Season 9: To Face Ourselves with John Guare's 1990 play about the interconnectedness of everyone in the world by a chain of no more than six people. In 2015, the parlor game featuring links with Kevin Bacon feels more relevant.