Noel Coward's musical "Sail Away" has plenty of charm, but little substance. Its song and dance enchant, but in the end depend on a strong cast to sell a frail plot. 1962 London had Elaine Stitch. 2015 San Francisco has Allison F. Rich. Lively, sharp and ready with a sarcastic whip for any occasion, Rich commands the stage as cruise director Mimi Paragon in the 42nd Street Moon production.
42nd Street Moon, San Francisco's oldest resident professional musical theatre company, opens its 23rd season with Noel Coward's penultimate musical, the sparkling high seas comedy SAIL AWAY. Although this saucy look at travelers on a Mediterranean cruise opened on Broadway in 1961 and the West End in 1962, it has never been fully staged on the West Coast, until now.
BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Donald R. Seawell, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Broadway producer and the first to bring the Royal Shakespeare Company to New York, died today, September 30, 2015. He was 103.
Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, in London's East End, in October of 1930. An only child, he was born to Jewish parents of very moderate means; his father, a tailor, and his mother, a homemaker, were first-generation descendants of Eastern European immigrants. Like many of his contemporaries, Pinter's childhood was shaped by the onslaught of World War II; at the age of nine, he was evacuated from London through Operation Pied Piper and resettled in a town in Cornwall. The sense of isolation he felt in Cornwall would come to influence his work, as would the changed London to which he returned during the Blitz, where he was witness to, as his 2008 Guardianobituary put it, 'the dramatic nature of wartime life - the palpable fear, the sexual desperation, the genuine sense that everything could end tomorrow.'
42nd Street Moon, San Francisco's oldest resident professional musical theatre company, opens its 23rd season with Noel Coward's penultimate musical, the sparkling high seas comedy SAIL AWAY. Although this saucy look at travelers on a Mediterranean cruise opened on Broadway in 1961 and the West End in 1962, it has never been fully staged on the West Coast, until now.
August Strindberg Repertory Theatre will present Strindberg's THE STORM, adapted and directed by Robert Greer, October 4 to 30 as part of an exploration of the author's final works.
August Strindberg Repertory Theatre will present Strindberg's THE STORM, adapted and directed by Robert Greer, October 4 to 30 as part of an exploration of the author's final works. The piece deals with the marriage foibles of an elderly government minister. Strindberg named it Opus 1 of his 'Chamber Plays' and wrote it for his Intimate Theater in Stockholm, where it was produced in 1907-8. It will be performed in rotating repertory during the month of October with BURNT HOUSE, Opus 2 of the Chamber Plays, which is also adapted by Robert Greer but directed by Whitney Gail Aronson. Both productions are at Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street, where August Strindberg Rep is the resident company.
HERE announces its 2015-2016 producing season, featuring three HERE Resident Artist productions, an Artistic Director production, the fourth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival and HERE's yearly CULTUREMART festival, which gives audiences a first look at new work in process from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). The multidisciplinary works in HERE's 2015-2016 season represent the culmination of commissions and developmental residencies of up to three years through HARP, and/or the Dream Music Puppetry Program.
?The Crackpot Crones, known for their feminist theatrics, and Lilith Theater, a women's theatre company, are bringing Terry Baum's solo play to the Berkeley City Club. HICK: A Love Story had a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the Eureka Theatre in SF (July 2014), and was nominated for a Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Solo Production. HICK: A Love Story, opens Jan. 2, 2015. HICK is written by Terry Baum with Pat Bond, performed by Terry Baum and directed by Carolyn Myers. It has a limited engagement of 19 performances (four weeks only) Jan. 2 - 25, 2014 -Thurs. and Fri. 8:00 pm /Sat. 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm / and Sun. 5:00 pm. The Berkeley City Club - 2315 Durant St. (Btw'n. Ellsworth & Dana Sts.) in Berkeley, CA 94704.
?The Crackpot Crones, known for their feminist theatrics, and Lilith Theater, a women's theatre company, are bringing Terry Baum's solo play to the Berkeley City Club. HICK: A Love Story had a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at the Eureka Theatre in SF (July 2014), and was nominated for a Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Solo Production. HICK: A Love Story, opens Jan. 2, 2015. HICK is written by Terry Baum with Pat Bond, performed by Terry Baum and directed by Carolyn Myers. It has a limited engagement of 19 performances (four weeks only) Jan. 2 - 25, 2014 -Thurs. and Fri. 8:00 pm /Sat. 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm / and Sun. 5:00 pm. The Berkeley City Club - 2315 Durant St. (Btw'n. Ellsworth & Dana Sts.) in Berkeley, CA 94704.
From today, October 21 to November 8, August Strindberg Repertory will transport Strindberg's 'Miss Julie' to an antebellum Louisiana plantation in a new interpretation conceived by Artistic Director Robert Greer and adapted by Edgar Chisholm from a translation by Greer. The production will include a ballet sequence, which Strindberg specified in the original manuscript and which has never been performed before. The piece will be directed by Robert Greer and choreographed by Ja' Malik.
Two weeks from tonight is opening night for the Judson Theatre Company production of To Kill a Mockingbird, the final show of JTC's 2014 season. The production will open tonight, October 2 and run through Sunday, October 5 at Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College, located at 3395 Airport Road in Pinehurst.
From October 21 to November 8, August Strindberg Repertory will transport Strindberg's 'Miss Julie' to an antebellum Louisiana plantation in a new interpretation conceived by Artistic Director Robert Greer and adapted by Edgar Chisholm from a translation by Greer. The production will include a ballet sequence, which Strindberg specified in the original manuscript and which has never been performed before. The piece will be directed by Robert Greer and choreographed by Ja' Malik.
Two weeks from tonight is opening night for the Judson Theatre Company production of To Kill a Mockingbird, the final show of JTC's 2014 season. The production will open Thursday, October 2 and run through Sunday, October 5 at Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College, located at 3395 Airport Road in Pinehurst.
Following the overwhelming success of New York City Center's sold out FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL last year in Central Park, New York City Center will once again present two free evenings of dance in association with The Public Theater at The Delacorte on Friday, September 12 and Saturday, September 13 at 8:00 p.m.
The Old Globe today announced additional performances for the second production of the 2014 Summer Season, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical Into the Woods, which made its World Premiere at The Old Globe in 1986. The production is an inventive reimagining by Fiasco Theater, directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, in a production that originated at McCarter Theatre Center. By popular demand, it will now play through Sunday, August 17. Tickets for the extension will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, July 29 at noon.
The current Stephen Sondheim tribute show, Our Time, starring KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar at the Laurie Beechman (which I attended on July 9 and 16; there are two more Wednesday performances at 6pm on August 6, 13), is a charming, classy, and entertaining affair. But it also includes enough flaws in execution that prevent it from being truly great. For one thing, it doesn't really feel like a duo show. It's more like two solo performances within one show, where the performers fit in a couple of numbers together to justify the concept. A critique of the Sullivan/Harnar Sondheim set provides an interesting opportunity to analyze the anatomy of a duo show and the choices that can make it work—or not.
Following last year's acclaimed Public Works production of The Tempest, The Public Theater will continue this community-based initiative this September with a free original musical adaptation of Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE. Featuring more than 200 New Yorkers from all five boroughs performing alongside professional actors and The Public's community partners, Public Works' THE WINTER'S TALE will run for three nights only, September 5-7, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Free tickets will be distributed, two per person, at 12:00 p.m. on the day of the show at the Delacorte Theater and via the Virtual Ticketing lottery at www.publictheater.org.
The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced today that the 2014 Public Theater Annual Gala will present ONE THRILLING COMBINATION, a gala event directed by Ted Sperling celebrating Marvin Hamlisch, The Public Theater and the creation of A Chorus Line on Monday, June 23 at the Delacorte Theater. This unforgettable summer evening will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the creation of The Public's groundbreaking musical, A Chorus Line, and the legendary man behind the music, Marvin Hamlisch, in a one-night-only, star-studded gala to support The Public Theater. Renee Beaumont and Lizanne Rosenstein will serve as Gala Co-Chairs for this memorable evening in Central Park.
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only tonight, April 23 and April 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater.
Today, stars of stage and screen reacted to the passing of the stage and screen legend
According to TMZ, Mickey Rooney, who spent nearly his entire life in the show business, died today at 93, after being in ill health for quite some time. He appeared on Broadway in Sugar Babies (opposite fellow MGM legend Ann Miller) and The Will Rogers Follies.
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only April 23, 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. A Coffin in Egypt stars mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of opera's most beloved figures, whose formidable bravura has won her wide acclaim. Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer, has also composed The Grapes of Wrath, Rappahannock County, and Orpheus and Euridice. Leonard Foglia, librettist and director, directed Master Class on Broadway and Jake Heggie's Opera Last Acts.
The Theatre Royal Bath has announced its 2014 Summer Season, comprising four productions and starring Clare Higgins, Tim Pigott-Smith, Alison Steadman and Felicity Kendal. Beginning on 18th June with Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, the season continues with KAFKA'S DICK by Alan Bennett, followed by THERESE RAQUIN by Emile Zola, and concludes on 6th September with Noel Coward's HAY FEVER.
Dinner with Friends offers an intimate view of two marriages and four friendships, examining the loyalties, fears, passions, and habits that keep couples and friends together. Marriage is a popular onstage subject, the backbone for many of the last century's most iconic plays. Domestic drama as we know it today may be traced back to Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House. The play, which follows an unequal and eventually unsustainable marriage, was a radical critique of 19th-century marriage norms and set the stage for the realistic plays (many of them domestic) of the 20th century. Below are a few examples of notable marriage-centric plays from the last hundred years. Whether funny or heartbreaking, they are inherently, undoubtedly dramatic.
| 1962 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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