Meet the People 1939 - Articles Page 4

Who'd have ever thought a seven-foot-tall, dark, handsome and green chap a?' crafted from the bits and pieces of various fellows gone home to meet their maker, as it were a?' could prove to be so likable, charming and, we daresay, sexy? But leave it to Mel Brooks (and Gene Wilder, his co-writer on the 1974 film) to create such a protagonist and to surround him with memorable characters in a story set to music that's a wonderful homage to the very best of classic Broadway and silver screen musicals!

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, an octet drawn from the musician leaders of one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world, makes its Musco Center debut Tuesday, October 15 with works by Johannes Brahms, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Felix Mendelssohn, plus a new piece by St. Martin in the Fields composer-in-residence Sally Beamish.

On Saturday 7th September at 2.30pm Play it Forward is excited to present 'Back to the 80's' followed by 'Liane Keegan Sings The Judy Garland Songbook' at 7 pm.

Dear Readers, you've often heard me extoll the prowess and brilliance of The Williams Project. Just last week I raved about how dedicated and tight their ensemble was when presenting the other show they have running in repertory, a?oeSmall Craft Warningsa??. But now that insanely talented ensemble has come in with William Saroyan's 1939 Pulitzer Prize winning drama a?oeThe Time of Your Lifea?? and taken things a step beyond simply performing the play, but deconstructing it with a rotating ensemble.

The manic physical shtick is perfectly delivered and both director and cast have hit the mark. This is not easy to achieve particularly within a static set but it is so well delivered that we were mesmerised and fully into all the goings-on. The laughs were hearty and came in the right places and the more I noticed each character's actions the more I laughed.

Jellicle cats, come one, come all! The long-awaited film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's classic musical Cats is coming to movie theaters this December, and we can barely contain our excitement to see Grizabella, Rum Tug Tugger, Old Deuteronomy, and more come to the big screen. To get you all ready to see the Jellicle Ball on screen and celebrate International Cat Day, we've gathered all the info you need to know about the movie, from the casting to behind-the-scenes info. Check it all out!

NYU Skirball's season opens on September 6, 2019 with the N.Y. premiere of JoAnne Akalaitis's BAD NEWS! i was therea??, a site-specific processional work performed throughout NYU Skirball's lobbies and backstage

The story of The Wizard of Oz has been told numerous times in many different ways. Originally a book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum with the first Broadway musical adaption coming in 1902. Of course the most popular version is the 1939 musical film adaption starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. For the 60th anniversary of the film release the Gooseberry Park Players decided to bring the story to their stage. Most people know the story, but this version may offer some new scenes not seen by many before, including the 'Jitterbug' song/scene that was actually cut from the original movie due to time constraints.

Take an unforgettable 75-minute journey down the Yellow Brick Road to the magical land of Oz, and share the wonder and delight of live theater with the young people in your life this summer.

Profiles in History is proud to announce a historic and rare collection of nineteen Alcoholics Anonymous books will be going up for auction on July 11th in Los Angeles. All nineteen books are first edition printings and are signed by the founding members of the AA Fellowship.

Elm Street Cultural Arts Village goes over the rainbow and down the yellow brick road with The Wizard of Oz, a faithful stage adaption of the classic 1939 film. Dorothy Gale, a young farm girl, dreams of more when suddenly she and her dog Toto are swept away to the magical land of Oz. Now on a journey to get home, she comes across new friends such as the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, all hoping to meet the Wizard of Oz.

For audiences feeling the need for a pleasant, two-hour sojourn into a gentler time, Paul Osborn's 1939 comedy of manners 'Mornings at Seven' at Kansas City Actors Theatre inside Union Station will fill their collective nostalgia voids.  Dennis Hennessy's KCAT production is blessed with nine excellent actors of appropriate age to bring this stylish 1939 play-script to life. 

If you have a heart, you will love this show. It's way too good to let it pass you by.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo was first performed at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre and found its way to the Broadway stage in 1997 at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Written by Alfred Uhry, The Last Night of Ballyhoo takes place in 1939 in the home of Adolph Freitag in Atlanta, Georgia. The play explores themes of identity, prejudice, and inter-Jewish racism through the lives of Adolph and his sister Beulah 'Boo' Levy, their sister-in-law Reba Freitag, cousins Lala Levy (Beulah's daughter) and Sunny Freitag (Reba's daughter), and two young men-Joe Farkas from New York and Peachy Weil of the Louisana Weils. Oyster Mill Playhouse takes on this deep yet humorous play through May 12th.

Casa Mañana Theatre presents The Wizard of Oz, sponsored by Frank Kent Cadillac as part of the 2018-2019 Children's Theatre season. Check out video of the production below!

On Thursday, May 16, 2019 there will be two staged readings in New York City of the Broadway-bound new musical, DANCERS AT A WATERFALL, with book by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Karen Hartman, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire, based on the novel, 'Behind the Painting' by Siburapha.

NATIVE SON, a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright, tells the story of 20-year of Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in 1939. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic inevitability behind them, making the case that there is no escape from his destiny since he is the inevitable product of the society in which he has lived since birth, faced by expectations imposed upon him by others tasked to teach him the proper way for a Black man to live in society. It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly the case in Wright's original story which could have been written today, given the similar news stories filling the airwaves right now involving police beatings of Black men and gun violence leading to senseless murders.

Actress Fay McKenzie Waldman passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of April 16th at the age of 101. She was born February 19, 1918 into a show business family where she was the youngest of two sisters and an actress cousin, and made her screen debut at only ten weeks old in "Station Content" (1918) in which she was carried in the arms of Gloria Swanson. Her parents, Eva & Bob "Pops" McKenzie were already veteran performers and apparently wanted their daughter to get an early start in films. She nearly stole the show from Oliver Hardy as "the baby" in the Alice Howell short "Distilled Love" (filmed in 1918 but released two years later). By the time she was six, Fay was considered an old hand, having played diverse parts in her father's stock company. Among her early films was the 1924 Photoplay Medal Winner, "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln." 

Oyster Mill Playhouse is working diligently to bring you their next production, The Last Night Of Ballyhoo. Set to debut on April 26th, this play transports us back to December of 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia, where the Freitag family is preparing for the annual Ballyhoo ball. As if the excitement surrounding the ball isn't enough, this year's celebration happens to coincide with the premiere of Gone with the Wind...

Casa Mañana Theatre presents The Wizard of Oz, sponsored by Frank Kent Cadillac as part of the 2018-2019 Children's Theatre season. Tickets are on sale now.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) today announced the nine productions of its 2019 2020 subscription season: Tennessee Williams' classic family drama The Glass Menagerie; Shakespeare's rollicking comedy Twelfth Night; an adaptation of Emma based on the Jane Austen novel; and Kander and Ebb's musical Cabaret will grace the Guthrie's signature Wurtele Thrust Stage while the McGuire Proscenium Stage's lineup will include Robert Harling's female-driven comedy Steel Magnolias; the regional premiere of Noura, Heather Raffo's complex tale of identity; Anne Bogart's acclaimed production of Euripides' The Bacchae; Karen Zacar as' comedic telenovela Destiny of Desire; and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat.

Irish Repertory Theatre announced today special events and programming for the month of February as part of the The Sean O'Casey Season, celebrating 30 years of Irish Repertory Theatre.

Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda (no link whatsoever with the painting in the Louvre) is one of those works too rarely represented despite its obvious qualities. Once the most successful opera between Verdi's Aida (1871) and Otello (1887), it is now considered a work stylistically so heterogeneous and both vocally and scenically so demanding that few opera houses try their hand at it. La Monnaie takes on the challenge and invites conductor Paolo Carignani and stage director Olivier Py to revive the whole grand opera behind 'The Dance of the Hours'.

The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture (CJC) announced today the annual San Diego Jewish International Film Festival will return for its 29th anniversary, Thursday, Feb. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. The festival showcases a selection of the best contemporary Jewish-related films across multiple genres and aims to educate and illuminate the diverse Jewish experience through evocative, independent narrative and documentary films.