Ragtime Revival - Articles Page 3

While the series' recurring cast includes Tom Selleck, Bridget Moynahan, Donnie Wahlberg, and more, guest stars have included Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Joanna Gleason, Adrienne Warren, Jinkx Monsoon, Norm Lewis, Norbert Leo Butz, and more. Check out a list of Broadway guest stars on Blue Bloods now!

Jane Austen's engaging story of two resilient sisters comes to musical life on stage when TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the Regional Premiere of Sense and Sensibility. This sensational work features book, music, and lyrics by Paul Gordon, whose Pride and Prejudice broke box office records when it premiered at TheatreWorks in 2019, and was then streamed by more than 160,000 viewers worldwide at its virtual debut.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will resume in-person performances when it launches its previously announced 51st season, featuring eight plays and musicals presented October 2021 through August 2022, kicking off with the new indie folk-rock musical Lizard Boy.

Today's Theater Stories features the Lyric Theatre! Learn about the history of the Lyric Theatre, and the shows to have graced its stage including Jesus Christ Superstar, The Pirate Queen, Young Frankenstein, Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and more.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Artistic Director Tim Bond and Executive Director Phil Santora announced today that the Tony Award-winning theatre will postpone the opening of its 51st mainstage season to March 2021, with eight plays presented through May 2022.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley, Artistic Director Designate Tim Bond, and Executive Director Phil Santora announced changes to TheatreWorks's 2020-21 Season, which is now scheduled to begin in October 2020.

Horizon Theatre Company opens its 36th season with one of the most critically acclaimed musicals of recent history, Once. Recipient of eleven 2012 Tony Award nominations, and winner of eight including Best Musical, Best Actor and Best Book, Once is a musical based on the 2007 film of the same name by John Carney. Like the film, music and lyrics are by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, including the Academy Award-winning song 'Falling Slowly.' With book by Enda Walsh. Horizon Theatre Company's Atlanta premiere starts performances January 31 (Press Opening February 7, 2020) and runs until March 8, 2020 in Little Five Points/Inman Park (1083 Austin Avenue N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307). The show is directed by Horizon Theatre Artistic Associate Heidi McKerley, who directed the 2019 Horizon hit The Wolves. Musical direction is by Ed Thrower who recently led the creative team for Serenbe's production of Hair.

The first clue that ANASTASIA was going to be different than what I expected was a note on the title page reading, “Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.” Plural? A savvy journalist, I quickly asked Siri to bring up the imdb page for “Anastasia”. Turns out Fox made ANASTASIA twice, the 1997 animated off-brand Disney princess movie and a 1957 film that scored Ingrid Bergman's second Oscar and marked Helen Hayes' transition to the big screen. And it turns out the musical version has more in common with LES MISERABLES and RAGTIME than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Gone is the hell-wizard Rasputin, his talking fruit bat sidekick, and the singing demon caterpillars. At intermission, I asked my third grade niece, Adalyn, how she was liking it. “It's awesome…it's real people, like no Beast or anything. No animals.” We decide that Disney staged musicals are great but more it's more impressive when you can achieve the magic without a story that departs from reality. ANASTASIA is historical fiction hypothetical. It poses a “what if…?” that a daughter of the last czar of Russia (The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna) escaped when the czar's family was executed in 1918. Rumors persisted for decades that Anastasia did, in fact, escape. In 2007, DNA testing confirmed the remains of all four Grand Duchesses were in the Imperial grave. In this version, Terrence McNalley's book follows Anastasia's rediscovery of her identity after surviving the attack on her family and sustaining some plot enabling amnesia. Renamed “Anya” she grows up and makes a life in post-Revolution Russia. Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress (in a staggeringly moving performance by Joy Franz) has fled to France and offered a cash reward for anyone escorting the rumored alive Anastasia to Paris. The wily duo Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) pull a My Fair Lady style makeover on Anya to collect the Dowager's prize. They are pursued by Gleb (Jason Michael Evans). A Soviet officer drawn to Anya romantically but tasked with finding and eliminating the last Romanov. Anya's memory becomes somewhat coaxed back, but the Dowager has stopped seeing Anastasia claimants after too much heart-break from countless frauds. It sounds dark, but with high-tech digital scenery and inspired performances across the cast it is delightful. Stephen Flaherty (Music) and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics), responsible for bringing us RAGTIME, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, LUCKY STIFF, as well as the Oscar nominated songs carried over from the animated film. ANASTASIA is a perfect context for this pair. “Stay, I Pray You” (my favorite song of the evening) is evocative of RAGTIME's “New Music”. The two songs literally race my heart in a strangely specific way. My real test of a National Tour at Gammage is how fast I get the music playing in my car on the way home. At ANASTASIA I was already finding, “Stay, I Pray You” walking through the parking lot. The rest of the score is similarly haunting. Lila Coogan, as Anya/Anastasia, powers through the score with nuance, clarity, and passion. Tari Kelly, as Countess Lily, and Stadenmayer (Vlad) were Adalyn's favorite performances and I have to agree. This incredibly gifted pair take the “triple threat” designation (singer, dancer, actor) and go quadruple with the addition of flawless comic timing. The choreography by Peggy Hickey is masterful. It somehow combines inventive and traditional throughout and the ten-minute slice of “Swan Lake” infused into “Quartet at the Ballet” is the highlight of the second act. It's a fun-size version that gets an under-represented art form onto the plate. This kind of trope often means the plot putting the plot on hold. But here, it is the connective tissue between Anya, Dmitry, the Dowager, and Gleb as they each bring us up to speed heading into the show's climax. Ultimately, the show's success comes from applying a higher artistic standard to the “previously-animated-film-now-theatrically-staged” genre. It cashes in on the name draw of the 1997 film then gives the viewer something much more enriched than what they think they are coming to see.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th anniversary season began with the 14th Annual Chicago Sings concert: Chicago Sings 25 Years of Porchlight, Monday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m., at The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave, directed by Christopher Pazdernik and Artistic Director Michael Weber with music direction by David Fiorello and a band featuring Kelsey Boltz, Cara Hartz, John McCreary, Greg Strauss, Celeste Park and Jake Saleh.

What makes a Broadway theatre? Technically any venue with 500 seats or more, located along Broadway in New York City's Theatre District is a Broadway theatre, and the art that is produced in these special places is widely considered the highest form of theatrical entertainment in the world. Today, forty-one theatres are technically Broadway houses, each with their own rich history. Below, we're giving you the scoop on the life of every one of them!

Asolo Repertory Theatre proudly continues its 60th season with SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It will be directed and choreographed by Peter Rothstein, who helmed the theatre's critically acclaimed 2018 production of Ragtime. Featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by Hugh Wheeler and from an adaptation by Christopher Bond, this musical masterwork and global phenomenon previews May 1 - 3, opens May 4 and runs through June 1 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Today's subject, Kevin McAllister, always has dynamic stage presence no matter the production. Currently he is living his theatre life onstage at Signature Theatre singing the Ken Page track in Ain't Misbehavin'. The production runs through March 10th in Signature Theatre's MAX space.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today that Broadway, film, and television star Rosie O'Donnell will play Mrs. Paroo in the Broadway Center Stage production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man. O'Donnell joins Tony Award® nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess) as Harold Hill and Tony Award®–winning actress Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Carousel, Beautiful) as Marian Paroo in the starry semi-staged concert production directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful, Broadway Center Stage: How to Succeed…) with choreography by Chris Bailey (Jerry Springer: The Opera, The New Yorkers at Encores!) and music direction by James Moore (Miss Saigon, the Kennedy Center's Follies and Ragtime).

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Paradise Square: An American Musical. The world premiere is helmed by acclaimed director Moises Kaufman, with choreography by the legendary Bill T. Jones and a book by Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas, and Larry Kirwan. Music by Jason Howland and Larry Kirwan, with lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and based on the songs of Stephen Foster. Paradise Square is produced by special arrangement with Garth H. Drabinsky in association with Peter LeDonne and Teatro Proscenium Limited Partnership.

Music Theatre of Denton is proud to announce auditions for RAGTIME, the Broadway musical based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished 1975 novel. With a book by Terrence McNally and music by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, RAGTIME is considered one of the best musicals on the past several decades. For Music Theatre of Denton, Kyle Christopher West directs with John Norine Jr. serving as musical director and Elizabeth Cantrell as stage manager. RAGTIME runs February 22nd - March 3rd.

Ragtime, the modern Broadway classic which debuted in 1998, will be making its way to the Maier Performance Hall at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in early November courtesy of the Charleston Light Opera Guild (CLOG). CLOG is no stranger to Ragtime, as they previously performed this production in 2007. With a previous production under their belt and many actors reprising their roles, CLOG's rendition of Ragtime is sure to thrill audiences while showing them why this show is widely heralded as a new classic.

Yeston & Kopit's 'PHANTOM' made its New York Premiere here at WBT in 1992. During our record breaking nine- month run, over 120,000 people attended. Night after night, audiences rose to their feet for the stunning musical thriller. The original production was directed by William Pullinsi and starred Robert Cuccioli as the Phantom and Glory Crampton as Christine Daee. 'PHANTOM' returned to our stage in 1996 and 2007 directed and choreographed by Tom Polum, who had been in the original production. This extraordinary piece will grace our stage once again with Tom Polum at the helm.  

Disney's enduring classic The Little Mermaid is heading to the stage in Charleston, WV! The Charleston Light Opera Guild is excited to bring this fairy tale masterpiece to life at the Clay Center Theater. The hit musical, which debuted on Broadway in 2007, is based on the 1989 animated classic film and features music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and a book by Doug Wright. Children of all ages will be delighted as they watch the story of Ariel, Flounder, Ursula, Sebastian, and Prince Eric unfold by the talented professionals in the Charleston Light Opera Guild.

One of the most captivating musicals ever to be adapted for the stage, An American in Paris, makes its regional premiere at the Ogunquit Playhouse July 11 through August 4

Long Island's newest theatrical venue The Argyle Theatre (Evan Pappas, Artistic Director) presents the Tony Award winning hit Broadway musical Hairspray with book by Marc O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman at The Argyle Theatre (34 West Main Street, Babylon, Long Island).  Performances are set to begin Thursday, July 12, 2018 for a limited run through Sunday, August 26, 2018. 

Pittsburgh CLO's THE FULL MONTY will take it all off at the Benedum Center this summer July 6 - 15. With a book written by Terrence McNally (Ragtime) and the music/ lyric talents of David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), this duo cooks up an aggressive crowd-pleaser that is both highly-entertaining and charmingly uplifting.

Free For All, one of the capital's cherished annual traditions, will return this summer to Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), offering two weeks of free performances of the Company's 2016 production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul, whose hit production of Camelot has extended through July 8 due to popular demand, the production will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from August 21-September 2, providing more than 12,000 people the chance to see the play free of charge.

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival will present Open Captioned performances in its upcoming 27th season as part of an ongoing commitment to broadening the Festival's accessibility offerings. In addition to American Sign Language-interpreted and Audio Described performances, new Open Captioning and additional Relaxed Performances align with PSF's mission "to enrich, inspire, engage, and entertain the widest possible audience."

BroadwayWorld UK writer Nicole Ackman shares her top picks for musicals that deserve a revival in the West End.

Due to demand, The New Group has announced a three-week extension for Jerry Springer - The Opera, with Matt McGrath appearing as Jerry Springer beginning March 13.  Terrence Mann, currently appearing in the role of Jerry Springer, plays his final performance March 11 due to an existing commitment beyond that date.