Aurora Theatre Company opens its 18th season, focusing on 'family and fortune,' with Clifford Odets' classic Depression-era drama AWAKE AND SING! Bay Area theater veteran Joy Carlin (Jack Goes Boating, Hysteria, The Price), who first directed this play for Berkeley Repertory Theatre 24 years ago, revisits this landmark drama for Aurora.
On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees.
Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.'
Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.
At a packed event last night at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, announced its 2009-2010 season to a crowd of enthusiastic patrons and supporters. Under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley, the company is celebrating 40 years of bringing quality theatre, including more than 50 world premieres, to the San Francisco Bay Area.
At a packed event last night at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, announced its 2009-2010 season to a crowd of enthusiastic patrons and supporters. Under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley, the company is celebrating 40 years of bringing quality theatre, including more than 50 world premieres, to the San Francisco Bay Area. The season announcement, which culminated a day of public activities launching the company's Ruby Anniversary, revealed that TheatreWorks will once again be presenting the area's first looks at several news-making productions, and deepening its commitment to presenting new works. The company announced a vibrant season leading off with an extensive New Works Festival that will draw national artists to the area; a World Premiere musical to be directed by the Tony Award-winning director of Les Miserables; two West Coast Premieres; two Regional Premieres, and two classics brought to the stage.
On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees.
Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.'
Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.
Returning to Cleveland after acclaimed performances in The Color
Purple on Broadway and Gone with the Wind in London?s West End, NaTasha Yvette Williams takes the
stage in the lead role of The Cleveland Play House production of Mahalia: A Gospel Musical. Since 1997,
when she performed in The Play House production of (I Could) Stop On a Dime and Get Ten Cents
Change, Williams has also played in several Broadway national tours and performed her gospel music all
over the world. Kent Gash, Associate Artistic Director of The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA, is directing
Williams in this musical tribute to the most celebrated gospel singer of all time. Mahalia: A Gospel Musical
begins in the Bolton Theatre at The Cleveland Play House on Friday, January 30 and runs through Sunday,
February 22, 2009. Tickets are on sale now at The Cleveland Play House box office by calling
216.795.7000 ext 4 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. Mahalia: A Gospel Musical is presented in
promotional partnership with Time Warner Cable and The Kulus Foundation. The media sponsor for
Mahalia: A Gospel Musical is 107.3 FM The Wave WNMV.
Arena Stage presents Charles Ludlam's comic masterpiece The Mystery of Irma Vep. This clever, quick-change marathon ransacks literary, cinematic and pop culture as it satirizes everything from Hitchcock's Rebecca and classic horror film The Mummy's Curse to Wuthering Heights and Shakespeare. Arena Stage is excited to welcome back Brad Oscar (Broadway's Spamalot and The Producers, Arena's Cabaret and Damn Yankees) and J. Fred Shiffman (The Arthur Miller Festival, She Loves Me, Cabaret) as they portray all of the characters--men, women and monsters--in this gender-bending 'tour de force.' The Mystery of Irma Vep runs June 6 - July 13 at Arena Stage in Crystal City. The press opening performance is Thursday, June 12 at 8:00 p.m.
Based on the turbulent and triumphant life of Danny Kaye, this intimate musical portrayal chronicles Kaye's career and his relationships on and off the stage…
Arena Stage will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Death of a Salesman and A View from the Bridge in rotating repertory as a salute to one of America's best playwrights, Arthur Miller.
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