Berkeley Playhouse closes its fifth season with the Tony Award-winning musical THE WIZ. Kimberly Dooley(Lucky Duck, Seussical, The Musical, Once On This Island) directs and choreographs this soulful re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's family classicThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, featuring a cast of 46. THE WIZ plays July 13 through August 25 (Press opening: July 13) at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley. For tickets ($17-60) and more information, the public may visit berkeleyplayhouse.org or call 510-845-8542x351.
Gamu, Former X Factor UK Contestant releases her first single 'Shake The Room' today, May 5, 2013, on Tommy Boy.
Bay Street Theatre is partnering with Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons (ARF) in honoring Steinbeck Weekend by presenting the 'Travels With Charley' Dog Walk today, May 4 at 8:30 am. Jill Rappaport, TODAY show correspondent and award-winning animal advocate, serves as celebrity host along with Barbara Slifka as Honorary Chair. Dogs and their owners will start the walk at Haven's Beach. (Water will be available for both dogs and owners along the way.) The walk finishes at Bay Street Theatre, where there will be a 'Bagels and Bones' reception immediately after the walk. A Grand Prize will be given to the person that raises the most money.
TimeLine Theatre Company, dedicated to presenting plays inspired by history that connect to today's social and political issues, announces that The How and the Why by Sarah Treem (Netflix's House of Cards, HBO's In Treatment), directed by Keira Fromm and starring Janet Ulrich Brooks and Elizabeth Ledo, will be the third production of its 2013-14 season.
Bay Street Theatre is partnering with Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons (ARF) in honoring Steinbeck Weekend by presenting the 'Travels With Charley' Dog Walk on Saturday, May 4 at 8:30 am. Jill Rappaport, TODAY show correspondent and award-winning animal advocate, serves as celebrity host along with Barbara Slifka as Honorary Chair. Dogs and their owners will start the walk at Haven's Beach. (Water will be available for both dogs and owners along the way.) The walk finishes at Bay Street Theatre, where there will be a 'Bagels and Bones' reception immediately after the walk. A Grand Prize will be given to the person that raises the most money.
Gamu, Former X Factor UK Contestant releases her first single 'Shake The Room' May 5, 2013, on Tommy Boy.
North Coast Repertory Theatre announces its 32nd Season. From its modest beginning in 1982, North Coast Repertory Theatre, a non-profit organization, has evolved into one of the area's leading performing arts organizations, recognized for the quality of its work and its commitment to excellence. North Coast Repertory's 32nd Season promises to be a season filled with laughter, romance, mystery and passion. With two World Premieres, two San Diego Premieres and two Musicals, this season promises to be one of the most exciting ever.
The theatre programme for the Manchester International Festival 2013 has been announced. MIF13 commissions include: The Machine, The Old Woman, Macbeth, The Masque of Anarchy and The Rite of Spring.
It is with great sadness that The Philadelphia Orchestra mourns the death of Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor laureate of the Orchestra and its music director from 1993 to 2003. Mr. Sawallisch passed away on Friday at his home in Grassau, upper Bavaria, Germany. He was 89 years old. In a special tribute and dedication to him, the Orchestra performed Wagner's Siegfried Idyll to open its Sunday afternoon concert.
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts and Copa de Oro Productions will present the world premiere of The Mahalia Jackson Musical, starring the legendary Ranee Lee as the Queen of Gospel. Written and directed by Roger Peace and featuring a live choir on stage, this 'roof-raising, foot-stomping' gospel celebration will be presented at the Segal Theatre from March 3rd to March 24th, 2013.
In 1960, the front lines of the struggle for Civil Rights ran right up to the front steps of an elementary school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges, who was only six years old, was ready to start first grade. Suddenly, she was in all the papers, and it seemed like half the world wanted to stop her from going to school. But Ruby faced the dangers, went to school day after day. This true story of courage and family is as inspirational today as it was 50 years ago.
Full disclosure: I'm not fond of updating operas. Most of them simply don't work, because the directors appear to have a disdain for the art form or, at least, for the particular opera they're staging. They assume that trashing 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' 'Don Giovanni' or 'La Sonnambula' is the only way to get anyone under 50 into an opera house. On the other hand, Michael Mayer, the Broadway director best known for his work on the musical 'Spring Awakening,' seems to actually like opera and is making his splendid Metropolitan Opera debut with the bold and brassy new production of Verdi's RIGOLETTO, which opened on January 28.
In 1960, the front lines of the struggle for Civil Rights ran right up to the front steps of an elementary school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges, who was only six years old, was ready to start first grade. Suddenly, she was in all the papers, and it seemed like half the world wanted to stop her from going to school. But Ruby faced the dangers, went to school day after day. This true story of courage and family is as inspirational today as it was 50 years ago.
Full casting has been announced for THE SILENCE OF THE SEA, by Vercors, in a version by Anthony Weigh, part of the Donmar Trafalgar Season, running 10 January - 2 February 2013
Press night: Monday 14 January at 7pm
Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) continues its fall season of monthly networking panels with Two Sides to the Producing Story: Commercial versus Not-for-Profit (Which Side Are You On?), tonight, October 17, 2012 at 7:30pm at The Players Theatre's Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre, 3rd floor, 115 MacDougal Street, NYC. Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm.
Sometimes once is just not enough, so, today, we have a super-special encore conversation with a recent InDepth InterView participant who shares even more candid tales from her impossibly colorful, genre-spanning career on Broadway and in Hollywood - star of properties as diverse as the Broadway musicals MR. PRESIDENT, KELLY and THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, to movies like MOONSTRUCK and SHALL WE DANCE to her numerous TV appearances on everything from MATCH GAME to QUINCY to 30 ROCK - chameleon-like comedienne and actress Anita Gillette. Discussing some of the more ribald and hilarious stories from her idiosyncratic showbiz career - such as the riotous backstage goings-on out of town at the tryout of one of Broadway biggest bombs, KELLY - as well as spine-tingling "you had to be there"-type memories of the Golden Age - like Irving Berlin stopping by the Winter Garden every Wednesday just to see her Act One showstopper in ALL AMERICAN - Gillette paints a vivid picture of an era gone by, and, also, looks ahead to exciting future endeavors - especially the upcoming Ed Burns-directed feature film, THE FITZGERALD FAMILY CHRISTMAS, opening wide later this year. Of course, Gillette returns to the NYC stage the next two Mondays - September 24 and October 1 - with her new Birdland show, AFTER ALL, so in this all-encompassing conversation we also discuss the themes, style, songs and stories we can anticipate from that intimate solo piece, as well, and she generously shares her recollections of working with some of the men who penned many of the sensational songs she will be performing and figure in to some of the tales she will tell - Charles Strouse, Marvin Hamlisch, Jule Styne, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the aforementioned Irving Berlin included. All of that and much, much more!
Spark Theater opens its new home with the deliciously wrong comedy, The Love Potion.
The Broadway Theatre of Pitman has announced the following shows for its 2013 season.
Today we are talking to a celebrated comedienne and actress known for her decades-spanning career on screens and stages large and small - from making her Broadway debut in the original Jerome Robbins production of GYPSY on Broadway in 1960 to her many musical roles throughout the 60s to her countless game show and variety show appearances following that all the way to creating an unforgettable character in MOONSTRUCK in the 1980s, as well as her subsequent oft-Neil Simon stage work; now, playing Tina Fey's sweet and daffy mom on NBC's 30 ROCK and, most recently, appearing in Nora & Celia Ephron's LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE and the Playwright's Horizons premiere production of THE BIG MEAL in the new millennium - the one of a kind Anita Gillette. Analyzing her nearly sixty-year career and sharing candid stories of her brushes with some of Broadway and Hollywood's brightest talents - Jule Styne to Ethel Merman to Irving Berlin to Burt Lancaster and beyond - Gillette paints a vivid portrait of the tail end of the Golden Age of Broadway and the heady game show days of TV in the 1960s and 70s to her lauded stage work with Neil Simon and many of the great comedy and musical writers in the years since. Additionally, Gillette and I discuss her current essaying of the role of Mae Peterson in the new Regal Music Theatre production of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams's BYE BYE BIRDIE in Massachusetts as she looks towards opening night tomorrow and relates her joy in participating in a production that has some behind-the-scenes help by her loving granddaughter (while another attends their summer camp). Plus, Gillette's observations on sharing a soundstage with Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Elaine Stritch and Buck Henry for a recent 30 ROCK shoot, reflections on her fondest and most celebrated comedy roles, hilarious memories of appearing in some short-running flops (JIMMY, SKYSKRAPER) as well as in some big hits (GYPSY), her upcoming series of master classes titled "Life In The Business", her return to Birdland with her concert show, AFTER ALL, her role in an upcoming Ed Burns film and maybe even a role in a new Alexander Payne film - all of that, all about attending the Diamond Jubilee celebration in the United Kingdom and much, much more!
The Glimmerglass Festival, the Central New York summer opera and musical theater company, has announced its 2013 season and its partnership in The Festival of American Romantics in Cooperstown, New York.
The 4th of July is one week from today. We are cooking with gas this summer season! Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has already broken our box office records, and with just 4 more performances, you still have a chance to catch the hilarious antics.
World-renowned Jazz and Rhythm & Blues Vocalist, Barbara Morrison will present top talent in The 1st Annual Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center Blues Festival to be performed on two stages at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center (BMPAC), 4305 Degnan Boulevard, #101, Los Angeles, CA 90036 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 18, 19 and 20, 2012.
Director Elizabeth Hayes' staging of the play-which is based upon a work that proved to be Bixby's final story-is confident and creative, her expert handling of her ensemble heartfelt and thoughtful. In fact, it's Hayes' complete understanding of the play which elevates it far beyond what appears on the page. Her artful approach to the material allows it to transcend the obvious manipulation and sentimentality that pervades the script, adapted by Schenkman from Bixby's film script (his final one, he supposedly finished the script on his deathbed, after starting it in 1960) which he filmed on a shoestring budget in 2007.
Producer Stephen Byrd of the upcoming revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the only African American producer to ever win the coveted British Olivier Award (for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) has just been announced as an addition to the next panel of Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU). This monthly networking panel, Coloring the Great White Way: Bringing Diversity to Commercial Theater, will offer a discussion focused on how to bring more diverse productions and audiences to the traditionally great 'white' way. The panel will take place on March 21 at 7:30pm at the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, NYC.
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