Still Life 1981 - Articles Page 7

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!

The 29th annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival (Inside Out), championing innovative LGBTQ filmmakers from across the globe, revealed its full feature and short film lineup. The announcement was made today by Inside Out's Executive Director Andria Wilson and the festival's Director of Programming Andrew Murphy. Inside Out, which launched the first ever annual LGBTQ Film Finance Forum, has established itself as an international home and incubator for LGBTQ emerging and established filmmakers. This year's festival will take place May 23 to June 2, 2019.

If you are wondering whether it's necessary for you to have seen Qui Nguyen's critically-acclaimed 2015 play VIETGONE in order to enjoy its superior new sequel POOR YELLA REDNECKS, then don't worry too much about it. This incredibly funny, incredibly innovative, and incredibly well-acted follow-up is, by itself, a singular, superb stand-alone gem. All those loud laughs you're hearing in Costa Mesa for the past few weeks? They're all likely coming from South Coast Repertory, where this entertaining and thought-provoking must-see sequel is currently being presented in its first full World Premiere production through April 27, 2019 as part of the Tony Award-winning theater's annual Pacific Playwright's Festival. I truly cannot recommend this play-with-music enough.

The iconic punk rock band, X, have announced additional dates to be added to their spring/summer tour plans. Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake will join The Damnedfor two co-headline dates; in Chicago on May 30, as well as an appearance at the Orange County Fair in California on July 6.  Additional summer tour dates announced below will feature an exciting variety of supporting acts such as Dead Rock West, Skating Polly, Folk Ukeand the Reverend Horton Heat.  All of this in addition to the joint tours already announced with Violent Femmes in May, Squeeze in September and additional dates still to be announced in the near future!

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, announces the continuation of two Rolling World Premieres: Apple Season by E.M. Lewis, which opens in Iowa City at Riverside Theatre (running March 29-April 20, 2019), and Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland at Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre Company (running March 29-April 21, 2019). 

New Conservatory Theatre Center Founder & Artistic Director Ed Decker announced the line-up for NCTC's 2019-20 subscription season last night at NCTC's annual Season Announcement Party for subscribers, donors and artists.

Three sisters bond over broken hearts and new hopes in a small Southern town in 1981.

Crossroads Theatre Company and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) are presenting a co-production of Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies at NJPAC, 1 Center Street in Newark, Thursday, March 21 - Sunday, March 24, 2019. Click here to purchase tickets.

The buzz around La Jolla's new musical Diana, about the life of Princess Diana, has been growing. Now, director Christopher Ashley and choreographer Kelly Devine are chatting with KPBS News about the show's journey, and how they've gotten to explore the famed Princess's message.

This week's decluttering is only freeing up a tiny bit of space in my collection, but it represents an enormous place in my heart. The only version of The Wiz I have on CD is the AMAZING/IF YOU DON'T KNOW IT, YOU'RE NOT A REAL BROADWAY FAN original cast album starring Stephanie Mills. I do have the movie soundtrack in my iTunes and the soundtrack of 'The Wiz Live!' is on Apple Music, so let's dive in.

PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES is a Tony nominated 1981 musical written by the performance group of the same name. The group, Pump Boys and Dinettes, consisted of John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. The members also jointly directed and starred in the original Broadway production. The show is basically a series of standalone songs rather than a conventional story tied together with music. The book for this musical is very thin and really only exists to get to the next song. Each song represents some element of small-town life: the sacredness of fishing, the fun of owning a pair of "Drinkin Shoes," and other assorted blue collar tales including growing up with with their grandma, whom they called Mamaw. The company tosses off 21 short-form songs with performances that harken back to simpler, more straight forward times with good natured knee-slapping, song, dance and humor. They shatter the fourth wall by talking directly to the audience and eventually coming right out into it and the end result is a refreshing blast from the past.

From Wednesday, February 6 through Thursday, February 14 BAM presents Race, Sex & Cinema: The World of Marlon Riggs, the first stop in an ongoing, international celebration of the groundbreaking artist. Riggs (1957-94) was an American filmmaker, professor, poet, and gay rights activist, who wrote, produced, and directed provocative, formally innovative meditations on representation, race, gender, and sexual identity in American culture. Organized by BAM's senior repertory and specialty film programmer Ashley Clark in collaboration with documentary filmmaker and longtime Riggs collaborator Vivian Kleiman, the series marks the 25th anniversary of Riggs' death from AIDS-related complications, and the 30th anniversary of the premiere of his landmark work, Tongues Untied, a poetic reflection on the experiences of black, gay men in America.

When the Broadway debut of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along closed in 1981 after only 16 performances, few would have thought that the story of Merrily was only just beginning. In the coming decades, Merrily would continue to captivate audiences revival after revival, growing and evolving every step of the way. It is quite the testament to the enduring power of Sondheim that this musical, so many years after an initial failure, not only still captures imaginations, but continues to be shaped by them as well.

Current Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee Todd Rundgren will be embarking on the world's first hybrid concert/book tour this spring, highlighting both his hits as well as "deep tracks" spanning his 50-year career.

To some, FRANKE & THE KNOCKOUTS was that '80s band led by the Jersey guy who would go on to win the Academy Award and Golden Globe for writing Dirty Dancing's iconic theme song, “(I've Had) The Time of My Life.”

On this day in 1981, Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along opened on Broadway!

Hulu has announced the titles that are coming and going in November. Please note titles and dates are subject to change.

Tom Petty's career-spanning box set, An American Treasure, enters the Billboard Top 200 chart at #9, marking his 13th top 10 album, and it is the #1 Rock Album. The collection is available for purchase HERE. 

Award-winning actor, writer, director, producer, polymath and advocate for science communication Alan Alda has been named the 55th recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Alda will be presented the performers union's top accolade at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, at 8 p.m. (ET)/ 5 p.m. (PT).

The video for “Gainesville”—a previously unreleased song on the Tom Petty career-spanning box set An American Treasure—is premiering today. “Gainesville” was recorded in 1998 during Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' Echo sessions, and the video was directed by Brantley Gutierrez and produced by Michael W. Abbott with Subtractive Inc. Watch HERE.

The Nashville Association of Talent Directors (NATD) has announced six highly-respected honorees who will be recognized at the 8th Annual NATD Honors Gala scheduled for November 7, 2018, at the Hermitage Hotel. Tickets for the gala can be purchased here.

Prepare for an illuminating journey when The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival holds its inaugural event featuring a lineup of science fiction, horror, fantasy, surrealist and virtual reality films, music and stage performances and panel discussions set to explore the altered states of consciousness and truth behind the vibrant and enduring psychedelic culture. The week-long gathering will feature musical performances by Simon Boswell with The AND, Psychic Ills, Heaven, Michael Tapper, Roosevelt Island and Nosh alongside appearances by researchers Dr. Dennis McKenna, Robert Barnhart and other special guests notable for breakthroughs in the psychedelic community. Premiering at venues in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, the festival will run October 1-7, 2018.

Presented by a brand new Production group, 4 Leaf Music Productions, in Association with Golden Performing Arts Center, and based on a 1934 Kaufman and Hart play of the same name, this musical tells the story of three friends, Franklin, Charley, and Mary, and the progressive decadence of their bonds and their dreams. The story is told in reverse. When it begins, in 1980, they're in their 40's: Franklin, is a rich, successful, conceited and confused noted songwriter; Charley, the lyricist in the duo, has cut off ties with his partner after a nervous breakdown and Mary is a lonely alcoholic still secretly in love with Franklin from when they first met, years and years ago. As we move forward in the play but backwards in time, we see how their friendships disintegrate, along with their aspirations and Franklin's many whirlwind marriages. Rewinding through the '70s and '60s, we end up in 1957, when the three of them meet for the first time, on a rooftop in the city, all hopeful young talents per-chance gathering to watch Sputnik go by in the pre-dawn sky. The song they sing, 'Our Time' ('We're the movers, we're the shapers/ the names in tomorrow's papers'), is undercut by some very keen irony, since we've already seen how it all turns out, at the beginning.

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, proudly welcomes Cheek by Jowl (UK) and The Pushkin Theatre Moscow (Russia) with Measure for Measure. This production of Shakespeare's play by the international award-winning director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod asks vital and unsettling questions about how we are governed and, in the process, unmasks the true nature of authority, love and justice. The limited run of only six performances takes place October 24 through 28, 2018 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, located at 219 Tremont Street in downtown Boston. Tickets range from $20-$80, and may be purchased online at www.ArtsEmerson.org, by phone at 617.824.8400, or in person at the box office. Student, senior and group discounts are available.