It's Only a Play 1986 - Articles Page 7.4

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, again presents a cast of Harvard and Yale grads in The Fifth Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata. Join us for a unique evening at Feinstein's/54 Below, with Team Harvard looking to avenge another lucky narrow victory by Team Yale. Will it be five wins in a row for Yale? Harvard has a new team captain and a new music director, and they promise a strong showing. Most of the contests in this series have been very close, and the teams are always well-matched and brimming with talent.

This taut, incendiary drama explores the emotional and societal fallout when a respected Black police officer loses his cool and in a 'split second' kills a white man: a taunting, racist petty thief.

"It's the kind of music that makes you feel regal," actress Felicia P. Fields says, describing the genius of Duke Ellington. "The word 'sophistication' isn't used as much today as it was back then. There was an elegance in the period." Fields, who is one of the stars of Maine State Music Theatre's new production of SOPHISTICATED LADIES, which runs at the Pickard Theater from June 5-22, 2019, believes that the production, directed by Marc Robin with three individual choreographers and an eleven piece orchestra perfectly captures the 1920s and 1930s and the big-band era.

For its seventh year of offering plays by contemporary Irish playwrights to Portland audiences, Corrib Theatre announces a three-show season: Eclipsed by Patricia Burke Brogan, James X by Gerard Mannix Flynn, and Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue. All three 2019-20 productions will be held at New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont St., Portland.

I had the pleasure of seeing A Bronx Tale with my friend Cassy, who had NEVER seen a musical before! (I know, right?!) I invited Cassy because the 1993 movie, off which the musical is based, is her favorite. Seriously, her cat is named Calogero, after the lead character in both the movie and the play. I was excited to see this show, and especially excited to see it through the eyes of a neophyte theater goer. I was not disappointed!

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!

SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the New England premiere of the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award-winner for Outstanding Play (tie), Jocelyn Bioh's SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MAN GIRLS PLAY, directed by Summer L. Williams. A Ghanaian-American playwright, Bioh sets the play in 1986 at a top boarding school in Ghana. The action centers on self-anointed queen bee Paulina (Ireon Roach) who aspires to win the Miss Ghana Beauty Pageant in order to represent her country in the coveted Miss Global Universe Pageant. When Headmistress Francis (Crystin Gilmore) introduces Ericka (Victoria Byrd), a new student from Ohio, just before the audition, Paulina is unexpectedly faced with a formidable challenger, not just for the competition, but also for the attentions and loyalty of her crew.

Just announced! Alan Parsons Live Project Will Play The VETS in Providence for one night only: Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 7:30pm. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 3rd at noon.

Steve Martin and Martin Short will bring their critically acclaimed comedy tour Now You See Them, Soon You Won't for the first time to Australian and New Zealand audiences in November. This celebrated comedy show redefines the form in unexpected and profound ways, from two of the funniest, most influential and acclaimed talents of the past century. The duo will be joined on stage by Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band The Steep Canyon Rangers. Tickets for Now You See Them, Soon You Won't go on sale Tuesday, 7 May. To purchase, please visit ticketek.com.au. The Sydney show will be part of the Just For Laughs Sydney Comedy Festival.

 In celebration of Stonewall's 50th Anniversary, Candid Theater Company, Judson Memorial Church, The Greenwich Village Orchestra, The West Village Chorale, MJP Theatrical, Metro Baptist Church, The NAMES Project Foundation/NAMES Memorial AIDS Quilt, and NYC Pride 2019 | WorldPride NYC | Stonewall50 have partnered to present a community-led professional presentation of QUILT, A MUSICAL CELEBRATION to benefit the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and Frontline AIDS (formerly the International HIV/AIDS Alliance).

The Worst Witch will fly into the West End for 7 weeks only, over the summer holidays, from 24 July * to 8 September (*all tickets for the 24 July performance are just £20.00!) following its hugely successful premiere at Royal & Derngate and hit UK tour. This new story, adapted for the stage from Jill Murphy's original books by Emma Reeves (who won a Royal Television Society Award for Best Children's TV Programme and 2017 British Screenwriters Award for Best Children's Programme for the televised version of The Worst Witch) was launched last November as Royal & Derngate's Made in Northampton 2018 Christmas show.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the Broadway play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson for 15 performances May 15 to June 2, 2019 (press opening is Friday, May 17).  The time is 1959, a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday's last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers - including "What a Moonlight Can Do," "Crazy He Calls Me," "Easy Living," "Strange Fruit," "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do," and "God Bless the Child" -- are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

Theatre Arlington is proud to present the compelling military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin. Before his 1992 movie received worldwide praise and recognition, Sorkin's play, which he wrote on cocktail napkins while bartending, opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City in November 1989 and ran until January 1991. So strong was his dialogue and characters that the film rights were sold before his play even opened.

The Broadway production of Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac's new comedy Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus will begin previews this evening, 8 p.m., at Broadway's Booth Theatre. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association 2019 New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2018.

As Theatre Memphis looks toward its 100th anniversary in the 2020-21 season, it has made its play selections for an upcoming abbreviated season to run through 2019 to accommodate the expansion and upgrade plans to the facility to celebrate the century mark.

A fraternity of alternative British rock bands led by acoustic pioneers The Alarm, post punk auteurs Modern English, and the charismatic Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel have announced they will take to the road throughout North America this summer 2019. See initial dates below.

The Castillo Theatre (Dan Friedman, artistic director; John Rankin, associate managing director) is proud to announce that it will produce a revival of the 1991 play by Fred Newman, Billie, Malcolm & Yusuf, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Yusuf Hawkins' murder in 1989.  Billie, Malcolm & Yusuf will be directed by award-winning director, Gabrielle Kurlander.  The production includes blues and rap music. The Castillo Theatre is located at 543 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. Performances are between February 15 and March 17, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:00 p.m.

As 2018 wrapped up, I was able to sneak in one final show. That show was my 55th show that I saw this year and it was at the lovely Old Log Theatre. This show is one that I've heard of many many times but had never gotten the chance to read or even see produced. I was beyond thrilled to finally see the farcical comedy Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig.

TEMAN (Teater Musikal Nusantara), an Indonesian professional musical theatre company founded by alumni of LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, held their first musical production: Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS. The two-day run consisted of three sold out shows at the Salihara blackbox theater in Jakarta.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents the New York Premiere of C.I.C.T. - Theatre du Bouffes du Nord's The Prisoner, continuing Peter Brook's 40-year-long collaboration with playwright/director Marie-Helene Estienne.  

Tim Rice welcomes the re-imagining of CHESS, and uniquely encourages it. The lyricist has said he knows the musical that premiered in 1986 on the West End is problem-plagued. Continues to refer to CHESS as a work in progress, he suggests exploration and and alterations.

Any teenage girl enrolled in any secondary school around the world can tell you how they were tormented or teased by other girls for some reason, be it their weight, height, hair, or lack of the latest hip clothing to wear. Based only on physical appearance, little regard was paid by the most popular Queen Bee to the real circumstances of others' lives which prevented others from living up to her unrealistic expectations of those she was willing to call 'friends' in her inner circle. I can certainly remember being excluded from the more popular groups of friends in high school, not only for my weight but for my lack of interest in boys and obsession with The Beatles. Think back and I bet you can remember similar experiences you lived through or how you made fun of others you perceived as not being worthy of your inner circle friendship.

The second production of Pride Films and Plays's 2018-19 season will be IT'S ONLY A PLAY, by Terrence McNally. McNally is arguably Broadway's most prolific gay male playwright, with 20 Broadway credits to his name, plus many other plays produced off-Broadway.

The Hungarian State Opera (HSO), one of the world's busiest opera companies, comes to the United States this fall for the first time ever, presenting four operas by Hungarian composers, including two U.S. premieres, at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, October 30 to November 3. This week of opera is followed by another week of performances presented by the Hungarian National Ballet, November 6 to 11, as well as an opera and ballet gala on November 4 and the Carnegie Hall debut of the HSO Orchestra on November 5. These U.S. performances build upon the HSO's rich history of touring, which stretches back 100 years and includes performances in numerous European capitals including Amsterdam, Helsinki, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, and Vienna, and in countries including Canada, China, Egypt, Japan (ten times), Mexico, Taiwan, and Peru. Ongoing renovations to the Hungarian State Opera House have presented an opportunity for increased touring this season, including the chance to introduce American audiences to the company and its repertoire, much of it rarely seen or heard.