As Chicago theaters prepare for the fall season, the city has proven itself a leader on the national theater scene. Highlighted by two consecutive Pulitzer Prizes awarded to plays generated in Chicago-Tracy Letts' August: Osage County (Steppenwolf) and Lynne Nottage's Ruined (Goodman)-the Chicago theater season is poised to launch at home, while its influence is seen on Broadway.
Robert Falls proudly names his longtime artistic collaborator Brian Dennehy-two-time Tony and Golden Globe Award winner and six-time Emmy Award nominee-the newest member of Goodman Theatre's Artistic Collective, a diverse group of outstanding American theater artists who make the Goodman their artistic home.
For the first time in its 30-year history, Red Mountain Theatre Company brings a straight play (non-musical) to their stage with The Odd Couple: Female Version February 19-March 1, 2009, at the RMTC Cabaret Theatre (301 19th Street North).
Neil Simon's contemporary classic gets a makeover in this hilarious tale of mismatched roommates. Newly separated from her husband, obsessive compulsive Florence Unger decides to move into the home of divorcee Olive Madison, currently enjoying the slovenly life as a single female. When their worlds collide, the story explodes in this laugh-out-loud comedy that takes a look at life from a different point of view.
Bessie Award-winner and beloved downtown performer Okwui Okpokwasili spins a modern folktale. A daughter attempts to construct a coherent past out of her mother's cryptic signals and signifiers. Interweaving legacy and the loss of old tongues, rituals and original songs, and a good old attempt to get a grip, Pent Up sheds new light on traditional spells and third world brothels, and transforms every scratch & win ticket into a lucky one. Directed by Peter Born.
Okwui Okpokwasili has been developing Pent-up with Peter Born through workshops and residencies with 651 ARTS, P.S. 122 and Centre National de la Danse from 2006-2007. She was a collaborator and performer in Achill in Modern Wars and Death of Nations: Heimwehen at the FFT in Dusseldorf, Germany. Most recently she performed in Annie Dorsen's Democracy in America at P.S. 122. A Bessie Award recipient for her work in the final part of Ralph Lemon's Geography Trilogy, 'Come Home Charley Patton', she continues to collaborate with Ralph Lemon.
More about Performance Space 122
Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and cross-media. Founded in 1979, Performance Space 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance. Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, P.S. 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.
Bessie Award-winner and beloved downtown performer Okwui Okpokwasili spins a modern folktale. A daughter attempts to construct a coherent past out of her mother's cryptic signals and signifiers. Interweaving legacy and the loss of old tongues, rituals and original songs, and a good old attempt to get a grip, Pent Up sheds new light on traditional spells and third world brothels, and transforms every scratch & win ticket into a lucky one. Directed by Peter Born.
Okwui Okpokwasili has been developing Pent-up with Peter Born through workshops and residencies with 651 ARTS, P.S. 122 and Centre National de la Danse from 2006-2007. She was a collaborator and performer in Achill in Modern Wars and Death of Nations: Heimwehen at the FFT in Dusseldorf, Germany. Most recently she performed in Annie Dorsen's Democracy in America at P.S. 122. A Bessie Award recipient for her work in the final part of Ralph Lemon's Geography Trilogy, 'Come Home Charley Patton', she continues to collaborate with Ralph Lemon.
More about Performance Space 122
Performance Space 122 is New York's ultimate destination for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and cross-media. Founded in 1979, Performance Space 122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists whose work challenges the traditional boundaries of dance, theatre, music, and performance. Committed to exploring innovative form as well as material, P.S. 122 is steadfast in its search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures and points of view.
Roundabout Theatre Company presents a new Broadway production of Hedda Gabler, starring Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Paul Sparks and Peter Stormare. Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen with a new adaptation by Christopher Shinn, is directed by Ian Rickson at the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd Street). The cast also includes Lois Markle, Ana Reeder and Helen Carey. Hedda Gabler officially opened on Sunday, January 25th, 2009. This is a limited engagement through March 29th, 2009. Mary-Louise Parker stars as 'Hedda Gabler' in this new interpretation of Henrik Ibsen's modern classic. A woman of dangerous independence restrained by a conventional marriage, Hedda Gabler indulges in a cruel game, amusing herself with the misfortune she inflicts on those around her. As Hedda struggles to balance her wild desires against her chosen life, she sets into motion a manic chain of events that bring her story to a chilling end. Roundabout Theatre Company has produced a number of Henrik Ibsen's plays including Hedda Gabler (1994, Broadway), An Enemy of the People (1985), The Master Builder (1983), Hedda Gabler (1981), Little Eyolf (1979), John Gabriel Borkman (1976), Rosmersholm (1974) and The Master Builder (1971).
The Open Fist Theatre Company presents Moss Hart's classic and timeless comedy, LIGHT UP THE SKY which will be directed by Bj?rn Johnson. LIGHT UP THE SKY will preview on Saturday, January 10 at 8pm; Sunday, January 11 at 3pm and Thursday, January 15 at 8pm and will open on Friday, January 16 at 8pm and run through Saturday, March 7 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.
The Open Fist Theatre Company presents Moss Hart's classic and timeless comedy, LIGHT UP THE SKY which will be directed by Bj?rn Johnson. LIGHT UP THE SKY will preview on Saturday, January 10 at 8pm; Sunday, January 11 at 3pm and Thursday, January 15 at 8pm and will open on Friday, January 16 at 8pm and run through Saturday, March 7 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.
The Open Fist Theatre Company presents Moss Hart's classic and timeless comedy, LIGHT UP THE SKY which will be directed by Bj?rn Johnson. LIGHT UP THE SKY will preview on Saturday, January 10 at 8pm; Sunday, January 11 at 3pm and Thursday, January 15 at 8pm and will open on Friday, January 16 at 8pm and run through Saturday, March 7 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.
ECSTASY covers the lives of four blue-collar friends living in 1979 London and the drunken frustration in their lives, namely that of Jean, who struggles to escape the confines of her life and the people in it. While ECSTASY speaks to a very specific time and place, the socio-economic despairs and frustrations facing each character make the story universal and timeless; especially on the eve of our own financial crisis.
ECSTASY covers the lives of four blue-collar friends living in 1979 London and the drunken frustration in their lives, namely that of Jean, who struggles to escape the confines of her life and the people in it. While ECSTASY speaks to a very specific time and place, the socio-economic despairs and frustrations facing each character make the story universal and timeless; especially on the eve of our own financial crisis.
Performance Space 122 presents the world premiere of LEWIS FOREVER: Freak the Room. LEWIS FOREVER is the incredibly talented, hyper-charismatic multinational performing family - think the Von Trapps - but infinitely hipper. Depending on how you slice it, LEWIS FOREVER is comprised of three sisters and a brother; a director, two dancers and a musician; a family living half in New York and half in Berlin; half Dominican and half Jewish American; a performance collective and a bloodline. What happens when these sexy siblings get together and create performance events is highly combustible. This time out, they fuse dance, theatre, music and video to investigate and subvert the fiction of cultural and familial identification. In other words, they freak it - and just about anything that is or isn't nailed down. In LEWIS FOREVER: Freak the Room, there is play and there is fantasy. There is sex and violence. There's even an impostor who tests their relationships to each other and to their actions. LEWIS FOREVER's home lies between continents, identities and meanings - Performance Space 122 is their living room, and they will freak it. Individually they are George, Isabel, Sarah, and Ligia but together they are a performance collective fusing theatre, dance, experimental music, visual and performance arts. They embody ideas, and questions that surround collective versus individual vision, emigration, post-American identity, 'transnationalism', belonging, and dislocation. LEWIS FOREVER has been presented by AUNTS in Brooklyn and by Epic, FUEL, and LaborGras in Berlin.
Internationally acclaimed discipline-bending WaxFactory finally returns home to N.Y.C., after three years and sold-out runs in Europe, Latin America and Australia, to present the world premiere of its latest original creation, BLIND.NESS (Love is a four-letter word), an in depth and daring examination of what happens when love goes terribly wrong.
Internationally acclaimed discipline-bending WaxFactory finally returns home to N.Y.C., after three years and sold-out runs in Europe, Latin America and Australia, to present the world premiere of its latest original creation, BLIND.NESS (Love is a four-letter word), an in depth and daring examination of what happens when love goes terribly wrong.
Sarah Uriarte Berry, Tony winner Chuck Cooper, award-winning vocalist Scott Coulter, and Broadway favorites John Tracey Egan, Jason Graae and Max Von Essen join Emily Skinner, Jeff McCarthy, Terri Klausner, Noah Racey, Lorin Latarro and Melinda Sullivan as The Town Hall is pleased to present the final production of its 2007-2008 Broadway by the Year series with Broadway By The Year 1979 on Monday, June 16th at 8PM.
The Town Hall is pleased to present the final production of its 2007-2008 Broadway by the Year series with Broadway by the Year 1979 on Monday, June 16th at 8PM says Executive and Artistic Director Lawrence Zucker. Broadway By The Year is created, written and hosted by Scott Siegel for The Town Hall, now in it's 8th season.
The smash hit West End musical 'CHICAGO' is extending its booking period by five months until 30 July 2009.
Suzanne Shaw, winner of the recent ITV television series 'Dancing on Ice', will return to the West End stage to star as 'Roxie Hart' in 'CHICAGO' at the Cambridge Theatre on Monday 2 June. Alongside her, Anna Jane Casey will star as 'Velma Kelly', Terence Maynard as 'Billy Flynn', Victor McGuire as 'Amos Hart' and Sue Kelvin as 'Mama Morton'.
The London production of 'CHICAGO' has just celebrated its tenth anniversary with a Charity Gala Performance, which took place on Wednesday 5 December. The smash hit West End musical 'CHICAGO' transferred from the Adelphi Theatre to the Cambridge Theatre in April 2006. The Cambridge Theatre was the London home of 'CHICAGO', when the first production of the show opened there on 10 April 1979, running for 603 performances. 'CHICAGO' became the longest running production ever to play at the Adelphi Theatre on 17 October 2005, replacing the previous record holder 'Me and My Girl', which had run for 3,303 performances.
'CHICAGO' opened at the Adelphi Theatre on 18 November 1997 to rave reviews and immediately became a sell-out hit. 'CHICAGO' won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for 'Outstanding Musical Production' as well as the 1998 Critics Circle Drama Award for 'Best Musical'. Currently playing in New York, with forthcoming productions planned in Japan, Australia and South Africa, Korea, Denmark and a US National Tour, 'CHICAGO' is produced in London by the Broadway producers Barry and Fran Weissler.
'CHICAGO', which is based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Scenic design is by John Lee Beatty, costume design by William Ivey Long, lighting by Ken Billington and sound by Rick Clarke. Musical supervision is by Rob Fisher and musical direction by Ian Townsend. 'CHICAGO' is choreographed by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse and directed by Walter Bobbie. The West End production of 'CHICAGO' is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team.
Tickets for 'CHICAGO', priced from £20.00 - £52.50 (£55.00 on Saturday evenings, with a £75 VIP Package option, including interval champagne in a private room and souvenir brochure), are available from the Cambridge Theatre Box Office on 0844 412 4652. Performance times at the Cambridge Theatre are Mondays to Thursdays at 8.00pm, with Friday performances at 4.30pm and 8.00pm and Saturday performances at 3.00pm and 8.00pm. 'CHICAGO' is now booking until 30 July 2009. Visit the 'CHICAGO' website on www.chicagothemusical.co.uk
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences screened the 1979 Best Picture nominee and Bob Fosse film 'All That Jazz' May 7 as part of the 'Great To Be Nominated' series. Cast and crew members including actors Deborah Geffner, John Lithgow and Kathryn Dody and associate producer-assistant director Wolfgang Glattes, who joined in on a post-screening discussion...
Stage and screen actress Sandy Duncan will 'coax the blues right out of the horn,' as she makes her Barrington Stage debut as the glamorous Mame Dennis in a semi-staged concert version of Jerry Herman's legendary musical 'Mame,' directed by Julianne Boyd. BSC's first fall production in its new home in Pittsfield, at 30 Union Street, will run for two weeks from October 4 through 15.
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