The musical comedy takes place in turn-of-the-century Paris, where La Mome Pistache, proud owner of the Bal du Paradis, famous for its sexy can-can girls, spars with Aristide Forestier, a self-righteous judge determined to close all Parisian dance halls.
The Museum of Modern Art presents Performing Histories: Live Artworks Examining the Past, a performance series held in conjunction with two exhibitions at MoMA: Tokyo 1950-1970: A New Avant-Garde (November 18, 2012, to February 25, 2013) and Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925 (December 23, 2012, to April 15, 2013). These performances constitute 'live' responses to the contexts of the two exhibitions, highlighting various artistic methods of engaging with history through a wide range of forms-dance, music, theater, and performance art. The series includes works by Eiko & Koma, Ei Arakawa, Trajal Harrell, contact Gonzo, Kelly Nipper with Japanther, and Fabian Barba.
Based on the hit DreamWorks film and the incredible true story that inspired it, the first national tour of the high-flying Broadway musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN will land in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music for a limited engagement Jan. 15 - 20. The press opening is scheduled for Tues. Jan. 15 at 7:30 pm.
World-class jazz pianist Hal Schaefer died this past Saturday morning, December 8, at his home in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He was 88 years old and still active.
Tonight, December 8 at 7:30pm, the Bang on a Can All-Stars will return to the Japan Society (333 East 47th Street) to perform Rimpa Reimagined, a multimedia program unveiling world premieres by red-hot New York-based composer/jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and celebrated Japanese post-minimalist composer Mamoru Fujieda.
The Old Globe will open its 2013-14 Season with the world premiere of The Honeymooners, a new musical based on the legendary CBS television series. 2012 Tony Award winner Michael McGrath (Nice Work If You Can Get It) will star as Ralph Kramden, the small-time bus driver with big-time dreams. Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde) will direct and choreograph the musical comedy, with book by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss, music by Stephen Weiner and lyrics by Peter Mills.
Here in Baltimore, it seems to be Bus Stop season. It's been less than a month since I reviewed the Spotlighters' community theater production of the William Inge 1955 classic; now it's Center Stage's turn. And of course Center Stage (or is it Centerstage these days?) gives it a full-dress professional staging. The difference is surprisingly great.
LAByrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble presents the World Premiere production of Radiance, written by Cusi Cram and directed by Suzanne Agins. The complete cast includes Kelly AuCoin (Julius Caesar, Julie & Julia) and Ana Reeder (Top Girls, Sight Unseen), as well as Labyrinth Company Members Kohl Sudduth (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Take Me Out) and Aaron Roman Weiner (Thinner Than Water, The Glass Menagerie). The production opened on Friday night, Novemebr 16, and you can check out photos from the celebration below!
On the heels of its record-breaking 2012 Summer Season, Williamstown Theatre Festival will pay tribute to Abe Burrows, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and director, at its 2012 Benefit, to be held tonight, November 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Edison Ballroom in New York City (240 West 47th Street), it was announced today. The evening will feature performances by recent Williamstown Theatre Festival alumni David Hyde Pierce (director of last season's The Importance of Being Earnest), Steven Pasquale and Kelli O'Hara (WTF's Far From Heaven), Greg Naughton, Malcolm Gets (WTF's Ten Cents a Dance) and more.
On Saturday, December 8 at 7:30pm, the Bang on a Can All-Stars will return to the Japan Society (333 East 47th Street) to perform Rimpa Reimagined, a multimedia program unveiling world premieres by red-hot New York-based composer/jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and celebrated Japanese post-minimalist composer Mamoru Fujieda.
On the heels of its record-breaking 2012 Summer Season, Williamstown Theatre Festival will pay tribute to Abe Burrows, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and director, at its 2012 Benefit, to be held on Sunday, November 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Edison Ballroom in New York City (240 West 47th Street), it was announced today. The evening will feature performances by recent Williamstown Theatre Festival alumni David Hyde Pierce (director of last season's The Importance of Being Earnest), Steven Pasquale and Kelli O'Hara (WTF's Far From Heaven), Greg Naughton, Malcolm Gets (WTF's Ten Cents a Dance) and more.
The flaws I've mentioned are real, but are far from detracting altogether from the enjoyment Bus Stop has to offer. Inge not only speaks up for crazy love, but for rustics who in their own ways are crazy like foxes in their pursuit of it. Crazy like a fox is usually good, especially when presented by as fine an ensemble as The Spotlighters have assembled here.
Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre presents an all-new sizzling production of GUYS AND DOLLS opening tonight, October 30, and playing through Sunday, November 11. With its unforgettable songs and a cast of gamblers, gals and gangsters, GUYS AND DOLLS is musical entertainment you can bet on. Press night is scheduled for October 31 at 7:30pm.
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and this year's nominations longlist has just been announced. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, this year's shortlist will be announced on November 12 and the winners revealed on November 25.
Onstage November 1-18 at Playhouse Mainstage, Flat Rock Playhouse presents Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of Tennessee Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year and has since been seen regularly on stages across the country. Set in the steamy Mississippi Delta,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof takes us deep into Tennessee Williams country, geographically and psychologically. Directed by Tony Award winning director Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Broadway Revival of Ragtime) and starring Barbara Bradshaw (Big Mama), J. Kenneth Campbell (Big Daddy), Preston Dyar Gooper/Brother Man), Robert Eli (Brick), Michael MacCauley (Doc Baugh), Erin Maguire (Mae/Sister Woman), Scott Treadway (Reverend Tooker) and Adria Vitlar (Margaret); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof swelters with the fire of longing for that illusive shade of happiness. The fierce currents of discontent, jealousy, and mendacity that surge through this piece leave the viewer to fend for himself on an emotional and gripping roller coaster.
Bill Hanney's award winning North Shore Music Theatre presents an all-new sizzling production of GUYS AND DOLLS opening October 30, and playing through Sunday, November 11. With its unforgettable songs and a cast of gamblers, gals and gangsters, GUYS AND DOLLS is musical entertainment you can bet on. Press night is scheduled for October 31 at 7:30pm.
Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell are thrilled to announce the cast of "Beat Generation" by Jack Kerouac. Directed by Charles Towers, Kerouac's long-lost play will finally be heard for the first-time in his hometown as the centerpiece of the 2012 Jack Kerouac Literary Festival. Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased at MRT.org or by calling the MRT box office at 978-654-4678. "Beat Generation" runs for eight performances only Oct. 10 through Oct. 14.
Back in 2008 Seattle audiences were treated to the pre-Broadway tryout of what would become the 2010 Tony award winner for best musical, "Memphis" by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan. And as amazing as the show was back then, the current production at the 5th Avenue Theatre shows how much better it got since it left us and how good American musical theater can be.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's PIPE DREAM, recorded live at New York City Center's Encores! series in March, will be released by Ghostlight Records on September 18. Produced by Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, this preservation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's 1955 Broadway musical rarity marks the first time an Encores! musical has been recorded live.
Kansas City's premiere outdoors theater presents Cathy Rigby in PETER PAN as part of their summer 2012 Broadway Season. The show will perform from tonight, July 24th through the 29th, at 8 PM. Other shows included in summer line-up are IN THE HEIGHTS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY MEMPHIS, AIDA, and LA CAGE AUX FOLLIES. Tickets for PETER PAN are available by calling the box office, or online at www.kcstarlight.com. More information on the production starring Cathy Rigby can be found at www.cathyrigbyispeterpan.com.
On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.
Probably the golden age of musical theatre in the US was from 1950 to 1960. Great scripts like King and I, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story were staged. Also produced were such flops as Salad Days, Zuleika, Ankles Away, The Vamp, ShaNgri-La, Shinbone Alley, and Free As Air. Most shows were of the neither great nor flop variety. These included the likes of Call Me Madam, Guys and Dolls, Paint Your Wagon, Can-Can, Wonderful Town, Fanny, and The Pajama Game. Also included in the list was DAMN YANKEES, now on stage at Porthouse Theatre.
Roland Auctions of New York City will be selling the estate of legendary playwright, director, and screenwriter, Arthur Laurents on Saturday, June 2, 2012. Mr. Laurents, whose credits include West Side Story, Gypsy, La Cage Aux Folles, Hallelujah, Baby and The Way We Were, amongst many others, had a long and distinguished career, both on Broadway and in Hollywood. See photos below for sample pieces available as well as as list of items slated to be auctioned.
Damn Yankees is headed to The 5th Avenue Theatre! This musical comedy is the story of an aging baseball fan who makes a deal with the Devil so his beloved hometown team can beat the Yankees in the race for the pennant. From the songwriting team of The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees is filled with hit songs including "Two Lost Souls" and the sultry favorite, "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets." The Paper Mill Playhouse production will slide into Seattle this April. The creative team includes direction by Mark S. Hoebee (Paper Mill's Producing Artistic Director), music direction by Ben Whiteley, and choreography by Denis Michael Jones.
A humorous and thought-provoking journey into nostalgia, Maple and Vine begins with a fun, relaxing first act that follows a couple's decision to join a sort of "cult" community that chooses to live in 1955 every year. But don't let the first half fool you, the 50s weren't as perfect as they seem on television, and this play quickly escalates into a second act with shocking changes, F-words thrown loosely about in sexually provocative (and likely offensive to some) manners, and exaggerated kisses from two main characters.
Kansas City's premiere outdoors theater is set to present Cathy Rigby in PETER PAN as part of their summer 2012 Broadway Season. The show will perform from July 24th through the 29th, at 8 PM. Other shows included in summer line-up are IN THE HEIGHTS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY MEMPHIS, AIDA, and LA CAGE AUX FOLLIES. Tickets for PETER PAN are available by calling the box office, or online at www.kcstarlight.com. More information on the production starring Cathy Rigby can be found at www.cathyrigbyispeterpan.com.
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