Can-Can Revival 1981 - Articles Page 26

A new coroner's report on the 1981 death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood suggests her injuries could be more consistent with an assault than an accident, CBS News Senior Correspondent John Miller revealed today, Jan. 14, 2013, on CBS THIS MORNING on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM - 9:00 AM). Watch the interview in full below.

Back in 1981, OpenStage Theatre first staged the uproarious Bullshot Crummond, a farce that apparently tickled Fort Collins funny bone so memorably audiences voted to bring it back for the company's 40th anniversary season.

Perseverance Theatre Artistic Associates Shona Strauser and Bostin Christopher team up for the first time on Betrayal by Harold Pinter. Strauser plays Emma and Christopher directs in this first ever production of Pinter at Perseverance. The show plays from Jan. 11-Feb. 3, 2013 on the Perseverance Theatre Mainstage. Tickets are available now through Hearthside Books, at the JACC, online at perseverancetheatre.org or by calling 907-463-TIXS (8497). There are two Pay-As-You-Can Performances on Sunday, January 13 and Wednesday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m. and one Pay-As-You-Can Preview on Wednesday, January 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Back in 1981, OpenStage Theatre first staged the uproarious Bullshot Crummond, a farce that apparently tickled Fort Collins funny bone so memorably audiences voted to bring it back for the company's 40th anniversary season.

Karole Armitage returns to New York Live Arts with the world premiere of Mechanics of the Dance Machine, her first presentation at the venue since the premiere of her groundbreaking work Drastic-Classicism at Dance Theater Workshop in 1981. Set to selections of Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra, an urban symphony by DJ/composer Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergei Prokofiev), Mechanics of the Dance Machine mixes pointe work with fractal geometry, improvisation and contemporary practices. Armitage will invite the audience onstage to experience the movement up close. Lighting cues will guide the audience as the work expands from gripping duets to pulsing group works.

Headbanging music and a story derived from a Journey song circa 1981, Rock of Ages is not your typical Broadway musical, yet it's full of energy. If you lived through the 80's era while spending hours playing top hits from groups like Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison and Europa, this is the show for you.

Halloween time is upon us, and Country Playhouse is offering audiences a spine-chilling dramatic version of Mary Shelley's classic horror tale FRANKENSTEIN. The play, penned by Victor Gialanella, met a tragic end in New York City when it flopped in 1981 after 29 previews and 1 performance. Under the direction of Philip L. Nichols, Jr. the script is brought to fascinating life, engaging the audience and entertaining them with one of the closest adaptations of the novel that I have ever seen.

The Ringwald and Olympia Entertainment are thrilled to be bringing the EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL to Detroit for its third annual engagement. In honor of the world premiere in October 1981, the musical will perform a four week engagement starting tonight, October 4th through Saturday, October 27th at 8 pm. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Detroit's City Theatre.

THE CAPITOL STEPS has been delighting audiences with political satire for over 30 years and is now something of a national institution. The group was born in December 1981 ('when Reagan was president and ketchup was a vegetable') when some Senate staffers got together to devise entertainment for their upcoming Christmas party. They came up with the novel idea of satirizing, to music, the very hands that fed them. And the rest, as they say, is history. . .

The Ringwald and Olympia Entertainment are thrilled to be bringing the EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL to Detroit for its third annual engagement. In honor of the world premiere in October 1981, the musical will perform a four week engagement starting Thursday, October 4th through Saturday, October 27th at 8 pm. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Detroit's City Theatre.

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its season of plays about our need for home and community with 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winner by Beth Henley. Solid directing and strong individual performances aren't quite enough to achieve liftoff, but wit and warmth abound.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sheryl Lee Ralph will guest star on NBC's Smash season two as Cynthia, mother of Jennifer Hudson's character Veronica Moore. Ralph starred as Deena Jones in Broadway's Dreamgirls in 1981.

The longest-running show on the Las Vegas Strip, Donn Arden's Jubilee! at Bally's Las Vegas, celebrates its 31st anniversary today, July 31, 2012, and is the last-standing quintessential showgirl show in the city. Synonymous with Las Vegas, the intrigue surrounding the iconic and ultra-glamorous showgirl remains as true today as when the show opened in 1981.

Sundance Institute today announced the acting company and creative advisors for the eight projects being developed at its 2012 Theatre Lab, July 9-29 at the Sundance Resort. Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director, and Associate Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Theatre Program's year-round work and is designed to support emerging and established artists and to create a place where their original work can be effectively mentored and challenged.

TVGuide.com reports that the cast of the long-running CBS drama series THE WALTONS will reunite in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 29. The Emmy-winning drama, set during the era of the Depression, ran on CBS from 1971-1981.

Norma Desmond sings about them "out there in the dark" in Sunset Boulevard, Lauren Bacall dealt with a particularly sinister and deranged one in her 1981 film The Fan, and virtually everyone you know who had taken to the stage in a show anywhere around the world can regale you with stories about their wild and woolly antics. "They," of course, are the fans, the audiences, the people for whom theater is presented every night.

Forget "Rock Of Ages." That 21st century musical about the 1980s has nothing on the real thing. "Cats," the show that set much of the look and tone of musical theater for the next decade or so when it opened in London in 1981 and in New York in 1982 (and began continuous touring in 1984, a record unmatched in theater history) is on display for this week only (sorry, "Now And Forever") at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre. Forget "Rock Of Ages." That 21st century musical about the 1980s has nothing on the real thing. "Cats," the show that set much of the look and tone of musical theater for the next decade or so when it opened in London in 1981 and in New York in 1982 (and began continuous touring in 1984, a record unmatched in theater history) is on display for this week only (sorry, "Now And Forever") at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre. And I, who saw the original Broadway production twice during that heady decade and have not seen the show in any form since then, was eager to go and see what the fuss was, and is, all about. So I went, Tuesday night. If you've never seen this show, if you kids have never seen it, or if you want to experience the magic of this unique theatrical masterpiece one more time, then this is a great opportunity to do so, as this is the only remaining North American production to (somewhat) accurately replicate the award-winning, record-setting British musical that took America and the world by storm thirty years ago. This tour of non-Equity performers, with its usual orchestra of five beefed up to eight for a weeklong stand (May 1-6) in a major theatrical market, has enough going for it that I highly recommend it. It's a little like entering a time machine, and there's a lot of sleight of hand, but it works. Let me explain. What is "Cats?" Much maligned by insiders, derided as dated by visual artists, underrated by dance teachers and ignored by voice teachers (save for its megahit song, "Memory," which is heard twice, but never in the sheet music version everything has heard and claims to know), it is in many ways a dichotomy. It's a dance show (choreography by Gillian Lynne) written by a singer's songwriter (Andrew Lloyd Webber), as well as a British song cycle based on poems written by a St. Louis-born English poet (T. S. Eliot) who never intended his work ("Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats," and other snippets) to be either musicalized or staged. Its plot, slight though it is, is also the subject of much derision, but to this observer is very reminiscent of "A Chorus Line," a universally revered work that does include dialogue and more depth of character, but also honors unity of time and place. However, there are indeed works that dispense with plot entirely, and which people unabashedly love (you know, revues--"Ain't Misbehavin'" comes to mind), and even shows like "Forever Plaid" and Lloyd Webber's "Starlight Express" feature heaven-going as a climax that is not entirely a surprise. So, enough complaining about there being no dramatic tension, already. But the spectacle! Is it a rock concert with dance, a dance concert with character, a makeup and hair extravaganza with arena-style lighting (still thrilling, the work of David Hersey, as recreated by Rick Belzer), a radio-friendly cast album with a decidedly British keyboard-rock spin, an intellectual set of inscrutable poems with earworm melodies, an environmental theater piece that's fun for all ages (an unmistakeable set and costume design by the remarkable John Napier)--what exactly is going on? The answer, of course, is all of the above. Oh, and it owes a lot to the English music hall tradition and to contemporary classical music, too, not to mention Puccini. Name another show that encompasses so much. Not to mention that original marketing campaign. Aside from his immature works (the children's show "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and others), Lloyd Webber's previous shows written with Tim Rice (the two nominated for the Best Revival of a Musical Tony Award this year, "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita,") were both introduced to the world via record albums and marketing campaigns that featured a logo rather than a star name and image. But "Cats" seemed to take that even further, dispensing with the concept album and zeroing in on the show AS the star. Indeed, this show has no leading roles. Really. But who can forget that moon/cats' eyes/dancer silhouette logo, and the letters of the title in color-coordinated graffiti (echoing the oversized junkyard scene design). It was exciting and revolutionary at the time, and the only shows that have done it better since then (Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera" and director Trevor Nunn's "Les Miserables," all three produced by wunderkind Cameron Mackintosh) are the only ones that have run longer in London and New York, due to the lessons they learned from the feline juggernaut before us now. It was "the birth of the musical spectacular," as Broadway In Chicago's promotional materials tell us. This particular edition of the endless "Cats" tour, directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford and featuring mostly young, recent graduates of top U.S. musical theater and dance schools, is indeed "cut down" from the total makeover that the Winter Garden Theatre in New York displayed for the 18 years it played there (1982-2000). But the "Christmas lights" that once ringed the audience do indeed extend past the proscenium arch, and the cast makes several trips out into the aisles, a nice touch. The back wall of the set does not swing down to reveal the ship's set needed for the "Growltiger's Last Stand" sequence--they use drops and a false proscenium downstage center here, and I almost liked it better. The set as a whole is not as detailed and certainly not as deep as it once was, but if you haven't seen the video of the London production, or the show as it played in the early '80s, you would be none the wiser. Sound-wise, I have to give credit to sound designer Duncan Robert Edwards, musical supervisor Kristen Blodgette and music director J. Michael Duff. I swear the show sounds better than ever, even with a smaller orchestra than originally employed. And I could understand the lyrics! The costumes and makeup design look simplified to me, though, but again, a newcomer to the proceedings wouldn't know. And do I care of part of the set is inflatable, as rumor would have it? I don't care how they get it from city to city, or how quickly they do it, but somebody does care, and they figured out a way to make it work! The floating tire and the thing that comes down from the fly space (spoiler alert?) look great, absolutely. Absolutely. The cast is led by Melissa Grohowski as Grizabella, the role made famous by Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley and carrying with it, shall we say, a certain expectation of a certain money note. Boy, does Ms. Grohowski deliver! Three people stood during the applause for the number. Bravo to Clemmons/Dewing Casting, I say! The two singing roles for the men, Old Deuteronomy and Gus/Growltiger/Bustopher Jones, are essayed here by Nathan Morgan and Christopher E. Sidori, who both acquitted themselves well and were very effective theatrically, whatever their actual ages. Among the dance roles, Daniel J. Self as the narrator Munkustrap, Chris Stevens as Rum Tum Tugger and especially Chaz Wolcott as Mistoffelees were crowd pleasers: Self with his movement detailing, Stevens with his Elvis impersonation and Wolcott with his amazing fouette turns. The cast of two dozen or so performers dances uniformly well, and sings very well, too, save for a few minor quibbles with single lines here. And there or some missing low notes that older performers would probably have no trouble with. But these are easily forgiven. Who cares if the leading lights of Broadway (Harry Groener, Terrence Mann, Anna McNeely and of course Ken Page) have been replaced in these roles by recent graduates of Wright State, SUNY-Purchase and Oklahoma City University? These energetic, disciplined performers are working their tails off (pun intended), singing like people who can't dance a lick and are basking in the glow of theater history with every city they visit. Yes, the show has moments that seem a little longwinded, and sure, it doesn't challenge your intellect as much as it challenges your wallet and your caffeine intake (it takes place at night, and everybody is dressed like a cat!). But I challenge you to remain unmoved when Grizabella begs for physical contact, when old Gus relives his moment of youthful theatrical triumph, when assorted junk becomes the train that Skimbleshanks loves, and when the sopranos of the ensemble soar on the words, "'Round the cathedral rang 'Vivat!" Come on! It's "Cats." It's eye and ear candy galore. I don't even like cats, but I do like "Cats." Very much. "Cats" plays this week only, Tuesday night through Sunday night, with additional matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph Street in Chicago. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago box offices, the Ticket Kiosk at Water Tower Place, all Ticketmaster retail outlets, by phone (800.775.2000) and online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com. Photos: Melissa Grohowski; The Cast

Team MCC (Milwaukee Childrens Choir) invites locals to join their team for UPAF Ride for the Arts. Totaling over 263,000 participants since 1981, the UPAF Ride for the Arts, sponsored by Miller Lite, is regarded as one of the nation's largest one-day recreational bike rides. Help celebrate this annual summer event, which has generated more than $7.3 million for the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF).

In a year marked by the increasing convergence of entertainment and the social and mobile Web, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) announced Spotify, HBO GO, 106 & Park, Google+, Funny or Die and Pinterest among its nominees for The 16th Annual Webby Awards.

Team MCC (Milwaukee Childrens Choir) invites locals to join their team for UPAF Ride for the Arts. Totaling over 263,000 participants since 1981, the UPAF Ride for the Arts, sponsored by Miller Lite, is regarded as one of the nation's largest one-day recreational bike rides. Help celebrate this annual summer event, which has generated more than $7.3 million for the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF).

In a year marked by the increasing convergence of entertainment and the social and mobile Web, the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) announced Spotify, HBO GO, 106 & Park, Google+, Funny or Die and Pinterest among its nominees for The 16th Annual Webby Awards.

Sundance Institute today announced the eight projects selected from nearly 900 submissions to participate in the 2012 Theatre Lab, July 9-29 at the Sundance Resort. Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director, and Associate Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Theatre Program's year-round work and is designed to support emerging and established artists and to create a place where their original work can be effectively mentored and challenged.

Dedicating her life to the friendly citizens and responsible merchants of her hometown of Richfield Minnesota ('where butter is a spice and gravy is a beverage'), Miss Richfield 1981 creates interactive format that combines homespun warmth and edgy improv.

According to the Washington Post, actress Judi Dench said that she has been diagnosed with an eye condition called macular degeneration. The condition can cause blindness. The actress said that she already had bad vision and had difficulty reading scripts.

When Martin Friedman, Artistic Director of The Lakeland Civic Theatre, announced he was staging Stephen Sondheim's ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, there were some raised eyebrows in the theatre community. Friedman is a Sondheimophile. He knows the master's works well. Why would he even adventure into Whistle land, which is fraught with land mines?