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 original Broadway cast album of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along is one of those handful of recordings - like Mack and Mabel and Candide - that a musical theatre lover can listen to hundreds of times without hearing a clue as to why the show flopped. The quick answer, and usually the most unfair one, is 'the book.' More often, though, the more complete answer is ambition.
Francesca Woodman, the most comprehensive exhibition of the artist's work since Woodman's untimely death in 1981 at the age of 22, will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from March 16 through June 13, 2012.
The 1981 Arthur and the 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair, later remade in versions critically received far less enthusiastically than the originals , brings in the new year on Reel 13, THIRTEEN's weekly movie showcase for classic, short and independent films, Saturday at 9 p.m.
Today we are taking a look at the very best theatre-related entities in a variety of different categories - books, music, television, film, and, of course, theatre - as we look back on 2011 and all of the many marvelous moments of excitement, passion, joy and exultation that only theatre and theatre-related projects can possibly hope to provide. From Stephen Sondheim's LOOK, I MADE A HAT on the bookshelves of every Broadway baby worth their weight in sequins to Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone in Sondheim's COMPANY on the big screen courtesy of Fathom to the stunning Broadway revival of FOLLIES starring Bernadette Peters and its tremendous new cast album, all the way to the thrills and chills of Andrew Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL on the big screen and Blu-ray to the BOOK OF MORMON breaking Broadway records and even TV's best drama and comedy, both from mastermind Ryan Murphy - GLEE and AMERICAN HORROR STORY. Plus, we also have top film picks in the categories of Drama and Comedy, as well as the best of the best of them all, with Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic masterpiece MELANCHOLIA, George Clooney's play adaptation THE IDES OF MARCH and the 80s music video stylized thriller/drama DRIVE topping the list. All of that and a whole lot more awaits in this all-encompassing look back at the theatrical highlights in all entertainment realms in 2011, as well as a look ahead to what we cannot wait for in 2012!
Today, BroadwayWorld is extremely proud to present an extensive conversation with the modern master of the musical theatre himself, Stephen Sondheim, all about the incredibly revealing and thoroughly riveting second volume of his complete collected (and annotated) lyrics (covering 1981-2011) - following last year's superlative FINISHING THE HAT - titled LOOK, I MADE A HAT. With ample insights pertaining to the Pulitzer Prize-winning SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, INTO THE WOODS, ROAD SHOW, THE FROGS and many more, Sondheim and I also discuss some of his Hollywood endeavors - the proposed film adaptation of INTO THE WOODS, as well as the never-produced SINGING OUT LOUD and his Oscar-winning work for Warren Beatty's DICK TRACY - and his affection for - and process of adapting (in the case of WEST SIDE STORY, the CYMBELINE setting in THE FROGS and his recent scoring of the Public Theatre's production of KING LEAR starring Kevin Kline) - the works of William Shakespeare. Additionally, we discuss the upcoming Encores! revival of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the currently-running revival of FOLLIES starring Bernadette Peters (as well as its brand new cast album), the West End transfer of the Michael Ball/Imelda Staunton-led SWEENEY TODD in the UK and much, much more!
The music harvest is bountiful at VH1 this Thanksgiving with exclusive events featuring today's biggest artists! Beginning Wednesday, November 23 at 10PM*, music lovers can begin their Thanksgiving feast with a hearty portion of music by their favorite artists with the world television premiere of Clear Channel's 'iHeartRadio Music Festival' taped September 23rd and 24th, 2011at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Together, the performers in the Capitol Steps have worked in a total of 18 Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective experience on House and Senate staffs. Their renditions of our 'favorite' politicians are hilarious and on the cutting edge. Nothing and no one is sacred. Since they began in 1981, the Capitol Steps have recorded over 30 albums and been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS, and can be heard four times year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during the Politics Takes a Holiday radio specials.
Due to the immense popularity for Performance Network's upcoming production of 'Ain't Misbehavin' - the Fats Waller Musical,' the theatre's administration has made the decision to convert the preview Saturday performance on November 12 at 8pm into 'pay-what-you-can.'
Together, the performers in the Capitol Steps have worked in a total of 18 Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective experience on House and Senate staffs. Their renditions of our 'favorite' politicians are hilarious and on the cutting edge. Nothing and no one is sacred. Since they began in 1981, the Capitol Steps have recorded over 30 albums and been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS, and can be heard four times year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during the Politics Takes a Holiday radio specials.
Winner of the1992 Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score of a Musical, Falsettos should also have walked away with honors as Best Musical. The show has it all: beautiful music by William Finn, great storytelling by Finn and James Lapine and a message for the ages about love, in all of its forms. Is it because of its size - with only a two person orchestra - that it lost Best Musical? Inconceivable, for any reason! Currently on stage at the Third Street Theatre, Richard Israel's astoundingly staged production brings the kind of joy that is at once fun-filled and heartwarming. Divided into March of the Falsettos - Act I (1979) and Falsettoland - Act II (1981), the play allows the audience to experience pre-Aids, and then its onslaught and ultimate devastating affects on the world.
The cult classic movie, Evil Dead, turns 30 this year and The Ringwald/Who Wants Cake? and Olympia Entertainment are celebrating the film's world premiere which took place in Detroit in 1981 by bringing the hilariously bloody homage, Evil Dead: The Musical, back to the City.
Seventy-three years after its Broadway premiere, Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Knickerbocker Holiday can finally be heard in its first full recording, released on CD by Ghostlight Records on June 28, 2011.
"I can tell you that sometimes you have to wait fifty years and sometimes it comes in a year, but whenever it comes," then, the most dramatic pause imaginable - and the smile. That's a quote from Lena Horne on the occasion of the legendary actress and singer winning her Special Tony Award for her one-woman-show LENA HORNE: THE LADY & HER MUSIC at the 1981 Tony Awards. Lady, indeed - and a tune or two, too (maybe even a song from THE WIZ!), is on the Tony Awards menu today!
On May 11th, 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber first brought his magical musical, CATS, to a theater in London's West End District where it promptly made itself at home - for the next 21 years. It hit Broadway the following year and now, "the mystical divinity of unashamed felinity" that is CATS will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this week at San Francisco's Orpheum Theater, now through May 15th. BWW sat down with Jason Wise, who plays Tumblebrutus, to talk about the magic of CATS, his character and what's next for him.
With only a week to go, The Make A Difference Trust is proud to announce the spectacular line up for its 4th annual West End Eurovision event at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 21st April.
The show, which is now almost completely sold out, will be hosted by Ms Gaby Roslin. We are further pleased to announce that our celebrity judges for the night will be Graham Norton, Sheridan Smith and Justin Lee Collins. In addition, Heart FM?s Toby Anstis will be providing VIP and Backstage interviews throughout the event. This year the Trust is excited to have The Original Bucks Fizz performing their 1981 Eurovision winner „Making Your Mind Up? as a part of their 30th anniversary celebrations.
With only a week to go, The Make A Difference Trust is proud to announce the spectacular line up for its 4th annual West End Eurovision event at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 21st April.
The show, which is now almost completely sold out, will be hosted by Ms Gaby Roslin. We are further pleased to announce that our celebrity judges for the night will be Graham Norton, Sheridan Smith and Justin Lee Collins. In addition, Heart FM?s Toby Anstis will be providing VIP and Backstage interviews throughout the event. This year the Trust is excited to have The Original Bucks Fizz performing their 1981 Eurovision winner „Making Your Mind Up? as a part of their 30th anniversary celebrations.
Today we lost one of the greats: the gentle giant of directors, Sidney Lumet. What a resume! Just to pick seven of perhaps the best known of the bunch, the bunch in question being over 100 titles strong: 12 ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - the films spanning fifty years from MEN in 1957 and DEVIL in 2007 - it is clear to see why Lumet was one of the most cherished and celebrated directors in Hollywood, especially known for his tough, gritty New York stories and his pristine stage-to-screen transfers. For an excellent example of the latter (in addition to LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and the others) check out DEATHTRAP - based on Ira Levin's play, the longest-running thriller in Broadway history - featuring Michael Caine in one of his best roles and Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in their finest performances on film. For an example of the former genre, look no further than NETWORK, containing one of the strongest screenplays ever penned, from the fiery and ferocious pen of Paddy Cheyefsky, and Faye Dunaway in her Oscar-winning performance for all the ages. As far as theatrical screenplays on screen, Lumet would be hard-pressed to even come close to the power, prescience and transformative brilliance at the core of the conceit of that film - yet he did just that; with his final, 2007 film no less. I am speaking, of course, of the underrated and riveting BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, with Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris. Taking an original screenplay that could just as well have been written for the stage - shades of 12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and SERPICO, certainly - Lumet made a bristling, biting brilliant work of staggering craft and ingenuity - all with verve, energy and drive of a man a quarter of his age at the time (80). His films were classics in his own time and, now, in his passing, they are just as timeless - if not more so. With each passing year, new layers of truth, beauty, sadness and soulfulness can be found in the countless frames in the innumerable unforgettable scenes in his many masterpieces.
On this very day in 1943, Michael DiFiglia was born in Buffalo, New York, and the world of Broadway would simply never be the same. Cutting his teeth with the accomplished choreography for A JOYFUL NOISE, PROMISES, PROMISES, SEESAW and COCO was merely the beginning of a career that would virtually rewrite and revolutionize the ways and means by which a director could yield ultimate control over a project. With COMPANY and FOLLIES, the later co-directing with Hal Prince, Bennett solidified himself as one of the most talented and brilliant choreographers of his generation and, shortly thereafter, proved with A CHORUS LINE that he was a master theatrical engineer with few, if any, peers. Worldwide success, Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize were just the gravy. Who else but Michael Bennett would then, or ever, receive - or should I say, earn - the credit "Entire Production Conceived, Produced and Directed by," besides him? While BALLROOM failed to live up to A CHORUS LINE in mostly every way, he soon after reinvented the wheel yet again with DREAMGIRLS in 1981. We never got to see his productions of CHESS and SCANDAL, both of which he was in the latter stages of developing at the time of his death in 1988. Broadway has never been the same since he's been gone. So, today, on the day following a glittering new production of COMPANY at Lincoln Center - with the complete dance sequence "Tick Tock" fully restored, now with five dancers - we take a tip of the top hat to the tops in taps, temerity and truthfulness onstage - the one and only Michael Bennett.
Cats is best viewed through fresh eyes, probably, when the wonder of the spectacle is first encountered. The show's technical wizardry, in its time mind-boggling and perhaps even revolutionary, is now old hat (although I can certainly let go of my own cynicism long enough to appreciate the very theatricality of the show) and expected. But, imagine if you will, if you know nothing about the show at all and you settle into your seat and give yourself over to the experience. Chances are - no matter how worldly or sophisticated you are - you'll find yourself just a little awestruck by Cats. It remains an important milestone in musical theater history, despite the derision of theater snobs the world over.
To create discourse about sex and age, Brava Theater presents The Oldest Profession, written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, Baltimore Waltz). Directed by Brava Company Member Evren Odcikin and musical arrangements by Angela Dwyer, this production recognizes the awareness of women playwrights and the men that support them. Vogel's commentary on aging and sex will come to life during Women's History Month and in correlation with Support Women Arts Now (SWAN) DAY on March 26th. The Oldest Profession runs March 12th through April 9th (press opening, Monday, March 14th) at Brava Theater in San Francisco's historic Mission District (2781 24th Street at York). For tickets ($10-25) and information, the public can call the Brava Theater Box Office at 415-647-2822 or visit www.brava.org.
Dundalk Community Theatre continues its 2010/11 season with Reginald Rose's stage version of Twelve Angry Men through March 6th. Individual tickets are $22 for adults, $19 for senior adults and $14 for students/DCT Actors/Children 12 and under. The CCBC Box Office between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at 443-840-2787, or visit www.ccbcmd.edu/performingarts/dct.html . The CCBC Box Office is also open two hours before each performance for ticket sales.
Lanford Wilson's Tony-nominated Fifth of July, called the 'wisest and funniest play of its generation' by the New York Times, made its Lehigh Valley debut when it opened in Civic's 19th Street Theatre on Friday, February 18th. Fifth of July will close Sunday, February 27th, with eight total performances. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting www.CivicTheatre.com, calling 610.432.8943 or going to Civic's Box Office at 527 N 19th Street in Allentown between 10 and 4 on weekdays.
Dundalk Community Theatre continues its 2010/11 season with Reginald Rose's stage version of Twelve Angry Men from February 25th - March 6th.
Dundalk Community Theatre continues its 2010/11 season with Reginald Rose's stage version of Twelve Angry Men from February 25th - March 6th.
"Museum as Hub: The Accords" is a multipart project exploring new forms of curatorial practice and international collaboration. Building on experimentation,
critique, and play, the exhibition proposes new terms for agreement and considers whether an "accord" can inspire new methods of communication and production, and perhaps lead to new approaches to exhibition making in the process.
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