The storyline: It is evening and a mother reminds her small child to put his toy-trains away and to go to bed. In the child's dream, the locomotives come alive: It is the night of the world championships for locomotives.
The young steam locomotive Rusty, charming but definitely no longer technically up to date, appears to stand no chance against its more modern challengers, such as the macho Greaseball. This self-confident diesel locomotive rocks like Elvis and conquers the hearts of its many female fans. When Electra, an ultra-modern e-locomotive, suddenly makes its appearance, the situation seems hopeless for the young steam locomotive. Beautiful Pearl, a 1st-class coach, leaves Rusty for Electra.
Three, two, one- go! The flags come down, the lights flash and the helmets sparkle. Locomotives and their coaches are hurtling along the tracks at lightning speed. The conflict between the trains comes to a climax, since the methods used to win this international race are not always fair. Suddenly it appears, the legendary "Starlight Express", like a fiery comet's tail in the sky. The night is full of glittering stars as Rusty finds out what is most important in life: believing in yourself. He finds new courage to enter the finale - and Pearl begins to understand who her true love belongs to...
Twenty-four years ago this Fall, the Northern Kentucky Symphony, now the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra (KSO), took the stage for the first time at the newly opened Greaves Concert Hall on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. To mark the group's 25th Anniversary Season, the KSO returns to its 'Old Kentucky Home' for 4 of its 5 subscription series concerts. The orchestra, which in 1992 inadvertently mailed its first season brochure to 3,000 dogs and cats (via an Iams Pet Food mailing list), has remained true to its mission - making the symphonic concert experience - attractive, accessible and affordable for the residents of Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati.
Barbara Cook's Spotlight series, in its ninth season at the Kennedy Center this year, features Terri White tonight, October 16, 2015; Randy Graff on October 30, 2015; Michele Lee on November 6, 2015; John Lloyd Young on November 20, 2015; and Frances Ruffelle on March 25, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in the Terrace Theater.
Rose Theatre Kingston presents THE WARS OF THE ROSES, beginning tonight 16 September and running through 31 October 2015, with press performances for all three plays on 3 October.
BroadwayWorld has just learned the lineup for Barbara Cook's Spotlight series, ready for its ninth season at the Kennedy Center this year.
Rose Theatre Kingston today announces the full company for The Wars of the Roses. Trevor Nunn will direct Oscar Batterham (John Talbot/Son who killed his father), Freddy Carter (company), Kare Conradi (Dauphin/Edward IV), Oliver Cotton (Winchester/Clifford/Hastings), Jim Creighton (Burgandy/Simpcox/Stafford/Father who killed his son/Ely), Imogen Daines (Joan of Arc/Lady Bona/Lady Anne), Harry Egan (company), Alexandra Gilbreath (Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester/Elizabeth), Alexander Hanson (Richard, Duke of York/Buckingham), Rufus Hound (Bedford/Bolingbroke/Jack Cade/Rivers), James de Lauch Hay (company), Geoff Leesley (Exeter/Mortimer/Lord Mayor/Lt of the Tower), Owen Oakeshott (Somerset/Ratcliff), Joely Richardson (Margaret), Robert Sheehan (Alencon/Richard III), James Simmons (Talbot/John Hume/Norfolk/First Murderer), Laurence Spellman (Bastard of Orleans/Young Clifford/Richmond/Second Murderer), Susan Tracy (Margery Jourdain/Duchess of York), Alex Waldmann (Henry VI/Tyrrel), Timothy Walker (Warwick/Catesby), Andrew Woodall (Gloucester/Iden/Derby) and Michael Xavier (Suffolk/George of Clarence).
It's official! Joining previously announced Joely Richardson, Robert Sheehan and Kare Conradi in THE WARS OF THE ROSES at Rose Theatre, Kingston are: Rufus Hound (Bedford & Bolingbroke), Jack Cade (Rivers), Oliver Cotton (Winchester, Clifford, Hastings), Laurence Spellman (Young Clifford, Richmond), Alex Waldmann (Henry VI, Tyrrell), Susan Tracy (Margery Jourdain, Duchess of York).
Rose Theatre Kingston today announces its most ambitious project to date - this autumn the Rose stage will be transformed into a battlefield for The Wars of the Roses, a gripping adaptation of four of Shakespeare's history plays, directed by Trevor Nunn. The productions will play in rep from 16 September until 31 October, with press performances for all three plays on 3 October.
A successful Broadway company manager, general manager and producer for more than 20 years, Peter Neufeld passed away peacefully after a long battle with Parkinson's disease this morning, January 27, 2015, at The Actors Fund's Lillian Booth Residence in Englewood, NJ, where he had been living since 2007. He was 78.
Broadway fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate this year, with dozens of shows having opened since January, hundreds of actors having made their debuts, and many more having returned to the stage for critically acclaimed performances. Not all news was good though, as we also suffered a loss of an incredible amount of talent.
Below, BroadwayWorld sends a fond farewell to those who passed away in 2014.
From the producers of 'Burn The Floor' comes the brand new 'Brazouka,' which will be making its debut in London tonight September 16th through the 20th.
From the producers of 'Burn The Floor' comes the brand new 'Brazouka,' which will be making its debut in London September 16th through the 20th.
Returning to the West End and making his debut at Crazy Coqs, is Ray Shell with his show Back 2 - Black II for which he has received a clutch of 4 and 5 star reviews. Featuring Ray's distinctive interpretation of well-known songs from musicals Sweeney Todd to Miss Saigon and current Broadway hit Kinky Boots, peppered with songs from his pop career, as well as a few new surprises.
Ray Shell's West End career has embraced starring roles in many of the greatest musicals of the past 30 years, from Hair and Starlight Express to The Bodyguard.
Billy Crystal will return to Broadway this fall for a 9-week-only limited engagement of his Tony Award-winning, record-breaking play 700 Sundays. This will mark the final engagement of this production. Previews began Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) with opening night scheduled for tonight, November 13, 2013 and a final performance set for Sunday, January 5, 2014. 700 Sundays is performed and written by Mr. Crystal with additional content by Alan Zweibel and direction by Des McAnuff.
Billy Crystal will return to Broadway this fall for a 9-week-only limited engagement of his Tony Award-winning, record-breaking play 700 Sundays. This will mark the final engagement of this production. Previews begin tonight, November 5, 2013 at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) with opening night scheduled for Wednesday, November 13, 2013 and a final performance set for Sunday, January 5, 2014. 700 Sundaysis performed and written by Mr. Crystal with additional content by Alan Zweibel and direction by Des McAnuff.
Billy Crystal will return to Broadway this fall for a 9-week-only limited engagement of his Tony Award-winning, record-breaking play 700 SUNDAYS. This will mark the final engagement of this production. Previews will begin Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) with opening night scheduled for Wednesday, November 13, 2013 and a final performance set for Sunday, January 5, 2014. 700 SUNDAYSis performed and written by Mr. Crystal with additional content by Alan Zweibel and direction by Des McAnuff.
From 13 May 2013 Anna-Jane Casey will join the West End cast of Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre to play Billy's dance teacher Mrs Wilkinson. Also joining the cast are Kevin Wathen as Billy's brother, Tony, Howard Crossley as George and Alexander Loxton as Older Billy.
According to a feature about the new UK arena touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Lloyd Webber reveals he would like to collaborate with Stephen Sondheim.
According to whatsonstage.com, STARLIGHT EXPRESS may be heading to the Phoenix Theatre at the West End next near where BLOOD BROTHERS is set to close.
Trevor Nunn is to direct Rob Brydon, Nigel Harman and Ashley Jensen in Alan Ayckbourn's A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL, opening at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the Autumn. Jessica Ellerby, Barrie Rutter, Paul Thornley and Susan Tracy will join previously announced company members Teresa Banham, Daisy Beaumont, Georgia Brown, Rob Compton, Matthew Cottle and Steven Edis.
Trevor Nunn is to direct a cast including Rob Brydon, Nigel Harman and Ashley Jensen in Alan Ayckbourn's A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL opening at the Harold Pinter Theatre later this year.
Trevor Nunn is to direct a cast including Rob Brydon, Nigel Harman and Ashley Jensen in Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval opening at the Harold Pinter Theatre later this year. Joining the trio on stage will be Teresa Banham, Daisy Beaumont, Georgia Brown, Rob Compton, Matthew Cottle and Steven Edis, who is also the show's Musical Director. The production runs September 17, 2012 - January 5, 2013, with an opening night scheduled for September 27, 2012.
Bill Kenwright presents one of the best loved and longest running musicals in theatrical history, as Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensational Starlight Express explodes back onto the stage with a new production for 2012, set to take the UK by electrifying storm. Starlight Express just opened at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Go behind the scenes of the production below!
Bill Kenwright presents one of the best loved and longest running musicals in theatrical history, as Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensational Starlight Express explodes back onto the stage with a new production for 2012, set to take the UK by electrifying storm. Starlight Express just opened at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Check out highlights below!
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
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