Just So 1985 - Articles Page 18

TimeLine Theatre Company continues its 2013-14 season with Larry Kramer's Tony Award-winning The Normal Heart. This first Chicago staging of the landmark play that 'blasts you like an open, overstoked furnace' (The New York Times) since the play's 2011 Broadway production is directed by five-time Jeff Award-winning director Nick Bowling, TimeLine's Associate Artistic Director. Check out the just released promotional shots below!

Arion Productions, in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre, presents the first London production in more than 25 years of AS IS by William M. Hoffman. Directed by Andrew Keates, the cast features: Jordon Bernarde, Tom Colley, John Hastings, Tom Kay, Clare Kissane, David Poynor, Paul Standell and Anna Tierney.

Back on April 1, when he posted his third compilation of delayed cabaret reviews from shows staged during the winter, BroadwayWorld.com's lead New York cabaret reviewer promised Number 4 would come with arrival of summer. Okay, so he missed his self-imposed deadline by a couple of weeks. but here's yet another catch-up column with critiques of a half dozen spring shows performed by Bryan Batt, Dawn Derow, Lynly Forrest, Dennis McNeil, Anastasia Barzee, and Nina Hennessey.

Mirror Stage's popular Feed Your Mind staged reading series returns this fall with the incendiary RACE by David Mamet, presented in partnership with the Pacific Science Center and Swimming Ophelia Ensemble at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre on September 28 and 29, 2013. The Swimming Ophelia Ensemble partnership enables Mirror Stage to continue deepening its relationship with the University of Washington, and all post-play discussions for RACE will be held at the Pacific Science Center with discount admission for Mirror Stage patrons to the Pacific Science Center exhibition RACE: Are We So Different?

NUNSENSE is an international phenomenon and beloved favorite of community and regional theatres. The musical, which first premiered in 1985, has enjoyed over 8,000 productions worldwide and has been translated into over 20 languages. This summer Texas Repertory Theatre Compnay is producing the classic and clever musical. Their spin on the material leaves audiences rolling in the aisles and clamoring for more.

Les Mis. A French title, and a show so popular it has its own nickname. When the show premiered in London in 1985, some people wondered how on earth Victor Hugo's masterpiece of a novel could be turned into a musical. Those people have long since been silenced. Les Miserables has become one of the world's most beloved musicals, and Maine State Music Theatre's current production proves exactly why.

NUNSENSE premiered in 1983 at The Duplex in New York City. It was expanded and then re-opened Off-Broadway on December 12, 1985 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. There it won four Outer Critics' Circle Awards, including 'Best Off-Broadway Musical.' It moved to the Douglas Fairbanks Theater, where it ran for over 10 years. NUNSENSE is the second-longest running Off-Broadway show in history, and had become an international phenomenon by the time it closed. To celebrate 30 years of NUNSENSE, Dan Goggin's show about the Little Sisters of Hoboken received a new official cast recording titled NUNSENSE: 30th ANNIVERSARY CAST RECORDING.

Before stage and screen comedy legend Lily Tomlin takes the stage for 'An Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin' at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 22, the two-time Tony Award winner spoke candidly with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos about her influences, her work in the theater, and why she would probably never do a Broadway musical anytime soon.

Theater at Monmouth's summer Family Show opens tonight, June 22 at 7 p.m. with a world premiere production of Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit. Adapted by Dawn McAndrews, Velveteen Rabbit tells the story of a toy Rabbit, given as a gift to a young Boy, who yearns for the day the Boy will choose her so that she can become real.

Theater at Monmouth's summer Family Show opens June 22 at 7 p.m. with a world premiere production of Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit. Adapted by Dawn McAndrews, Velveteen Rabbit tells the story of a toy Rabbit, given as a gift to a young Boy, who yearns for the day the Boy will choose her so that she can become real.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and New York Asian Film Festival present a rare series of appearances by international film icon, Jackie Chan tonight, June 10 and the 11th, followed by the largest retrospective of his films ever held in North America (June 23-27).

Esther Williams, who starred in more than two dozen MGM 'aquamusicals' during the 1940s and '50s died today in her sleep in Beverly Hills. She was 91.

I hardly know where to begin with this review of the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble's gutsy, stripped-down and yet somehow epic production of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally that is running at Theatre Wit through June 30, 2013. There, I guess I just began. I'm a jumble of thoughts and feeling right now. Come to think of it, so are the three principal characters.

Spoke The Hub presents the Local Produce Festival 2013 at Old Stone House & Washington Square Park today, June 1 and in the gardens on Sunday, June 2. This homegrown, grassroots event is a virtual 'Green Market' of dance, music, theater, games and holistic healing which concludes with a nighttime Tango Dance Party, there is something for everyone and for all ages, so come and join us for this celebration of creativity and community.

You probably don't have to feel sorry for a mature, experienced female singer who decides to tackle the gritty music of Tom Waits and calls her show 1978 NYC Underground, but it was still tough not to feel for Billie Roe as she performed this week at the Metropolitan Room. Roe, who in 2011 offered the highly-praised Dangerous Women: Life In Film Noir, admittedly has yearned to present a Waits songbook for 35 years, but just a couple of months before her four-show run which ends tonight at 9:30 pm (her prize for winning the 2012 MetroStar Challenge Competition at the Met Room), rising cabaret star Marissa Mulder staged a Tom Waits-themed show that was close to perfect in every way and earned rave reviews from the New York Times and BroadwayWorld.com.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and New York Asian Film Festival announced the details today for a rare series of appearances by international film icon, Jackie Chan on June 10 and 11, followed by the largest retrospective of his films ever held in North America (June 23-27).

Spoke The Hub presents the Local Produce Festival 2013 at Old Stone House & Washington Square Park on Saturday, June 1 and in the gardens on Sunday, June 2. This homegrown, grassroots event is a virtual 'Green Market' of dance, music, theater, games and holistic healing which concludes with a nighttime Tango Dance Party, there is something for everyone and for all ages, so come and join us for this celebration of creativity and community.

The first London production since the 1987 UK premiere of William M. Hoffman's As Is opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 6 August 2013 (Press Night: Thursday, 8 August at 7.30pm), directed by multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates.

TimeLine Theatre Company, dedicated to presenting plays inspired by history that connect to today's social and political issues, announces that The How and the Why by Sarah Treem (Netflix's House of Cards, HBO's In Treatment), directed by Keira Fromm and starring Janet Ulrich Brooks and Elizabeth Ledo, will be the third production of its 2013-14 season.

Today we are talking to the originator of Jean Valjean in LES MISERABLES onstage and a preeminent Phantom (and the first to actually play the role) in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA who has clearly made a major mark with his performances in the theatre - not to mention his work on the original concept albums of EVITA and JEKYLL & HYDE - who now makes the leap to the big screen in his featured role in the super-successful feature film iteration of the Claude-Michel Schonberg/Alain Boublil musical based on the Victor Hugo novel - the titanically talented Colm Wilkinson. Opening up about his work in the original Royal Shakespeare Company production of LES MISERABLES and his collaboration with the creative team and cast of actors as well as his association with producer Cameron Mackintosh, director Trevor Nunn and more, Wilkinson details the finer points of creating one of the modern musical theatre's most memorable characters, from his first audition through to the West End, Broadway and beyond. Additionally, Wilkinson reveals all about shooting the feature film version, with Broadway/Hollywood superstar Hugh Jackman taking over the leading role and whether he would consider taking on another character in the show after having essaying Jean Valjean onstage and the Monsignor onscreen - maybe Javert? Plus, Wilkinson shares backstage stories involving fellow theatrical luminaries like Trevor Nunn, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber and more in this career-spanning conversation with one of the mega-musical era's most major of stars - - all of that and much, much more awaits!

Observing the evolution of young Marissa Mulder's cabaret career is like watching a high jumper going for the gold at the Olympic Games. With every show or performance, she and the creative teams around her set the bar just a little bit higher and she keeps clearing the dang thing. But with her new Tom Waits Tribute Show, which opened last night at the Metropolitan Room (and continues through Saturday night, all at 7pm), the bar was raised multiple notches, and damn if she didn't clear it with inches to spare. With Tom . . . In His Own Words/The Songs of Tom Waits, Mulder has vaulted herself into major cabaret performer territory and even managed to stick the landing.

So, welcome to my blog. I should begin with a little about myself. First of all, personality wise, I can be a bit too honest, or blunt, as some people have told me. I speak my mind, what you see is what you get; you either love me or hate me. I am an egg, all hard on the outside but can be all gooey on the inside. I am loyal to the end and will stand up for you when you can't. I can forgive anything except cruelty to animals. Long story, seemingly endless, I am a dancer-singer-actor who has had the pleasure, and sometimes displeasure, of working with some amazing shows on Broadway, on tour, and in a hole in the wall downtown with no coffee pot. All of them are a learning experience; some I still shake my head about.

Now one of the most successful movie musicals of all time, LES MISERABLES triumphantly arrives on DVD and Blu-ray today, so it is an exceptionally apropos time to assess the many vaunted virtues and the legendary history of this spectacular mega musical and pay tribute to some of the best versions of some of its famous anthems now that we can, well, bring it home.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts just announced the stellar lineup for the 2013-2014 Broadway Las Vegas series running August 2013 to July 2014. The upcoming season, sponsored by Southern Nevada Ford Stores, brings many of Broadway's most beloved and famed musicals and plays to Las Vegas for the first time.

Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings announce the release of She's Got A Way: Love Songs, a new collection of 18 essential love songs drawn from three decades of recordings by music legend and composer/singer songwriter, Billy Joel. This collection comes just in time for Valentine's Day.