The Day Before 1906

54 Below is known for its seemingly endless variety of themes as happy reasons to group songs from musical theatre. Here's another, looking at some shows that came to the Marquis, starting in 1986. There were over 30 musicals that played the Marquis Theatre, and nine were revisited with songs and stories at 54 Below.

Renowned pianist Cyrus Chestnut is set to deliver his first-ever headlining performance at Carnegie Hall on April 19th, featuring a full orchestra.

In her tribute cabaret/theater act, Ms. Tucker Will See You Now, Los Angeles native Laural Meade shares her admiration of Jazz great Sophie Tucker by performing her rollicking songs, bawdy stories, and dirty jokes at the historic Gardenia Supper Club in Hollywood. It’s your chance to travel back to the glory days when such intimate settings were common place, both during and after Prohibition, where regular folks could hang out with Hollywood greats to enjoy an evening of dinner, drinks, music, and laughter in the presence of The Last of the Red Hot Mamas, a moniker Ms. Tucker earned throughout her lifetime.I spoke with Laural about the creation of her Sophie Tucker tribute show.

This month on Broadway Deep Dive, the reader question was: What Is the History of Shubert Alley?

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra and acclaimed Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi will take audiences on a journey through New York with Gershwin’s iconic jazz-era masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, while Bernstein’s music from West Side Story paints a different picture of the city. The concert will also feature the world premiere of a new work by Australian composer Paul Bonetti.

Following a brief hiatus in January 2023, performances of Dear San Francisco—the critically-acclaimed intimate and immersive circus experience created by Bay Area natives and The 7 Fingers co-founders Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider—will resume at Club Fugazi on February 10, 2023 with a cast of audience favorites and astonishing newcomers.

Good Night, Oscar starring Sean Hayes, announced that Marchánt Davis (Ain’t No Mo’), Alex Wyse (Waitress), Sam Bell-Gurwitz (Good Night, Oscar in Chicago), Postell Pringle (A Free Man of Color), and Max Roll (Mrs. Warren’s Profession) will be joining the company on Broadway.

The Colburn School has announced its 2022-23 season, which brings together the School's exceptional students and faculty with today's most esteemed artists in a wide variety of free or low-cost programs offered on campus and throughout Los Angeles. 

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts announces open enrollment for fall classes. Semester-long classes at the arts center's AdventHealth School of the Arts are available for students of all ages and skill levels in a range of performing arts, including musical theater, comedy, acting, dance, vocal performance and more. 

Already opened at the Ruskin Group Theatre, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner through July 17, 2022. Lita Gaithers Owens directs the cast of Paul Denk, Lee Garlington, Brad Greenquist, Dan Martin , Mary Pumper, Vickilyn Reynolds, Mouchette van Helsdingen, Vincent Washington and Renn Woods. Lita managed to make some time to answer a few of my inquiries.

Yet perhaps at no time during its vaunted and venerated history has Oklahoma! been so polarizing as it has become now, thanks to the 2019 Broadway revival directed by Daniel Fish which is touring the provinces. Read our critic's review.

Janelle Gray's RAGE will be at Wyly Studio Theatre March 31-April 9. Go see RAGE to ask questions, hear stories, and celebrate rebellion of all forms.

Lyric Opera of Chicago has recorded Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci on film. Last week, the company announced that registration was open for audiences to secure free links to screen the new Pagliacci made at the Lyric Opera House. Audiences can now secure a free, on-demand viewing of this verismo production. More information about the production and reservations are available at lyricopera.org/pagliacci. 

Need a restaurant near your Broadway show? We've got you covered! Browse restaurants by food type, with cuisines ranging from American to Asian, French, Italian, Mexican, and other top cuisines. Find where to eat.

Orchid Classics today released DIALOGO, the debut album of cellist John-Henry Crawford, First Prize Winner of the IX International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition and the Classical Recording Foundation’s 2019 Young Artist of the Year.

Named for an Australian violinist of a century ago.

LA Opera's newest digital short film, Death, unites the striking visuals of celebrated filmmaker Nadia Hallgren, the Emmy-nominated director of the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, with the intriguing harmonies of composer Tyshawn Sorey, a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.

Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play, a one-woman musical biographical play about the iconic Josephine Baker,will be performed on the Morris Museum's Back Deck, Thursday, September 17th and Friday, September 18th at 7:00 pm, continuing our season of socially distant performance. 

Fifteen years after its first production of the musical, Musical Theatre West revisits the Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME for only its second time---smartly reviving the musical in a similarly lavish production that beautifully converges the show's classic staging and vibe with wonderfully integrated 21st Century tech upgrades that help elevate the material rather than hinder its storytelling. Under the enlightened direction of Paul David Bryant (who also provides the production's high-energy choreography), this brand new, spectacularly engrossing production bellows with an emotional fervor and is one of my favorite iterations of this musical I have seen in recent years. This local revival---which continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through February 23, 2020---is a feast for the senses.

San Francisco International Arts Festival has shared the full schedule for the 2020 Festival that will run at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture from May 19 - 31.

10 Productions. 50 Performances. Musicals, live-action neon animations, solo performances, comedies, and political satire at the Chain Theatre Oct. 1st - Nov. 3rd.

The persistent legend, mystique and fascination of what may have happened to Anastasia during Russia's revolution finds a new home in the musical ANASTASIA

A sweeping, grandiose, and emotionally-searing stage musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's expansive 1975 novel, RAGTIME is a gripping, multi-character, and multi-story theatrical experience that uses era-authentic specificity to depict America's past during a time when its increasingly diverse population has been forced to adjust to the ramifications of new technological, social, political, and economic changes that are spreading throughout the nation. Of course, one can't help but observe that, eerily, many of these very same issues are somehow still top-of-mind today, particularly in recent years with the surge in anti-immigrant policies and sentiments, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and, of course, the horrific rise of racist sentiments and, worse, racist acts against people of color. Perhaps this overarching motif---that many of these era-specific issues that RAGTIME's characters struggled with in 1906 are still alarmingly present in 2019---is the true motivator behind director Casey Stangl's impressive, 'intimate' theater reimagining of RAGTIME for Chance Theater, which continues performances in Anaheim through August 11, 2019.

Paula Vogel's INDECENT has already begun its previews at the Ahmanson Theatre. Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman continue their collaboration, from the workshops and the Broadway run (for which Rebecca won her Tony Award directing INDECENT), to this co-production between the Center Theatre Group and the Huntington Theatre Company. I had the opportunity to delve into the inner creative workings of the man portraying Sholem Asch - Joby Earle.