The American Idea 1908

BroadwayWorld speaks with Bay Area theater legend Robert Kelley about his new production of 'Ragtime' running live in Mountain View through June 26th.

Those Women Productions has announced two upcoming projects: a staged reading of The Melting Pot by Carol Lashof on April 9 with original music by Erika Oba, and the full production this summer of the rarely performed “cloak and dagger” comedy House of Desires (Los empeños de una casa) by the 17th century Mexican poet, playwright, and theologian, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, translated by Catherine Boyle.

THURGOOD is a riveting play about the life and career of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the US Supreme Court.

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 31st season this August, with a rare and intensive two-week exploration of “Nadia Boulanger and Her World.” In twelve themed concert programs, performed live with limited in-person audiences, Bard examines Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), the pioneering Parisian pedagogue, composer, conductor, pianist, organist and indomitable personality who shaped more than a generation of American musicians.

Good news for Hershey Felder fans and musical theater afficionados everywhere! TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is launching the New Year with three world premiere livestreamed performances in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence. First up is Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER, presented live at 5pm PST on Sunday, February 7, 2021. Decades before the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof first delighted audiences, there was Sholem Aleichem and his beloved character of ‘Tevye the Milkman.’ Long before songs like “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset” first beguiled audiences, there was klezmer, a music that imitated talking, laughing, weeping, and singing, and where musicians didn’t just make music, they spoke to audiences in song. Acclaimed playwright & performer Felder will play Sholem Aleichem, giving audiences the true story of what happened ‘Before Fiddler.’ He will be joined by Florence’s celebrated Klezmerata Fiorentina, comprised of top musicians from Florence’s world-famous Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale. Filmed partially on location where the events actually took place, this production will feature the stories and characters of Sholem Aleichem, along with authentic klezmer music that is sure to move the soul. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatreworks.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Felder last week from his home in Florence where he’s been based ever since the Covid pandemic hit. As always, Felder is fascinating and delightful to talk to, simultaneously brainy and emotionally transparent, and confident enough in his own talents to be open about his enduring fears.

The Marsh announces the line-up for its first-ever digital global festival, MarshStream International Solo Fest, presenting performers aged 16 to 79 from across the nation and around the world, including Russia, Scotland, Israel, Canada, and Australia, as well as some of The Marsh's fan-favorites in a four day online marathon of 51 global works.

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse continues its hit run of a free 'screened' readings with IN THE SEASON, a one-act play by Langdon Mitchell, via live stream video, with talkback to follow, on August 1st, 2020 at 8 PM, EST.

The reigning king of cabaret elegance talks with Stephen Mosher about style, musicianship, education and jewelry.. a lot of jewelry.

Fresh from its two Grammy Award wins last February, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has added another CD to its extensive discography: recent Boston Symphony Orchestra commissions of works by American composers Timo Andres, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and George Tsontakis. BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in recordings made live at Symphony Hall from February 2016 through February 2018.

In a rediscovery commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, The Melting Pot by Israel Zangwill runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 3 December 2017. The classic story of a young Russian immigrant fighting to uphold his dream of a new life in a new country. After his family are massacred in a pogrom, Jewish composer David Quixano escapes to New York City, in search of a new life. There he falls in love with Vera, a beautiful Russian Christian.

In a rediscovery commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, The Melting Pot by Israel Zangwill runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees fromSunday, 3 December 2017.

Pontine Theatre presents its original staging of  The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.  This classic story of a boy's adventures takes place in the semi-fictional town of Rivermouth (Portsmouth NH).  The production is underwritten by Optima Bank & Trust.  Performances take place  at Strawbery Banke Museum (14 Hancock Street) on Friday March 31 @7pm, Saturday April 1 & 8 @4pm, and Sunday April 2 & 9 @2pm. Tickets ($24) may be purchased online at www.pontine.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the door a half-hour prior to each show, based on availability.  With an innovative use of puppetry and projected images, Pontine Co-Artistic Directors, Greg Gathers and Marguerite Mathews, tell the autobiographical story of a lively boy and his companions in mid-19th century Portsmouth, where Aldrich was sent to live under the watchful eyes of his grandfather. Aldrich's boyhood home, now part of Strawbery Banke Museum, will be open to audience members following each performance.  

The performance schedule has been changed for 'Light Up The Night,' a theatrical concert of rediscovered and restored Yiddish theater songs by Ellstein, Goldfaden, Olshanetsky, Rumshinsky, and Secunda, to be presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) January 1 in Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, Manhattan.  Originally two shows were planned, at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM.  The 2:00 PM performance continues as scheduled but the 6:00 PM performance has been canceled.

 To ring in the New Year, on January 1 National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) will present 'Light Up The Night,' a concert of rediscovered and restored pre- and post-WWII music from the theatrical works of the great composers of the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater.  These include Ellstein, Goldfaden, Olshanetsky, Rumshinsky and Secunda.  All are leading songwriters from the era of 'The Golden Bride,' which was presented by Folksbiene Theatre in 2015 and 2016.  The cast will feature performers who were acclaimed in that production, backed by a 16-piece orchestra.  The production is in Yiddish with projected supertitles.  The full concert will be offered twice, at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM, in Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place.

?The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music and Oratorio Society of New York, presents the world premiere of a transcription for organ, vocal soloists, and choruses, of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, on Thursday, April 7th, at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), Manhattan. This event follows the two performances of the symphony in its original orchestration at the Cathedral on February 24th and 25th.

New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West New York, NY 10024) has announced its winter exhibitions and programs, December 2015 - January 2016. Scroll down for details!

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Donald R. Seawell, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Broadway producer and the first to bring the Royal Shakespeare Company to New York, died today, September 30, 2015. He was 103.

Heralding a new chapter in its sixty-nine year history, the Jose Limon Dance Foundation is announcing an international search for a new Artistic Director of the Limon Dance Company to follow Carla Maxwell.  

Composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will return to the New York Philharmonic to lead the New York Concert Premiere of his Violin Concerto, featuring Leila Josefowicz as soloist in her Philharmonic subscription debut; Ravel's Mother Goose Suite; and Sibelius's Symphony No. 5, tonight, October 30, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 1 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will return to the New York Philharmonic to lead the New York Concert Premiere of his Violin Concerto, featuring Leila Josefowicz as soloist in her Philharmonic subscription debut; Ravel's Mother Goose Suite; and Sibelius's Symphony No. 5, Wednesday, October 30, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, October 31 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 1 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m.

From May 28 to June 7, 2014, the New York Philharmonic will present the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL, a kaleidoscopic exploration of today's music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers that will showcase an array of curatorial voices through concerts presented with partners in venues both on and off the Lincoln Center campus.

Recently at NYC's Joyce Theater Jacqulyn Buglisi expressed her fascination with Liminality, a threshold of ambiguous essence existing in both time and space. This obviously accounts for the many suspended movements threaded throughout her repertoire. May I be bold and ask if Buglisi's career itself lives in this liminal space?

Contracted marriage, the lady kills her husband, goes 'mad' and dies, and then her real lover kills himself at her graveside. That's the formula for Lucia that showcases the great sopranos and tenors of the day in Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti's most popular opera, set to screen as part of the Metropolitan Opera's HD summer encores series.