Around the World Photos - Broadway

Last Saturday Opera Theatre of St. Louis premiered a new adaptation of Scott Joplin’s legendary opera Treemonisha.  It is a bright and worthy addition to our recent flurry of adoration of some of America’s major black composers;  the Black Rep closed their stunningly fine evening of Eubie Blake’s music three days earlier.

Working In Concert's Bellissima Opera initiative constellates bringing together a dream team of the right people at an appropriate time in a suitable way - International Women's Day is just the healing arts performance we need. 

Live theatre is officially back and Concord Theatricals is celebrating! 'There's No Business Like Show Business' is a digital celebration that launched just last month, marking the return of live theater and all of the incredible people who help to make it happen. The celebration coincides with the 75th anniversary of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun and its iconic showstopper 'There's No Business Like Show Business,' a song that has more resonance than ever this year.

When Gaston Leroux published THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA back in 1911, little did he realize the numerous chandeliers that would come crashing down through the decades, and I've witnessed a good number of them. First, in 1925, there was 'the Man of a Thousand Faces,' Lon Chaney, Sr., who frightened poor Mary Philbin (a well-done version, even IF the film was silent); then, for Universal in 1941, Claude Rains (Bette Davis' favorite co-star) was a more subdued vocal coach for soprano Susanna Foster (a wooden Nelson Eddy, alas, is a greater impending horror as 'Raoul'). I could go on - even Herbert Lom, the actor who was the harried police superior to Peter Sellers' 'Inspector Clousseau,' took a swing on the old light fixture. (And let us not forget diminutive Paul Williams in the slightly askew PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.) All of these pale, of course, in comparison to the legendary interpretation by Michael Crawford in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which first brought the audience to its feet in 1986.