Christine Swerczek - Page 9

Omaha Community Playhouse revealed its 2018-2019 Season to an eager audience on Tuesday night. From SHREK to OF MICE AND MEN, there will be something for everyone.

URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL, opens at the Chanticleer Theatre in Council Bluffs, Iowa tonight and runs through March 18. If you loved SOMETHING ROTTEN, you will love this crazy show. Nothing is free from biting satire: corporate greed, populism, or even your most loved musicals.

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH is destined to be a giant hit for families with children and for anyone who enjoys a frivolous flight of imagination. It is visually delicious. It is literally music to your ears. And it is another rock solid production for the OCP.

SEEDFOLKS, adapted from the Newbery Award winning book by Paul Fleischman, tells the story of a young girl who unites a multicultural community through her simple act of planting a handful of beans in a vacant lot in Cleveland. As her neighbors watch and wonder from their windows, they are irresistibly drawn to plant their own seeds. Gradually, they turn the trash-ridden, rat infested lot into a garden alive with plants and hope. The story swells and grows as told through the talents of a solitary actor, Sonja Parks.

BITTERSWEET: A VALENTINE HANGOVER CABARET held just after Valentine's Day at The Max in Omaha, was one more fun music and humor filled evening. Sarah Gibson, Ashley Laverty, and Mallory Vallier put together a two act show featuring local actors singing about the ups and downs of love.

You could sit around watching cows or you could amble on over to the First Central Congregational Church and see Brigit Saint Brigit Theatre Company's brilliant production of THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN. It is so good!

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is coming to Omaha! This winner of multiple Tony Awards, based on the 1951 Academy Award winning film of the same name and adapted for stage by Christopher Wheeldon, will run February 13-18 at Omaha's Orpheum Theatre.

Gordon Cantiello along with Rick Brayshaw has brought another fine evening of entertainment to Omaha with I LEFT MY HEART: A SALUTE TO THE MUSIC OF TONY BENNETT at the Performing Artists Repertory Theatre in Crossroads. This delightful two act tribute showcases 34 songs made popular by Tony Bennett.

The Omaha Community Playhouse once again takes on a serious subject. PARADE, the Tony Award-winning musical based on the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of the rape and murder of a 13 year old girl in Marietta, Georgia, opens tonight and runs through March 11.

THE KING AND I is bringing more than a great show to Omaha. Jose Llana, who stars as the King of Siam, says, 'I think it's healthy to have conversation, especially in this political climate, when the country is so divided to tell a story about a world leader extending a hand of friendship to a person from another country. That's the story we're telling and the message that we're trying to convey.'

With music by 6 time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, book by Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (FINDING NEVERLAND, PIPPIN) the national tour of WAITRESS will serve you a slice of awesome at the Orpheum Theatre from December 12 through the 17th.

Singing the greats of Ole' Blue Eyes, this cadre of four veteran vocalists, Matthias Jeske, Jodi Vaccaro, Wendy Eaton, and Bob Goding, brought an opening night jam-packed house back to the days of smooth tunes, sophisticated dress, and Jack Daniels. Songs, jokes, stories...all combined for an intimate evening with warm holiday spirit.

YESTERDAY & TODAY, an interactive Beatles experience, returns to the Omaha Community Playhouse for the 10th year. This popular show starring Billy McGuigan and his two brothers, Ryan and Matthew, is a musical tribute to their late father who started them on this path as children. Having memorized more than 200 Beatles songs, the McGuigans personalize each show by taking requests from the audience.

This is not just a raunchy peek into bedrooms of the teens. It is a sober look into the hearts and minds of these kids on the cusp of adulthood as they navigate their turbulent lives. It is a moving, heartfelt story that reaches beyond the centuries.

VAN GOGH & ME gives new meaning to the words 'performing arts.' This is art leaping to life on stage at the hands of playwright Matthew Gutshick and director John Hardy. Based on true accounts of the last months of Vincent van Gogh's life, VAN GOGH & ME pictures how the Dutch post-impressionist painter may have appeared through the eyes of a child.

Sarah Gibson, Mallory Vallier, and Ashley Laverty created a new one-night cabaret featuring favorite show tunes with a twist... or should I say a 'bend?' MISTER AND MISSCAST: A GENDER BENDING MUSICAL THEATRE CABARET, a clever name for a clever show, featured the genders mixing it up. Men performed songs typically sung by women and vice versa. The result was a colorful concoction that was fresh and fun.

We all need a little RESPECT. That's why educator and child psychologist Dr. Patricia Newman founded a not for profit organization with a mission to build healthy relationships using theatre and community collaboration. Theatre gets their attention.

'The title of the play is STUPID F*ING BIRD.' 'That'll sell some tickets!' So goes the dialogue in the newest play showing in the Howard Drew Theatre at the Omaha Community Playhouse. If you can get past the profane and impious language, here is what should sell tickets to Aaron Posner's modern take on Anton Chekhov's 1865 play, 'The Seagull.'

Bill Berloni has been in the animal training business for more than 40 years. Having trained such iconic animals as Sandy in ANNIE, and Elle's petite Chihuahua, Bruiser, in LEGALLY BLONDE, Berloni's currently working canine actors are appearing in the national tour of FINDING NEVERLAND which is coming to Omaha's Orpheum Theatre October 11-15.

Written by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe, this one hour, one act production directed by Susan Clement-Toberer focuses on the serious subject of suicide. It adds humor, so it's fun, but there is always the underlying current of sadness. Death and its resulting pain for loved ones make for the 'saddest happiest' conversation of all.