Frank Benge - Page 14

FOR THE LOVE OF MAHALIA tells the story of white writer Julie Ann Mathews who traveled in 1965 from Alabama to Illinois to get a rare interview with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. This gospel spirited musical is filled with some of Mahalia Jackson's greatest hits like 'How I Got Over', 'Precious Lord Take My Hand', 'Didn't It Rain' and many more! FOR THE LOVE OF MAHALIA received a Broadway World nomination last season for best writing of an original work in its workshop production.

Continuing our series of articles about Austin performing companies and the artists behind them, we caught up recently with the very busy Bonnie Cullum of The Vortex to ask her about the past, present and future of the popular East Austin venue.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA is a 2013 Tony Award winning stage adaptation of the 1957 musical for television starring Julie Andrews, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The new book by Douglas Carter Beane is based partly on Hammerstein's original 1957 book. The piece was remade twice for television, once in 1965 and again in 1997, and was adapted for the stage in various versions prior to the 2013 Broadway adaptation. The 2013 score features several Rodgers and Hammerstein songs that weren't in any previous version, including one trunk song originally written for, but eventually cut from, South Pacific. The new songs include 'Me, Who Am I?', 'Now Is the Time', 'The Pursuit', 'Loneliness of Evening' and 'There's Music in You'.

FAHRENHEIT 451 is a play based on the 1953 dystopian novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury. The novel is regarded as one of his best works. It presents a future society where books are outlawed and 'firemen' burn any that are found. The title comes from the temperature at which paper becomes combustible. There was a 1966 film adaptation of the novel and Bradbury himself developed it into this play in the late 70s. Bradbury has stated that he wrote it to address his concerns about the McCarthy era and the threat of book burning. In later years, he stated it was a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature. The story is set in an unspecified city at an unspecified time in the future somewhere after the year 1960.

PRESENT LAUGHTER is a 1939 comedy by Noel Coward. The play's title comes from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 'present mirth hath present laughter', that urges the sense of carpe diem. Coward repeats one of his signature theatrical devices at the end of the play, where the main characters tiptoe out as the curtain falls - a device that he also used in Private Lives, Hay Fever and Blithe Spirit. The plot follows the life of self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine (Marc Pouhe) as he prepares for a theatrical tour in Africa. Amid a series of events that border on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to be with him, placate both his secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a more than slightly crazed young playwright, and overcome an impending mid-life crisis. The story has been described by Coward as 'a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics'.

Audiences first became aware of Jaston Williams as half of the citizens of Tuna, Texas with the debut of Greater Tuna in 1982. The saga continued with A Tuna Christmas, Red, White and Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas. The plays have been performed on and off Broadway at the Kennedy Center, the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and all over America. He has received Washington DC's Helen Hayes Award nominations for A Tuna Christmas and Red, White and Tuna as well as the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Award for Greater Tuna. He also received the L.A. Dramalogue Award for both Greater Tuna and A Tuna Christmas. A Tuna Christmas was published in 'Best Plays of 1995.' For several years, Jaston toured in Larry Shue's The Foreigner, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actor. He performed in The Fantasticks at Washington DC's Ford's Theatre and directed the musical Bad Girls Upset By The Truth at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. A recipient of the Texas Governors Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts by a Native Texan he performed at the White House on three occasions. His hometown of Austin, Texas has seen him perform at the State Theatre in Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs and at Zachary Scott Theatre in Jay Presson Allen's Tru, for which he received the Austin Critics Table Award for Best Actor in a drama. He has appeared at Zach Theatre in The Laramie Project and next month is joining their production of A Christmas Carol as Scrooge. His play, Romeo and Thorazine, work-shopped at Zach in November 2001. He work-shopped his autobiographical one-man show I'm Not Lying to critical acclaim at the State Theatre and returned it there for a full production in February of 2004 as well as a benefit performance at Washington DC's Kennedy Center. His autobiographical play Cowboy Noises premiered in Austin in February 2008 to critical acclaim. Broadway World recently sat down with Jaston for a Q & A session during the run of his latest play A WOLVERINE WALKS INTO A BAR.

What do you get when you cross Christopher Durang, the master of anxious comedy, with Anton Chekhov, the master of Russian despair? You get VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, an evening of melancholia and mirth. While Durang starts with Chekhov he soon runs off in every direction. Chekhov and Walt Disney? California Suite and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie? Why not? He ends up delivering a warmhearted, surprisingly personable play that is a mixture of clever and sweet that's hard to pull off. The production now on stage at The Wimberley Playhouse pulls it off beautifully. Chekhov's characters are full of angst and dissatisfaction, and so are Durang's. The key difference is that while tragic Chekhov can be funny, Durang is pretty much flat out bonkers.

Greater Tuna co-creator and master storyteller Jaston Williams and TV's Lauren Lane are currently Stateside at the Paramount performing in the Austin debut of A WOLVERINE WALKS INTO A BAR. This new play by Williams brings to life a throng of fascinating, outlandish and delightful new characters that includes an aging hippie, an elderly world traveling Grande Dame with a history of sinking gondolas; an Anglo man who yearns to be Hispanic, married to a Hispanic woman who yearns to be Anglo; the most messed up wedding planner you'll ever meet; and a duo celebrating memories who end up dancing the cotton-eyed Joe. The Stateside at the Paramount stage has been transformed into a bar-like atmosphere allowing a few audience members to be seated around small tables on the stage. The evening of character studies is a collection of hilarious bar stories; five monologues and a closing scene starring both performers, all told through the eyes of several guest directors. Directors include Kevin Bailey, Linda Donahue and Kristin Rogers.

LITTLE WOMEN is a musical with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland. Workshop productions were presented at Duke University in 2001 and 2004 and the Broadway production opened at the Virginia Theatre on January 23, 2005. Based on the classic 1869 Louisa May Alcott semi-autobiographical novel, LITTLE WOMEN focuses on the four March sisters: aspiring writer Jo (Lilly Lane Stafford), romantic Meg (Caroline Kinnamore), the easily hurt Amy (Maddie Dennison), and kind Beth (Emily McIntyre) as well as their beloved Marmee (Maddrey Blackwood.) The women are at the family home in Concord, Massachusetts while their father is away during the Civil War. The musical begins with Jo trying to sell her stories in New York but soon brings Jo back home. While the events and timing of things aren't exactly the same as in the novel; Allan Knee's script, for the most part, is expertly condensed Alcott retaining the spirit of the characters. Jason Howland's music is pleasant, if rather unmemorable, riffing musical theatre numbers out of period waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles; supported by Mindi Dickstein's rather unmemorable lyrics. The end result feels like a lesser known Rogers & Hammerstein musical. It's just good old fashioned squeaky clean family fun.

Sharr White's THE OTHER PLACE premiered Off-Broadway in 2011, followed by a Broadway run. Watching this potent drama, you may think, at first, that your mind is playing tricks on you. Facts established in one scene vaporize a few scenes later. You may find yourself questioning what you just heard. THE OTHER PLACE lies somewhere between tragedy and mystery succeeding quite beautifully at both. This audience disconnect is no accident. Mr. White purposely keeps the audience questioning everything they are told by the play's narrator, a drug-company scientist named Juliana (Kat Sparks.) White writes with both simplicity and discipline about a situation that is anything but disciplined. Ms. Sparks' performance as Juliana is so commanding that the less we are sure of, the more we are are drawn in. While perceptions of this journey through life may continually shift, the one thing that doesn't is the riveting, nuanced performance of Ms. Sparks.

SONG ABOUT HIMSELF is Mickle Maher's latest play which is set in a dystopian future where viruses and malware have effectively destroyed the Internet. The populace had been so obsessed with social media that this destruction has left a world of people who communicate in little more than mumbles and broken descriptions of emojis. This fascinating piece would work quite perfectly as an episode of Black Mirror in that it is a look at a technical future gone horribly awry. It also is a clever use of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, widely considered to be the first 'Poem of Chaos'. The world of Maher's play is clearly a world in chaos, and identity is a central theme of both works. SONG ABOUT HIMSELF uses extremely minimalist staging and Maher has created an original language that is part broken description of social media actions and part corruption of Walt Whitman's poetry. While familiarity with Whitman will enrich your experience, it is in no way necessary to the experience.

Austin Shakespeare brings Noel Coward's classic comedy Present Laughter to the Rollins Studio Theatre at The Long Center for the Performing Arts from November 16, 2016 - December 4, 2016. Chaos, romance and dazzling dialogue are shaken up to concoct this perfect cocktail for the holiday season! Marc Pouhe stars as the 1930's matinee idol, Garry Essendine, who is self-obsessed, slipping into middle age, and still surrounded by admiring women. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella says, "Marc was so funny offstage at Macbeth this summer that I envisioned him in a full-out comedy."

Recently BroadwayWorld had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Billy F. Harden to discuss Spectrum Theatre Company which was founded in 2013. We asked him to give our readers a broader view of Spectrum Theatre Company past, present and future. Currently Austin audiences are enjoying Spectrum's production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND.

ZACH Theatre offering exceptional theatre education to serve Greater Northwest Austin with new ZACH NORTH facilities located at 12129 Ranch Road 620N, Austin, TX 78750. With an expansion in the Capital Region, ZACH NORTH will give Central Texan youth, ages 3.5 thru grade 5, the chance to experience ZACH Theatre's professional training without the barrier of traveling into downtown Austin. "With Austin's burgeoning growth, we have seen a rise in traffic which has made access to our South Lamar location more challenging for suburban families," explains Nat Miller, ZACH Theatre's Director of Education. "Our hope is that by expanding our theatre education offerings into their backyard, and being close to a major corridor that more families from North Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, and Pflugerville are able to be a part of our great programming."

Austin Opera Oct. 24 announced the appointment of Annie Burridge as General Director of Austin Opera. Currently the Managing Director of Opera Philadelphia, an opera company recognized for its groundbreaking audience engagement and programming model, Ms. Burridge will assume her new position in November 2016, with a 5-year contract through October 2021. The announcement was made today by Elisabeth Juen Waltz, Chairman of the Austin Opera Board of Trustees and Jon Nash, President of the Austin Opera Board of Trustees. Ms. Burridge's nomination was confirmed at a special Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, October 24th.

Jaston Williams' hilarious new show A WOLVERINE WALKS INTO A BAR starring Jaston Williams and Lauren Lane opens Friday, November 11th Stateside at the Paramount (719 Congress Ave). For more information and to purchase tickets go to: http://tickets.austintheatre.org.

BroadwayWorld recently had an opportunity to sit down with Jeff Davis, Artistic Director for Agape Theatre and author of an adaptation for the stage of Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's 1982 short story THE YELLOW WALLPAPER for a rare look into the process of adapting a classic piece of literature as a theatrical experience. THE YELLOW WALLPAPER will play the Hewlett Room of the Georgetown Public Library for one night only, Saturday, November 12th at 7:30pm.

Alfred Uhry's second play, THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, is a Tony award winner for Best Play that is another exploration into the lives of Jewish southerners. Uhry first introduced this society in his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Driving Miss Daisy. The setting and plot was developed from his own experiences growing up in a southern Jewish family, as well as from stories he heard as a child. The Ballyhoo of the title is a sort of German-Jewish debutante ball. At heart a humorous look back at a time long gone, the play is also an exploration of Jewish identity and the power of prejudice inflicted on Jews by other Jews. Uhry has deftly interwoven this theme into his story of the privileged world of the Levy / Freitag families. The Levy / Freitag families live in a big home in one of Atlanta's finest neighborhoods. They belong to an elite country club. Their daughters attend prestigious private schools. Even a Christmas tree in their window, however, doesn't change the fact that they are Jews living in a mostly Christian society. German-Jews such as the Levys and Freitags look down on "the other kind", which are the Eastern European Jews. While exploring the self hatred and class consciousness of anti-Semitism, Uhry's serious message is beautifully wrapped in witty banter, comedic moments, and colorfully comedic characters and characterizations.

NEVERMORE: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe is a Canadian musical that was written and composed by Jonathan Christenson which follows the rather dismal life and internal struggles of Edgar Allan Poe that later on inspired his work as an author. The script contains references to both his poems and short stories. While most of the script dramatizes true events in his life, other aspects are entirely fictitious. The musical was originally produced at the Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta and went on to be performed across Canada, and at the Barbican Theater in London, and the New Victory Theatre in NYC. The current production now playing at Austin Playhouse is a regional premiere.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is the 1979 Tony Award winning Best Musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler which is based on Christopher Bond's 1973 play of the same name. It has enjoyed several revivals and has been presented by multiple opera companies. Set in 19th century England, the show details barber Sweeney Todd's (Joe Penrod) return to London after 15 years of exile to take revenge on the corrupt judge who banished him. He conspires with a local baker, Mrs. Lovett (Cathie Sheridan), who has a struggling pie shop below the space that becomes Todd's tonsorial parlor. The character originated in serialized Victorian popular fiction, known as 'penny dreadfuls'