Jim Munson - Page 7

It would appear that acclaimed baritone Sidney Outlaw is having the busiest year of his career. In addition to starring as composer Antonio Salieri in Opera San José’s new virtual production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s 'Mozart and Salieri,' Outlaw will be performing 'Barber of Seville,' 'Porgy and Bess,' and 'La Bohème.' BroadwayWorld speaks with Outlaw.

BroadwayWorld chats with Cate Hayman, star of 'CHESS in Concert' at 42nd Street Moon. The show marks Moon's return to live, in-person performance and features a killer score by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson and renowned lyricist Tim Rice. It remains the only musical of the modern era to generate multiple, massive hits on the pop charts.

Good news! The Marsh will soon be once again presenting live, in-person performances at their San Francisco location with Marga Gomez's 'Spanking Machine' running September 17 through October 23. BroadwayWorld speaks with Gomez about her hilarious and heart-rending new memoir piece about growing up brown & queer in Washington Heights.

The Marsh couldn't have chosen anyone more fitting for its return to live in-person performances than fan favorite Don Reed, whose partnership with The Marsh encompasses many hit shows over the past decade. Starting August 21st, Reed performs his brand-new one-man show 'Going Out' at The Marsh Berkeley. BroadwayWorld talks to Reed about the show.

For his opening salvo as Magic Theatre’s newly appointed Artistic Director, Sean San José has decided to throw a party. On Thursday, August 5th, Magic will present its 2021 gala 'The New Age of Magic' outdoors at Fort Mason. San José strongly believes theater should be for everyone, not just people of means, so Magic is hosting a more egalitarian event with ticket prices starting at a very reasonable $25. Mainly, though, the goal is to bring people together to kick back and have some fun.

Pulitzer winners Paula Vogel, Katori Hall, Annie Baker & Sam Shepard are just 4 of the many celebrated playwrights whose work was developed in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF). Established in 1976 and currently led by Playwrights Foundation’s Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza, this year’s BAPF runs July 16-25, featuring 5 very different new works. Casts include acclaimed actors such as Emily Kuroda. BroadwayWorld recently caught up with Beza to talk about the festival.

And now for something ethereal, funny and more than a little trippy. On June 26, The Marsh presents 'Astronautica,' a musical drawn from the words of women who have traveled through outer space, to its digital platform, MarshStream. Conceived and performed by Hai-Ting Chinn, Lindsay Kesselman & Kirsten Sollek. BroadwayWorld speaks with Ms. Chinn.

42nd Street Moon is concluding its online Moonbeams series on a rather deliciously demented high note with Don’t Touch That Dial: DC & Peter’s Glorious Romp through the Golden Age of TV Theme Songs. Just like the timeworn sitcoms that generated most of its songs, Don’t Touch That Dial wants nothing more than to entertain, packing in dozens of catchy tunes you maybe didn’t even know you knew in a fast-moving hourlong fantasia of fizzy humor and gimlet-eyed nostalgia. Although Moon’s remit is normally to revisit stage musicals, rather than television shows, this enterprise isn’t quite as far afield for them as you might imagine. It, too, comes wrapped in affectionate homage to times past.

After the myriad stresses of the past year, we could all use some straight-up entertainment and 42nd Street Moon is providing just that with Don’t Touch That Dial: DC and Peter’s Glorious Romp Through the Golden Age of TV Theme Songs. Conceived and directed by DC Scarpelli and Peter Budinger, the show promises, a light-hearted, celebratory stroll down memory lane as Scarpelli and Budinger guide us through the decades of catchy sitcom themes and the evolution of television. The large, diverse cast also includes Moon stalwarts like Meg McKay and Keith Pinto among a host of multi-talented performers who may be new to you. Don’t Touch That Dial is available to stream from June 5 – 27, 2021 as part of 42nd Street Moon’s paid virtual ticketed MoonBeams series. Tickets and further information are available at www.42ndstmoon.org/moonbeams. ​​​​​​​I had the pleasure of speaking with Budinger and Scarpelli last week as they were still putting the finishing touches on the video presentation. As Scarpelli says, “We’re not satisfied with any musical number until it’s utterly dripping with charm and delight.” If you ever run into them at a party, these are definitely the guys you want to talk to as they are both a barrel of fun and an endless font of information about classic TV and musical theater. A married couple, the two have been working together for years as well as performing individually, and their combined theater credits read like a recent history of Bay Area musical theater. The freewheeling conversation covered how they conceived the show and put it together, which obscure songs didn’t make the final cut, and shows they’d love for Moon to mount in the future.

Jeffrey Lo seems to be just about everywhere these days. As if his day job as TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Director of Community Partnerships / Casting Director weren’t enough, he is also enjoying quite a successful career as a director and playwright. With the recent, tragic spike in prejudice and violence toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, Lo decided to take action by calling on his own Filipino American heritage. He spearheaded TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s efforts to stream a benefit reading of his play Writing Fragments Home to raise funds to support and uplift the AAPI community. The comedic play is an unapologetically Filipino American story about art, family, and culture. The top-flight cast includes stage veteran Emily Kuroda, perhaps best known for playing Mrs. Kim on TV’s Gilmore Girls. Co-presented by more than 40 leading theatres and arts organizations in the Bay Area and beyond, the reading will benefit Compassion in Oakland, a nonprofit formed in response to the surge of anti-Asian attacks and dedicated to promoting safety and community in Oakland Chinatown and beyond. Writing Fragments Home will be streamed live at 7pm PDT, Saturday, June 5, 2021 (with streaming on-demand access available June 6 to June 9). For more information, visit TheatreWorks.org.  BroadwayWorld with Lo last week about his impetus to write the play, how the benefit reading came together, his thoughts about Asian American representation in the theatre, and his experience working with some of his personal heroes. Lo is very easy to talk to – laid-back, thoughtful and self-effacing with an underlying gentle humor – all qualities which likely serve him well in his roles at TheatreWorks. At the same time, I got the impression he is someone who knows how to step up to the plate and get the job done.

San Francisco Ballet brings its extremely successful 2021 Digital Season to a close by revisiting that all-time classic, Swan Lake, in a production choreographed by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson back in 2009, and captured on video in 2016. Swan Lake is a particular favorite of mine, so I was sincerely looking forward to seeing it again and would love to be able to report that SFB was ending their season on a high note. Alas, that isn’t quite the case here. Instead, it was a little like re-encountering a long-lost friend who is going through a bit of a rough patch. It’s still lovely to see them, but they do seem to be missing some of the spring in their step.

If you've been spending some of your pandemic downtime attempting to declutter your life and have found yourself struggling to let go of certain items of no discernable value or use, Jeff Greenwald has got just the show for you. On May 29th, the acclaimed travel writer and performer will bring his new show, 108 Beloved Objects, to The Marsh, inviting audiences to rethink how we interact with the material world. When his travel assignments dried up due to the COVID pandemic, Greenwald used that as an opportunity to embark on an inward journey around his Oakland flat, ultimately picking out 108 objects that evoked personal passages. Greenwald parts with these items and introduces an element of chance by inviting five audience members to pick one object that catches their eye from a grid of 16 images. Whether it's a toy camera or a dolphin tooth necklace, each item has its own fascinating tale to tell, leading to a series of unexpected encounters and surprising destinations that are humorous, thought-provoking and deeply personal. Immediately following the performance Greenwald will be joined by The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman for a Q&A. 108 Beloved Objects will be streamed at 7:30pm (PDT) on Saturday, May 29. For more information, visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream. BroadwayWorld spoke with Greenwald last week from his flat in Oakland, California. This past, essentially homebound year has definitely been a strange one for someone like him who makes his living largely as a travel writer. We talked about how his original impetus to declutter his life led to this new solo show, his thoughts on why we get so attached to certain objects and what their ultimate function might be, and his challenges as a self-professed non-actor to become a successful solo performer. As might be expected for such an inveterate traveler, Greenwald is an inherently interesting interview. He is very comfortable chatting with folks (like me) whom he's never met, readily offers up little bits of insight gleaned from his exposure to so many different cultures, and isn't reticent to gently question some of his interviewer's assumptions. He also has an understated sense of humor that often lies just below the surface of his actual words.

If, like me, you’re not all that familiar with art songs by Black composers, Candace Johnson is here to show you what you’ve been missing out on. On May 22nd and 23rd, the acclaimed soprano and actress will perform her new show Music to My Ears - Hearing Adolphus Hailstork to kick off The Marsh’s new solo performance musical series The Art Songs of Black Composers on its digital platform MarshStream. Dr. Johnson will be joined by San Francisco Symphony pianist Marc Shapiro to shine a light on celebrated modern composer Hailstork’s song cycle Ventriloquist Acts of God, blending singing with theatrical storytelling to depict a university professor and her students discussing how to hear the music – and each other – in a whole new way. Immediately following the performance, Johnson and Shapiro will be joined by The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman for a Q&A. Music to My Ears - Hearing Adolphus Hailstork will be streamed at 7:30pm PDT on Saturday, May 22 and 5:00pm PDT on Sunday, May 23. Prior to those performances, Johnson and Dr. Adolphus Hailstork will appear on Stephanie’s MarshStream at 7:30pm PDT on Thursday, May 20 to discuss his work. Additional information can be found at www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

Have you heard the one about Rachmaninoff and Anastasia? Well, Hershey Felder has quite a tale to tell you! On Sunday, May 16th, acclaimed pianist/performer Felder will portray the iconic Russian composer in Nicholas, Anna & Sergei, his latest world premiere livestream from Florence, Italy. Nicholas, Anna & Sergei explores the little-known story of a strange meeting of Russian piano virtuoso Rachmaninoff and Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to be Princess Anastasia, the sole surviving member of the Romanov Dynasty. Set in the Beverly Hills house in which Rachmaninoff died in 1943, Nicholas, Anna & Sergei is a mesmerizing memory play imbued with the composer's most-beloved music. Presented by Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence in conjunction with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the show was written by Felder and directed by Felder and Italian film artist Stefano DeCarli. It promises Felder's uniquely entertaining blend of live performance, filmed elements, sumptuous visuals, gorgeous music, compelling drama and fascinating cultural history, all leavened with bits of wry humor. The production will also include guest stars such as world-famed soprano and actor Ekaterina Siurina as Natalia Alexandrovna Rachmaninoff, Klezmerata Fiorentina violinist Igor Polesitsky as Dr. Golitzin, and theatre and film actor J. Anthony Crane (who played the title role in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Cyrano) as Tsar Nicholas II. Helen Farrell will play Anna Anderson. Nicholas, Anna & Sergei will stream live at 5pm PDT, on Sunday, May 16, 2021 (with streaming on-demand access through May 23). To purchase tickets or find more information, visit TheatreWorks.org. Ticket sales directly benefit TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. BroadwayWorld spoke with Felder last week from his home in Florence while he was in the whirlwind of creating this world premiere. We talked about the craziness of producing these incredibly complicated multimedia livestreams during Covid times, how Rachmaninoff's music and story resonates so deeply for him, and his plans for a whole new season of offerings. Felder is always a delight to talk to - instantly engaging, funny, warm and knowledgeable - and any conversation with him is apt to go off on a number of unanticipated tangents. For example, who knew that Rachmaninoff was tickled pink by Mickey Mouse playing his Prelude in C #? Felder's use of language is also uniquely musical. But then, what else would you expect from a Canadian who grew up speaking English, Yiddish and French, and is now creating his latest work in Italy surrounded by a team of Russians?

San Francisco Ballet's revisiting of Helgi Tomasson's 'Romeo & Juliet' is, in a word, gorgeous. The dancing, the design and especially the music – all gorgeous. The penultimate program of its 2021 Digital Season is available for streaming through May 26th in a top-notch 2015 video capture featuring a nigh on perfect cast. Not all narrative ballets transfer effectively to a video format, but happily this one does, due to its focus on interactions between pairs and small groups, and its relative lack of the kind of mathy, geometric corps de ballet set pieces that can look somewhat diminished and underwhelming on a TV or computer screen.

The latest offering in 42nd Street Moon’s 2021 Moonbeams series is a new virtual production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Doris Bumpus as the legendary Billie Holiday. Written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Brandon Jackson with musical direction by Marcus McCauley, the play is both a celebration of Holiday as a musical icon and an exploration of her experience as a Black woman in America. Ultimately, it is a testament to the power of the human spirit to persevere in spite of incredible adversity. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is available to stream through May 30, 2021. For further information and to purchase tickets, visit 42ndstmoon.org/moonbeams. BroadwayWorld caught up with Ms. Bumpus earlier this week in Miami, where she was celebrating her 28th wedding anniversary. The Michigan native grew up singing in church, taking on her first solo at the tender age of five. The actor/singer/producer has her own production company, D’Sunflower Productions, and also has a pair of EP’s on iTunes, including her most recent release, “God Bless the Child,” which pays tribute to Billie Holiday. Her wide-ranging Bay Area theater credits include playing Dorothy Gale in 'The Wiz' and Effie White in 'Dreamgirls,' receiving a Pan Arts Award for Best Lead Actress for both. 42nd Street Moon audiences will remember her as Jewel in 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.' In conversation, Bumpus is easily chatty and ebullient, and her joy in being a working actor is palpable.

The latest offering of San Francisco Ballet's 2021 Digital Season shows off the wondrous artistry of the company's dancing more than anything. This mixed rep program of 3 very different ballets originally made on the company provides a dazzling showcase for the dancers' versatility, technique and musicality.

Actor-writer-lawyer Mark McGoldrick is someone with an unusually compelling life story. A self-described former “fuckup” whose youth was largely spent in a haze of drug use and delinquency, McGoldrick was involved in a horrifying accident that could have cost him his life and did leave him paralyzed. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, McGoldrick used this tragedy as an opportunity to reset his life. He went to Harvard Law School and became a public defender for Alameda County, representing people, mostly of color, charged with the same offenses of his earlier days. A number of years ago, he felt the compulsion to start putting his riveting stories onstage by writing and performing solo shows. McGoldrick is now chronicling his story over four monthly episodes in Countercoup, The Marsh’s first broadcast series. Countercoup will be presented the first weekend of each month, May 1 – August 8, 2021 with a new installment performed each weekend at 7:30pm (PDT), Saturdays and 5:00pm (PDT), Sundays. BroadwayWorld recently spoke with McGoldrick while he was on a break from his day job as a public defender in downtown Oakland. We discussed how he was able to recover from personal tragedy and to harness his innate mouthiness to use it for the greater good, how his stage work can affect his loved ones, ongoing issues with our justice system, and some unanticipated benefits from the Covid pandemic for folks with disabilities. As expected, he was fascinating to talk to – keenly intelligent and brutally honest with a sly sense of humor, but also deeply thoughtful, considerate and ultimately quite hopeful. He has a propensity to speak in long, complex sentences that manifest his experience as a public defender.

While the theatre world continues to engage in much-needed conversations about how to make our art form more inclusive and equitable, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is offering a tangible example of what that can look like. Its New Works Festival Online will stream an advance look at tomorrow's boundary-breaking plays and musicals from an astoundingly diverse array of theatre makers. Transforming the Tony-winning company's annual festival into a virtual experience, New Works Festival Online offers digital audiences an extraordinary opportunity to view new plays and selections from new musicals, and learn more about the development process in conversations with the playwrights. New Works Festival Online runs April 23 - May 15, 2021 with performances streaming live. Streaming access is available at pay what you can pricing ($10 minimum for a festival pass) at theatreworks.org. BroadwayWorld recently spoke with Giovanna Sardelli, TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works, from Las Vegas, where she was born and raised and has been spending most of the pandemic away from her actual home in New York. Sardelli has made a career out of championing new works and seeking out voices we may not have heard before, and her enthusiasm for her work is infectious. Any conversation with her is bound to convince you that you need to venture away from the tried and true and take a chance on a playwright you may be unfamiliar with. Not only will it expand your horizons, but you will also be moved and entertained.

honor of Black leaders who shaped and defined American history, The Marsh is presenting Darryl Van Leer’s riveting The Escape of Frederick Douglass on its digital platform, MarshStream. Van Leer wrote and stars in the acclaimed production, which brings to vivid life the early years of African American rights activist Frederick Douglass, from his youth as an unruly boy caught in a slave training camp to his gripping and suspenseful train ride to freedom. Immediately following the performance, Van Leer will be joined by The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman for a Q&A. The Escape of Frederick Douglass will be streamed on Saturday, April 24 at 7:30pm PDT. For more information, please visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream. BroadwayWorld up with Van Leer last week from his home base in Nashville, Tennessee. An actor with some notable film & TV credits, Van Leer is perhaps best known for his stage works about political and cultural leaders, including musical performers such as Ray Charles and Little Richard. We discussed The Escape of Frederick Douglass and how he went about bringing such an iconic historical figure to life, and his thoughts on finding hope in difficult times. Van Leer has made it his mission to take inspiration from these great historical figures and pass it on to his audiences.