Michael Quintos - Page 30

One of Orange County's newest theater companies, 3D Theatricals, will present the final performances of ALTAR BOYZ this weekend (thru Sunday, April 25) at the OC Pavilion in Santa Ana. ALTAR BOYZ, which won the 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, recently closed the original New York production this past January after 2,032 performances.

Directed by Maverick Theater owner and artistic director Brian Newell, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE opens April 23rd and runs through June 5th. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is a story about the son of a prominent right-wing political family who has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.

To enhance Orange County theater-going when the national tour of the smash hit musical DREAMGIRLS visits April 21 - May 2, the Center has scheduled two post-performance talkbacks with cast members on April 22 and 29. During the talkbacks, which will follow the performances in Segerstrom Hall, audience members can speak to the cast and ask questions. The talkbacks are free, but tickets to the April 22 and 29 performances of DREAMGIRLS are required.

During what was called 'Andrew Lloyd Webber week' of the seventh season of the hit TV talent competition American Idol, Webber predicted to an audience of millions that Syesha Mercado will 'bring the house down' with a sexy, splashy take on one of his many musical hits. And that, she did. Then 21, she eventually lasted on the show to become the second runner-up. Fast forward two years later, and she is now in the midst of a multi-city national tour of the rebooted DREAMGIRLS stage musical, where she nightly plays Deena Jones, the beautiful and eventual front-woman of the semi-fictional musical group The Dreams. Before she takes the stage of The Orange County Performing Arts Center (April 21-May 2), Mercado spoke with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos about life on the road, her American Idol roots, and what it takes to become Deena Jones night after night.

There is a sort of darling, cheerful innocence associated with youth in the 50's, which, by contrast, is ridiculously tame by today's standards. Mixing old-fashioned values, quirky fashions, and infectious pop music that is oh-so-cute and saccharine, it is no wonder that many wax nostalgic for an era that came before the rise of cynicism, mistrust, and a disenfranchised counter-culture took hold of a nation still fixing itself. So upon seeing the sparkly, prom-decorated gymnasium set for Musical Theatre West's regional production of Roger Bean's Off-Broadway hit THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES (continuing through May 2), one can't help but feel warm and fuzzy for what's about to happen. For a solid two hours-plus, it was certainly nice traveling back to pre-hardened times, and to be enveloped and shielded in the show's very cozy, comforting embrace.

As newscasts take very brief pauses between disgraced pro-golfers and the latest political scandals to report on the conflict in the Middle East, Americans are fleetingly reminded that as long as the war rages on, many of these heroic military men and women are either about to deploy to, are in the middle of, or are coming home from the harshest of situations. One such woman mired in the latter is the basis for Chance Theater's Southern California premiere of Julie Marie Myatt's WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER, a play that tackles the enormous task of dramatizing a soldier's troubled homecoming.

One More Productions will close the fifth production of their current season, Andrew Lloyd Webber's JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT on Sunday, April 17th at the Gem Theater in Garden Grove, California. The Biblical saga of Joseph and his 'coat of many colors' comes to vibrant life in this delightful musical parable. As usual, One More Productions has placed their own spin on it and offers this musical in a 'Glam Rock' concert style.

RENT, Jonathan Larson's revolutionary rock opera and one of the longest running shows on Broadway hits the non-equity stage for the first time in Orange County. The Maverick is the first storefront theatre to tackle this popular production and has spared no expense to pull it off. If you happened to have seen the final tour of the Broadway production last year, then you owe yourself the experience of RENT in an intimate small theater; the way author intended it.

The Chance Theater is pleased to present the Southern California premiere of acclaimed playwright Julie Marie Myatt's intense look at returning home from war, WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER, April 16- May 16, 2010. Directed by Chance Theater Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER is a present-day story of personal recovery and acceptance. Upon her return to Southern California from a difficult tour of duty in Iraq, wounded Marine Sergeant Jenny Sutter finds herself lost in the California desert, without the body and mind she once knew. The eccentric inhabitants of a makeshift community give her the homecoming she needs before returning to her previous life. An edgy and poignant drama, WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER brings fascinating insight to a timely theme.

Directed by Maverick Theater owner and artistic director Brian Newell, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE opens April 23rd and runs through June 5th. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is a story about the son of a prominent right-wing political family who has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.

To enhance Orange County theater-going when the national tour of the smash hit musical DREAMGIRLS visits April 21 - May 2, the Center has scheduled two post-performance talkbacks with cast members on April 22 and 29. During the talkbacks, which will follow the performances in Segerstrom Hall, audience members can speak to the cast and ask questions. The talkbacks are free, but tickets to the April 22 and 29 performances of DREAMGIRLS are required.

The Laguna Playhouse launches its 2010-2011 season beginning July 6 with the award-winning hit musical LIFE COULD BE A DREAM. Other shows on the season schedule include the World Premiere of the poignant dramatic comedy I LOVED LUCY, the World Premiere co-production of the romantic musical DADDY LONG LEGS, HERSHEY FELDER IN MAESTRO: The Art of Leonard Bernstein, and the classic Noel Coward comedy PRIVATE LIVES.

Musical Theatre West's new season offers something for everyone: From the Tony-Award winning musical ANNIE, which introduces many families to Musical Theatre for the first time, to our number one patron-requested show-Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS, to maintaining our commitment to producing newer works such as the World Premiere of the New Roger Bean musical SUMMER OF LOVE, to the recent New York hit THE WEDDING SINGER, we at MTW continue to promise to provide the highest quality of Musical Theatre to our region solidifying our claim as Southern California's Premier Musical Theatre Company!'

There exists this long-standing unscientific notion... a stereotype that has never truly been proven. Yet time and again, the behavioral pattern is constantly corroborated-in the school yard, in office cubicles, and even in the dating pool: ultra-smart, highly intelligent people are somehow, coincidentally, the most socially-awkward citizens within a given population. And when it comes to communicating about love... well, let's just say that (often anyway) these bright, brilliant minds are surprisingly out of touch, ineffective and emotionally obtuse. Their confidence in the classroom or in the lab somehow dissolves once emotion gets in the way. Such is the supposition posed by Julia Cho's effectively thought-provoking world premiere play THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE, now on stage at South Coast Repertory (thru April 25). A comedy masquerading as a complex series of dramatic acts of miscommunications, the play sets out to illustrate the perception that people-especially seemingly smart ones-may have amazing dictionaries in their brains, but their owners can't seem to get them to open up its pages once matters of the heart enter the picture.

With Tony® winner Faith Prince marking the conclusion of The Orange County Performing Arts Center's Broadway Diva-heavy 2009-2010 cabaret season just this past weekend, the Center is gearing up for a new season this fall with a line-up that includes more superstars from the Broadway stage, including versatile actress, comedienne and singer Megan Mullally (who also recently made headlines after dropping out abruptly from the Broadway production of Lips Together, Teeth Apart) in her Samueli Theater debut with her band Supreme Music Program; Center favorites Jason Graae and Tony winner Lillias White in a Cy Coleman tribute; Tony winner Sutton Foster; and Broadway's original Wicked Green Girl, Tony winner Idina Menzel with a full symphony orchestra in a one-night-only concert in Segerstrom Hall.

Faith Prince has a wonderful gift: she is that rare performer that can make you ache with laughter with a flick of an eyebrow or a scream of a line, then instantly make you sigh with melancholy with a heart-tugging ballad. That Fanny Brice-tinged bravado and uncompromising comedic timing, coupled with a full-bodied, bawdy vocal prowess, is why Ms. Prince's solo cabaret show is an entertainingly exciting live stage experience. The talented, Tony-winning Broadway star, who also juggles a healthy career in film and television, recently returned to the Orange County Performing Arts Center to close out the Center's 2009-2010 Cabaret series. Her set, which she spoke about in an interview with BroadwayWorld, is a 'Best of Faith Prince' showcase, in which she dips into many of her previous Cabaret offerings as well as offer new material that she debuted during the wonderfully zippy hour-and-fifteen minute set. Accompanied only by pianist and musical arranger Alex Rybeck, Prince commanded the stage and enraptured the opening night audience with a heartwarming set of jazz standards, Broadway favorites, rarely heard tunes, and some delightfully droll anecdotes from her career on the stage.

PINK MARTINI, the wildly-diverse, genre-crossing, world-inspired Big-Band ensemble joins Pacific Symphony Pops for a unique night of music.The highly electric and eclectic group draws its musical inspiration from all over the world, effortlessly crossing the categories of pop, jazz and classical to create their own brand of musical fusion. While the Portland, Ore.-based, 12-member ensemble has been making waves for more than a decade with its fresh take on vintage big band sound, blending a multilingual mix of 1940s jazz, global rhythms and more-it appears for the first time with the Symphony, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, on Thursday-Saturday, April 8-10, at 8 p.m, in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Theatre Out, Orange County's gay and lesbian theatre, presents BENT, with performances at The Empire Theatre in Santa Ana from April 9 - May 1. This gripping drama by Martin Sherman (A Madhouse In Goa, The Boy from Oz) examines the otherwise untold story of the treatment of homosexuals in World War II Nazi Concentration Camps.

The Tony® Award-winning actress will once again be gracing the stage of The Orange County Performing Arts Center's Samueli Theater to close out this year's Broadway talent-heavy Cabaret Series from April 8 thru 11. Besides her winning performance as Ms. Adelaide in the critically-acclaimed revival of Guys and Dolls, she has been balancing a rich career in film and television with a string of iconic shows on the Great White Way, which include Tony-nominated turns in A Catered Affair, Bells Are Ringing, and Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Most recently she hung up her tentacles playing the final Ursula in Disney's stage adaptation of The Little Mermaid before it closed on Broadway last year. But before she makes her triumphant cabaret return to Orange County, Ms. Prince spoke with BroadwayWorld about her upcoming show, her Tony ceremony woes, and her mission to inspire the next generation of theater actors to live out their dreams.

PINK MARTINI, the wildly-diverse, genre-crossing, world-inspired Big-Band ensemble joins Pacific Symphony Pops for a unique night of music.The highly electric and eclectic group draws its musical inspiration from all over the world, effortlessly crossing the categories of pop, jazz and classical to create their own brand of musical fusion. While the Portland, Ore.-based, 12-member ensemble has been making waves for more than a decade with its fresh take on vintage big band sound, blending a multilingual mix of 1940s jazz, global rhythms and more-it appears for the first time with the Symphony, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, on Thursday-Saturday, April 8-10, at 8 p.m, in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.