Peter Danish - Page 5

Aida has been called the grandest of grand operas and the production that has graced the Met stage for the last (unbelievably) 30 years still looks absolutely amazing - towering columns, massive sandstone blocks, etc. Oddly, the audience did not applaud the sets (as they have in every other performance of this production I've seen - about 10 times). The big news of the night on Monday was the house debut of American soprano Kristin Lewis, who has made a name for herself across Europe in many Verdi roles. Her Radames was tenor Yonghoon Lee who seems to be the Met's go-to-tenor for the bigger roles these days. Amneris was a spunky young kid named Dolora Zajick - this kid is gonna go places!

BWW Interview: Ted Rosenthal composer of DEAR ERICH at Museum Of Jewish Heritage

BWW Interview: Erica Miner author of DEATH BY OPERA

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS ROSENHAUS, WEBER AND DVORAK

BWW Interview: Playwright Tom Dudzick of OVER THE TAVERN at MusicalFare

Ironically, Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play 'Parfumerie' was not produced in the United States until 2009. Yet that did not stop the Hungarian hit from becoming the inspiration for a whole host of American films, plays and musicals: first the 1940 film, 'The Shop Around the Corner' with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, then in 1949 as 'In the Good Old Summertime' with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, then in 1998 as 'You've Got Mail,' with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It also inspired the 1964 musical by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, (the team behind 'Fiddler on the Roof').

BWW Interview: David Bernard of THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY discusses their new season

BWW Review: TOSCA at Metropolitan Opera

CONSTELLATIONS at Hudson Stage Company

'Fun Home' the Tony-winning musical, based on Alison Bechdel's autobiographical graphic novel, is a serious show about a serious topic, showing how members of a dysfunctional family come to terms - sort of - with their sexuality, and their place in the world. Spoiler: some of them deal with it better than others.

'I dreamed I was 52 and unmarried,' so says Sonia, at the very beginning of Christopher Durang's dryly eccentric comedy about the middle-aged children of a pair of literary professors who thoughtlessly named their children after the characters in Chekov plays.

BWW Feature: STAGE TO SCREEN: THE BLIND DATE - A New Film by Peter Danish

Singing poorly is an easy task for those of us who can't sing. But it's daunting task to singers who have spent a lifetime refining their vocal production. As Florence Foster Jenkins Debra Jean Templin puts aside all of her skill and technique to become the legendary tone-deaf diva, society matron cum opera singer.

BWW Review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN at Elmwood Playhouse

BWW Review: CLEVER LITTLE LIES at Penguin Repertory Theatre

BWW Interview: Joe D'Urso of ROCKLAND BERGEN MUSIC FESTIVAL at German Masonic Park, Tappan NY

BWW Review: 'RELATIVITY' BY MARK ST. GERMAIN at Penguin Repertory Theatre

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS MAHLER'S 1ST SYMPHONY at The Church Of The Good Shepard

Ken Ludwig had a worldwide hit with 'Lend Me a Tenor,' which was a throwback of sorts to the madcap physical British stage comedies of yesteryear. According to all the press materials for his play, 'A Fox on the Fairway,' this play is another tribute to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s. And truth be told there are many valid comparisons, but the comedy is of a far less polished and elegant form in his play (the female love interest actually says she needs to kiss her paramour's 'balls' for luck). This kind of low brow humor is found everywhere in 'A Fox on the Fairway.'

Every spring for the last 40 years, something very special has happened in Rockland County: the Penguin Rep, the not-for-profit professional Equity theatre started by artistic director Joe Brancato in 1977, begins its season. This year will be their 41st season! Brancato along with with executive director Andrew M. Horn -- has grown Penguin from a small summer theatre into what the New York Times calls: 'the gutsiest little theater!' - one of the Hudson Valley's most influential nonprofit cultural institutions, and nearly half a million theater-goers have passed through its doors during that time.