Roy Berko - Page 7

Each holiday season Beck Center presents a child-centric show. The scripts are the likes of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE LITTLE MERMAID, and SHREK. These are selections that have audience involving stories, well-known music and lyrics, show-stoppers, farcical humor or dramatic intrigue, and the opportunity for choreographic creativity.

INTO THE WOODS is a musical with a book by James Lapine and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

In 2010 a gay Mississippi high school student was banned from coming to her senior prom by the school’s Board of Education because she wanted to bring her girlfriend as her date.  She challenged the ruling, which resulted in the cancellation of the prom.  The student and the ACLU sued the district.  The federal court found the school district guilty of violating the student’s first amendment rights and said the prom must be held.  

Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which performers pretend to play an imaginary electric guitar. Performances include exaggerated strumming motions and recorded rock music often coupled with loud singing or lip-synching.

For the last several years more and more attention has been placed on The Black Lives Matter and Me-Too movements, woke language, microaggression, radical feminism, transgenderism, Critical Race Theory and aggression against Asians. They have become issues for laws, politics, education, media and the arts.

THE TEMPEST, now on stage at Great Lakes Theatre, is thought to be Shakespeare's last known play. The script almost defies classification as it contains both tragic and comic themes, as well as romance. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family.

The return to a live performance program, 'New Beginnings,' staged on October 14 and 17, just reinforced the orchestra's masterful sound and ability to captivate an audience.

Written in 1982, the play is set in a recording studio in Chicago in 1920. It deals with issues of race, the attitudes of Blacks regarding Whites, religion, and the historic exploitation of Black recording artists by white producers.

The death penalty carries the inherent risk of executing an innocent person.

THE LION KING, whose North American touring company, which recently opened in CLE's Playhouse Square's Key Bank State Theatre, has an enviable record. It is the third longest running show in Broadway history, clocking a little over 9,300 curtain raisers. Only THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (12,370) and the revival of CHICAGO (9,692) have had longer Great White way runs.

A native New Yorker, Neil Simon is recognized as Broadway's King of Comedy. Following his very successful 1961 production of COME BLOW YOUR HORN, Simon's name on a script basically meant instant box office sell-outs during the era from 1960-1980, the Great White Way's era of comic plays.

Clyde Simon, the artistic director and one-man-band who founded convergence-continuum, CLE's Tremont-housed theatre, has an affinity for choosing challenging shows. Scripts that no other local performance venue will stage.

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Finegan Kruckemeyer, the author of THIS GIRL LAUGHS, THIS GIRL CRIES, THIS GIRL DOES NOTHING, now on stage at Beck Center for the Arts, was born in Ireland and has lived much of his life in Tasmania, an island state of Australia.

As I was walking into the pavilion at Blossom Music Center, the woman in front of me kept stopping to take pictures on her I-phone. She stopped, turned around smiled and said, 'Sorry, I'm from New Orleans. My husband and I are on a trip to see various outdoor music venues. This is the most beautiful one we've seen.'

Amélie, which is now on stage at Mercury Theatre, is a musical is based on the romantic comedy film of the same name.

Dorothy Silver, the 'grande dame' of Cleveland theatre, noted for her talent, charm, grace and compassion, once said of herself, 'I've been letting myself grow old for years. I'm very confident in my age. Also, it helps me be competitive in getting many stage and film roles, since so many older actresses try to take years off their age.'

The 2021 BorderLight International Theatre + Fringe Festival announces the lineup for the 2021 BorderLight VIRTUAL Fringe Festival, which includes 33 distinct live streamed and on-demand virtual works, interactive and genre-bending online experiences, as well as self-guided audio adventures.

BROOKLYN, THE MUSICAL, now being staged at Porthouse Theatre, on the grounds of Blossom Center, premiered on Broadway in October, 2004 and ran for 284 performances. Though the run wasn't long, and many of the reviews found the script 'trite and non-realistic,' it did accumulate a solid cult following.