Martin Friedman

I am ordering my cap and gown today for the Baldwin Wallace University commencement in May. Leaving this great theatre community is a sobering thought, but the spring semester is so busy there are plenty of distractions.

Beginning my senior year as a major in arts management and entrepreneurship, I've been lucky to get through some of my less-favorite academic requirements. Yes, things that involve math. The Baldwin Wallace University business management portion of the curriculum is especially rigorous. Intermediate-level accounting and economics taught me to admire students who love that material. I have to credit my accounting and economic professors for building my interest. See what I did there? Who would have guessed that you need money to run a theatre, music or arts business? After completing these required courses, my attitude changed from 'Stayin Alive' to 'I Will Survive.'

Madison Square Park Conservancy today announced the program and lineup for Music on the Green, a series of free performances curated by Carnegie Hall and presented within and in response to the Conservancy's current public art installation, Maya Lin's Ghost Forest.

Madison Square Park Conservancy today announced the program and lineup for Music on the Green, a series of free performances curated by Carnegie Hall and presented within and in response to the Conservancy's current public art installation, Maya Lin's Ghost Forest . Designed to complement the themes of the installation—which focuses on climate change, its effects, and nature-based solutions—the concerts feature a nature-inspired repertoire of works by Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Duke Ellington, Reena Esmail, and more, curated and performed by musicians from Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect. Part of the Carnegie Hall Citywide free concert series, Music on the Green takes place on the park's Oval Lawn every Wednesday at 6 PM from July 7 through August 11, 2021. 

The theaters are dark. The actors and staff have been sent home -- out of work.

BRIC has announced the 2020 recipients of the Colene Brown Art Prize, an unrestricted $100,000 grant awarded in amounts of $10,000 each to ten New York-based visual artists.

IF/THEN is a musical with score by Tom Kitt and libretto by Brian Yorkey who also collaborated on the multi-award winning NEXT TO NORMAL, which laid the foundation for a major change in the American musical theatre-the development of musical dramas. IF/THEN is now on stage at Lakeland Civic Theatre.

Lakeland's 2018-19 season concludes with the first locally produced production of the musical version of Mary Rodgers' classic Young Adult novel Freaky Today. Freaky Today, which opens on February 1, 2019 and runs for three weeks at Lakeland Community College's Rodehorst Performing Arts Center, is directed by Martin Friedman and under the Musical Direction of Matthew Dolan.

Lakeland's 2018-19 season concludes with the first locally produced production of the musical version of Mary Rodgers' classic Young Adult novel Freaky Friday. Freaky Friday, which opens on February 1, 2019 and runs for three weeks at Lakeland Community College's Rodehorst Performing Arts Center, is directed by Martin Friedman and under the Musical Direction of Matthew Dolan.

Like much of the works of Stephen Sondheim, from the start, 'Little Night Music' proves to be a different type of musical. Rather than a traditional overture, one-by-one, a quintet of singers, who will act like a Greek chorus throughout the production commenting on varying situations, introducing the audience to characters and clarify the plot's goings on, enter, tuning up their voices. Eventually, they blend into an overture composed of different songs from the score.

Madison Square Park Conservancy announces its thirty-sixth exhibition, Delirious Matter by artist Diana Al-Hadid. Six new sculptures are installed across Madison Square Park's central Oval Lawn, peripheral lawns, and northern reflecting pool. Delirious Matter is the artist's first major public art project. It's on view from May 14, 2018- September 3, 2018.

Madison Square Park Conservancy announces its thirty-sixth exhibition, Delirious Matter by artist Diana Al-Hadid. Six new sculptures will be installed across Madison Square Park's central Oval Lawn, peripheral lawns, and northern reflecting pool. Delirious Matter is the artist's first major public art project. It will be on view from May 14, 2018- September 3, 2018.

Madison Square Park Conservancy is proud to announce the opening of its thirty-fifth exhibition, Whiteout by artist Erwin Redl. The project features a luminous white carpet of LED lights across Madison Square Park's central Oval Lawn, on view from November 16, 2017 through March 25, 2018.   

Madison Square Park Conservancy announces its thirty-sixth exhibition, Delirious Matter by artist Diana Al-Hadid. Six new sculptures will be installed across Madison Square Park's central Oval Lawn, peripheral lawns, and northern reflecting pool. Delirious Matter is the artist's first major public art project. It will be on view from May 14, 2018- September 3, 2018.

Capsule judgment: It may have been a flop on Broadway, but ""Merrily We Roll Along" is a hit at Lakeland Civic Theatre. It's definitely a must see!!!

Lakeland's 2017-18 season concludes with the passionate and oft-misunderstood musical by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth Merrily We Roll Along which opens on February 2, 2018 and runs for three weeks at Lakeland Community College's Rodehorst Performing Arts Center. Merrily. Merrily is directed by Martin Friedman and under the Musical Direction of by Jordan Cooper.

Lakeland's 2017-18 season concludes with the passionate and oft-misunderstood musical by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth Merrily We Roll Along which opens on February 2, 2018 and runs for three weeks at Lakeland Community College's Rodehorst Performing Arts Center. Merrily. Merrily is directed by Martin Friedman and under the Musical Direction of by Jordan Cooper.

Greater Cleveland is blessed with a vital theater scene. It the purpose of BROADWAY WORLD.COM-CLEVELAND PROFESSIONAL THEATER TRIBUTES (BWW-CLE Theater Tributes), to recognize theatrical experiences that, in the subjective view of this reviewer, were excellent and deserve recognition.