A. Gentle News

Give Dad and the important men in your life a present this Father's Day that can be shared. We have some suggestions for top spirits, ones that we know will please.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the off Broadway musical The Spitfire Grill, one of the most popular recent musicals with over 600 productions worldwide including in Germany, South Korea, Japan, Australia and London.

Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce a fourth bonus show for the 2019 Mainstage Season entitled My Witch: The Stories of Margaret Hamilton (July 17-21). The show is a new play by John Ahlin which is about the life of Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Will Pomerantz, Bay Street's Associate Artistic Director, is directing the production. Will also directed the sellout smash Evita last summer at Bay Street Theater. Margaret Hamilton is portrayed by Jean Tafler (The Deadly Spawn and Una: A Dark Faerie Tale).

Though the 1976 musical SO LONG, 174th STREET didn't even last a fortnight on Broadway, it wouldn't be surprising to see the York Theater Company's completely delightful revised version, ENTER LAUGHING, THE MUSICAL, return the Joseph Stein/Stan Daniels effort to the main stem someday, especially if director/adaptor Stuart Ross' slam-bang mounting keeps getting a little snazzier and a little funnier every time they bring it back.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) will showcase six dream-inspired works at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on 24 & 25 May, under the baton of Jun M rkl, one of the finest French music interpreters, together with the Hong Kong musicians Piano Duo Ping and Ting and the HK Phil's Principal Oboe Michael Wilson.

The Eisemann Center and the City of Richardson announced the 2019-2020 Season of Eisemann Center Presents (ECP) at the Annual Season Preview Party on Thursday, May 9, 2019. The season includes our two full subscription series: Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations with a total of four concerts; and the Family Theatre Series with four productions and the accompanying immersive children's program Eisemann Extras. In addition we have 16 diverse productions ranging from superstar Mandy Patinkin to Asleep At The Wheel on their 50th Anniversary Tour and America's Got Talent favorite, deaf singer Mandy Harvey all returning to the Eisemann Center this season.

Baby's touchy-feely storyline follows three unrelated couples as they anticipate the joy and the pain of parenting.

A Haunting Tale of Anastasia On Tour

Who would have thought that a play about a dog - a role performed by a human no less - would offer such a thought-provoking look at the meaning of life, the bond between owner and animal, the struggles of a long term married couple, and how to cope with growing older? Well Sylvia, A.R. Gurney's hilarious and emotional tribute to man's best friend, does exactly that.

'Forever Plaid,' now playing at Theatre In The Park's indoor facility at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center, is a very pleasant excuse to spend an evening stepping through a gentle time warp and into an entirely different musical experience.

Can't Sleep, Inc., and Philip Sandstrom present CHRISTOPHER CAINES DANCE in the premiere of listen out loud / move to keep things whole, a new one-act ballet set to live music by Pauline Oliveros, Paul Kerekes, and Alison Taylor Cheeseman, and featuring advanced student dancers from New York Theatre Ballet School: together with a guest appearance by members of The Bang Group in works by choreographers David Parker and Amber Sloan and a solo by James Waring. Three performances, Saturday May 18 at 8 PM, Thursday May 23 at 8 PM, and Saturday June 1 at 8 PM at the JCC Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue (at 76th Street).

Three-time GRAMMY nominee Brady Rymer, renowned for his 'instrumentally diverse, harmony-rich rock tracks' (Washington Post) and joyful songs that 'go right through the ears and into the heart' (SiriusXM), will release a new album on May 17th.

On Wednesday, May 8 (7 pm), the five 2019 Fellows in Kaufman Music Center's Luna Composition Lab mentorship program for young, female-identifying, non-binary and gender non-conforming composers will premiere their commissions at Merkin Hall. As part of Kaufman Music Center's multi-year Solar Flare series, the program also includes Shelley Washington's A Kind of Lung, Mary Halvorson's Spirit Splitter and music by Alex Temple. Tickets are $15, available at kaufmanmusiccenter.org. The concert will also be live-streamed via Kaufman Music Center's Facebook page.

Emerging from the revered Athens, Georgia indie scene, post-punk rockers Grand Vapids are returning with a new full-length, Eat the Shadow, on July 12, 2019 and it can be pre-ordered now via Bandcamp. Produced by David Barbe (The Glands, Drive-By Truckers, Sugar) and tracked live at Athens' Chase Park Transduction, the 9-track set is a long-awaited follow-up to their 2015 debut Guarantees, which Stereogum called “instrumentally lush, understated indie rock.” Consequence of Sound praised, “[N]othing is ever hurried, and each moving part feels defined and purposeful,” and Impose added, 'A sledgehammer to the gut hit of deconstructed self-agonizing anguish...strikes you in your most vulnerable spot.' The album landed Grand Vapids on Paste Magazine's “25 Georgia Bands You Should Listen To Now” and saw them share stages with Ought, Pile, Fred Thomas, T. Hardy Morris, and Pure Bathing Culture. While Guarantees proved a perfect postcard from the time when they were fresh and lean and full of nothing but beginner's hope, nearly half a decade later Eat the Shadow presents a band that has resurfaced after dark years of coping with personal tragedy, identity crisis, and dysfunctional relationships. The album opener, 'Disjecta,' was inspired by the latter, serving as catharsis for two partners in the midst of breaking up while still living together and attempting to rediscover their respective identities. The track's slacker-rock vibes project the sense of foreboding that accompanies feeling isolated in a relationship that is consuming you. It is one of a group of songs on Eat the Shadow — along with album tracks 'Shallow,' 'Creature Strain,' and 'Drowning' — that each capture different periods of a long cycle of dissolution and unraveling. The band shared the video for “Disjecta” today with an announcement of the forthcoming LP. It was shot and directed by bassist Patrick Morales and can be viewed/shared via the link below.

The world premiere of Brian Jucha's TOAST at the Catastrophic Theatre is a theatrical experience unlike any other. This deeply layered, highly surrealist adventure draws audiences through realms of reality, and varied states of consciousness, with a mashup of vignettes featuring current events, scenes from the movie Alien, stories about love, and a parade of flamingos. It reveals and revels in themes of loss, betrayal, love, and the meaning of life. TOAST is hilarious, absurd, mesmerizing, and not-to-be-missed.

This week, rising star Hailey Whitters announced that she will support Brent Cobbon his Sucker For a Good Time Tour 2019 this fall. This news follows the announcement that Whitters will open for Maren Morris during her world tour later this year. Recently, Whitters released two new singles, 'Ten Year Town' and 'The Days,' that will appear on her forthcoming album The Dream to be released later this year.

Four women at a lingerie sale with nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex, and more. After noticing similarities among one another, these women form a sisterhood together and unique bond with the entire audience, as they rejoice in celebrating that menopause is no longer "The Silent Passage."

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society announced today the Innovation Series - Ironworks, Ironworks Late Night, and Roundhouse Performance Centre at the 2019 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which runs this summer from Friday, June 21 to Monday, July 1.

52 years after the groundbreaking film, Sierra Rep is thrilled to present Todd Kreidler's stage adaptation of the iconic Academy Award-winning film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. The production poignantly continues SRT's 40th Anniversary Season. Based on the original screenplay by William Rose and directed by Becky Saunders, this charming, clever romantic comedy opens April 26th and runs through May 19th in the East Sonora Theatre.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Isaac Waddington has continued his rise to prominence with his latest offering 'Let Me Into Your Heart'.