Twenty-five years ago in Grand Rapids, the Van Andel Arena still was on the drawing board. Meijer Gardens had opened just three months earlier, but it would be many years before an outdoor amphitheater would be built as a venue for summer concerts. At Cannonsburg Ski Area, on a steamy evening in mid-July, the Grand Rapids Symphony launched a brand new, outdoor concert experience called the Picnic Pops. This season The Grand Rapids Symphony celebrates its 25th Anniversary of its D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops with a series of three shows that are all time favorites with Picnic Pops audiences plus a special event capping off four weeks of concerts at Cannonsburg.
Haley Swindal, the latest Mama Morton in Broadway's longest running American musical 'Chicago' is returning to Feinstein's 54 Below with her brand new show ' Sing Happy: The Songs of Liza Minnelli' on July 26th and Broadway World's own Richard Ridge caught up with Haley to chat about living in the musical world of the legendary Liza.
The impetus behind ROCK AND ROLL MAN: THE ALAN FREED STORY was not the Freed family. Gary Kupper was approached by Larry Marshak, with whom he had worked for many years, about a third party's desire to do a story about Alan Freed as a 'jukebox musical'. The intention was that Kupper might be able to write a couple of songs for the piece. Kupper realized that Freed's story is a classic one. A rise and fall and then redemption story that can't be told as a jukebox musical because Alan Freed wasn't a singer. He feels that a jukebox musical would have cheated the story. This is the story of this man, and the story of Rock-and-Roll. That notion gave birth to the 'book musical'. In 2011, Kupper started writing original songs and sometime later, the team started writing the script. Freed's son, Lance, stepped-in and helped to secure the rights to the Rock-and-Roll classics. They have combined the music of the era with storytelling. They admit it's both risky and tricky and has never really been done to the extent that it is in this show. Thirty to thirty-five original songs were written, most of which were thrown out. A little more than a dozen are in the current iteration of the show.
ANIMANIACS: LIVE! brings Rob Paulsen, and Emmy Awarding winning cast of the show, and those beloved characters to the Balboa stage on Thursday, July 18th at 7:30pm.
On 8th December 2019, internationally celebrated American soprano, Constance Hauman, (www.constancehauman.com) will make her Vienna State Opera Debut. She will perform three roles (Queen Elizabeth I, Purity, Friend of Orlando's Child) in the cast of Orlando, a world premiere opera by Austrian composer, Olga Neuwirth, who is the first woman to be commissioned to compose an opera for the Vienna State Opera in over 150 years. Orlando is based on the novel (Published 11th October 1928) by Virginia Woolf. Costumes for the production will be designed by the legendary Japanese fashion designer, Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons fashion empire.
Colombian-American soprano Vanessa Vasquez, winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, recently completed a residency at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. While there, she sang as Mimi in La boheme, Gilda in Rigoletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Violetta in La traviata. She made her professional opera debut in summer 2017 as Liu in Turandot at the Des Moines Metro Opera. This past season, she was Violetta at Arizona Opera and, currently, she is appearing as Mimi in La boheme at Santa Fe Opera.
Walkabout Theater Company will present the world premiere of THE RAVELING, co-created with Delhi-based theater Guild of the Goat and Toronto vocalist Fides Krucker, playing September 25 - October 13, 2019 at Victory Garden Theater's Prince Charitable Trust Hall, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.
Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with John Pizzarelli: A Tribute to Benny Goodman, Dee Dee Bridgewater, David Matthews Trio, The Count Basie Orchestra, Charlie Parker Birthday Celebration, Chris Byars Original Sextet, Nicki Parrott, Gunhild Carling, Ken Peplowski and Diego Figueiredo, Birdography: Celebrating Charlie Parker, Lorin Cohen, Sam Behr, Laila Biali, Carole J. Bufford, The Lineup with Susie Mosher, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!
Today's subjects Dana P. Rowe and John Dempsey are currently living their theatre lives as the writing team for the excellent swashbuckling World Premiere Musical Blackbeard at Signature Theatre. The production runs through July 14th in the MAX.
Promethean Artists has announced that acclaimed American soprano Deborah Voigt has joined the roster for General Management. Voigt is the first artist to join the company's selective roster since its founding seven months ago. Having made her name as a leading dramatic soprano, she is internationally lauded for her performances in the operas of Wagner and Strauss, as well as for her recitals and accounts of Broadway standards and popular songs. This change in management reflects what she considers a return to her roots, as she moves from an opera-centered repertoire to the music that first inspired her to choose the life of a singer.
What a wonderful way to kick off the Music Conservatory of Westchester's 90th Anniversary! With more than $335,500 raised at the Conservatory's 18th Annual Golf & Tennis Classic and Gala on Monday, June 24 at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase, NY, it is truly a time to celebrate. Iconic comedian and Westchester resident Robert Klein and award-winning music composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman, were honored for their illustrious careers with musical performances by Broadway stars Kate Baldwin, Jennifer Damiano, and Gizel Jimenez, emceed by WQXR radio host Elliott Forrest.
“The concept behind the album, in essence, is about how we develop multidimensional selves, a series of personas if you will, that enable us to navigate in a multidimensional universe and how we learn to move between them very fluidly,” explains internationally beloved singer-songwriterproducer Azam Ali about her new album Phantoms (Terrestrial Lane Productions; release date September 13, 2019). “Over time, these personas become like ghosts that live within us… like phantoms.”
In this scintillating collaboration, star soprano Mirusia (Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra) shares the bill with the Original Seekers - the three founding members of The Seekers; Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley, joined by long-time Seekers producer and guitaristsinger extraordinaire, Michael Cristiano.
To celebrate its 25th Anniversary--and the magic of opera--Opera Maine presents its first-ever production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The magnificent music and captivating story create a fantasy world, where a prince and a bird catcher set out on a trial-filled journey to rescue a beautiful princess. Armed with a magic flute and enchanted bells, they confront bewildering forces of good and evil and discover enlightenment and the power of love. The twisting tale has enthralled young and old alike since the opera's premiere in 1791, less than three months before Mozart's death.
Bill Kenwright presents Rufus Norris' multi award-winning production of Kander and Ebb's landmark musical Cabaret, which embarks on an extensive 2019 UK tour, including dates at Storyhouse in Chester this Autumn.
Boundless Theatre and Boom Shakalaka Productions today announce the full cast for new musical Parakeet welcoming Lula Mebrahtu, Isabel Oliver and Michelle Tiwo to the production. Parakeet will also star the show's creators Brigitte Aphrodite and Quiet Boy. Directed by Laura Keefe, it opens at Paines Plough's ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall on 4 August, with previews from 31 July, and runs until 25 August.
West Jefferson, NC Country music songwriter and performing artist, Taylon Hope, has checked off another of her dreams since relocating to Nashville to pursue her career in Country music. Hope announced earlier this month via social media she would be playing at the world-famous Wildhorse Saloon on historic 2nd Ave North in Nashville, TN and has secured ongoing dates.
