Adrianna Hicks News

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, September 17th   at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

Paper Mill Playhouse has announced casting for The Color Purple, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle. Cast members from the 2015 Broadway revival lead the Paper Mill Playhouse company, including Adrianna Hicks (Aladdin, Sister Act - Germany) as Celie, Carla R. Stewart (Ghost - National Tour, Rent - Regional) as Shug Avery and Carrie Compere (Holler If You Hear Me,Shrek the Musical - National Tour) as Sofia. 

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, August  20th at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

Today's subject Ann Hould-Ward is both a Tony and Drama Desk Award winning costume designer. Her work isn't limited just to the theatre by any means. Besides contributing designs for such legendary Broadway productions as Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George (co-design with her mentor Broadway legend Patricia Zipprodt), her work has also been seen with many dance and opera companies all over the world.

A great cast succeeds despite a less than ideal production concept

The touring production of John Doyle's 2016 Tony Award-winning revival THE COLOR PURPLE has landed at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, where it will make hearts both soar and ache with the blaze of emotion it delivers. Doyle, a director best known for his stripped-down productions of American musicals, has applied that minimalist treatment here as well. And it works beautifully. The set only features a few modest risers flanked by a backdrop wall featuring several wooden chairs (Doyle also designed the scenery). When the actors first make their entrances, they bring more of these simple chairs along with them as they invite the audience into the story. This simplicity, also mirrored in Ann Hould-Ward's costumes and Jane Cox's lighting design, brings a profundity to the staging. THE COLOR PURPLE's modest production values never feel like they're skimpy, but rather they lay the foundation for the show's deeply human message.

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, July 16th  at The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

Back in 2005 Broadway was abuzz with the arrival of a musical version of the much beloved book and movie "The Color Purple". The problem was, when it arrived it landed with a thud and not a splash. It had a decent showing running for three years and touring but never really catching fire (at least not for me). I saw the original on Broadway and in the tour and it just felt like they missed the mark not really focusing on the heart of the story and with music that felt out of place. Then in 2013 the folks at The Menier Chocolate Factory in London revived the show, scaling it down to a more intimate and streamlined piece and low and behold, it now works! And that, Dear Readers, is the gloriousness that's currently playing at the Paramount.

While its original production, as most Broadway shows go, offered the expected big sets, first-rate costumes, and impressive production values, the 2015 Tony Award-winning revival production of THE COLOR PUPLE---currently slaying audiences for a week-long stop at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through June 24---is decidedly more subdued and scaled-down by comparison, allowing the songs, the story, and the cast performances to shine on their own merits instead. The resulting show is a powerful, uplifting one, bathed in a loving, spiritual embrace that shines a light on the struggles, the insecurities, the passions, and the tenacity of African-American women living in the early decades of the 20th Century. I can say without hesitation that this revival production is an excellent way to experience this beautiful, touching, and ultimately triumphant musical.

Producers announce the first North American tour and full casting of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of THE COLOR PURPLE.  The tour will visit more than 30 cities in its first year on tour, including Seattle, at The Paramount Theatre from June 27 - July 1.

AT THIS PERFORMANCE… featuring Standbys and Understudies from AVENUE Q, BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL, CAROUSEL, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE and SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL returns to THE GREEN ROOM 42, Monday, June 11th.

That joyful noise you hear coming from the Hollywood Pantages Theatre this month is the thrilling sound of female empowerment, and it is reverberating like thunder from the heavens in the dynamically robust national tour of THE COLOR PURPLE. Director John Doyle's Tony Award-winning reinvention of the musical - which took Broadway by storm in 2015 - rings like a clarion call to arms for every woman who's ever been violated, abused, or otherwise kept down by a man, and, on opening night, the powerful women leading the cast proved themselves more than capable of leading the charge.

THE COLOR PURPLE, the Tony Award®-winning Broadway revival, will make its L.A. Premiere beginning next week at Hollywood Pantages Theatre, playing three weeks only; May 29 - June 17, 2018. Note: immediately after this L.A. Premiere engagement, the production will play a one week engagement in Costa Mesa at Segerstrom Center for the Arts (June 19 - 24).

The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) celebrated more than two dozen outstanding actors, directors, designers, and ensembles at The 36th Annual Elliot Norton Awards ceremony at the Huntington Avenue Theatre last night. The coveted Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence was presented to Leigh Barrett, Robert J. Eagle received a Special Citation in honor of his 50 years at Reagle Music Theatre, and the Guest of Honor Award went to internet sensation Randy Rainbow.

Awards were presented to more than two dozen outstanding actors, directors, designers, and ensembles last night, May 21, by The BostonTheater CriticsAssociation (BTCA), at The 36th Annual Elliot Norton Awards ceremony, held at the Huntington Avenue Theatre.

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of  AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, May 21st  at the series' new home, The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.

Alice Walker's poignantly sad, yet ultimately empowering classic novel, 'The Color Purple,' has found expression on the page, on film and twice now on the musical stage. The revival (book by Marsha Norman; songs by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray), honed to its finest points, tears at your heart as the story of Southern black girl Celie unfolds over decades of poverty, abuse and a loveless existence, only to see her rise triumphantly as she finally comes into her own. Directed by John Doyle (who was also responsible for the sepia-toned, minimalist set design), the show won the 2016 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical and is now on tour, with a wonderous stop at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre, now through May 27.

Broadway In Chicago and the producers of the Tony Award-winning revival of THE COLOR PURPLE, the truly remarkable musical adapted of Alice Walker's best-selling novel, are delighted to announce that individual tickets for THE COLOR PURPLE will go on sale Friday, May 11. Broadway In Chicago presents THE COLOR PURPLE, directed by Tony winner John Doyle (Sweeney Todd and The Color Purple), at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University (50 E. Congress Pkwy.) for a limited two-week engagement July 17 - 29, 2018.

The Boston Theater Critics Association has announced that Randy Rainbow, comedian, actor, and internet sensation, will be the Guest of Honor at the 36th Annual Elliot Norton Awards on Monday, May 21, 2018 at 7 PM, at the Huntington Avenue Theatre.  

Stephen DeAngelis continues his ongoing salute to Broadway and Off-Broadway Standbys, Understudies and Alternates with its next edition of AT THIS PERFORMANCE… to be held on Monday, April 23rd at the series' new home, The Green Room 42, Green Fig, Fourth Floor, Yotel NYC, 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street), New York, NY 10036 at 7 PM.