Chris Lee News

Just after hearing the wonderfully well sung, semi-staged DAS RHEINGOLD at the NY Philharmonic, under departing Music Director Alan Gilbert, I saw the current Broadway revival of THE LITTLE FOXES. It seemed Richard Wagner's gods and Lillian Hellman's Hubbards had lots in common: The small-minded, self-serving gods of this production, at least, could have been friends and neighbors of the mendacious, corrupt Southerners in Hellman's play (or even of a would-be-royal family in Washington, DC).

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - and we hope you've sufficiently recovered from Memorial Day Weekend so that you're able to face the rest of the week with the necessary intent to achieve all that's possible in a world where white pants and white shoes are acceptable (it's summer, after all…well, unofficially, from a social standpoint)! All of this prompts us to ask the musical question: What did you do this holiday weekend? Social media was fairly abuzz with all manner of outings and adventures perpetrated by the theaterati, including both Amy Prough Stumpfl and Nancy Allen attending a performance of Hamilton in Chicago, where Belmont University Musical Theatre alumni Candace Quarrels and Chris Lee are starring!

Winner of the 2016 Nashville High School Musical Theatre Award (which in 2017 became known as The Spotlight Awards) as best actor in a musical, Ashton Harris is yet another starring light in Kristin Moon and Will Butler's company of outstanding young actors at Hillsboro High School.

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic (photo: Chris Lee) In 2009, the year Alan Gilbert took over as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker: “Simply put, the orchestra is playing better than it has in the seventeen years that I've been a critic in New York.” The intervening years have seen Gilbert go from strength to strength, with critics and audiences alike responding with generous enthusiasm to the superb quality of the performances and to the new initiatives that transformed the orchestra into “a force of permanent revolution” (New York magazine).

Now in its 32nd season, Link Up is the longest-running school program of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI). Designed for students in grades 3–5, the program facilitates deeper connections between the concert hall and the classroom through an instrument-focused curriculum that culminates in an annual participatory concert. This month marks the inaugural concerts of The Orchestra Swings—the first new Link Up curriculum since 2012—designed to introduce the idea of “swing” through a conversation between the symphony orchestra and a jazz septet. The nearly 15,000 New York City-area students and teachers who have adopted this program during the 2016–2017 school year will travel to Carnegie Hall for six culminating concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on May 23, 24, and 25.

The New York Philharmonic returned to London, its every-other-year home and the seventh stop on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. There, the Orchestra performed adventurous concerts as part of its third residency at the Barbican Centre under the auspices of its International Associates initiative. Highlights included Yo-Yo Ma in Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen's new Cello Concerto, John Adams with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, and the first-ever Very Young People's Concert abroad. 

Stravinsky's early orchestral work Funeral Song—rediscovered in November 2015 after having been lost for 107 years—is celebrating its rebirth into the world with a packed debut tour, which so far includes more than 70 planned performances across the globe this season and next. 

The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the U.S. Premiere of Tansy Davies's Forest, the New York Premiere of Stravinsky's recently rediscovered Funeral Song; and Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra. 

Yo-Yo Ma joined forces with Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic for the New York Premiere of a Cello Concerto by Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen, whose music has been described as “exquisite” and “thrilling” by The New York Times. Berlioz's passion-inspired blockbuster Symphonie fantastique dazzles with a palette of amazing orchestral colors and effects.

Music Director Alan Gilbert conducted the New York Philharmonic in a program celebrating John Adams's 70th birthday year, featuring John Adams's Harmonielehre and Absolute Jest - with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet as solo ensemble in its debut.

Producers Martin Platt and David Elliott with Mary Cossette, Jamie deRoy, Riki Kane Larimer, Richard Winkler, and Mike Blank, have announced the limited engagement of the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, the new play written by and starring Ed Dixon (Sunset Boulevard, Les Miserables) with direction by Eric Schaeffer (Follies, Million Dollar Quartet) will conclude its Off-Broadway run on Sunday, March 26, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. at The Loft at The Davenport Theatre (354 West 45th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues) where performances began January 25, 2017. At closing, Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose will have played 8 preview and 54 regular performances. A national tour is planned for later this summer.

In the final subscription concerts of his tenure as Music Director, Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic joined by musicians from orchestras around the world in concerts celebrating the power of music to build bridges and unite people across borders. Those invited to participate include members of orchestras from Australia, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The program, taking place Thursday, June 8, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 9 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m., will include Mahler's Symphony No. 7. Special guest artists will include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, on June 8, and trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, on June 9.

Audiences at the New York Philharmonic have been known to come for the soloists and then slip out for the symphony. There didn't seem to be a lot of that at last Thursday's performance led by maestro Manfred Honeck, which began with a wonderful Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 in C Major from Inon Barnatan and grew to a masterly Mahler's Symphony #1.

Audiences at the New York Philharmonic have been known to come for the soloists and then slip out for the symphony. There didn't seem to be a lot of that at last Thursday's performance led by maestro Manfred Honeck, which began with a wonderful Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 in C Major from Inon Barnatan and grew to a masterly Mahler's Symphony #1.

GEORGIE opened last night for a limited engagement through April 15, 2017 at The Loft at The Davenport Theatre (354 West 45th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues). Check out photos from the opening night party below!

The New York premiere of the critically acclaimed Signature Theatre production of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, the new play written by and starring Ed Dixon (Sunset Boulevard, LES MISERABLES) with direction by Eric Schaeffer (Follies, Million Dollar Quartet), opens tonight, February 1, 2017, for a limited engagement through April 15, 2017 at The Loft at The Davenport Theatre (354 West 45th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues).

Last night the creative team of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose celebrated after it's first preview and BroadwayWorld was there.

Producers Martin Platt and David Elliott with Mary Cossette, Jamie deRoy, Richard Winkler, and Mike Blank present the New York premiere of the critically acclaimed Signature Theatre production of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, the new play written by and starring Ed Dixon (Sunset Boulevard, LES MISERABLES) with direction by Eric Schaeffer (Follies, Million Dollar Quartet).

Producers Martin Platt and David Elliott with Mary Cossette, Jamie deRoy, Riki Kane Larimer, Richard Winkler, and Mike Blank, present the New York premiere of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, the new play written by and starring Ed Dixon (Sunset Boulevard, LES MISERABLES) with direction by Eric Schaeffer (Follies, Million Dollar Quartet).

Due to popular demand, the 60's sci-fi immersive musical comedy Wild Women of Planet Wongo will extend its run for a second time, at the Lower East Side's Parkside Lounge through March 2017 and will be the venue's featured weekend performance.