Saturday night, November 19th, Melissa Errico made her long awaited return to solo concert-ing at the newly renovated (beautifully) Joe's Pub. The venue was packed with family, friends and fans who, pretty much, went wild when she walked up onto the stage. She was accompanied by an unbelieveably expert trio of musicians led by the legendary John Oddo. The evening's music program was extremely well chosen and beautifully performed and sung. Errico's patter, storytelling and anecdotal skills were also on show, in top form and wildly entertaining.
The new Dutch language production of Miss Saigon, which will open on September 23rd at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, will feature a new song written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil.
The new Dutch language production of Miss Saigon, which will open on September 23rd at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, will feature a new song written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil.
TheatreZone founder Mark Danni believes the Broadway musical and opera have been moving closer together over the last 40 years with the works of Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Claude-Michel Schonberg. He is also unwavering when it comes to bringing Southwest Florida audiences the opportunity to experience the treasures of Broadway.
TheatreZone founder Mark Danni believes the Broadway musical and opera have been moving closer together over the last 40 years with the works of Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Claude-Michel Schonberg. He is also unwavering when it comes to bringing Southwest Florida audiences the opportunity to experience the treasures of Broadway.
There are not enough superlatives to describe the magnificence of Les Miserables. The musical score and the scope of the storytelling - so grand - are nothing short of breathtaking. Now the 25th anniversary production triumphantly plays the Ahmanson Theatre through July 31 with top-notch direction from Laurence Connor and James Powell and a stunning ensemble. This production plays more realistically than past renderings but it serves to enhance rather than diminish.
As powerfully moving as it has ever been, Les Miserables - the epic musicalization of Victor Hugo's classic novel by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil - returns to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center for an eight-performance stand this week, in a visually commanding , artfully re-imagined and dynamic production celebrating the show's 25th anniversary on American stages.
As powerfully moving as it has ever been, Les Miserables - the epic musicalization of Victor Hugo's classic novel by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil - returns to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center for an eight-performance stand this week, in a visually commanding , artfully re-imagined and dynamic production celebrating the show's 25th anniversary on American stages.
Today, we are taking a look at LES MISERABLES: LIVE AT THE O2, now available on DVD/Blu-Ray, and talking to one of the stars of the spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime concert event, the worldwide singing sensation who has made a name for herself as one foremost musical theatre actresses of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century: the incomparable and inimitable Lea Salonga! Following a recap and review of the disc, in this exclusive and revealing discussion Salonga and I detail what has made LES MIZ the international phenomenon it has become and how she has grown as both an actress and an individual in the ten years since she first essayed the role on Eponine on the 10th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT CD/DVD concert spectacular - not that we should ever compare the two- as well as what the powerful and prescient message of the show means for us now in 2011. Lea, LES MIZ and much, much more awaits in this SPOTLIGHT!
Cameron Mackintosh's 25th Anniversary production of Les Misérables, presented by The Paper Mill Playhouse, has finally hit the friendly American shores after touring Britain, and perhaps symbolic of its Atlantic crossing is the new opening picture devised by co-directors Laurence Conner and James Powell. Sure, 24601 (a/k/a Jean Valjean) is still a prisoner in chains for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister and her family, but he and his fellow inmates are now rowing oars on a galley ship. The music (Claude-Michel Schonberg) and words (Herbert Kretzmer, based on the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel) of this world-famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, set against the backdrop of Paris' 1832 student revolution, are unchanged, but the new locale not only starts the evening off with a visually striking image, but signals to the musical's two-and-a-half decades worth of fans that this will not be just another variation of the original Trevor Nunn/John Caird production they are accustomed to. (A production that can still be enjoyed on the West End.)
While there's certainly plenty to enjoy in the new musical version of Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 film, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown - David Yazbek's jaunty Latin-based score, the winning performances of a star-studded cast (three Tony winners and four other nominees) and the kinetic flashiness of Bartlett Sher's kicky production - the show is also a prime example of how the sum of the pieces can add up to more than the whole when the missing ingredient is a strong book. Not that the talented Jeffrey Lane doesn't make a game try at it. Sticking closely to the source, his work is frequently clever and he and Yazbek concoct some quirkily fun musical scenes, but the odds are working against him in this one.
Tickets for Cameron Mackintosh's new 25th anniversary production of LES MISERABLES are now on sale for the premiere Philadelphia engagement at the Academy of Music beginning January 4- 15, 2011. The Philadelphia engagement will mark the first official stop on the multi-city national tour. The all new production of LES MISERABLES features glorious new staging and spectacular reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. The press opening is Wednesday, January 5 at 7:30 pm.
BroadwayWorld.com has learned from her longtime friend and record producer Bruce Kimmel that Michelle Nicastro has passed away at the age of 50 from cancer.
The Stage is reporting that Les Miserables and Miss Saigon team, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil's Martin Guerre is being prepared for a Summer 2011 revival on the West End with actor/musicians, based on a successful 2007 Watermill Theatre production of the show. The team are also reworking Marguerite, with Boublil noting that 'I am completely rewriting it at this moment because I never thought it was finished. I think we took it to the stage too early.'
When it first premiered on the West End in 1989 and then on Broadway in 1991, Miss Saigon won over critics and public alike with its bold operatic score and absorbing story of the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Almost twenty years later it is as relevant as ever and Moonlight's stunning production could not be better.
