Urban Momfare has been selected to extend its run at the FringeNYC Encore Series after a critically acclaimed run at the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival in August. Book by Pamela Weiler Grayson and Alice Jankell, music and lyrics by Pamela Weiler Grayson, directed by Alice Jankell and musical direction by Clare Cooper. Urban Momfare is being produced by Emerging Artists Theatre Company (EAT). A workshop performance of the musical was previously presented at EAT's New Work Series in March of 2013.
Beautiful Soup Theater's Shades of Blue: The Decline and Fall of Lady Day is an unconventional, almost chilling ode to Holiday that is careful not to emphasize and dwell upon the singer's musical accolades and success; in fact, it does little to promote her career and the person as seen through the eyes of her adoring public. This production, written and directed by the incredibly talented Steven Carl McCasland (who also founded Beautiful Soup and serves as the group's Artistic Director), wades in the realm of storytelling without the fantastical twist that people always enjoy adding to make their lives seem more interesting - to add drama where drama may sometimes be due.
After Beautiful Soup Theater's acclaimed and sold-out production of Little Wars in April, they proudly present the last two works in Steven Carl McCasland's trilogy examining women in the arts. SHADES OF BLUE: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF LADY DAY begins tonight, August 27, running in rep with WHAT WAS LOST. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast of SHADES OF BLUE in action below!
Larkin McLean got her start sitting in at jazz clubs, taking piano lessons from Sarah Vaughan's accompanist George Gaffney, and studying Flamenco dance. You can hear it woven eloquently throughout her new record, 'Ladybug.' A follow-up to the well-received 'If You're a Wild Girl, Say Aye,' McLean first hit the scene with her self-titled album, which CD Baby declared as 'the best CD to have sex to.' Jazz Review described her voice as 'ever present to cajole, inflame, and inspire desire.'
"Tragedy is easy... comedy is hard." The short stories and sketches of James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and the legendary Mark Twain fill the bill of Centenary Stage Company's ninth GREAT AUTHORS ALOUD presentation for this free staged reading event on Sunday, September 7th at 3 pm in The Edith Kutz Theater.
Steven Carl McCasland is a rising voice in the world of theatre. After their acclaimed and sold-out production of Little Wars in April, Beautiful Soup presents the last two works in McCasland's trilogy. The plays examine the lives of historical women in the arts. Beginning on August 27th, Shades of Blue: The Decline and Fall of Lady Day and What Was Lost, an examination of Laurette Taylor's preparation for The Glass Menagerie, will open at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal!
ARTISTIC NEW DIRECTION (AND) will present the New York premiere of FELICITAS, as part of the 18th Annual New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC, written and performed by Libby Skala (Best Solo Performer, A Time To Dance - London Fringe Theatre Festival; Off-Bway: Lilia!; Film: Birth with Nicole Kidman), with original music written and performed by Steven May, and directed by Artistic New Direction's Co-Artistic Director Janice L. Goldberg (The Kennedy Center Gold Medallion Award).
"Tragedy is easy... comedy is hard." The short stories and sketches of James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and the legendary Mark Twain fill the bill of Centenary Stage Company's ninth GREAT AUTHORS ALOUD series for this free staged reading event on Sunday, September 7th at 3 pm in The Kutz Black Box Theatre. This exploration of the human foibles, comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people will be read by Randall Duk Kim and Anne Occhiogrosso. At a time when the world seems to be falling down around our ears and human behavior has left the sanest of us baffled, a healthy dose of these three might be exactly what the doctor ordered to reassure ourselves that the world isn't going crazy; it's simply always been that way.
ARTISTIC NEW DIRECTION (AND) will present the New York premiere of FELICITAS, as part of the 18th Annual New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC, written and performed by Libby Skala (Best Solo Performer, A Time To Dance - London Fringe Theatre Festival; Off-Bway: Lilia!; Film: Birth with Nicole Kidman), with original music written and performed by Steven May, and directed by Artistic New Direction's Co-Artistic Director Janice L. Goldberg (The Kennedy Center Gold Medallion Award).
Broadway and operetta unite in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Leonard Bernstein's satirical, effervescent musical CANDIDE, slated for release online on Digital Theatre, today 4 June 2014. The show features music by Leonard Bernstein, book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics by Richard Wilbur, and additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein.
Broadway and operetta unite in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Leonard Bernstein's satirical, effervescent musical CANDIDE, slated for release online on Digital Theatre, Wednesday 4 June 2014. The show features music by Leonard Bernstein, book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics by Richard Wilbur, and additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein.
Christopher Durang was the talk of 2013 because of his gloomy new comedy VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE. Following a successful 2012 World Premiere in New Jersey, the show moved Off-Broadway before transitioning to Broadway and earned numerous award nominations, a handful of awards, and many positive reviews. When the Alley Theatre announced the show for this season, anticipation was high. Sadly, Houston audiences aren't quite getting the show they expected.
On May 27, 2014, Penguin Classics will release two previously unpublished works by renowned literary wit Dorothy Parker and her biographer Marion Meade. ALPINE GIGGLE WEEK: How Dorothy Parker Set Out to Write the Great American Novel and Ended Up in a TB Colony Atop an Alpine Peak is a hilarious and practically unknown letter by Dorothy Parker written to her publishers in 1930 (A Penguin Classics Special; On Sale: May 27, 2014; ISBN: 9780698153776; $1.99). THE LAST DAYS OF DOROTHY PARKER: The Extraordinary Lives of Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman and How Death Can Be Hell on Friendshipby biographer Marion Meade draws from new research to recount Dorothy Parker's last days before her death and the bizarre and unceremonious treatment of her remains following it (A Penguin Classics Special; On Sale: May 27, 2014; ISBN: 9781101627211; $2.99).
As previously announced, Beautiful Soup's critically acclaimed production of Little Wars returns for an extended engagement at The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre. The play will run in repertory with a workshop of McCasland's latest play, Shades Of Blue: The Decline and Fall of Lady Day.
If Great American Playhouse's girls flunk history, they won't graduate! Come along as they time travel through American History and discover how hair products have improved.
On May 27, 2014, Penguin Classics will release two previously unpublished works by renowned literary wit Dorothy Parker and her biographer Marion Meade. ALPINE GIGGLE WEEK: How Dorothy Parker Set Out to Write the Great American Novel and Ended Up in a TB Colony Atop an Alpine Peak is a hilarious and practically unknown letter by Dorothy Parker written to her publishers in 1930 (A Penguin Classics Special; On Sale: May 27, 2014; ISBN: 9780698153776; $1.99). THE LAST DAYS OF DOROTHY PARKER: The Extraordinary Lives of Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman and How Death Can Be Hell on Friendshipby biographer Marion Meade draws from new research to recount Dorothy Parker's last days before her death and the bizarre and unceremonious treatment of her remains following it (A Penguin Classics Special; On Sale: May 27, 2014; ISBN: 9781101627211; $2.99).
Joffrey Concert Group, a pre-professional performance company that prepares dancers for the world stage, will present two evenings of work at New York Live Arts, May 19-20. The troupe of 30 dancers will perform two signature works by Gerald Arpino-Kettentanz (1971), a neoclassical tour de force inspired by Old Vienna, and Light Rain (1981) a sensual evocation of the zeitgeist of the 1970's, performed in full for the first time in New York City since the Joffrey Ballet presented it twenty years ago. In addition, the program features two world premieres by Shawn Hounsell (formerly Royal Winnipeg) and Africa Guzman (former Associate Director of Compania Nacional de Danza under Nacho Duato), with a New York Premiere by Scott Rink (Lar Lubovitch Dance Company).
Symphony Space's annual Spring Festival has become one of the season's most keenly awaited events. This year's installment, Sleeping Around: The Cultural Lives of New York's Hotels, may be the most provocative yet. Running from April 26 to May 21, the monthlong festival celebrates New York's landmark hotels, their occupants, and the lengendary boites that nurtured and sustained the evergreen songs and performers of cabaret. Sleeping Around also credits New York's hotels as incubators for film, classical music, and literature, with programs devoted to Andy Warhol, Virgil Thomson, and Dorothy Parker.
