One of the most memorable shows in musical theatre history, Annie Get Your Gun is Irving Berlin's masterpiece, including some of the best songs ever written for the stage; unfortunately, it also has one of the creakiest books ever written to accompany those wonderful tunes. Although that script was updated and re-tooled for the 1999 Broadway revival, SCA decided to go with the older (probably from the 1966 revival), lamer and (we hate to say it) more racist version. It was not a good choice, particularly when the 1999 revival script is available; its judicious editing resulted in a tighter script and a quicker pace to make the show more palatable to contemporary audiences-especially in 2009.
Matthew White is to direct Tamzin Outhwaite as Charity Hope Valentine in the Tony Award-winning musical Sweet Charity at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Sweet Charity previews from 21 November with press night on 02 December, and runs until 07 March 2010. The box office opens for general public bookings at noon on Thursday 17 September. With book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, choreography is by Stephen Mear, set design by Tim Shortall, costume design by Matthew Wright, musical supervision and direction by Nigel Lilley, orchestrations by Chris Walker, lighting by David Howe and sound design by Gareth Owen.
The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), now in its fourth year, is a three-week event in NYC that has premiered over 90 musicals in its first three years, becoming the largest musical theatre event in America. Tickets for NYMF productions are available at www.nymf.org or by calling 212-352-3101. This year's Festival will run from September 17 through October 7 with the following schedule of events...
This flat out hilarious show is for people who love Broadway musicals but who hate Broadway musicals that are based on movies, have jukebox scores, sell on-stage seating, make the actors wear those mouthpiece microphones, wink at the audience with smarmy self-reference, are cheaply produced, are packed with jokes only gay men understand, really belong Off-Broadway and put the actors on roller skates.
Sondra Lee, Christine Pedi and KT Sullivan will star in Lost Musicals' upcoming staged concert presentation of Cole Porter's '20s musical Fifty Million Frenchmen
Following last year's presentation of Silk Stockings, Lost Musicals will again dip into the Cole Porter repertoire for its next show, Fifty Million Frenchmen
Victor Herbert's Mlle. Modiste and Oh, Lady! Lady!!, with music by Jereome Kern, have replaced Show Girl and Roberta in Musicals Tonight!'s season line-up
Concert presentations of musicals by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Schwartz and Dietz, Jerome Kern and more will be included in the Musicals Tonight! 2005-2006 season
