Jahmaul Bakare News

Truly inspirational stories allow you to believe anything is possible if you trust in your own judgment, dreams, and will to succeed. Award-winning stage star Kristin Towers-Rowles shares her remarkable life story doing just that in her critically acclaimed cabaret show, A Lovely Lineage, directed by Cate Caplin with musical direction by Katie Clarke. Her latest performance on Sunday, October 18 in the Monroe Forum at the El Portal allowed her to share her remarkable tale of survival as she pursued her dreams no matter what roadblocks were thrown in her way.

The director and designers behind Rubicon Theatre Company's acclaimed environmental productions ofFiddler on the Roof and Man of La Mancha have reunited on the two-piano chamber version of the legendary Lerner and Loewe's classic My Fair Lady. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, the musical tells the story of Professor Henry Higgins, an arrogant and attractive phonetician who makes a wager that he can transform a 'deliciously low' Cockney flower-seller (Eliza Doolittle) into an elegant lady by teaching her to speak more beautifully. The magnificent score includes 'I Could Have Danced All Night,' 'On the Street Where You Live,' 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly,' and 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.' For Rubicon's production, Director James O'Neil returns to the source material to explore the Shavian themes of class struggle, social reform and women's rights.

Proving once and for all that concerts need not be serious or dull, Fraser Entertainment Group's 9th installment of A Classic Evening of Broadway bowed at Rockwell Table and Stage on Monday, August 10 to a packed audience of enthusiastic show tune fans. And it was an uber delightful show! Musical director Brad Ellis, best known for TV's Glee and Broadway's Forbidden Broadway, is outrageous fun and his witty repartee at the piano serving as introduction to each of the guest singers was a big plus to the evening's seemingly spontaneous entertainment. Yes, indeed, the ambiance was so casual in the 90-minute set that it was as if we were all sitting on Ellis's private patio sipping drinks and listening to this musical genius create something fresh, for the very first time. He took lots of risks as in his exuberant opener, Peter Allen's 'Everything Old Is New Again'...and motivated each and every singer to join right in and follow his lead. And what a bevy of super-talented performers were on hand, including Valerie Perri, Barbara Minkus, Kevin Odekirk, Damon Kirsche, Jahmaul Bakare, Elizabeth Hayden and even producer Dianne Fraser, whom Ellis referred to as the series' empresario.

Fraser Entertainment Group's critically-acclaimed ongoing series AN EVENING OF CLASSIC BROADWAY returns to Rockwell Table & Stage in Los Feliz on Monday, August 10 at 8pm, the ninth installment of the successful concert series, produced by Dianne Fraser. Acclaimed musical director Brad Ellis (from the hit television series GLEE, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, etc.) leads a cast of superb singers from Broadway, television, and film.

Led by the impressive talents of David Mitrano as Jean Valjean and Garrett Chandler as his arch enemy Javert, the cast of nearly 30 performers harmonize beautifully in each and every number, never missing a beat. This is quite a remarkable feat, given the change to recorded tracks two days prior to opening the show. Director Summer Dey Cacciagioni and Music Director Mike Walker are to be commended for sticking to the adage that "the show must go on" and not letting any obstacle stand in their way in presenting this rousing production.

When Violet first premiered off-Broadway in 1997, it created a stir winning two prizes for Best Musical but didn't make waves until 2014 when it transferred to Broadway in an all new production starring Sutton Foster. It heartfully tells the story of a disfigured girl from Spruce Pine, North Carolina Violet Karl who makes a journey to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the hopes of being physically transformed by a faith healer. An accident occurred when she was a teen - a blade that her father was using cut her face, leaving an ugly scar - and Violet always blamed her father proclaiming that he did not want her to be pretty. She would have no male prospects and be forced to stay on to live with him on their small farm. The scar runs deep - 'it reaches to your heart' new acquaintances tell her, so the journey to find a brand new 'glamorized' look means everything to Violet who will sacrifice just about anything to have it all.

Kelrik Production's upcoming production of the award-winning off-Broadway hit musical VIOLET, a powerful and heartwarming story of a vulnerable young woman's challenges, loves and emotional journey, will now be staged today, May 15 - 31st, 2015 at the Monroe Forum Theater @ El Portal in North Hollywood.

Kelrik Production's upcoming production of the award-winning off-Broadway hit musical VIOLET, a powerful and heartwarming story of a vulnerable young woman's challenges, loves and emotional journey, will now be staged May 15 - 31st, 2015 at the Monroe Forum Theater @ El Portal in North Hollywood. With a score by Jeanine Tesori (FUN HOME, CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, SHREK THE MUSICAL, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE) and book and lyrics by Brian Crawley. VIOLET is directed by Joshua Finkel.