With what is arguably the largest production in Maine State Music Theatre's history, the company brings a level of opulence, sophistication, and magic to the Pickard stage that makes this production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast a fitting jewel in the Diamond Jubilee Crown. It is no secret that the company has used every single ounce of its resources (and overcome a number of unforeseen obstacles along the way) to create this magnificent production, but the result has been entirely worth the effort. This beloved fairytale dazzlingly comes to life in all its heartfelt beauty.
Maine State Music Theatre steps back in time for its second show of the season, Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This revered fairytale runs from June 27 - July 14. Due to popular demand, the theatre has added performances on July 7 and July 14 at 2 PM.
From The Gut Creations Productions presents the World Premiere of VILLAIN, An American Story at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Two families, the Clark Family and Thompson Family, are forever linked together through the tragedy of an act that has a devastating impact on both families. A black teenage boy is shot by a white police officer.
What if you could be a fly on the wall for some of the most chilling conversations in the history of crime? What if you could hear these conversations, word-for-word, exactly as they really happened? Investigation Discovery's (ID) all-new series, EVIL TALKS: CHILLING CONFESSIONS takes viewers inside the interrogation room to witness first-hand the clever tactics employed by detectives in hopes of securing a criminal confession. From establishing rapport with their suspects, to old-fashioned “good cop, bad cop” questioning, the new series showcases real-life interrogation strategies used by police to break their suspects and confess what really happened. EVIL TALKS: CHILLING CONFESSIONS premieres Monday, March 12 at 9/8c, only on Investigation Discovery.
ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the world leader in performing rights and advocacy for music creators, announces its music lineup for the Sundance ASCAP Music Caf at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The 20th annual SundanceASCAP Music Caf - running during the daytime from January 19-26 - presents a vibrant roster of renowned and up-and-coming artists and songwriters, specially curated by ASCAP for the Sundance Film Festival. In addition, an invitation-only ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party takes place on Tuesday, January 23, where filmmakers and music creators will meet to make the kinds of connections that happen only at the Sundance Film Festival.
'We are all there for each other,' Kevin Nietzel asserts, affirming the bond that is making Maine State Music Theatre's Grease so electric.
'It is very rewarding,' adds Neil Starkenberg, MSMT's Danny Zuko.
Co-star Chelsea Williams, who plays Sandy to Starkenberg's Danny, continues the thought: 'Neil and I have had conversations about how we could do this show for a really long time. It is so much fun, and I think that must be obvious to the audience. The energy is so palpable that it is a special joy to work that hard every night. Everyone is having the time of his life!'
These three actors together with principals Gerrianne Perez (Rizzo), Charis Leos (Miss Lynch), Costume Designer Travis M. Grant, and MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark all joined BWW's Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold for the third panel discussion in the theatre's Peek Behind the Curtain series held each summer at Curtis Memorial Library. In an especially lively and far-ranging conversation that highlighted not only the challenges but also the camaraderie of this ensemble, the panel and capacity audience explored the history, characters, and production process for MSMT's summer mega hit.
Rock'n roll, teen rebellion, a collection of quirky, lovable characters, and a musical score seared into the American cultural fabric - all these come together in a breathless and breathtaking joy ride that pulsates with electrifying energy in Maine State Music Theatre's third main stage show, Grease. The Jim Jacobs/Warren Casey musical, which reminisces nostalgically about the joyful, naughty, unforgettable days of senior year in mythical Rydell High in 1959, has seen numerous permutations since its original production as an edgy, raunchy musical play called Vaseline in 1971, to its Broadway debut in 1972 and through various film versions including the iconic 1978 movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Here in its Broadway version, amplified with a number of the favorite songs from the movie, MSMT has created a high-flying confection that is a valentine to a simpler era with just the right sparks of sass and sweetness that combine for an irresistibly engaging evening that is sure to prove the summer theatre scene's mega hit.
Part of the perennial appeal of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls lies in the larger-than-life aura of its Damon Runyonesque roots - its fantasy land of gangsters and dolls, Broadway in the Prohibition era, and memorable characters who sing, dance, and deliver wise-cracks. Maine State Music Theatre's new production, the fifth in the company's history, brings this classic to life with a vivid freshness that embraces both the grand framework of the story and the intimacy of its essential heart. Sweet, sassy, and colorful, soaring and ambitious, MSMT's second show of the 2017 season is breathtakingly daring in the way it utilizes all the company's resources to their fullest, all the while that it demonstrates to a new generation why Guys and Dolls both invented and broke the mold for American musical theatre.
Maine State Music Theatre presents Frank Loesser's celebrated musical comedy about rolling the dice and falling in love, Guys and Dolls. Considered by many to be the 'perfect musical comedy,' Guys and Dolls runs from June 28 - July 15.
To celebrate the release of his new CD 'Irish Country Skyline', Andy Cooney and his band-Jimmy Kelly, Buddy Connolly Colm Graham with special guest Dee Reilly performed two sold out shows at The Irish Coffee Pub, East Islip, NY.
The electric, near ecstatic atmosphere in Brunswick's Pickard Theater last night more closely resembled that of a rock concert than a theatre company opening. For months in advance, the sold out box office has signaled the joyful anticipation of Maine State Music Theatre's new production of Mamma Mia! - one of the first regionally for the blockbuster Broadway hit. But anticipation aside, it is the delivery here that is the story: a stunningly executed, intelligently staged, deliciously performed rendition of the 2001 long running ABBA musical that transformed the intimate Pickard Theater into a boisterous celebration.
Maine State Music Theatre's third 2016 main stage production is a cause for celebration! After twenty-one years, the beloved Bock-Harnick musical, Fiddler on the Roof returns to the Pickard stage in a monumental production directed and choreographed by Gary John LaRosa, that stunningly weaves a rich and joyous tapestry of laughter, tears, and joy. Maintaining its perfect dramatic and emotional equipoise, this Fiddler on the Roof travels between tradition and change, monumental events and mastery of detail.
Who doesn't love Meredith Willson's classic musical, Music Man, with its thrilling score, its witty humor, its irresistible combination of bravura and unabashed romanticism?. Generations have grown up on movie versions and memories of the big Broadway productions. So when a company undertakes a revival of such a classic, they risk the inevitable comparisons. Undaunted, Maine State Music Theatre has mounted a grand, original, and compelling look at this cornerstone of American musical theatre. The new production, directed by Marc Robin, starring Curt Dale Clark and Lauren Blackman, which opened at Brunswick's Pickard Theatre on July 16, skillfully fuses the familiar and the fresh into an evening of absolute delight.
In the first act of the Menken/Slater/Steinkellner musical comedy, Sister Act, the heroine, Sister Mary Clarence (aka Deloris Van Cartier) tells Mother Superior that song should come from the soul to raise the rafters. Maine State Music Theatre's second season offering does just that with a dazzling production and a cast whose talent is, indeed, cause for celebration!
Peter Landgren, dean and Thomas James Kelly professor of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), has appointed leading Broadway producer Kevin McCollum to the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor. McCollum's initial appointment will be for three years and will become effective in August of 2015.
ComingSoon.net reports that Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman could be teaming up for James Mangold's sequel to 2013's THE WOLVERINE will officially be hitting theaters on March 3, 2017, with Jackman returning as the lead. 20th Century Fox has also tapped David James Kelly (Straw Man) to pen the screenplay.
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is proud to announce a new scholarship opportunity for students graduating from the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), Cincinnati's world-class public arts school. This scholarship will be offered to the top SCPA student who successfully applies for admission to CCM each year. The award will cover full tuition for all four years of an undergraduate's course of study at CCM.
