I'm all for efforts to create new ensemble musicals in tune with our times. RIDE THE CYCLONE was composed in 2008 by Canadian artists Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond, played at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and has bumped across Canada and the US (including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle) since then, collecting a fan club as it goes. Funny and tuneful, it has a dark but intriguing premise, a theatrically spooky setting, and some strong musical moments. I just wish it traded less on tired stereotypes. Warning: spoilers ahead.
INTO THE WOODS is new artistic director Marcela Lorca's debut directorial outing for Ten Thousand Things after the retirement of renowned artist and social change agent Michelle Hensley, the founder of the company. Seeing this Sondheim masterpiece up close and stripped of pretentiousness is a treat.
For the opening of her third season as Artistic Director at Minneapolis' spunky Jungle Theater, Sarah Rasmussen and her team commissioned a new adaptation of LITTLE WOMEN from Kate Hamill in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the novel's publication. Kate Hamill is an actor who has, of late, gained notice for her skillful adaptations of classic novels for the stage (several Austen works, Vanity Fair, etc.), to the point that she was one of the 10 most frequently produced playwrights in the US last season.
This evening, the 34th Annual Helen Hayes Awards celebrated Washington's diverse and vital theatre community with a gala event at The Anthem, recognizing 258 Helen Hayes Award nominees and 48 award recipients drawn from 202 eligible productions presented at 64 theatres in 2017. GALA Hispanic Theatre's Spanish-language production of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes' In The Heights received nine awards, putting them at the top of a list of 20 theatres receiving Helen Hayes Awards this year.
The nominees for the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards were announced on February 5, 2018. One of the country's most prestigious cultural honors, The Helen Hayes Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in professional theatre throughout the Washington metropolitan area. The National Theatre's Helen Hayes Gallery set the scene for the announcement of nominees in 47 categories for artistic excellence, and the theatre companies eligible for the 2017 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. The recipient of the 2018 Helen Hayes Tribute will be announced shortly.
January's Ruth Easton New Play Series readings at the Playwrights' Center were standing room only, so theater fans will want to reserve their tickets early for February's offering: 'Three Quarter Inches of Sky' by Core Writer Sherry Kramer. The readings are February 5 and 6 at 7 p.m. at the Playwrights' Center, 2301 E. Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. The readings are free, but reservations are recommended and can be made at pwcenter.org.
The Shakespeare Theatre Company's TWELFTH NIGHT is a fresh look at a familiar story a bit darker with less over-the-top mirth. It is well worth revisiting Shakespeare's comedy for a new take on the familiar story.
Continuing its 2017 2018 Season, Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) presents Twelfth Night. Directed by internationally acclaimed director Ethan McSweeny and featuring Antoinette Robinson (previously announced) as Viola and Tony Award-nominee Hannah Yelland as Olivia, Shakespeare's comic tale of unrequited love will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from November 14 December 20, 2017.
Learning more about an actor who you've seen a lot in a show you've never seen before can be a lot of fun. Local actor Jim Lichtscheidl answers 6 Questions and a Plug, and is going places but won't be going anywhere.
A new original folk-rock musical? It's like FLY BY NIGHT was created and brought to the Jungle just for me. The rare bird that is the new original musical is my favorite thing in the world, and folk-rock/folk/Americana is my favorite genre of music. I was primed and ready to love this show, and love it I did. Charming and funny yet poignant, with a fantastic score played by greats from the local music scene, and a cast that couldn't be better - what's not to love?
Audiences have just four weeks left to see Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins' celebrated comic play, Nice Fish at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End. The production, directed by Claire van Kampen (Farinelli and the King) and staring Academy and BAFTA Award-winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, The BFG), must end today 11 February 2017 following a strictly limited season.
Audiences have just four weeks left to see Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins' celebrated comic play, Nice Fish at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End. The production, directed by Claire van Kampen (Farinelli and the King) and staring Academy and BAFTA Award-winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, The BFG), must end on Saturday 11 February 2017 following a strictly limited season.
After the Harold Pinter Theatre had its final Sunny Afternoon in October, it is now home to Nice Fish for a limited run. Coming over from a sold-out season at New York's St Ann's Warehouse, the play is a unique collaboration between Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, an American prose poet.
London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Bowie's Lazarus and Glenda Jackson's King Lear to Mark Rylance's return, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews…
Leading theatre publisher Nick Hern Books (NHB) has acquired the rights to publish Nice Fish, the new play by multi-award-winning actor Mark Rylance and acclaimed prose poet Louis Jenkins, alongside its UK premiere in November.
Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins' critically acclaimed new comic play NICE FISH will transfer to the West End this winter, following sold-out seasons at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in Cambridge and St Ann's Warehouse in New York. Directed by Claire van Kampen, the production runs at the Harold Pinter Theatre 15 November-21 January 2017, with press night on 25 November.
NICE FISH, written & adapted by and starring BRIDGE OF SPIES Oscar winner Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, is swimming from Brooklyn to London this fall. The production will play the Harold Pinter Theatre beginning November 15, directed by Claire van Kampen.
NICE FISH, written & adapted by and starring BRIDGE OF SPIES Oscar winner Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, is swimming from Brooklyn to London this fall.
St. Ann's Warehouse continues inaugural season in its new theater on the waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park with the NYC premiere of the A.R.T.'s NICE FISH, conceived, written and adapted by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, directed by Claire van Kampen, and starring Rylance. The production will run for six weeks, now through March 27, in the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Theater. Let's see what the critics had to say...