Joan Marcus News

As with each passing season, 2018 proved to be another exceptional year for theater not only in Souther California in general but also in Orange County---my home base. This year, the OC finally welcomed the debut of what has become this century's most awarded and most renowned stage musical ever about the Founding Father etched regally on the 10 dollar bill. Meanwhile, So. Cal. enjoyed a powerful surge of new stage works that explored Asian-American experiences, a positive step forward in the presentation of diverse voices we seldom hear from on the stage. A pair of touring musicals---both opening in the O.C. in early 2019---made such an impact in their Los Angeles engagements for me personally that I had to include them in my list, even though I have not 'officially' reviewed the productions for print. With that said, here is my 'Best of 2018' from Orange County and adjacent locales nearby---a mixture of outstanding shows and brilliant performances that made a lasting, memorable imprint in my theatergoing experience this year.

Education takes center stage in BroadwayWorld's new Education Spotlight education series. Continuing with the cast of Head Over Heels, next up is the charming Andrew Durand.

As we count down the last days of 2018, New York City's top theatre critics have been taking stock of the theatre season- deciding on their personal choices for their favorite productions of the year. With so many stellar plays, musicals, revivals and new works, both on Broadway and off, a slew of shows have gained recognition from the critics this year.

In 2003, a Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell was released in theaters. Fifteen years later, Elf has officially secured its place in the holiday traditions of millions; however, this Christmas comedy might have been better left untouched by Broadway producers, as Elf the musical under delivers on the promise of a Will Ferrell caliber classic.

In his Tony-nominated revival of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, now playing on tour at Broadway in Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre, director Bartlett Sher delivers a fresh and strikingly relevant vision of this 1960s classic. While Sher carefully honors the cultural and historical setting, a rural Jewish community in early twentieth century Russia, this production achieves a timelessness that speaks to the plights of marginalized people throughout history.

Education takes center stage in BroadwayWorld's new Education Spotlight education series. We ask Broadway stars a survey of questions about their college experience and how its made them the performer they are today. We're kicking off the series with beltress Bonnie Milligan.

Grab your candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup! Buddy the Elf is coming to New Orleans and he's bringing all of his friends and family with him! ELF THE MUSICAL, based off of the beloved Christmas movie Elf starring Will Ferrell, has been turned into a musical and it's headed to the Big Easy this week. ELF tells the story of Buddy, a human baby who sneaks into Santa's sack one night and is raised by the elves at the North Pole. When it becomes obvious to Buddy that he doesn't belong, Santa decides it's time for Buddy to journey to New York City to find his biological father, Walter Hobbs, and to get to know his family. Hilarity and Christmas cheer ensues, of course.

In a city where hundreds of theatre productions are produced every year before audiences who encourage artists to experiment beyond the norm, it takes a lot for a play in New York to be regarded as unconventional.

Every so often the musical theatre landscape experiences a swell of enthusiasm and excitement for a fresh, new and engaging play. Theatre fans (and casual viewers) alike can recall the hype when THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or LES MISERABLES first opened (and went on tour). More recently the WICKED phenomenon brought young and old alike out to experience the magic and electricity that only a live performance can elicit. Today, the show that everyone is talking about (and obsessing over) is Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony winning musical HAMILTON. Like its popular predecessors, it has recently begun touring around the country - riding the wave of enthusiasm and further cementing its place as a true pop-culture phenomenon. But unlike its flashy, big budget predecessors, HAMILTON, in many ways, lives in its own category. It is a show that is modern, fresh, and that pushes boundaries and delivers in two and a half hours an experience unlike anything this reviewer has experienced before. I am thrilled to say, in the production that has now arrived at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, CT - HAMILTON shines brilliantly, delivering in every way (and beyond) on the hype that precedes it.

Tickets for HAMILTON will be available online through Ticketmaster Verified Fan, today, December 14 at 10:00 AM CT. Verified Fan is a new fan-facing technology from Ticketmaster that allows pre-registered fans to unlock access to tickets without competing against scalpers and bots.

Barrow Street Theatricals' highly anticipated American premiere of the Nassim Soleimanpour and Bush Theatre production of Nassim by celebrated Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (White Rabbit Red Rabbit), featuring direction by Omar Elerian, opened just last night, Wednesday, December 12, at New York City Center, Stage II (131 West 55th Street).

Playwrights Horizons presents the New York premiere of Noura, a new American drama from 9 Parts of Desire playwright and actor Heather Raffo, continuing her longtime collaboration with director Joanna Settle, November 27-December 30, in the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons. Let's see what the critics had to say.

A Bronx Tale has been a "family" affair for decades. This musical adaptation is its next evolutionary step following the 1993 non-musical film, which was drawn from an earlier autobiographical one-man Off-Broadway and later Broadway play written by and starring by Chazz Palminteri.

The lack of visible doors in our view of the home of the title character of Heather Raffo's drama of an immigrant Christian Iraqi family in America, Noura, appears more and more to be a symbolic gesture once it becomes apparent that her story takes its cue from Henrik Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE.

See all new photos of the off-Broadway production of Jersey Boys, featuring newcomer Austin Colby as Bob Gaudio!

It was over fifty years ago when designer Boris Aronson famously let a large mirror hang from the set of CABARET, forcing audience members to see their own reflections to bring home the point that what was happening in 1930s Germany could very well happen in America. And while that symbolic gesture may have become a bit of a cliche in the ensuing decades as it got used by other artists for other plays and musicals, designer Clint Ramos ads a provocative twist with the fully mirrored upstage wall in his design for Jeremy O. Harris' extremely daring, highly original and undoubtedly thought-provoking satirical drama, SLAVE PLAY.

If you're like me - overly familiar with the original cast recording - hearing a whole new set of voices can at first be jarring in their unfamiliarity. But that quickly subsides and you get sucked right in to the new voices and rhythms. And those new rhythms, those new inflections, those new and different character choices made by a whole new set of actors are exactly the extra level of genius I mentioned. The work is so much bigger than the original cast.

Tonight Once On This Island welcomed Grammy Award-winning artist and Destiny's Child singer Michelle T. Williams as Erzulie in the Tony Award winning Best Revival. Williams will play the role through Sunday, June 2, 2019. Check out her first bows below!

MCC Theater announce the last day of school-the final performance of the encore production of the critically acclaimed , award-winning play School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, written by 2017/18 Tow Playwright-in-Residence, Jocelyn Bioh, and directed by Tony Winner Rebecca Taichman will be December 9, 2018.

The acclaimed production of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song will end its run at the Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street) prior to embarking on a national tour launching fall 2019 at Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group at the Ahmanson Theatre. The national tour will star Michael Urie, reprising his lauded Broadway performance as Arnold Beckoff.