John Lennon News

Manhattan's cabaret diva Baby Jane Dexter brings her new show, All About Love! to Metropolitan Room at Gotham for 12 shows running Wednesday, November 18 though December 19.

Manhattan's cabaret diva Baby Jane Dexter brings her new show, All About Love! to Metropolitan Room at Gotham for 12 shows running Wednesday, November 18 though December 19.

It's Hungerthon season again, and in light of today's tough economic climate, WHY's work to fight hunger and poverty at the grassroots level is more critical than ever.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & UPRIGHT CABARET are thrilled to announce the performers for their very first UPRIGHT CABARET experience at the NEW Cabaret Lounge at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

If you don't remember the '60s... you were probably there! Rick Sparks directs Guerin Barry, John Bigham, Bruce Katzman, Kelly Lester and Tait Ruppert in a world premiere comedy about lost dreams set in the San Fernando Valley.

Philip Wegener, Sara Schedeen and Christopher Barrett are thrilled to announce that their smash hit, critically acclaimed, world premiere theatrical event, Tim Piper starring as John Lennon in JUST IMAGINE, directed by Steve Altman is EXTENDING through SATURDAY, JANUARY 2 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC will end its record-breaking run on January 3, 2010, but the Princess of Wales Theatre won't stay dark for long. There is a yearlong season of familiar and new musicals planned for this popular theatre in 2010.

It's perfectly understandable if years from now, or maybe fifteen minutes after leaving the theatre, the only thing you clearly remember about the Roundabout's new production of A Man For All Seasons is Frank Langella's extraordinary performance as the highly-principled Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More, who refused to support Henry VIII's wish to separate from the Vatican and form the Church of England in order for him to divorce the aging Catherine of Aragon and wed Anne Boleyn in hopes of their union producing a son and heir.  Not that director Doug Hughes' sturdy mounting of Robert Bolt's 1960 historical drama doesn't contain fine work from the rest of the ensemble, but in a play where the central figure so dominates the proceedings - especially with this production's removal of the narrator/commenter character known as The Common Man - Langella linguistically feasts on the dense, wordy text and gracefully conveys the complexities of a family man who refuses to betray his conscious, no matter the cost to his loved ones or his own head.While Bolt leans on portraying More a bit more on the saintly side than reality dictates, Langella never strikes a false note as he spares philosophically with the self-involved king (Patrick Page), the slickly elegant Spanish ambassador (Triney Sandoval) and the arch Oliver Cromwell (an almost dastardly Zach Grenier).  His distain for the corruption of the men surrounding him is expressed by both roaring bursts and faintly exasperated glances.  To see the actor's transformation of More from a righteous lion to a fragile, quietly defiant prisoner in the Tower of London, awaiting execution, is a heartbreaking experience.  Also very touching is the work of Maryann Plunkett as his long-suffering but devoted wife.

It's perfectly understandable if years from now, or maybe fifteen minutes after leaving the theatre, the only thing you clearly remember about the Roundabout's new production of A Man For All Seasons is Frank Langella's extraordinary performance as the highly-principled Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More, who refused to support Henry VIII's wish to separate from the Vatican and form the Church of England in order for him to divorce the aging Catherine of Aragon and wed Anne Boleyn in hopes of their union producing a son and heir. Not that director Doug Hughes' sturdy mounting of Robert Bolt's 1960 historical drama doesn't contain fine work from the rest of the ensemble, but in a play where the central figure so dominates the proceedings - especially with this production's removal of the narrator/commenter character known as The Common Man - Langella linguistically feasts on the dense, wordy text and gracefully conveys the complexities of a family man w

As the 21st Century chugs along toward completing its first decade, perhaps Broadway's new role in American theatre with emerge as the place where talented composers and lyricists with interesting projects will premiere their less-inspired shows while their exciting, adventurous and better-written work continues to hide in the under-publicized shadows of Off- and Off-Off Broadway, festivals and the occasional cabaret appearance.  Just as Legally Blonde, the Broadway debut of composer/lyricists Lawrence O'Keefe (Bat Boy, Sarah, Plain and Tall) and Nell Benjamin (Pirates!, Sarah, Plain and Tall) doesn't match the quality of their Off-Broadway and regional work, last season composer Tom Kitt made his first main stem appearance with the catchy-tuned and enjoyable, but not especially notable, High Fidelity while musical theatre lovers in the know were anxiously awaiting a production of Feeling Electric, his substantially superior collaboration with bookwriter/lyricist Brian Yorkey, first seen at the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

I had to chuckle a bit while reading The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis' program notes for Adrienne Kennedy's Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles?, which described the play as 'the most accessible' she's ever written.

There's a great moment in Cecil B. DeMille's gloriously overblown epic, The Ten Commandments, when Sir Cedric Hardwicke, playing Pharaoh Sethi, upon discovering that his beloved son Moses is really Hebrew, makes a proclamation that the name of Moses must be stricken from the history books, despite his many heroic accomplishments for Egypt, and that his name never be spoken again.  Moses, as far as Egypt was concerned, will have never existed.

Manhattan's cabaret diva Baby Jane Dexter brings her new show, All About Love! to Metropolitan Room at Gotham for 12 shows running Wednesday, November 18 though December 19.

Our Fightin' Phils have made it to the World Series for a second year in a row! Game 3 is scheduled for this Saturday, October 31 at 7:57 pm.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & UPRIGHT CABARET are thrilled to announce the performers for their very first UPRIGHT CABARET experience at the NEW Cabaret Lounge at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Manhattan's cabaret diva Baby Jane Dexter brings her new show, All About Love! to Metropolitan Room at Gotham for 12 shows running Wednesday, November 18 though December 19.

The first show in the Providence Performing Arts Center's Inskip Lexus Contemporary Classics Series launches with the return of the award-winning Beatles concert, RAIN - A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES on November 27 - 29.

The Glasgow Citizens Theatre will present a stage adaptation of the 1994 British feature film 'Backbeat,' a chronicle of the Beatle's largely unfamiliar 'Hamburg Years.' Performances Feb. 9, 2010, prior to an official opening Feb. 12, for a run through March 6, 2010.

Roger Michell will direct Patrick Hamilton's classic thriller Rope running from 10 December 2009 - 6 February 2010, with press night on 16 December. Designs are by Mark Thompson with lighting by Rick Fisher and sound by John Leonard. Rope will be produced at the Almeida in association with Sonia Friedman Productions. Booking for Rope, sponsored by Aspen Re, is now open.

Full casting was announced today for MEMPHIS, an original Broadway musical, opening Monday, October 19, 2009 at the Shubert Theatre (225 W. 44th Street) following critically-acclaimed and sold-out engagements at La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. Previews begin on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.