John Webber News

New York's Smoke Jazz Club kick-starts 2023 with a stellar line-up of some of jazz's greatest artists during the month of January.

 SMOKE's year-end Coltrane Festival “Countdown 2023” begins with the first of 16 nights led by a longtime friend of the club: living legend and renowned performer George Coleman. He joins forces with a most illustrious protégé, the great Eric Alexander for an intergenerational tenor saxophone summit meeting for the ages. Coleman and Alexander will be joined by dazzling pianist Emmet Cohen, rock-solid bassist John Webber and rousing drummer Joe Farnsworth. 

Mercury Theatre has announced their Playwrights, Producers and Directors cohort for their 2022/23 programme. This follows a hugely successful year offering support and development to their talented 2021/22 alumni.

The Santa Paula Theater Center will present Agatha Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS from November 11th– December 18th, 2022 on their Mainstage at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 pm on Sundays.

Gilles Jean leaves his comfortable existence as a Montreal lawyer to return to Benevolence, the small town where he grew up. Grappling with a difficult case and surrounded by his outspoken Union-building mother, his childhood best friend, and a host of familial ghosts, Gilles Jean finds himself at the centre of a moral morass from which no amount of legalese can extract him.

 One of New York City's premier live music venues, Smoke Jazz Club, presents a stellar line-up of both legendary jazz performers and emerging voices for the fall season.

Queen's Theatre Hornchurch has announced the full programme for its extraordinary fortnight of new and unusual theatre. Blueprint: a festival of new ideas runs at Queen's Theatre Hornchurch from 12 to 24 September 2022.

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are open this July with a full slate of nightly performances! At Birdland Jazz Club, catch Jay Leonhardt and John Weber Duo, Remy LeBeouf Assembly of Shadows Orchestra and more. Birdland Theater will present Tony DeSare, Maurizio Spista Organ Trio and more.

KINKY BOOTS presented by the Arts Club in Vancouver, will play at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage from June 9th to July 31st. This absolute gem of a show is definitely Arts Club’s best production yet.

Irvine Barclay Theatre, known for its intimate setting providing unique experiences and personal interactions with top performers, has announced its 2022-23 season. One of the most popular performing arts venues in Orange County, Irvine Barclay Theatre will again feature renowned artists in its broadest range of genres ever.

Single and pregnant, Susan Pierce (Meghan Gardiner) touches down in Planview, Kansas in the wake of a devastating tornado. Teaching high school biology in a repurposed trailer, Susan's worldview and Plainview clash when her student Micah (Evan Rein), asks her to recant a  comment touching on the validity of creationism. Soon Micah's guardian Gene (Ron Reed), Micah, and Susan face a storm none of them know how to subdue. Pacific Theatre brings Catherine Trieschmann's complex tale of faith, trauma, and conflicting human ideologies to the alley stage.

Single and pregnant, Susan Pierce (Meghan Gardiner) touches down in Planview, Kansas in the wake of a devastating tornado. Teaching high school biology in a repurposed trailer, Susan's worldview and Plainview clash when her student Micah (Evan Rein), asks her to recant an comment touching on the validity of creationism. Soon, Micah's guardian Gene (Ron Reed), Micah, and Susan face a storm none of them know how to subdue. Pacific Theatre brings Catherine Trieschmann's complex tale of faith, trauma, and conflicting human ideologies to the alley stage.

Chinatown is a new chamber opera by librettist Madeleine Thien and composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, with Hoisan translations by Paul Yee, scenic design by Camellia Koo, and lighting design by John Webber. It has been in development and workshop since 2017.

To honour Vancouver's vibrant artistic community during this challenging time, the 2020 Jessie Theatre Award Nominations were announced virtually, for the first time, on Monday, June 8th, hosted by the mother daughter duo Amanda Sum (seen this season in Chicken Girl and East Van Panto) and Linda Leung.

A casting director has one day to find an actor to fill the role of a lawyer in a crime procedural. But what seems like a simple task proves impossible when the pool of actors includes stage thespians who can't tone it down for the screen, performers completely unable to keep themselves in frame, and an actor who seems to believe this is a toothpaste commercial.

Today HighTide have announced the twelve new writers making up the Playwright Crisis Support Programme, as part of their Lighthouse Programme, to support artists during the pandemic, as well as setting up their new Playwright's Network.

Rock soloist hailing from London, Drew Davies has released his self-titled album on 15 May via AD1.

Rock soloist hailing from London, Drew Davies has released his single, 'X and Y' on 1 May via AD1.

City Opera Vancouver presents the world premiere of the political satire BERLIN: The Last Cabaret (BERLIN) from January 23-26, 2020 at Performance Works. Set in Nazi Germany on July 13, 1934, the darkly humorous production takes place the day of Adolf Hitler's national broadcast claiming responsibility for the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a horrific political purge and extrajudicial execution of more than 85 members of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Directed and co-created by Alan Corbishley, in association with Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre (soundthealarm.ca), and presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, BERLIN follows an underground cabaret troupe as they decide whether their love of creative and social freedom is worth the ultimate price. The production is City Opera's first appearance in the PuSh Festival.

City Opera Vancouver presents the world premiere of the political satire BERLIN: The Last Cabaret (BERLIN) from January 23a?"25, 2020 at Performance Works. Set in Nazi Germany on July 13, 1934, the darkly humorous production takes place the day of Adolf Hitler's national broadcast claiming responsibility for the a?oeNight of the Long Knivesa?? a?" a horrific political purge and extrajudicial execution of more than 85 members of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Directed and co-created by Alan Corbishley, in association with Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre (soundthealarm.ca), and presented with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, BERLIN follows an underground cabaret troupe as they decide whether their love of creative and social freedom is worth the ultimate price. The production is City Opera's first appearance in the PuSh Festival.