Marie Curie, the only person, male or female, to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields, a woman who discovered two elements, polonium and radium, and a woman whose personal life was rocked by tragedy and scandal, is the subject of Shirley Lauro's New York premiere drama, The Radiant, beginning previews tonight, February 21, at 8:00pm for an opening Saturday, February 23, at 8:00pm at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street.
Marie Curie, the only person, male or female, to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields, a woman who discovered two elements, polonium and radium, and a woman whose personal life was rocked by tragedy and scandal, is the subject of Shirley Lauro's New York premiere drama, The Radiant, beginning previews Thursday, February 21, at 8:00pm for an opening Saturday, February 23, at 8:00pm at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO)-the only opera company with two Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony - continues to raise the bar for American opera with next season's gripping new line-up.
Today in 1931, Broadway veteran James Earl Jones was born. He has won Tony awards in 1969 for The Great White Hope and in 1987 for Fences. He has acted in many Shakespearean roles: Othello, King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet. On April 7, 2005, James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn. In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre. In November 2011, Jones starred in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End, and on November 12 Jones received his honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham's Theatre, which was presented to him by Ben Kingsley.
Since the birth of its Song of Houston project in 2007, Houston Grand Opera has been actively pursuing a unique collaborative relationship with the city's Mexican community: commissioning and presenting new works that go beyond a merely curatorial approach to the shared culture of a significant majority of Houston's citizens, telling their stories and refining opera's "Euro-centric" musical-theatrical art with the cadences of the New World. In 2010, HGO commissioned and premiered the world's first Mariachi opera: Cruzar la Cara de la Luna ("To Cross the Face of the Moon"), a true blending of the musical and storytelling traditions of both opera and mariachi, composed by Jose "Pepe" Martinez (music director of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan) and co-written by Martinez with the distinguished Broadway director and writer Leonard Foglia. Now, after 2010's sold-out world-premiere performance and an acclaimed season-opening run at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in September 2011 - and the subsequent release of the opera on CD (on Albany Records) - Cruzar returns home for its first full run on the main stage at HGO, where it will receive four performances at the Wortham Theater Center on March 21, 23 and 24, 2013.
With rave reviews for Puccini's La boheme and Rossini's Italian Girl in Algiers to its credit, Houston Grand Opera's season is up and running. Starting in January, the company offers productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Kern and Hammerstein's classic American musical Show Boat, which bring with them the company debuts of conductor Trevor Pinnock, bass Morris Robinson, baritone Adrian Erod, Broadway legend Tommy Tune, and more. They will be followed in March by HGO's original and highly acclaimed production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna / To Cross the Face of the Moon, a mariachi opera by Jose "Pepe" Martinez and Leonard Foglia. Tickets are on sale now and moving quickly for this winter repertory period, which accounts for 14 of the season's 44 performances, a 38 percent increase from an average of 32 performances in recent seasons. This increase, as well as HGO's 34 percent growth in subscription sales and more than $112 million fundraising effort over the last five years, clearly identifies HGO as today's most successful American opera company.
Houston Grand Opera opens its 2012-13 season in grand style on October 19, with a brand-new production of Puccini's La boheme starring Dimitri Pittas and Katie van Kooten.
Live Performance Australia™ (LPA) just presented the 2012 Helpmann Awards, hosted at the Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House and broadcast exclusively on Australia's arts and entertainment channel STUDIO - channel 132 on Foxtel. Tune in to watch the full ceremony on Tuesday September 25 at 8.30pm.
The Colony Theatre presents the second production of its "Season of Premieres" with the West Coast Premiere Premiere of BLAME IT ON BECKETT, written by John Morogiello and directed by Andrew Barnicle. BLAME IT ON BECKETT opens tonight, Saturday, August 11 at 8:00pm and continues through Sunday, September 2 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.
The Colony Theatre presents the second production of its "Season of Premieres" with the West Coast Premiere Premiere of BLAME IT ON BECKETT, written by John Morogiello and directed by Andrew Barnicle. BLAME IT ON BECKETT will preview on Wednesday, August 8; Thursday, August 9; and Friday, August 10 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, August 11 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, September 2 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.
Houston Grand Opera - the only opera company to have won a Tony, two Grammys, and two Emmys - enhances its 2012-13 line-up with three productions from its Song of Houston project, winner of the National MultiCultural Institute's 2009 Leading Lights Diversity Award.
Today in 1931, Broadway veteran James Earl Jones was born. He has won Tony awards in 1969 for The Great White Hope and in 1987 for Fences. He has acted in many Shakespearean roles: Othello, King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet. On April 7, 2005, James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn. In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre. In November 2011, Jones starred in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End, and on November 12 Jones received his honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham's Theatre, which was presented to him by Ben Kingsley.
Anna Deavere Smith's latest production, Let Me Down Easy airs on THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, January 13 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
In the coming week, by tuning into KQED 9, local television viewers can get a taste of the intimacy and adventure that theatregoers regularly enjoy at the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre. First, Anna Deavere Smith's electrifying solo show Let Me Down Easy airs on PBS' Great Performances. Then KQED debuts The Memory Be Green, an original documentary about the world-premiere production of Ghost Light. As if that were not enough, This American Life - the popular National Public Radio program - devoted its entire hour to The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs last week, and that episode can now be heard online.
Kritzerland has announced the release of the Original Broadway Cast Album of The People in the Picture, starring Tony Award winning actress Donna Murphy. The new CD features Book & Lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, with Music by Mike Stoller & Artie Butler and is now available for purchase at www.kritzerland.com.
Anna Deavere Smith's latest production, Let Me Down Easy airs on THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, January 13 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
Anna Deavere Smith's latest production,Let Me Down Easy airs on THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, January 13 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Originally presented at Long Wharf Theatre, the play received its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre. The Great Performances production was recorded inFebruary 2011 in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, D.C., launching a national tour that concluded in September.
After last December's premiere run in Houston of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world's first mariachi opera, the Houston Chronicle called the piece 'a bold first-time fusion' that 'succeeded on all fronts.'
BroadwayWorld has learned that in December, Kritzerland will release the cast album for THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE, which concluded its limited Broadway run in June.
