Leopold News

Sam Bass Theatre is pleased to announce its 2014-2015 season full of laughter, drama and song!

The American Symphony Orchestra, led by Leon Botstein, presents Forged From Fire, the final concert of its 2013-14 Vanguard Series at Carnegie Hall, at 8pm, on May 30. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of World War I, the ASO offers a fascinating look at the patriotic music that defined the imperial ambitions of Germany, the war-inspired music that expressed a new consciousness in Poland and the United States, as well as the aspiring nationalism among the Jews of Europe and North America.

The spirit of Johann Sebastian Bach will suffuse the Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts tonight, May 14, 2014, as Italian pianist Carlo Grante makes his first concert appearance in the nation's capital, in a program containing not a single note of Bach's music.

We've been reporting on the buzz since January, but now Hugh Jackman is making Broadway fan's May dreams come true! It's just been officially announced that Sonia Friedman Productions will present the Royal Court Theatre production of THE RIVER, a new play by Jez Butterworth, starring Hugh Jackman, Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo, and directed by Ian Rickson.

World War One is often, and rightly, seen as the schism that shattered the old world order - the class systems, international balances of power, the domestic balance between men and women. What is less discussed, however, is the way that many of these seismic changes were expressed by and affected music. Composers found their whole world-view, the core of what drove them to write, shattered and reshaped. And their audiences found new resonances in their music. Because music at that time wasn't just music - it was a way of making sense of a chaotic world. A century on, Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra present a fascinating, powerful look at that period in 'Forged From Fire' at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 30 at 8pm.

On Thursday, June 5 at 8:00PM at Alice Tully Hall, The American Classical Orchestra presents its season finale in a concert of music written in or for Prague at the end of the 18th century.

The following films are set for release on DVD today, May 6, 2014...

Entering its sixth season in 2014-15, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will include five programs featuring World, U.S., and New York Premieres, four of which explore the new-music scene from four different countries, and a fifth curated and hosted by composer John Adams. CONTACT! will return for three programs at SubCulture, co-presented with 92nd Street Y: John's Playlist, featuring works by five composers selected by John Adams; a concert of works by Israeli composers, featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Lisa Batiashvili alongside Philharmonic musicians; and a performance of works by Italian composers. Two CONTACT! programs will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Met Museum Presents: a concert of works by Nordic composers conducted in part by Music Director Alan Gilbert; and a program featuring works from Japan, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky.

Meg Ryan has signed on to star as the narrator for the How I Met Your Mother spin-off to be titled HOW I MET YOUR DAD.

As this week's episode begins, Regina answers her door to discover green apples waiting at her doorstep; this gesture was obviously made by the Wicked Witch.

David Ives' seductive play of gender politics and power VENUS IN FUR brings Broadway's hottest date night to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert S. Marx Theatre today, April 19 through May 17.

STAGE17, Chairman David Stoller (Executive Chairman of Reach4Entertainment), and President and Executive Producer Ondine Landa Abramson are pleased to present the world premiere of the original reality series Fan Fare which offers backstage scoop, from auditions to closing nights, as casts and creative teams from iconic Broadway shows reunite at the legendary Sardi's with Julie James, host of On Broadway from SiriusXM. STAGE17, a new digital entertainment destination for episodic fiction and reality programming, launched the original series on Sunday, April 6, 2014 and part two airs today, April 11, 2014.

Great Music at St. Bart's will present The Flux Quartet in Concert to celebrate the life of Franz Alt on Sunday, April 27 at 2:30 pm.

David Ives' seductive play of gender politics and power VENUS IN FUR brings Broadway's hottest date night to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert S. Marx Theatre April 19 through May 17.

The always game Hugh Jackman, performed 'Wolverine The Musical' for The Matt Edmondson Show on BBC Radio. Trust us, you've NEVER heard 'Who Am I' from Les Miserables sung like this before!

On April 3, Newnan Theatre Company again steps boldly into risky territory by staging Stephen Dolginoff's "Thrill Me," a musical drama that tells the true story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who murdered a teenaged boy in 1924.

Theatreworks sure knows how to set a scene. Last season, Everyman on a Bus had audiences boarding a charter for a literal and allegorical journey around the Colorado Springs downtown area. Now comes Venus in Fur, staged in an abandoned building on Tejon Street with blacked-out windows and a 'For Lease' sign over the door. Just walking into the space feels like taking part in clandestine activity.

Taut, sexy, and very funny

Step into Bain St. Michel tonight, March 14th for Infinitheatre's annual fundraiser: Poker in the Pool! Try out your luck during an exciting night of Texas Hold'em poker to support your local theatre- one of the most fun events of the season. Everybody is guaranteed to win a prize.

On the seventy-sixth anniversary of famed attorney Clarence Darrow's death, this year's annual Darrow commemoration today, March 13, looks at the 'The Death of the American Trial' with professor Robert P. Burns, author of a 2009 book by the same title.