Marc Robin News

???????The musical twist on the classic tale of THE NUTCRACKER comes to life for children of all ages at The Marriott Theatre for Young Audiences, 10 Marriott Drive in Lincolnshire, from November 11 through December 30, with a press opening on Saturday, November 19 at 10 a.m.

The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre opens a monumental new season with the triumphant Billy Elliot: The Musical through October 16. The Tony Award-winning musical features infectious music by the incomparable Sir Elton John including "Shine," "Solidarity,"  "Electricity," and many more!   

The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre opens a monumental new season with the triumphant Billy Elliot: The Musical through October 16. The Tony Award-winning musical features infectious music by the incomparable Sir Elton John including "Shine," "Solidarity,"  "Electricity," and many more!   

The Fulton Theatre continues to experience unprecedented growth. Under the leadership and guidance of Artistic Director Marc Robin and Managing Director Aaron Young, the theatre's audience has increased from 60,000 to well over 130,000 and box office revenue has increased by 300%. The future is brighter than ever for the Lancaster and National treasure, as the Fulton makes plans for future expansion. Part of the expansion includes a reorganization of the Fulton administrative structure, redefining responsibilities throughout the organization. The role of Managing Director has been eliminated and will be replaced by a more focused financial position. The Fulton's Artistic Director, Marc Robin, has been promoted to Executive Artistic Producer and will lead the Fulton through its next phase of growth.

The Fulton Theatre continues to experience unprecedented growth. Under the leadership and guidance of Artistic Director Marc Robin and Managing Director Aaron Young, the theatre's audience has increased from 60,000 to well over 130,000 and box office revenue has increased by 300%.

59E59 Theaters welcomes Libra Theater Company with TOUCH, written by Toni Press-Coffman and directed by Nathaniel Shaw. TOUCH began performances on August 18 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 4. Press opening is tonight, August 24 at 7:30 PM.

The young and young at heart were treated to a day of enchantment at Maine State Music Theatre today, when the company presented four performances of Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark's delightful musical retelling of Aladdin, directed and choreographed by Raymond Marc Dumont. Presented in a fully staged production, this timeless tale conjures up the magic of wish making, the power of love to transform, and the importance of believing in one's self. In the past few seasons, MSMT has made a concerted effort to expand and enhance their Young Audiences series by offering original musicals based on traditional children's literature and packaged in sophisticated productions with elaborate costumes, imaginative scenery and stagecraft. Moreover, these hour-long performances are entirely created by MSMT's young professional artists- interns, apprentices, and local actors – thereby offering these artists a chance to gain valuable experience.

'We are the storytellers; we are the musicmakers; we are the dreamers of dreams.' With these words the cast of Frank McCourt's The Irish and How They Got That Way brings to a close a spellbinding evening of story and song that has the audience clapping, foot-tapping, weeping, and laughing in one of the most vibrant theatrical experiences in recent memory. The co-production of Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt's 1997 play with music marks a stunningly successful collaboration between Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage and promises to be a major hit for its brief four-week engagement. McCourt's one-hundred-minute drama tells the story of several centuries of the Irish experience on both sides of the Atlantic. No mere history lesson, however, as much knowledge as the play does impart, rather The Irish is a poetic, saucy, irreverent, and exquisitely beautiful tapestry of music, language, narrative, peopled with colorful characters and showcased in compelling song and dance.

When Aladdin, directed and choreographed by Raymond Marc Dumont, opens on August 22, the four performances at Maine State Music Theatre will mark twenty-six years of collaboration and fifteen original shows created by the team of Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark. These two highly respected artists – Robin, director, choreographer, Artistic Director of the Fulton Theatre and Clark, actor, director, Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre – have devoted a considerable portion of their indefatigable creative energy to composing, writing the books and lyrics for a series of musical fairytales designed to introduce new audiences to the magic, make believe and miracles that theatre can offer to the young and young at heart.

Two of Maine's most revered cultural institutions, Portland Stage in Portland and Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick, are pleased to announce their co-production of Frank McCourt's THE IRISH... AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY.  BroadwayWorld brings you a first look below!

'There are two kinds of people in the world, as ye very well know,' Peter Cormican asserts in a lilting accent, 'those that are Irish and those that want to be.' The English-born actor, son Irish parents - a Protestant mother from Belfast and a Catholic father from Galway - is currently in Maine to make his Maine State Music Theatre/Portland Stage debut in Frank McCourt's play The Irish and How They Got That Way, directed by Marc Robin, which opens in Portland August 19th. The production, a bold new collaboration between two of Maine leading Equity companies, marks an exciting new chapter for both theatres and promises to be one of the season's biggest hits, as it has been in every town its played. Cormican is joined in our conversation by two of the other four principals from the a small cast that also stars Curt Dale Clark [see BWW interview 5/24/16], Charis Leos and Cary Michele Miller, (and features Cameron Wright and Emily Davis, Ernest Sauceda (fiddler) and two other musicians). Both Leos and Miller are MSMT veterans, but new to McCourt's play. 'This is my debut at Portland Stage,' Miller says with anticipation. 'I always look forward to working with Curt and Charis and Marc, and I am enjoying getting to know Peter. And I am always excited to learn new material and new music.'

Come along with Aladdin as he journeys to the Cave of Treasures to find the magic lamp… and the Genie who lives inside!

Two of Maine's most revered cultural institutions, Portland Stage in Portland and Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick, are pleased to announce their co-production of Frank McCourt's THE IRISH... AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY.

It's a party -under the blue skies and Mediterranean sun of a Greek island - or at least an evocation of that paradise on the stage of Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick. "It's a party and a great story, and I am so very excited to be part of it! I look forward to revisiting the ABBA music and to encouraging the audience to get up and dance and sing with us." Cory Jeacoma is talking about the anticipation swirling around this week's opening of MSMT fourth main stage production, Mamma Mia, in which he makes his MSMT debut in the leading role of Sky. The vibrant young actor, who just four months ago was graduated from Pace University's musical theatre program, has been working steadily for some years now and is already on his way to making his name and talents known.

'We are excited to have the audience open its eyes to some sunshine. [Artistic Director] Curt Dale Clark and I were just saying this morning that this has been an intense season so far, and Fiddler on the Roof and Evita cannot let in much sun. But we stream that light in Mamma Mia, and we hope it will provide a chance to breathe in the joy of the Greek Isles. If we do it right, we will all feel an uplift.' Director/choreographer Mark Martino is waxing eloquent about his latest project and one which constitutes his Maine State Music Theatre debut: a new production of the 2001 Broadway smash it musical Mamma Mia, based on the songs of ABBA. Martino has what he calls 'a very short history' with the show, having mounted a production for the first time in June of this year at the Theatre Aspen. 'The two will be staged very differently,' he explains. 'Aspen is a 200-seat thrust stage, and here they have a 600-seat proscenium theatre. The Pickard Theater gives me an opportunity to expand the show. Our cast at MSMT is about one third larger than in Colorado - some twenty-seven actors - which is even a bit larger than the twenty-four in the original Broadway production. The production values are going to be large and lavish, and the cast has a huge amount of energy, so for me it is an opportunity to revisit the show and make different pictures and entirely different choreography.'

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team of the West Coast premiere of OCTOBER SKY, which will blast off the Globe's 2016-2017 Season with a tale of boys, rockets, and big dreams.

59E59 Theaters welcomes Libra Theater Company with TOUCH, written by Toni Press-Coffman and directed by Nathaniel Shaw. TOUCH begins performances on Thursday, August 18 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 4.  Press opening is Wednesday, August 24 at 7:30 PM. 

Randall Frizado directs a short, fun-filled version of the children's production of SHREK: THE MUSICAL with a top-notch veteran Shrek and Donkey pair.

History- actual 20th century events and the theatre's own story and legacy - became the joint focus of Maine State Music Theatre's second Peek Behind the Curtain talkback, held on July 7 at the Curtis Memorial Library. The panel examined the characters and forces that formed the basis for MSMT"s thrilling production of Evita, now playing at the Pickard until July 16, and also took several excursions into MSMT's history, which forms the basis of a new retrospective exhibition, MSMT Past, Present, and Future, which serendipitously celebrated a gala opening that same date. Moderated by Broadway World's Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold, the panel featured the three stars of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical, Kate Fahrner, Matt Farcher, and Nat Chandler, as well as the Artistic Directors of two of the areas leading theatres, MSMT's own Curt Dale Clark and the Good Theater's Brian P. Allen.

Twenty-five years after it was last presented at the Pickard Theater, Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice's masterpiece has returned in triumph to Maine State Music Theatre in a stunning new production directed and choreographed by Marc Robin. Boasting the largest cast in the company's history (46), this Evita is gripping and epic, at the same time that it is touchingly intimate and magnificently detailed. The size of the endeavor is both literal and figurative, for MSMT's Evita succeeds not only in its grand sweep, but also in the magnitude of its intangible assets - unsparing honesty, intensity, and emotional depth.