Fresh off a successful run of Ain't Too Proud at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Jahi Kearse returns to B Street to play Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the original production Martin Luther King Jr. & The Sound of Freedom as the first play of the 2019 Family Series. Kearse plays Motown founder and record executive Berry Gordy in Ain't Too Proud, a hit new musical about the life and times of The Temptations. Immediately following Sound of Freedom Kearse will join his Ain't Too Proud castmates in New York City for a Broadway run of the musical at the Imperial Theatre, reprising his role as Gordy.
Writers Theatre opens its 13th annual tour of The MLK Project: The Fight for Civil Rights, written by Yolanda Androzzo, directed by Tasia A. Jones and featuring Angela Alise. A special Martin Luther King, Jr. Day public performance will take place at 10:30am on January 21 at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark Street in Chicago. The kickoff event also includes a post-show community discussion. The event is free and open to the public, and audience members will also receive free museum admission for the remainder of the day.
Garry Marshall Theatre presents the West End and Broadway play The Mountaintop by Katori Hall. The Mountaintop is directed by Gregg T. Daniel, who recently staged A Raisin in the Sun at A Noise Within (Ovation Award nomination for Best Director) and Her Portmanteau at Boston Court.
The University of Saint Joseph will hold its free annual celebration to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019 at 7 p.m. The celebration, open to the public, will take place in the Hoffman Auditorium on USJ's West Hartford campus at 1678 Asylum Ave. An ice cream social will follow the event.
The New York Pops, led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, pays tribute to Nat King Cole's centennial with Unforgettable: Celebrating Nat King Cole and Friends on Friday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.
The University of Saint Joseph will hold its free annual celebration to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019 at 7 p.m. The celebration, open to the public, will take place in the Hoffman Auditorium on USJ's West Hartford campus at 1678 Asylum Ave. An ice cream social will follow the event.
Today, officials with Kansas City's Union Station announced Dinosaurs Revealed: Journey Across America will extend through the 2019 Spring Break season. Originally scheduled to close January 6, this world premiere journey into our prehistoric past will now close March 24th giving school groups, families and enthusiastic fans additional time to explore and encounter the recreated landscapes and living dinosaurs that occupied North America hundreds of millions of years ago.
Soul to Soul, the electrifying and emotionally-captivating theatrical concert that explores the parallels of African American and Jewish history takes the stage this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF), this annual concert will play on Sunday, January 20, 2pm, Off Broadway at the Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place, NYC.
Producer, composer, keyboardist and vocalist, Sergio Mendes is one of the most internationally successful Brazilian artists of all time. His hit single 'Mas Que Nada' is the first Portuguese language song to ever hit Billboard's U.S. Pop chart and Mendes' signature mix of bossa nova and samba and distinctive pop instrumentation have ultimately come to define Brazilian music.The McCallum Theatre and Jim "FITZ" Fitzgerald co-present Sergio Mendes on Wednesday, January 23, at 8:00pm as part of the Fitz's Jazz Cafe at the McCallum series.
Carolines on Broadway, New York City's premier comedy venue, kicks off 2019 with its talented line-up for the month of January, highlighted by headliners Sinbad, from FOX's Rel, January 3 - 5; Jaboukie Young-White, from Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, December 10 - 12; Lil Rel Howery, star of FOX's Rel, Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend, December 18 -20; DeRay Davis, from FOX's Empire, January 24 - 27; and Nick Thune, as seen on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, January 31 - February 2.
Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance is having its Community Dance Day 2019 on Sunday, January 20, 2019! To be held the-day-before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, participants are invited to gather and celebrate Dr. King's legacy around the spirit of African and African diaspora dance.
Along with the New Year comes an exhilarating line-up of FREE performances to look forward to on the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza. Two very special events are celebrated this month, beginning with Dia de los Reyes, or Day of the Kings on Sunday, January 6 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on January 20. Live on the Argyros Stage features Stevie Talks, Kai Kalama, Hummingbird Hotel, HLLNDR and The Moon Rays.
The Auditorium Theatre is proud to continue to extend the impact of its signature show Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah beyond the stage with programs offered to schools, community groups, and correctional facilities. Too Hot, hosted annually on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend in honor of his life and legacy, is a joyous, uplifting show that puts a jazz, gospel, rock, and blues twist on Handel's classic Messiah oratorio. The production features soloists Rodrick Dixon (tenor), Alfreda Burke (soprano), Karen Marie Richardson (alto), the famed Detroit pianist Alvin Waddles, a 100-person choir, an orchestra, and a jazz combo.
Blue Man Group, continuing its open run at Chicago's Briar Street Theatre (3133 N. Halsted), will welcome colder temperatures with added performances for the holiday season and 2019 winter months. The expanded performance schedule includes four New Year's Eve performances as well as performances on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. Blue Man Group's Chicago production recently debuted new moments featuring new instruments, technologies and audience interactions. The expanded winter performance schedule will provide audiences with more opportunities to experience the new content.
14 year veteran from the famed 'Smoke' jazz club in NYC, the Michael LeDonne Groover Quartet arrives on Jan. 11th at The Nash, highlighting a month of stellar concerts at the downtown Phoenix club. The new year will kick off with an array of jazz greats including trumpeter Jason Carder with West by Northwest on Jan. 12, and Francine Reed on Jan 9, as well as a new concept of dueling septets, 'Sevens Run the Table' on Jan 18, in which two separate ensembles of The Nash Composer's Coalition premiere new compositions during each half of the program.
The 35th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration, coordinated by the MLK Steering Committee, will be held on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. The program will begin at 1:00 PM in Uihlein Hall and highlight our youth who interpreted Dr. King's works through art, speech and writing contests.
The 2019 Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival, New York's all-Irish theatre festival and the world's only festival devoted exclusively to producing the plays of contemporary Irish playwrights from around the world, settles in to its new January time slot, running three weeks from January 9 to 28. A total 17 events, including six mainstage productions from Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Queens and Manhattan, will be seen in and out of competition. Among the productions, five are US premieres; one is a world premiere. 15 contemporary Irish writers are represented with work in performance.
South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo was founded in the early 1960s by Joseph Shabalala, then a teenage farm boy living on the lands just outside the small town of Ladysmith, in the province of kwaZulu Natal, halfway between Johannesburg and Durban. Joseph used his hometown's name to honor his family's history. Joseph added to his group's name the word Black in reference to the black oxen, the strongest of all farm animals. Mambazo is the Zulu word for chopping axe, a symbol of the group's vocal ability to clear the path to success.
Artistic Director Pat Taylor's JazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensemble is a beautiful jazz/dance and soulful enterprise that is so exuberant and exhilarating to watch, that, and this is also because the four jazz musicians who play throughout are just beyond brilliant, you forget every one of your troubles and feel compelled to join in to rejoice the human spirit through music, dance, poetry and the spoken word.
