Prefacing his 1990 playscript for SPUNK, a musical amalgam of three saucy Zora Neale Hurston short stories, George C. Wolfe warned that there was a thin line between Zora and the minstrelsy of Amos and Andy. On Q Performing Arts director Jermaine Nakia Lee fearlessly tramples on that line, giving us the opportunity to appreciate and critically examine Hurston's understated feminism in a richly ambivalent production.
Rock music, counter-culture, and the sexual revolution take center stage in HAIR, the first and most successful rock musical of all time, at Bainbridge Performing Arts this month. Featuring the iconic numbers Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe in Love, Hair, I Got Life, What a Piece of Work Is Man, and Hippie Life, HAIR offers meaningful commentary on the generational divide of the Sixties, lending vitality and insights that remain relevant today. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Virginia Stage Company's second production of Season 37 is the Tony Award Winning All My Sons, a play by Arthur Miller and based upon a true story. This masterwork by one of America's seminal playwrights is about family dynamics, courage, and the struggle to survive during World War II. We follow the life of a businessman who narrowly avoids incarceration for shipping cracked machine parts to the military. While his partner is left to take the blame, the crime eventually comes to his backyard. All My Sons is a preeminent example of American Realism, a genre that examines the human condition by depicting the lives and activities of everyday people during a time of crisis.
Celebration Theatre at the Lex presents its first play in its new home, under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews & Michael A. Shepperd, the Los Angeles premiere of the 27th Annual LAMBDA award- winner for Best LGBT Drama of 2014/2015, BOOTYCANDY by Robert O'Hara (Antebellum) and directed by Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews (The Color Purple, Failure: A Love Story). Comments Celebration Theatre's Executive Director Michael C. Kricfalusi, "All of us at Celebration Theatre are so excited to have found a new home and even more excited to kick off our 33rd season with BOOTYCANDY. It's going to be a great year!' BOOTYCANDYwill begin previews on Friday, October 23 at 8pm; will open on Thursday, October 29 at 8pm and perform through Sunday, December 20 at the Celebration Theatre's new home, the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles.
Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC), presenters of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival and recipients of the 2015 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theater, announce a new work, STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY, directed by Independent Shakespeare Co.'s Joseph Culliton. STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY will begin previews on Thursday, October 22, will open on Saturday, October 24 at 7:30pm and will perform through Sunday, November 22 at Independent Studio in the Atwater Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex, 3191 Casitas Ave., #168 in Atwater Village.
Waitress, a new musical, will open on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue). Previews will begin on Friday, March 25, 2016. Waitress recently played a sold out limited engagement at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
The American Theatre Wing hosts its annual Gala tonight, September 28, 2015 at The Plaza Hotel (Fifth Avenue at Central Park South), honoring legendary actor James Earl Jones. Mr. Jones is a two-time Tony Award winner, two-time Obie Award winner and alumnus of the American Theatre Wing Professional School. CeCe Black, Anki Leeds, and Marva Smalls will serve as Gala Chairs.
MediaRites' Theatre Diaspora, presents the last play of the 2015 season The Sound of a Voice by noted playwright, David Henry Hwang (best known for M. Butterfly, which received the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and for Chinglish produced at Portland Center Stage) on Saturday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m. and on Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m at PCS. Playwright David Henry Hwang will join the audience for a Skype talk at the October 17th 2pm performance.
The New York Philharmonic will present the third season of THE ART OF THE SCORE: Film Week at the Philharmonic September 18-21, 2015, featuring two complete Academy Award-winning films screened with live performances of their acclaimed scores: On the Waterfront and The Godfather.
New Repertory Theatre announces A NUMBER by Caryl Churchill, October 10 - November 1, 2015 in the Charles Mosesian Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA. The press opening will be Monday, October 12, at 7:30pm.
Broadway actors Bryce Pinkham, who recently resumed his Tony-nominated role in the Tony award-winning musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and Lucas Caleb Rooney, who recently starred in Classic Stage Company's production of Doctor Faustus, have secured a home for their non-profit organization, Zara Aina, in Madagascar.?
The Old Globe opens its 2015-2016 Season with IN YOUR ARMS, a World Premiere dance-theatre musical featuring direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Godspell, Lincoln Center Theater's The King and I and South Pacific) and original music by Tony Award winner Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island; two-time Oscar nominee for Anastasia). The production begins tonight, September 16, with an opening slated for September 24, and runs through October 25, 2015.
O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad. There is no reason to be mad as the 2015 season of Shakespeare in the Park comes to a close. Shakespeare Dallas has one more treat in store for its audiences; Shakespeare's classic, KING LEAR.
Perfect for the fall and Halloween season, 3-D Theatricals' (3-DT) of Orange County will present the two-time Tony Award winning musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY, based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams.
The award-winning Weston Playhouse Theatre Company is celebrating the conclusion of a groundbreaking season even as it prepares to announce exciting plans for its 80th anniversary in 2016. Bookended by events that underscore the company's mission to Celebrate the Classics and Nurture the New, the 2015 season was marked by firsts and partnerships that point to a vital future for Vermont's oldest professional theatre.
Nora's Playhouse will present the World Premiere of Laurence Leamer's solo play about Rose Kennedy, ROSE, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre, 410 West 43nd Street, NYC, beginning November 21st, opening November 29th and continuing through December 13, 2015. Award-winning stage, film and TV actress Kathleen Chalfant will play Mrs. Kennedy under the direction of Caroline Reddick Lawson. Jane Greenwood is designing the costumes with scene design/projections by Anya Klepikov, lighting by Caitlin Rapoport and sound design by Jane Shaw
Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. On September 17, residents of North Texas will have a chance to participate in the greatness of giving back, as Shakespeare Dallas hosts Party in the Park from 6-8p.m. at Samuell Grand Park.
Alec Baldwin will present the Theordore L. Kesselman Award for the Arts to honor Alan Gilbert at the New York Youth Symphony's (NYYS) 53rd Annual Benefit Gala.
Continuing its commitment to bringing free Shakespeare to the community and strengthening audience engagement with the arts, The Public Theater will mount its MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT again this October with a free three-week tour to the five boroughs of Shakespeare's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. The free Mobile Unit tour (October 9-29) will bring free Shakespeare to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts by visiting correctional facilities, homeless shelters, social service organizations, and other community venues, including stops at our Public Works community partner venues: Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn and DreamYard Project in the Bronx. Following the Mobile tour, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS will have a sit-down run at The Public Theater from Sunday, November 1 to Sunday, November 22, with an official press opening on Thursday, November 5.
