Nicole Sumlin News

It is entirely appropriate that the songs of Nina Simone were heard before, during intermissions and following the Ensemble production of Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun.' Simone, an activist and singer, was strongly influenced by Hansberry, who was the first female African-American playwright to have a play performed on Broadway.

The 1950s was a period of racial stress in much of the south. Lynchings, school segregation, separate lunch counters and drinking fountains, blacks to the back of the bus, laws against black and white mixing. Even separate black and white radio stations was the custom, as were black and white musical styles. Patty Page, Perry Como and 'nice music' was the white style. Rock and Roll was for blacks.

Beck Center for the Arts is pleased to announce its 2018-2019 professional theater season filled with their signature eclectic titles that include modern classics and the eighth collaboration with Baldwin Wallace University Musical Theatre program.

Tantrum Theater's reimagined Equity production of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's masterpiece Caroline, or Change, has performed to standing ovations and sold out audiences. Directed by the brilliant director Robert Barry Fleming, the production opened last week at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, Ohio.

Tantrum Theater presents a new Equity production of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's Tony Award-nominated Caroline, or Change. Directed by Robert Barry Fleming, Caroline, or Change began preview performances July 5, 2017 and officially opened on July 7, 2017 at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, OH. This is a limited engagement thru July 22, 2017.

Tantrum Theater continues its second season with the moving Tony Award-nominated musical, 'Caroline, or Change,' running July 5-July 22.

Tantrum Theater continues its second season with the moving Tony Award-nominated musical, 'Caroline, or Change,' running July 5-July 22.

If you are a fanatic for rock and roll, especially from the genre's golden age, you will absolutely love "Rock of Ages." "Oh Sherrie," "The Search is Over," as you'll think it's "Just like Paradise" and believe that you are in "Heaven," having "Nothin' But a Good Time," which is pretty darn good!

Greater Cleveland is blessed with a vital theater scene. It has been the purpose of the TIMES THEATER TRIBUTES, now known as BROADWAY WORLD-CLEVELAND REGIONAL PROFESSIONAL THEATER TRIBUTES (BWW-Cle Theater Tributes), to recognize theatrical experiences that, in the subjective view of this reviewer, were excellent and deserve recognition.

In 2011, Kelly Williams-Bolar served a 10-day jail sentence for illegally sending her children to a suburban school outside of her Akron, Ohio district. The sentence disqualified Williams-Bolar from getting her accreditation as a teacher. A storm of protests, both pro and con, quickly followed the sentence and a later pardon by the governor.

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) has announced the regional premiere of Lines in the Dust by Nikkole Salter, directed by Beth Wood and featuring Kim Sias, Nicole Sumlin* and Skip Corris*. The show tackles the ripped-from-the-headlines issue of education inequality and tells the story of a mother committed to doing "whatever it takes" for her adolescent daughter to receive a quality education.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Anne Washburn's MR. BURNS A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY, now in production at Cleveland Public Theatre, that when the show opened in Washington, DC in 2012 and then in New York in 2013, it received mixed reviews that ranged from 'passionate dissent' to raves.

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) is proud to announce the regional premiere of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, the Off-Broadway sensation (2014 Drama League Award nominee) written by Anne Washburn, with score by Michael Friedman (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson) and lyrics by Anne Washburn. CPT's production is directed by Matthew Wright, with Music Direction by Brad Wyner (Titus: A Grand and Gory Rock Musical) and Choreography by Holly Handman.

Cleveland Stage Alliance (CSA) presents 'From Cleveland With Love: The Songs of 007,' at Vosh Lakewood on Sunday, November 8, 2015 at 7 PM and at the Bop Stop, now part of the Cleveland Music Settlement, on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 8 PM.

Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel is noted for crafting play scripts which impact directly on the lives of people. A review of her works illustrates that she writes about issues that need to be expressed (AIDS, sexual abuse, prostitution, degradation of the individual), she favors writing about emotional circumstances which she expresses in narrative structures, and her works contain theatrical requirements that make for better viewing, than reading.

A musical review, by the very nature of its structure, is usually not of great interest to those theatre-goers who want a story line or an over-riding theme. Someone attends a musical review because there is a tuneful style or type of music that you like or there are some singers performing who you want to hear.

The City of Cleveland Heights and Cain Park present the Broadway hit Smokey Joe's Cafe - The Songs of Leiber and Stoller tonight, June 14-June 30 (preview June 13). Directed by Scott Plate, the musical will open in Cain Park's Alma Theater.

The City of Cleveland Heights and Cain Park present the Broadway hit Smokey Joe's Cafe - The Songs of Leiber and Stoller June 14-June 30 (preview June 13). Directed by Scott Plate, the musical will open in Cain Park's Alma Theater.