Renowned soprano Renee Fleming completes her Carnegie Hall Perspectives series with two concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, April 26 and May 4. Appearing on Friday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. with the New York Philharmonic and Music Director Alan Gilbert, Ms. Fleming performs the world premiere of a song cycle The Strand Settings by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic.
Andre Previn's operatic version of Tennesee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, with a libretto by Andrew Littell, made its belated New York debut at Carnegie Hall on Thursday. It plays to Renee Fleming's vocal strengths, with her shimmering, lyric soprano and soaring high notes. This is not surprising since Previn wrote the role of Blanche specifically with her in mind and it shows with every note she sings.
But is she Blanche? Unfortunately, she's too healthy, too sane and too much a star to be the character that Williams created, a woman clings to a false gentility--and her sanity--from the moment that she arrives on stage. It also doesn't help that she has zero chemistry with New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes the Stanley Kowalski of the evening. Rhodes' muscular baritone carries the threat that Blanche should feel, but he might as well be playing to the Merry Widow.
While several of New York's non-profit theatre companies have been pursuing the noble cause of creating more exposure for contemporary women playwrights, the Mint Theatre Company has been cornering the market on the dead ones. Fourteen of the company's forty productions were scripted by women, a statistic that gains stature when you consider that they're reviving from a pool of material with a percentage of work by women far below that rate. A prime case in point is the nearly forgotten Irish playwright Theresa Deevy, arguably the most famous female playwright of the first half of the 20th Century.
Performances begin tonight for Signature Theatre's production of The Mound Builders written by Lanford Wilson and directed by Jo Bonney. The production will open March 17 and play through April 7 in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Mint Theater is presenting the first-ever American Production of Katie Rocheby Teresa Deevy. The Mint production will run through March 24th only at their home (311 West 43rd Street). Opening Night is set for tonight, February 25th. Get a first look at the actors onstage in the photos below!
Mint Theater (Jonathan Bank, Artistic Director) is presenting the first-ever American Production of Katie Roche by Teresa Deevy. The Mint production will run through March 24th only at their home (311 West 43rd Street). Opening Night is set for Monday, February 25th. Get a first look at the actors onstage in the photos below!
There are certain occasions when even the most jaded New York audience can just smile and say thank you. The duo recital by soprano Renee Fleming and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham Sunday night at Carnegie Hall was just such an occasion. Given that both divas have sold out Carnegie Hall as individual performers, the dual recital was something very special indeed.
It doesn't happen often, but, fair or not, there's always a little extra pressure put on a play when it comes to New York after having already won the Pulitzer Prize. Quiara Alegría Hudes, a Pulitzer finalist for both Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue and her co-authorship of In The Heights, was awarded top honors last year for Water By The Spoonful, which was commissioned by Hartford Stage, where it premiered in 2011. Shortly after, the recently-opened Off-Broadway mounting was placed on Second Stage's schedule.
Due to critical acclaim and strong ticket sales, the Second Stage Theatre's production of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-Winning drama Water by the Spoonful, written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and directed by Davis McCallum, will extend two weeks through February 10th at Second Stage Theatre (305 W 43rd Street). Second Stage's next production, Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS, will begin previews on March 7.
Second Stage Theatre presents the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, WATER BY THE SPOONFUL, written by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Davis McCallum. The company features LIZA COLÓN-ZAYAS (Second Stage's Living Out, Our Lady of 121st Street), Frankie R. Faison (The Wire, Tony nominee for Fences), Zabryna Guevara (Chimichangas and Zoloft, Taper's Burn This), Bill Heck (Angels in America), Sue Jean Kim (Assistance, The Hallway Trilogy), and Armando Riesco (Elliot in Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue). Check out a first look of the cast in action below!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is adapting the Broadway play Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond, who will also write the script for the hourlong TV drama and executive produce with former collaborators Alicia Keys and Nelle Nugent.
Due to ticket demand, 59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) announces added performances for the Prospect Theater Company production of WORKING. There is an added evening performance on Sunday, December 9 at 7:15 PM and added Saturday matinee performances on December 15, 22, and 29 at 2:15 PM.
Check out just-released production shots below!
Rosalind Productions Inc. presents the Off-Broadway premiere of Jennifer Maisel's The Last Seder. This Off-Broadway limited engagement at Theater Three (311 West 43rd Street) began today, December 1st and continues through December 20th only. Opening Night is set for Tuesday December 4th (7pm). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production in the photos below!
Signature Theatre Company's (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) production of GOLDEN CHILD by David Henry Hwang and directed by Leigh Silverman runs through December 2, 2012, with a November 13 opening night in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).
Check out photos of the cast in action below!
The Acting Company launched its national tour at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, on October 17, with a solid production of John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN. This grim tale, which follows the fortunes of two, itinerant, California farm workers during the Great Depression, is a timely reminder of issues still painfully relevant in American society today. . .
The UNLV Performing Arts Center welcomes The Acting Company in a very special performance of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at 7 p.m. tonight, October 21 in Artemus Ham Concert Hall. Founded by the legendary John Houseman and Margot Harley, The Acting Company has won an Obie, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards and a Tony.
The UNLV Performing Arts Center welcomes The Acting Company in a very special performance of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 21 in Artemus Ham Concert Hall. Founded by the legendary John Houseman and Margot Harley, The Acting Company has won an Obie, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards and a Tony.
THE CAPITOL STEPS has been delighting audiences with political satire for over 30 years and is now something of a national institution. The group was born in December 1981 ('when Reagan was president and ketchup was a vegetable') when some Senate staffers got together to devise entertainment for their upcoming Christmas party. They came up with the novel idea of satirizing, to music, the very hands that fed them. And the rest, as they say, is history. . .
Signature Theatre presents the New York premiere of THE TRAIN DRIVER, written and directed by Athol Fugard. THE TRAIN DRIVER is the final production in the Residency One: Athol Fugard Series. The production runs tonight, August 14 through September 23, 2012. The cast includes Leon Addison Brown (The Orphans' Home Cycle, Two Trains Running) as Simon and Ritchie Coster ("Luck," The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) as Roelf. Get a first look at the pair on stage below!
