Roy Smith News

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center presents Cocktail Hour: The Show by Ballets with a Twist. Celebrate with a unique blend of dance and music in this captivating performance.

Jazz music will be blooming this spring on both stages at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center. The Chester County performing arts venue is set to welcome multiple artists to its two intimate settings, hosted by Sara Michaels and the Jazz Cocktail Hour Series.

Tito Puente, Jr. carries his father’s musical legacy with him imprinted on both his physical being and locked in his soul. Son of the legendary Latin artist, Tito Puente, Sr. the younger Puente will celebrate the “King of Latin Music” with a performance on Thursday, March 30 at 7:30PM at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center offers an authentic Celtic musical experience this St. Patrick's Day with the family-based band, Cormorant's Fancy. The 7-member group will appear in West Chester for one show only on Friday, March 17 at 7:30PM.

Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center has announced a new Dance Series for the 2022-23 performing arts season. The Saturday 2PM series begins with signature retrospective performances by Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, one of the country's premier contemporary Asian-American dance companies, on Saturday, November 5. 

Music takes center stage at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center this fall. The bustling performing arts center offers fans a full roster of rock music including three back-to-back nights of tributes to some of the most legendary figures of rock and pop music.

Check out over 80 events that are happening in the Philadelphia area.  From food and fun to entertainment, there’s something for everyone!

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center is offering a stellar series of jazz performances with more than two dozen musicians, vocalists, and dancers appearing in West Chester this September through December, hosted by local jazz and blues artist, Sara Michaels.

Curtains up in Chester County and the Philadelphia suburbs. Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center has announced the line-up for its first ever self-produced theatre season, and the company’s first under the leadership of new Artistic Director Carmen Khan.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center has announced the line-up for its first ever self-produced theatre season, and the company's first under the leadership of new Artistic Director Carmen Khan. This historic first season of professional theatre in downtown West Chester begins with William Gibson's joyful play, The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod The Nut, & The Slaughter Of 12 Hit Carols In A Pear Tree, opening  just in time for the holidays and running November 30 to December 23, 2022.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center is taking audiences on a global musical journey this September during a one-night only concert with Alex Moreno. Venezuelean-born Moreno has established crossover appeal performing in both English and Spanish and has garnered international awards for his music.

Philadelphia sports fans have a real treat coming up at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center. Avid listeners of sports radio in the region will not want to miss this intimate evening with legendary sports journalist Ray Didinger on Wednesday, September 7th. Didinger is coming to West Chester to talk about his latest book, “Finished Business: My Fifty Years of Headlines, Heroes and Heartaches.”

The big screen at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center continues to keep Monday night interesting with a  series of fun films this spring. Families and movie lovers can head into summer with a  line-up from Hollywood classics to recent Oscar winners at Uptown’s $5 Movie Mondays.

The Georgetown Palace Theatre has teamed up with The Williamson Museum to mount a production of YOU CAN'T DOTHAT DAN MOODY at the beautiful and historic Williamson County Courthouse. A story of the significant trial and ruling that resulted in the first conviction of KKK members for vigilante 'justice' in the country, this show is not only unfortunately timely but it is also an interesting and well formed evening of theater.

In my recent very extended assessment of cabaret shows I never reviewed during the second half of 2014, there were two significant omissions. I didn't leave these out of my critical mix because they weren't strikingly significant. In fact, it was just the opposite. The new variety game show, Tune In Time, which dubs itself the “Musical Theater Olympics,” and the musical theater piece/song cycle, New World Waking, were among the most original and entertaining productions I witnessed this year and deserved more of a feature treatment than a quickie review. My take on Tune In Time (which will begin a new monthly run at the York Theatre on January 5) should beat the clock before the next show. So by simple process of elimination, this commentary will be on New World Waking, which when performed on December 6 was one of the highlights of the recent annual 12-day, 20-show Winter Rhythms Festival at Urban Stages.

Yellow Rose Double Barrel Bourbon (43% ALC / VOL) is a premium bourbon finished in cabernet wine barrels. The whiskey is named for after the legendary shotgun and also the approach of finishing whiskey in a second barrel. Yellow Rose Double Barrel recently won a Silver Medal at the prestigious New York World Wine and Spirits Competition in September.

Members of the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center's Strand Band entertained surprised onlookers today with a flash-style concert from the Strand-Capitol's marquee - overlooking George Street from 16 feet in the air. The surprise performance was to celebrate the kickoff of the Strand-Capitol's 2013-2014 lineup of shows, which begins on September 12 and continue through May.

Actor Khalil Kain, who is known for edgy character roles on film and for the TV series 'Girlfriends,' will make his stage directing debut with Sam Shepard's 'Buried Child,' to be presented by Aaron Davis Hall as an Equity LORT/LOA production from tonight, July 11 to August 3. The production uses a multi-racial cast to reinterpret the underlying symbols of Shepard's landmark play, in which the misfortunes of a Midwestern farming family reveal both the demise and endurance of the American Dream.

As summer rolls through Houston, Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) is ready to kick the heat up a notch with their free summer production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical A CHORUS LINE. Sure to be "one singular sensation," the production tells the story of seventeen dancers vying to make their dreams come true by earning a coveted spot on the chorus line of a Broadway show. TUTS is notorious for producing high quality entertainment, and this production of A CHORUS LINE will be no exception. TUTS is pulling out all of the stops, featuring a supremely talented cast that will be choreographed and directed by A CHORUS LINE alumna Mitzi Hamilton, making it one of the most anticipated shows this summer. Serving as the inspiration for the character Val Clark, Mitzi Hamilton has been involved with A CHORUS LINE since its inception. She has served as an actress and dancer in both the Original London Company and the New York Company. As a choreographer and director, she has played a fundamental role in keeping the iconic production alive by passing it on to future generations. Recently she took time out of her busy schedule to talk to me about what Houston audiences can expect from TUTS' production of A CHORUS LINE.

Actor Khalil Kain, who is known for edgy character roles on film and for the TV series 'Girlfriends,' will make his stage directing debut with Sam Shepard's 'Buried Child,' to be presented by Aaron Davis Hall as an Equity LORT/LOA production from July 11 to August 3. The production uses a multi-racial cast to reinterpret the underlying symbols of Shepard's landmark play, in which the misfortunes of a Midwestern farming family reveal both the demise and endurance of the American Dream.