Sam Hartley News

'Guys And Dolls' at Arizona Broadway Theatre is a perfect sendup to golden ages musicals offering an evening full of highlights you're unlikely to find anywhere else in The Valley.

The Oldest Established Crap Game! Grab your fedora and join Nathan Detroit as he tries to establish the biggest craps game in town, deal with his long-time girlfriend's desire for marriage (Adelaide's Lament), and convince fellow gambler Sky Masterson to finance his venture (Luck Be a Lady).

Arizona Broadway Theatre (ABT), Arizona's leader in Musical Theatre, begins the second half of its 14th Season with the Broadway classic Guys and Dolls, onstage May 3 - 26, 2019.

ELF THE MUSICAL will bring back the wonder and delight of Christmas to even the grouchiest of winter workdays; Sam Hartley leads a cast who are full of the Christmas spirit and will make a Santa Claus believer out of you.

I have never been to the Pinewood Bowl in Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln, our neighbor to the west, is a short 40 minute drive from Omaha on a good day. When the Huskers are playing, that is another story.

Lon Chaney, the 'Man of A Thousand Faces', story comes to life in new musical titled A Thousand Faces. The musical takes us from Lon's childhood as the son of deaf parents, through his stage career and tumultuous life with songstress wife Cleva who attempts suicide backstage which drives Lon to try the new industry of movies where he rises to fame as the pioneering silent film star of the original PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Sam Scalamoni (Elf, Disney's Beauty and the Beast) directs.

Lon Chaney, the 'Man of A Thousand Faces', story comes to life in new musical titled A Thousand Faces. The musical takes us from Lon's childhood as the son of deaf parents, through his stage career and tumultuous life with songstress wife Cleva who attempts suicide backstage which drives Lon to try the new industry of movies where he rises to fame as the pioneering silent film star of the original PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Sam Scalamoni (Elf, Disney's Beauty and the Beast) directs.

A musical adaptation of the 2003 Christmas movie 'Elf' makes a lot of sense: the movie has all of the joy, sweetness, glitz, slapstick, and happily-ever-after for a crowd-pleasing production. This adaptation, now performing for a brief stint at The Paramount Theatre, stays loyal to the vast majority of the content in the movie. Many of the lines are verbatim. Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin's adaptation has tweaks here and there to leave room for elaborate musical numbers (many of which have some fun choreography), but the premise is the same: Buddy is on a quest to find his dad, reconnect with him, and, in the process, revive New York City's (and, indirectly, the world's) lost Christmas spirit.

The national tour of ELF THE MUSICAL, with its delightful story and score, brings Christmas cheer to the Eccles Theater.

In a bold, beautiful, and powerful production of Ragtime, the Ogunquit Playhouse gives its audience a compelling reminder that, as E. I. Doctorow once said, 'history is the present.' The 1996 musical with book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lyn Ahrens resonates perhaps even more strongly today than it did then with its raw grappling with the issues of race, prejudice, hope and violence and the struggle to define and achieve the American dream. Set in the volatile melting pot of pre- World War I America with its booming industrialization, the influx of vast waves of immigrants, and the social norms challenged by tenuous race relations, Ragtime weaves together the stories of three very different families as each seeks to find his place in the American tapestry.

This July, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents '54 Sings 1776' on July 3 and July 4, 2017. The Fourth of July meets Broadway in the fourth annual concert staging of the beloved musical, 1776, at Feinstein's/54 Below.   Featuring Broadway stars like Carrie St. Louis (Wicked/Rock of Ages) and Kyle Scatliffe (Les Miserables/The Color Purple) you're sure to feel patriotic watching this beautifully staged concert.

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Carrie St. Louis and Kyle Scatliffe in "54 Sings 1776" on July 3 and July 4, 2017.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Carrie St. Louis and Kyle Scatliffe in "54 Sings 1776" on July 3 and July 4, 2017. The Fourth of July meets Broadway in the fourth annual concert staging of the beloved musical, 1776, at Feinstein's/54 Below. Showcase your patriotism with some of Broadway's brightest stars singing numbers such as "Sit Down, John," "He Plays The Violin," "Molasses To Rum," and more as we celebrate the great sacrifices our friends, family, and founding fathers have made to shape our nation.

Upon learning that part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' holiday programming this season was to finally bring a national tour production of ELF - THE MUSICAL---the 2010 Broadway stage musical adaptation of the popular Will Ferrell holiday movie---to its stage, I was pretty ecstatic. For the most part, ELF---which performs at SCFTA through January 1, 2017---delivers enjoyable laughs sprinkled here and there throughout its two acts, and even offers up a non-equity cast equipped with lovely singing voices. But while ELF - THE MUSICAL is certainly festive and has lots of smile-inducing moments, overall, I felt the presented production felt surprisingly subdued. While, sure, it had plenty of genuinely funny and heart-warming moments, many aspects of the NETworks Presentations production needed to be much more over-the-top, manic, and downright silly.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Pittsburgh, Portland, Orlando and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include DAMN YANKEES at Pittsburgh CLO, WEST SIDE STORY in Portland, and THE BROTHERS SIZE in Orlando, just to name a few.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Enchants at the Orpheum Now Thru July 10!

The 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast is a spectacular work of animated musical storytelling. Belle, a type of feminist in a sense (at least within the context of Disney, especially when compared to Ariel, who taught millions of young girls just two years earlier that it is important to change who you are for a man), is an independent, intelligent, and beautiful young woman who reads and finds pleasure in the pursuit of knowledge. She has found her voice and she demands to be heard. So naturally, the whole town thinks she is crazy. A heroine of this caliber is a lot to live up to in any fairy tale and such a fanciful, witty and heartfelt presentation seems impossible to duplicate, but that's what I expect from a Broadway production. I expect seats that can cost a good $120 to rival the magic created by the brilliant animators working with Disney in the early part of that transitional decade. Unfortunately, the touring Broadway musical produced by NETworks Presentations does not live up to this expectation. In fact it falls quite short of perpetuating the wonder and depth established in the original film. I brought my twin 6-year-old daughters to the show and they loved it. Certainly it was quality enough to entertain a kindergartener, but is that really what Dallas should grow to accept as quality theatrical art. We have a booming and continuously growing art scene and so-called 'Broadway' productions such as this should not be tolerated in our community. Broadway is supposed to be a leader in the creation of quality art, not the preservation of an industry that overcharges audiences, underpays artists, undermines unions, and whose primary mission is not artistic success but financial success.

Beauty and the Beast, a "tale as old as time," has landed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.  The beloved Disney musical adaptation, based on the studio's animated 1991 Best Picture Oscar nominee, still has the ability to enchant an audience of children.  And, apparently, plenty of parents or kids at heart, too.

Be their guest at the Hippodrome for Disney's lavish musical, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST