RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL originally opened Off-Broadway in 1992, created as an over-the-top dark comedy spoof of the films The Bad Seed and All About Eve, and well-known Broadway musicals Gypsy and Annie. Similar to the dark comedy in musicals such as Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd where characters are murdered and then eaten, RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL centers on 8-year old Tina Denmark, who knows she was born to play the lead in her school's third grade show and will do anything to win the part. And I do mean anything. Now onstage at Theatre Palisades, directed by Alta Abbott who first fell in love with the show during its 1993 West Coast premiere at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, I can only say that the over-the-top production sometimes seemed so dark that the comedy became invisible.
Theatre production company Parity Productions has released its monthly list of Qualifying Productions for November a?'their popular directory of New York City shows in which the individual creative teams have 50% of the positions filled with women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists (directors, designers, and playwrights).
The producers of A Christmas Carol announced today that starting with the first preview on November 7, 2019 there will be a limited number of $40 rush tickets available for each performance throughout the run.
Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, President and Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that PATRICK J. ADAMS will make his Broadway debut opposite the previously announced Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams in the Broadway production of Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play, TAKE ME OUT. Directed by Scott Ellis, TAKE ME OUT will begin previews April 2, 2020 and officially open on April 23, 2020 at Second Stage's Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street). Mr. Adams will play Kippy Sunderstrom, the best friend of Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams).
Patrick J. Adams will make his Broadway debut opposite the previously announced Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams in the Broadway production of Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play, TAKE ME OUT. Directed by Scott Ellis, TAKE ME OUT will begin previews April 2, 2020 and officially open on April 23, 2020 at Second Stage's Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street). Mr. Adams will play Kippy Sunderstrom, the best friend of Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams).
Michael Harrison and David Ian today announce The Drifters Girl, a brand new musical starring Beverley Knight, which tells the remarkable story of one of the world's greatest vocal groups The Drifters and the woman who made them. It will make its World Premiere at Newcastle Theatre Royal next year, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre in London for a strictly limited season of 20 weeks.
After spending most of the year in its hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company's newest As You Like It kicks off their London Season at the Barbican Centre. Directed by Kimberley Sykes, the production is a delicate and inventive voyage into a Forest of Arden that feels truer than Shakespeare's fictional real world. It never forgets that it's a comedy at heart, and Lucy Phelps' precise physicality plays into the genre. She has Rosalind win the audience's fondness wink by wink, pulling them towards her side through chuckles and playful nudges.
Listening to Sylvia Brooks' album The Arrangement is a thrilling experience. Attending her live performance onstage is even more so. On Saturday October 26, Brooks brought her fascinating jazz/pop/Latin sounds to Feinstein's Upstairs at Vitello's for a sold out concert. What a pleasure to see this lovely woman dressed to the nines in an evening dress rarely worn by performers in today's circle and singing passionately with a 7 piece orchestra. Brooks poured her heart out and really had a grand time...meaning her enjoyment reached over the footlights and pulled her audience in, held on to them and never let go for 90 minutes. That in my book is a truly great performer, who leaves you begging for more.
There's more than one meaning to the title of Sylvia Khoury's relevant, absorbing and quite heartbreaking drama, Power Strip, being granted an excellent premiere production by Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3.
SIMON WEXLER, former principal dancer of Texas Ballet Theater and former member of American Ballet Theatre, will appear as a guest artist in the Etudes de Ballet's production of The Nutcracker on December 20 and 21, 2019 at the Golden Gate High School Auditorium in Naples, Florida.
Urban Stages will open its' season with the New York Premiere of Idris Goodwin's Bars and Measures, directed by Kristan Seemel. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street) begins preview performances on Friday, October 18, opening on Wednesday, October 23 and will run through Sunday, November 10, 2019. Tickets for the show are $40 ($25 during previews; $50 on opening and $15 student rush) and may be purchased via OvationTix at www.urbanstages.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111.
'Everybody' may not be for, well, everybody - it's a quirky play that tackles humanity, life, death, and our own fragile existence head-on. But those who are brave enough to face these uncomfortable truths are rewarded with a fast-talking, quick-witted, deep-thinking performance.
Following the spectacular season opener 42nd Street in its mainstage, The Umbrella Stage Company will break in its newly constructed black box with an intimate and moving American classic, August Wilson's Fences. (Nov. 1-23).
Forget green monsters and macabre plundering of graveyards, this production, whose script was adapted from the novel by director David Catlin, is as much about beauty and creation as it is about the abyss of death and loss.
Bergen County Players (BCP) continues
its 87th season with A Comedy of Tenors, written by Ken Ludwig and directed by Bill Kaufman. A Comedy of Tenors runs October 26th through November 16th, with curtain at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 pm on Sundays. All performances will take place at the Little
Firehouse Theatre, 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell. Tickets may be
purchased online at www.bcplayers.org, by calling 201-261-4200 or by
visiting the box office during regular box office hours.
Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), will open its' season with the New York Premiere of Idris Goodwin's Bars and Measures, directed by Kristan Seemel.
The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester is pleased to present The Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter's Stained-Glass Art, the first survey and major scholarly assessment of this groundbreaking artist's 37-year career. Organized by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, the exhibition will be on view in Rochester from February 16 to May 24, 2020, after which it will travel to Toledo Museum of Art, June 27 to October 4, 2020, and Des Moines Art Center, February 5 to May 9, 2021.
