dots News

The revived, renascent, and reformed Toronto theatre-based band, THE POLKA DOGS, have returned after a 25-year hiatus, with a new album THE BEE officially released on June 1, and an Ontario tour. Starting as a theatre pit band in 1989, the band wowed the world in the 90s with an explosive, raucous, joyous sound of trombone, tuba, banjo, drums and that sultry, fantastic voice of theatre staple John Millard. The band returns with the same original sound, and features all five of its founding members including, Tom Walsh on trombone, Tiina Kiik on accordion, Colin Couch on tuba,John Millard on banjo and vocals, and Ambrose Pottie on drums.

ZACH Theatre is proud to announce the cast for the Pulitzer and Tony Award®-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George.  With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, Sunday in the Park with George plays ZACH's Topfer Stage from May 30-June 24, 2018 under the direction of Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley with musical direction by Allen Robertson.

Critical Mass Performance Group's AMERYKA has been chosen as the next production of this year's Center Theatre Group's second annual BLOCK PARTY running April 19 through April 29, 2018 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. We had the opportunity to talk to Nancy Keystone, CMPG's founding artistic director, and director and co-writer of AMERYKA, as she rhapsodizes on all things cultural, critical and collaborative.

In the annals of jazz history, few events have been more influential than the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series, and the album series of the same name. From 1944 to 1957, pioneering impresario, Verve Records founder, Norman Granz organized a series of prestigious all-star concerts that featured a who's-who of the genre's most popular and influential artists. These shows were instrumental in raising jazz's public profile, and were among the first high-profile performances to feature racially mixed bands performing for integrated audiences.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature BRIGHT STAR, ALADDIN, THE MUSIC MAN and More!

Art isn't easy, but the Arvada Center has the kind of finesse to make it look that way.

The air between the words is so thick you could cut it with a knife in Daniel Talbott's shadowy play about three siblings attempting to survive their dysfunctional family. Each is broken in his or her own way and, as the hairball unravels, the audience must piece together their fragmented story over a period of six years.

The event will feature a free performance by EK Theater of Niobe, a video game puppetry piece that uses the first-person shooter Halo: Reach to show how Niobe is punished by the gods for her arrogance in this story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, followed by a panel discussion about real world violence and its relationship to video games.

'International Blue' is the first new release from MANIC STREET PREACHERS in four years and is available today in the U.S. Taken from the band's thirteenth studio album RESISTANCE IS FUTILE out on Shornday/The Orchard on April 13, 2017, the single is unfiltered and classic Manic Street Preachers. Inspired by the city of Nice in the mid winter sun and the life's work of French Nouveau realisme artist Yves Klein, the song is built over an immense riff that echoes the twin Manics album peaks of Generation Terrorists and Everything Must Go.

Long before Felix met Oscar, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were ill-fitting roommates in the south of France, which turned out to be a fateful co-habitation that changed the face of art - as well as Van Gogh's face! Playwright Brendan Hunt cleverly re-imagines these two art masters as the subjects of Neil Simon's original draft of The Odd Couple, which Hunt presents as being co-written with yet another of the oddest couples possible - Sam Shepard, here introduced as Steve, an oddball busboy looking for his first big break.

Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College (MOAD) will inaugurate its newly renovated galleries with two outstanding exhibitions, By the People: Designing a Better America and This Situation, a work by the acclaimed British-German artist Tino Sehgal. The reopening of MOAD's facility in the historic Freedom Tower coincides with its new focus and new graphic identity. A VIP reception and open house will be held for MOAD members and media on April 6. Both exhibitions will open to the general public on April 7.

Tickets are now on sale for 'All the Way: The Music of Jimmy Van Heusen & Friends,' an extraordinary concert event to be produced by The Mabel Mercer Foundation on Friday, May 18th at 7:30 p.m. The special, one-time-only performance will be offered at Weill Recital Hall (part of the Carnegie Hall complex) at 154 West 57th Street.

Veteran NBA All-Star player Jamaal Magloire guest stars as a professional basketball player, alongside illustrious Barenaked Ladies rockstar Ed Robertson as the aforementioned athlete's powerful sports agent on an all-new episode of WGN America's “Shoot the Messenger,” airing the night of Friday, March 23 at 12/11c.  In “Careful What You Pray For,” Daisy (Elyse Levesque) and Simon (Lucas Bryant) uncover details behind the scandalous  photo of Orlandio Spence (Jamaal Magloire) and Judge Reeves (Brenda Bazinet) that causes the reporters to speculate new motives and suspects for the murders. Meanwhile, Detective Lutz (Lyriq Bent) makes his own progress when he starts connecting the dots between Hassan  (Araya Mengesha) and both cases. More drama unfolds as Khaalif is arrested during a Guns and Gangs raid, all while Sam Charles' (Ari Cohen) investigation starts to heat up.

'On Top' is the second album released as Philippe Petit & Friends, following up 'Cordophony'. Ahead of the release, they are presenting the lead track 'Black Dog'. This song features malleable vocals by Charlie Finke, ranging from David Sylvian-esque swooning to Peter Murphy's cutting delivery and the raunchiness The Stranglers' Hugh Cornwell. With Philippe Petit on electronics, Rafaelle Rinaudocontributes electric harp and Hervé Vincenti handles guitars and percussion.

Children can travel to magical realms as Bay Area Children's Theatre (BACT) unfurls its 15th Anniversary Season, beginning in June. 

For over a decade Outlook Festival has been the world's leading bass music party; a mecca for artists, fans and audiophiles alike. As ever, the 2018 line-up brings together respected heritage names with fresh-faced acts changing the game, and Outlook have just dropped another 80+ acts on board across the four days and nights. Find Shy FX, Goldie, Johnny Osbourne & Soul Stereo (Fatta), Nadia Rose, High Focus Records, MJ Cole, Break, Zed Bias, Dub Phizix & Strategy and The Heatwave are just a few of the acts who'll be heading to Outlook's famed fortress home. Across the sun-drenched Outlook days and hazy nights between 6th - 10th September, attendees can expect to hear reggae, dubstep, bass, grime, DnB, garage, dub, soul and hip-hop soundtracking the Outlook experience. Tickets are available now from £115 from http://bit.ly/2FBOdBs, act fast to secure one at this price.

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is proud to present La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border, an international exhibition of contemporary jewelry that explores the US-Mexico border as a complex landscape of human interaction. Opening today and running through September 23, the exhibition features forty-eight artists from the United States, Latin America, and Europe whose works expose the underlying currents of the border environment within geographic, ecological, political, economic, social, cultural, and ideological contexts.

The 19th annual West Hartford Mayor's Charity Ball will be held May 12, 2018 at West Hartford Town Hall. The gala will benefit two local charities, Playhouse on Park and The Town That Cares. Proceeds from last year's event covered important operating expenses for Playhouse youth programming, and helped The Town That Cares meet a significant uptick in requests for the Food Pantry.

Greg Wilson, artistic director of Actors Point Theatre Company, will direct Little Women - The Broadway Musical, which is based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, running March 8-17.

Before a performance of the play America is Hard to See, audience members have the opportunity to wander across a canvas map of Miracle Village. What appears as a gridded crisscrossing of rural living quarters is home to a community of men - sex offenders - who are finding a way to move forward. Travis Russ, artistic director at Life Jacket Theatre Company, calls this Southern Florida community one of many "little dots" on a map, where real people have stories to tell. In his case, Russ decided that the stories within Miracle Village should be told onstage. In a phone interview with BroadwayWorld, Russ discussed bringing the residents' true stories to the theatre.