The Play's the Thing Revival 1973 - Articles Page 6

Fog comes billowing out over the footlights, bringing with it a pervasive sense of foreboding that sets the tone for the next three hours of what is - without any fear of exaggeration - the most satisfying theatrical experience of 2018. Eye-poppingly gorgeous, with a design aesthetic that's perfectly wedded to the source material provided by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler, and featuring some of the most electrifying performances we've ever witnessed at Cumberland County Playhouse (where they know a thing or 100 about staging musicals), Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is spectacular.

Antaeus Theatre Company opens its 2018-19 season with an epic drama about a Southern family in crisis directed by Cameron Watson (award-winning Antaeus productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Picnic, Top Girls). Kristin Couture, John DeMita, Judy Louise Johnson, Mike McShane, Rob Nagle, Calvin Picou, Deborah Puette, Jocelyn Towne, Timothy Adam Venable and William L. Warren star in The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, opening Oct. 25 at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale, where performances will continue through Dec. 10. Low-priced previews begin Oct. 18.

Plays at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts through October 14th, 2018.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) will kick off the 2018/2019 season with "Iolanta," a Chicago premiere of legendary composer P.I. Tchaikovsky's final opera. Internationally renowned and award-winning conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya will make her conducting debut as Chicago Opera Theater's Staley Music Director and set the tone for the season to come. Acclaimed stage director Paul Curran, known for his work at Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago and more, will shape the retelling of this joyous love-story, featuring an almost entirely Chicago-based cast including soprano Katherine Weber as Iolanta, and renowned Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov as Rene. The opening night and press performance takes place on Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Ave.) Additional performances will take place Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 18 at 3 p.m.

Florida Studio Theatre (FST) presents a new play workshop of Lia Romeo's The Forest, a touching new dark comedy about a mother and daughter who experience extreme change in their lives. Romeo will collaborate with FST's Artistic staff on furthering the work from October 22-26, culminating in a staged reading of the play on Friday, October 26 at 3 PM in FST's Bowne's Lab Theatre. This event is presented as part of FST's expanding New Play Development program, and is free and open to the public, however, reservations are required. Reservations can be made online at www.floridastudiotheatre.org, by phone at (941) 366-9000, or by visiting the FST Box Office.

Antaeus Theatre Company opens its 2018-19 season with an epic drama about a Southern family in crisis directed by Cameron Watson (award-winning Antaeus productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Picnic, Top Girls). Kristin Couture, John DeMita, Judy Louise Johnson, Mike McShane, Rob Nagle, Calvin Picou, Deborah Puette, Jocelyn Towne, Timothy Adam Venable and William L. Warren star in The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, opening Oct. 25 at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale, where performances will continue through Dec. 10. Low-priced previews begin Oct. 18.

Managing to find time amid a hectic tech week, actor Brett Mutter - who plays Beadle Bamford - graciously agreed to submit to The Friday 5(+1) and to answer our questions, hopefully, intriguing potential audience members with some background about his theatrical career and to explain why he thinks you should reserve your tickets now for Sweeney Todd.

Marking 45 years since the release of his debut solo album, soul/R&B legend Barry White's nine 20 th Century Records albums have been remastered from their analogue master tapes for new 9CD and 9LP 180-gram vinyl box sets, titled Barry White: The 20th Century Records Albums (1973-1979). To be released worldwide on October 26 by Mercury/UMe, the new CD and vinyl collections bring together all the albums White released with the 20th Century Records label. On the same date, the nine remastered albums all long out of print on vinyl will be released in individual 180-gram LP packages with faithfully replicated original sleeve and label artwork.

Plays at The Richmond Triangle Players through the 28th of August, 2018

The Ford Theatres presents legendary poet and performer Saul Williams, known for his distinctive marriage of "firebrand politics with metaphysical word play," joining with the adventurous Mivos Quartet, hailed as 'one of America's most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles' (The Chicago Reader) on Thursday, September 6 at 8:30pm.

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced casting for the final show of its 2017-18 Mainstage Season--Sunday in the Park with George, the quintessential Stephen Sondheim musical about the art of creation and the creation of art. Bill English will direct the 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical.

 Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab announced today the inaugural production of the Hunter Theater Project, the New York premiere of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA at the Frederick Loewe Theater at Hunter College (E. 68th Street and Lexington Avenue), directed by Richard Nelson. Translated byRichard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky. This production is the first time renowned Russian literature translators Pevear and Volokhonsky will have a work premiere in New York City, following the show's world premiere at The Old Globe in San Diego, California. Previews for UNCLE VANYA begin Friday, September 7. The production runs through Sunday, October 14, with an official press opening on Sunday, September 16. Tickets are on sale now.

The 72nd Annual Tony Awards are this Sunday June 10th at 8/9c hosted by Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles. It's the biggest award show of the Broadway season and it closes out a long awards season for Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals and plays. We can't help but wonder what chances this year's Best Musical and Best Play nominees have of taking home the ultimate prize...

The most honorable of the honorable mentions in 2018's Tony race will likely turn out to be Travesties, Tom Stoppard's 1974 tragifarce which took top Tony honors for Best Play and Best Actor (John Wood) in 1976 and is now putting up a game bid for Best Revival, Best Actor (Tom Hollander) and Best Director (Patrick Marber).

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will pay homage to the glittering world of Hollywood musicals with Mad About Musicals!, a special month of programming celebrating timeless movie musicals such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain and Cabaret. TCM is once again partnering with Ball State University and Canvas to offer a free online multimedia course tied to this programming special about the history of the musical genre and its evolution with cultural and technological shifts. Enrollment is open until June 17 and fans can sign up for the course at musicals.tcm.com.

French farce meets vibrant Bollywood song and dance in Tara Arts' sparkling new comedy The Game of Love & Chai, coming to Coventry's Belgrade Theatre 24-28 April. Penned by actor and comedy legend Nigel Planer (The Young Ones, Filthy Rich) this hilarious new show sees the Marivaux classic The Game of Love Chance retold in a contemporary British Asian context.

Cherry Pitz and all the fine folks of The Home for Wayward Girls and Fallen Women have been hired to join the staff of Westworld, a the robots who have taken over after the massacre of the human board members are trying to rebrand.  They feel that a burlesque show is just the thing to make everyone forget how dark things got there for a moment. Welcome to the debut and grand opening of the parks newest attraction, Burlesqueworld!

The Muny announced today that Tony and Grammy Award- winning artist Heather Headley and Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated artist Matthew Morrison will serve as co-hosts for The Muny's historic Centennial Gala show, An Evening with the Stars, May 18, 2018 at 9:15 p.m. at The Muny.

Last week, producers Marc Platt and Neil Meron met with members of the press to share some insight on NBC's upcoming JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE IN CONCERT. NBC's highly anticipated special event is set to star John Legend as Jesus Christ, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, Alice Cooper as King Herod, and Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas. The event will air live Easter Sunday, April 1, and will be presented as a concert staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's iconic rock opera. It will be performed in front of a live audience at the Marcy Armory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N.Y.

From his hitmaking '70s heyday until his untimely passing in 2003, Barry White set an unmatched standard for sexy, seductive, soulful R&B. As a vocalist, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, White created music that was unmatched in its sonic and romantic intensity, highlighted by lush, widescreen arrangements and the artist's deep, dark baritone voice. Over the course of his remarkable career, two-time Grammy Awardwinner Barry White scored 106 gold albums worldwide, with 41 of those attaining platinum status, along with 20 gold and 10 platinum singles, with worldwide record sales of over 100 million records. He remains one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.

Carol Harrison is probably best known for playing Louise Raymond in EastEnders. Her other screen work includes Brushstrokes, Get Back and London's Burning. Carol also works regularly in the theatre and has written, directed, produced the musical All or Nothing, which she also stars in. After three hugely successful tours, the show lands in the West End for the first time, this February.

Actor, comedian, novelist and playwright Nigel Planer (The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap) is to team up with Tara Arts' artistic director Jatinder Verma in a brand-new adaptation of Marivaux's classic French farce. Transporting the story of a betrothal in 1730s France to twenty-first century England, The Game of Love and Chai centers around a marriage between two modern day Asian families combining familiar French farce with contemporary comedy and Bollywood song and dance.

Willie Nelson. Waylon Jennings. Kris Kristofferson. Jessi Colter. Bobby Bare. Jerry Jeff Walker. David Allan Coe. Cowboy Jack Clement. Tom T. Hall. Billy Joe Shaver. Guy Clark. Townes Van Zandt. Tompall Glaser. Today, all names synonymous with the word 'outlaw,' but 40 years ago they started a musical revolution by creating music and a culture that shook the status quo on Music Row and cemented their place in country music history and beyond.

The Old Globe's 2017 2018 Season continues with today's announcement of the complete cast and creative team for Anton Chekhov's masterpiece Uncle Vanya, which has received a Globe-commissioned world premiere translation from Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, andLarissa Volokhonsky. Richard Nelson (Illyria, The Gabriel Plays, Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical for James Joyce's The Dead) also directs. Uncle Vanya will run February 10 March 11, 2018 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets start at $30.00 and are on sale to the general public now. Previews run February 10 14. Opening night is Thursday, February 15 at 8:00 p.m.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) has announced three World Premiere productions for the EST 2018 season.