Lyric Theatre Rocks the Plaza With Spectacular ROCK OF AGES
by Robert Barossi - Oct 12, 2017
There are few decades that elicit the kind of immediate, emotional and visceral response that you get when you mention the 1980s to anyone who was around during that era. There's just something about the 80s. The movies, the pop culture, the music, the politics, everything that went on during that decade seems to be somehow extra unique or extra special, especially to those who lived during those times. The hair band glam rock of the 80s gets the musical treatment in Rock of Ages, now running at the Lyric Theatre's home on the Plaza.
BWW Review: COMPANY at MNM Productions
by John Lariviere - Aug 7, 2017
MNM Productions' Company is the latest venture by theatrical producers and arts consultants Marcie Gorman-Althof and Michael Lifshitz. Company is their sixth major musical following A Chorus Line, Side By Side By Sondheim, Hair, The World Goes 'Round and, most recently, Monty Python's Spamalot. MNM Productions' Company will be appearing at the Marshall E. Rinker Playhouse of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts through August 6, 2017.
BWW Review: MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT at MNM PRODUCTIONS
by John Lariviere - May 22, 2017
MNM Productions presents Monty Python's Spamalot at the Kravis Center of the Performing Arts. Featuring music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and book and lyrics by Eric Idle, Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy lovingly ripped-off from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The title of the musical comes from a line in the movie which goes: 'we eat ham, and jam, and Spam a lot.' Like the film, written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways
BWW Review: JERSEY BOYS: Oh What a Night of Perfect Musical Entertainment!
by Shari Barrett - May 20, 2017
JERSEY BOYS opened at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway to critical acclaim on November 6, 2005, running 11 record-breaking years and becoming the 12th longest running show in Broadway history. The Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical telling the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, is now onstage at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre through June 24, 2017. It is absolutely one of the best musicals I have ever experienced, and not just because their music was so much a part of my teenage years and brings back so many great memories, but for its astounding staging and the incredible cast who make the show one not to miss for musical theatre lovers of all ages!
Mountain Play presents BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and 50th Anniversary Music Festival
by A.A. Cristi - May 9, 2017
The Mountain Play Association, the San Francisco Bay Area's most magical outdoor theater experience, will present the timeless classic Disney's Beauty and the Beast directed by Jay Manley for their 104th season. Based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST tells the story of a monstrous prince and a young woman who fall in love. Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will take place every Sunday from May 21 to June 18, 2017.
Full Cast Announced for the Mountain Play Presentation of HAIR
by A.A. Cristi - Mar 23, 2017
The Mountain Play - Casting is complete for the Mountain Play's production of HAIR In Concert, which will be presented as part of the Magic Mountain Play Music Festival commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love and the first ever outdoor rock festival - the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival. HAIR In Concertwill take place on Saturday, June 10, 2017. www.MountainPlay.org
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Announces Special Award of Achievement to Honor Gordon Davidson
by BWW News Desk - Mar 15, 2017
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is proud to announce a new special award to be presented at its upcoming awards ceremony on March 20: The Gordon Davidson Award for distinguished contribution to the Los Angeles theatrical community. The award is sponsored by the Center Theatre Group, where Gordon Davidson served as the founding Artistic Director from 1967 to 2005, and will be presented this year to Pro99.
Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming, Jessie Mueller and More to Join Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena POPS This Summer
by BWW News Desk - Mar 1, 2017
Principal Conductor Michael Feinstein leads the Pasadena POPS for its star-studded 2017 Summer Concert Series at the Los Angeles Arboretum with extraordinary multiple award winning guests artists Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming, Joel Gray, Hair Spray Live's Madelyn Baillio, Beautiful's Jessie Mueller and Jarrod Spector, Grey Garden's Rachel York, Phantom of the Opera's Jordan Donica, the Midtown Men and Michael Feinstein in concert.
J. Robert Spencer and Erikka Walsh to Star in Staged Reading of BREAKING THE SHAKESPEARE CODE
by Ashlee Latimer - Oct 9, 2016
Sometimes the words we speak become a secret code for what we really feel. Shortly before an audition for her first professional Shakespeare play, gifted and entitled young actor Anna arrives in a college rehearsal hall expecting help from brilliant, bitter acting instructor Curt. When their work together leads to professional success but personal misery, they must decide whether or not to break their Shakespeare code and uncover how they really feel about each other.
BWW Interview: Being Free, Available and Thinking True: A Conversation with Lauren Mufson
by Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - Aug 5, 2016
If you were among the lucky theatre lovers who scored a ticket to the Broadway blockbuster hit, Mamma Mia! in 2005, you might have had the pleasure the pleasure of experiencing Lauren Mufson make her Broadway debut in the leading role of Donna Sheridan. Now more than ten years later, the actress returns to the beloved ABBA musical in a highly anticipated new production at Maine State Music Theatre that opens August 10. The musical theatre and cabaret artist, teacher and voice coach and mother of two is delighted not only to revisit one of her favorite parts, but to make her Maine stage debut in one of the first ever regional productions of the show.
Writers Theatre Extends Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY
by Tyler Peterson - Jul 6, 2016
Writers Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, announces a one-week extension to Company, featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The production is directed by William Brown. Company features original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, Orchestral Reductions by Ian Weinberger, music direction by Tom Vendafreddo and choreography by Brock Clawson. The show, originally slated to run through July 31, 2016, will add an additional week, through August 7, in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe.
LUDO's BROKEN BRIDE Set for New York Musical Festival, 8/2-6
by Tyler Peterson - Jun 23, 2016
The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) in association with Chinese Mother Jewish Daughter & Michael Chase Gosselin presents LUDO's Broken Bride, a new rock opera about one man's epic journey to save his true love's life, utilizing LUDO's entire discography. Adapted by Stacey Weingarten (NYMF: Les Enfants de Paris, Rescue Rue) with additional story and arrangements by Dana Levinson, the cast of 14 includes Spencer Clark (Regional: West Side Story, Romeo In Your Arms), Carson Higgins (Nat. Tour: American Idiot; NYMF: The Runaway Clone), Larry Hamilton (Off Bway: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Captain Louie), Catherine Landeta (Regional: The King and I, Avenue Q, Bat Boy), Melissa Hunter McCann (TV: 'Tony Awards'; NY: Carnegie Hall's West Side Story, Encore's Paint Your Wagon), Gabrielle McClinton (Bway: Pippin; 1st Nat. Tour: American Idiot), Brendan Malafronte (Nat. Tour: Annie, The Producers, Singin' in the Rain), Jamen Nathakumar, Jackson Perrin, Devin Richey, Brian Charles Rooney (Bway: The Threepenny Opera; NYMF: Bedbugs!!!), Ashley Talluto (Nat. Tour: Flashdance, West Side Story), Michael Jayne Walker (Regional: Hair, Godspell, Tommy), and Amy Whitcomb (TV: 'The Voice;' 'The Sing-Off'). LUDO's Broken Bride is being staged at The Duke on 42nd Street a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street (bet. 10th and 11th Aves.) in NYC for five performances from Tuesday, August 2 through Saturday, August 6, 2016.
BWW Review: Swapping Hats and Inducing Hilarity with CDG's THE 39 STEPS
by Kristen Morale - May 3, 2016
Loosely based on the 1915 novel written by John Buchan, later made into the 1935 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and gradually turned into a staged comical farce in 2005 by Patrick Barlow, The 39 Steps is something quite wonderful to see when brought about by a gifted director and a very talented cast of four that could bring about such a myriad of wacky characters. Director Scott Hamilton, as he states in his curtain speech, was certain that he wanted to lead this show towards its absolute comedic potential, and now writing in hindsight, it is clear that he manages to do just that give quite an optimistic start to what will be a rather epic new season at the Chatham Drama Guild. In relation to that and just to mention, the Guild has been offering wonderful performances since the time Hitchcock's movie was made, so this show is sure not to disappoint anybody who enjoys an innocent and rather traditional form of visual, laugh-loud-comedy.