Can-Can Revival 1962 - Articles Page 18

Today we are talking to a remarkably accomplished writer and director who has amassed numerous top entertainment trophies over the course of his long and distinguished career, including multiple Emmy Awards, Tony Awards and even a Grammy - the uniquely talented Martin Charnin. Sharing his thoughts on the forthcoming big screen adaptation of his hit musical property ANNIE as well as previewing what we can expect from the forthcoming 2014-2015 national tour, Charnin also reflects on the original production of the classic Depression-era musical and analyzes why it remains a continual cultural touchstone for generations new and old while also looking ahead to a potential Broadway production of the sequel, written with original composer Charles Strouse, ANNIE WARBUCKS. Also, Charnin touches upon his time as a member of the original cast of iconic musical WEST SIDE STORY and recounts working alongside legends such as Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and more. Additionally, Charnin sheds some light on his illustrious string of collaborations with recently deceased composer Mary Rodgers Guettel, ranging from more than 50 songs written as a team to a string of special TV musicals as well as working together on the stage musicals HOT SPOT and THE MADWOMAN OF CENTRAL PARK WEST. Besides of all of that, Charnin also looks back to his heyday as a TV variety special helmer, having created award-winning tributes to a slew of Broadway's best composers and lyricists including George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and many more. Plus, Charnin shares his thoughts on GLEE, how show business has changed, the possible future life for TWO BY TWO and much, much more in this wide-ranging chat with a major Broadway notable.

A little over 50 years ago, on Aug. 31, 1962, an African American sharecropper who had spent most of her life working in Mississippi fields traveled to her district's county seat to register to vote. She was denied the right. So began the public activism of Fannie Lou Hamer, whose struggles for voting and civil rights spanned the next 15 years. This coming fall, excerpts from a new musical inspired by Hamer's life and work, written by playwright/composer Felicia Hunter, will be presented in concert format on one of Carnegie Hall's iconic stages. The one-night-only special event also will serve as a benefit for the Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College, CUNY.

It's 1962, the '50s are out, and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion - to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, 'The Corny Collins Show' and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray!

Look, we get it, whether due to budget or geography, you didn't see every show of the Broadway season, but that doesn't mean you can't be fully up-to-date for this Sunday's Tony Awards. To help get you prepared for the theatre's biggest night, BroadwayWorld has put together the ultimate Tonys Crash Course. We've outlined all of the shows nominated in the Best Play and Best Revival of a Play categories, and provided you 'study materials' as only BWW can, by mining our one-of-a-kind archives.

As the summer months heat up, so do the Columbus stages. Check out BWW's top 5 picks that the whole family can enjoy without breaking the bank this summer:

It's 1962, the '50s are out, and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion - to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, 'The Corny Collins Show' and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray!

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, partners with The Fine Family, The Irving Fine Society, and Brandeis University and its Department of Music to pay tribute to three central figures of the mid-century Boston musical landscape - Irving Fine, Harold Shapero and Arthur Berger. Celebrating Irving Fine's (1914-1962) centennial, BMOP spotlights this trio of lifelong friends and composers who advanced a unique vision for American music that incorporated the neoclassicism of Stravinsky, the clean elegance of Copland, and the edginess of serialism, all with a highly personal stamp. Click here to view program details.

Perseverance Theatre closes its 35th Season with the hilarious farce Boeing Boeing by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverley Cross & Francis Evans. Boeing Boeing runs on the Perseverance Mainstage May 2 - May 25, 2014. Tickets are available through Hearthside Books, the JACC, online at perseverancetheatre.org or by calling 907-463-TIXS (8497). There are two Pay-As-You-Can Previews on Sunday, April 27 and Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. and two Pay-As-You-Can Performances on Sunday, May 4 and Thursday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Broadway's biggest stars flocked to th Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) last night to celebrate the opening of the Manhattan Theatre Club world premiere of Casa Valentina, the play by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet to chat with the guests, and below, you can check out interviews with Sierra Boggess, Alan Menken, Valerie Harper, Judith Light and more!

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Casa Valentina, the play by four-time Tony Award winnerHarvey Fierstein, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello just opened last night, April 23, 2014 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). BroadwayWorld was there for all of the opening night festivities and you can check out photos from the curtain call and after party below!

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast today, April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village).

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, partners with The Fine Family, The Irving Fine Society, and Brandeis University and its Department of Music to pay tribute to three central figures of the mid-century Boston musical landscape - Irving Fine, Harold Shapero and Arthur Berger. Celebrating Irving Fine's (1914-1962) centennial, BMOP spotlights this trio of lifelong friends and composers who advanced a unique vision for American music that incorporated the neoclassicism of Stravinsky, the clean elegance of Copland, and the edginess of serialism, all with a highly personal stamp. Click here to view program details.

Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 2013-2014 season with George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. A complete delight for all ages, this full-length ballet is based on William Shakespeare's comedy about the romantic adventures, quarrels and reunions of two pairs of mortal lovers and the king and queen of the fairies. Balanchine's Midsummer, which New York City Ballet premiered in 1962, was the first original evening-length ballet he choreographed in America. Staged by PNB Founding Artistic Director Francia Russell, PNB's production is an enchanted landscape where misunderstandings and mayhem weave tangled paths through the opulent layers of Martin Pakledinaz's designs and Balanchine's marvelously crafted partnerings. All ends well in Act II's wedding festivities with the recognition of ideal love, tenderly portrayed in an exquisite pas de deux. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays for eight performances only, tonight, April 11-19 at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206. 441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer Street.

Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 2013-2014 season with George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. A complete delight for all ages, this full-length ballet is based on William Shakespeare's comedy about the romantic adventures, quarrels and reunions of two pairs of mortal lovers and the king and queen of the fairies. Balanchine's Midsummer, which New York City Ballet premiered in 1962, was the first original evening-length ballet he choreographed in America. Staged by PNB Founding Artistic Director Francia Russell, PNB's production is an enchanted landscape where misunderstandings and mayhem weave tangled paths through the opulent layers of Martin Pakledinaz's designs and Balanchine's marvelously crafted partnerings. All ends well in Act II's wedding festivities with the recognition of ideal love, tenderly portrayed in an exquisite pas de deux. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays for eight performances only, April 11-19 at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206. 441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer Street.

CASA VALENTINA, the new play by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, is currently in rehearsals at Manhattan Theatre Club. The limited engagement of Casa Valentina will begin previews on Tuesday, April 1 and open Wednesday, April 23 on Broadway at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). The company met the press earlier today and you can check out the photos from the special event below!

CASA VALENTINA, the new play by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, directed by two-time Tony Award winnerJoe Mantello, is currently in rehearsals at Manhattan Theatre Club. The limited engagement of Casa Valentina will begin previews on Tuesday, April 1 and open Wednesday, April 23 on Broadway at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). The company met the press earlier today and you can check out a photo prview from the special event below!

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village). It is the first part of a trilogy (called 'The Road to Damascus' in earlier translations) that has been described as 'Strindberg's most complex plays' and as 'his greatest plays,' due to their synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form. August Strindberg Rep will present Part 2 in March, 2015 and Part 3 in 2016. It will be the first time the trilogy will have been presented complete in any language in 99 years.

There is no conceivable way that anyone had any idea how Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? would change the face of the theatre. It opened on October 13, 1962, and it went on to win both the 1963 Tony Award and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. Now, for the digital age, Masterworks Broadway has re-released the 1963 Columbia Masterworks original Broadway cast recording, letting a whole new generation experience the classic play with its brilliant original cast.

The Public Theater announced the line-up today for the 2014 free Shakespeare in the Park season, continuing a 52-year tradition of free theater in Central Park. Since 1962, over five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte Theater. Conceived by founder Joe Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's free Shakespeare in the Park continues to be the bedrock of the Company's mission to increase access and engage the community. This summer, free Shakespeare in the Park will feature a comedy and a tragedy with Jack O'Brien directing MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and Daniel Sullivan directing KING LEAR.

Over the course of 53 years and 58 albums, seminal Irish exports THE CHIEFTAINS have uncompromisingly popularized their country's rich musical heritage, collaborating with some of modern music's biggest names, and ultimately earning the group six Grammys and 18 Grammy nominations. THE CHIEFTAINS are not only the world's most famous traditional Irish musicians, they are some of the most beloved. As comfortable playing spontaneous Irish sessions as they are headlining Carnegie Hall, they make the music their own with a style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive. Thursday, February 20 at 8:00 pm at Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags at Civic Center Drive in San Rafael, CA 94903. Tickets are $50, $40, $25, Premium Seats $75, Students 20 and under $20, Bargain seats (rows 25-34) $20; and can be ordered through the Marin Center Box Office at 415-473-6800 or visit www.marincenter.org

Singer Karyn Levitt, with pianist Eric Ostling, will perform Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Song Book, a unique evening that features the songs of Austrian composer Hanns Eisler (1898-1962), set to poetry by Bertolt Brecht and other noted writers, in English versions by Eric Bentley, Monday February 3 at 7:30 PM at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia/Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (entrance on 95th Street). Eric Bentley, now 97 years old, is the first translator into English of Brecht's plays and poems, introducing Brecht's work to American stages in the 1940's and 50's. Bentley has now unlocked Hanns Eisler's starkly beautiful songs, many set to poems by Brecht, to be performed by soprano Karyn Levitt, with whom he has worked closely since 2011.

Artist Chary Castro-Marín shows readers how an artist's life can begin in front of a piano on a Caribbean island, and lead to a grand journey that will eventually take her to a studio in Arizona. The narrative of 'The Colors of Life' is in itself is akin to a series of portraits depicting crucial moments in the existence of the artist as she goes about her adventures and her pursuit of the truth that lies within art.

A photo shoot in the summer of 1962. As screen icon Marilyn Monroe poses for her photographer she finds herself wondering what it might be like if she had it to do all over again. In Marilyn: Forever Blonde, the legendary actress reveals much of what we know - but even more about what we don't know - of the roller coaster ride she took from the orphanage to the silver screen. It is a fascinating and provocative journey.

Robert Creighton, David Garrison, Harriet Harris, Judy Kaye, Lewis J. Stadlen, Lee Wilkof, Tony Yazbeck and Rachel York will join Christian Borle in Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh¹s Little Me, the opening production of New York City Center¹s 2014 Encores! season, running for seven performances, February 5 - 9. The show will be directed by John Rando with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Joshua Bergasse.

On February 20, 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn took the historic trip into space aboard the Friendship 7, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. In the new children's book, 'Gemini Cricket: John Glenn - First Person to Orbit the Earth' (published by Trafford Publishing), author Barbara Crotts and illustrator Emil Khory recapture Glenn's journey as children share his unforgettable voyage into the great beyond.