Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python, and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced, hilarious whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre
Jeffrey Ellis has been a fixture on Nashville's theater scene for many years - as a writer, reviewer, director and, of course, his many years with the First Night Awards. After a brief hiatus from theater, Jef's back and Nashville is glad to have him in the theater where he belongs. Writing for BroadwayWorld.com, Jef has kept the world informed of the theater life that happens in Nashville, from incisive reviews to interviews with some of Music City's best-loved local talent.
Last weekend, I had the exceptional privilege of conducting an InDepth InterView with 2010 Tony-winning Best Featured Actress In A Play: the luminous and winsomely witty film and stage star Scarlett Johannson. We talked about her work in the theatre on this year's highly-praised revival of Arthur Miller's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, as well as her feelings on musicals, Stephen Sondheim, and growing up in New York, which then veered off into a considerable discussion of her film work and working with actors like Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz, as well as directors like Woody Allen and Christopher Nolan. Additionally, we discussed her love of musicals, her favorite shows, scores and cast albums, singing showtunes with Hugh Jackman, her thoughts on a Woody Allen musical, what Sondheim roles she would like to play, GLEE, and, of course, a detailed and descriptive discussion of the entire process of bringing BRIDGE to the stage. This is the complete InDepth InterView you have all been waiting for - of course, two sneek peek samples have gone up on BWW this week and have so far been quoted and reprinted in US WEEKLY, Perez Hilton and Oh No They Didn't, just to name a few, all of whom also reprinted her e-mail response to me. She is without a doubt one of the brightest stars of our age and it was a extreme privilege for me to help her shine some light on the more obscure corners of her career, as well as the highs - on Broadway, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Enjoy!
It's all about brides and babies on Bravo's newest docu-series 'Bethenny Getting Married?' featuring 'Real Housewife of New York City' star Bethenny Frankel as she prepares for two of life's biggest milestones - a wedding and a baby - simultaneously. Watch as Bethenny's life goes into over-drive as she prepares for motherhood and becoming a real 'Real Housewife' when she weds fiance Jason Hoppy, all while juggling her burgeoning career as an author and natural foods chef. 'Bethenny Getting Married?' premieres Thursday, June 10 at 10PM ET/PT.
The hit revival is Ashley's 8th Broadway show, but her first since she became a mom.
Today, we continue out InDepth Discussion of the ten-time Tony-nominated revival of August Wilson's FENCES, starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, with a focus on the creative team's favorite moments and how they define the lead characters of Troy and Rose for themselves. Additionally, they contribute a thorough discussion of the music and sound design, as well as illuminate all of the attributable effort that went into the set and costume design of this masterful production of the play currently playing on Broadway. Plus, BWW has the exclusive stream of the show's soundtrack, available in the player below...
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of 'Ragtime' transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.' The production will end its run May 23rd.
Today, in honor of the DVD release of Rob Marshall's film version of the 1982 Tony-winning Best Musical NINE, Maury Yeston was gracious and generous enough to grant me a few hours in which I could ask him intimate questions about his life, career and the future of theatre itself. Not one to mince words, Yeston is a veritable font of knowledge and it became clear during the interview that he may be as gifted and talented in his educational and mentorship skills as he is as a two-time Tony-winning composer and lyricist. His stage musicals include two Tony-winning Best Musicals, NINE and TITANIC, as well as: IN THE BEGINNING, GRAND HOTEL, PHANTOM, and the forthcoming DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, as well as a full-length ballet of TOM SAWYER premiering later this year. From the handwritten letter sent by Katharine Hepburn to Frederico Fellini after seeing the workshop of NINE thirty years ago to this very day when NINE hits DVD, we will take a look at this magnanimous maestro's starry career in this inaugural InDepth InterView. Enjoy!
It's all about brides and babies on Bravo's newest docu-series 'Bethenny Getting Married?' featuring 'Real Housewife of New York City' star Bethenny Frankel as she prepares for two of life's biggest milestones - a wedding and a baby - simultaneously. Watch as Bethenny's life goes into over-drive as she prepares for motherhood and becoming a real 'Real Housewife' when she weds fiance Jason Hoppy, all while juggling her burgeoning career as an author and natural foods chef. 'Bethenny Getting Married?' premieres Thursday, June 10 at 10PM ET/PT.
In a recent interview with The Star Ledger, ADDAMS FAMILY star Bebe Neuwirth discussed her transition into the project and how she approached the role of Morticia, as well as her career working with Fosse and her career as a whole.
An ensemble of seven New Orleans authors and performers join New York writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley for a hilarious, outrageous, touching evening of literature and music, HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX. From childhood stories of curiosity to adult tales of lovemaking gone very, very awry, audiences will reel through eight tales told from eight very different perspectives - male, female, straight, gay, young, and...less young. It's blue enough to please the prurient, but silly enough for the straightlaced, too.
An ensemble of seven New Orleans authors and performers join New York writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley for a hilarious, outrageous, touching evening of literature and music, HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX. From childhood stories of curiosity to adult tales of lovemaking gone very, very awry, audiences will reel through eight tales told from eight very different perspectives - male, female, straight, gay, young, and...less young. It's blue enough to please the prurient, but silly enough for the straightlaced, too.
In 1996, DINK Records released a compendium of musical theater love songs from Gershwin, Sondheim, Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Herman, Kern,..., with a twist. Sung between men, with no lyric alterations (including pronouns), 'Stage 1 How I Love You' was, as Out Magazine described 'a dream no longer deferred.'
Seven New Orleans authors and performers join New York writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley for a hilarious, outrageous, touching evening of literature and music called HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX. From childhood stories of curiosity to adult tales of lovemaking gone very, very awry, audiences will reel through eight tales told from eight very different perspectives - male, female, straight, gay, young, and...less young. It's blue enough to please the prurient, but silly enough for the straightlaced, too.
Seven New Orleans authors and performers join New York writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley for a hilarious, outrageous, touching evening of literature and music called HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX. From childhood stories of curiosity to adult tales of lovemaking gone very, very awry, audiences will reel through eight tales told from eight very different perspectives - male, female, straight, gay, young, and...less young. It's blue enough to please the prurient, but silly enough for the straightlaced, too.
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of 'Ragtime' transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'
An ensemble of seven New Orleans authors and performers join New York writer Blaise Allysen Kearsley for a hilarious, outrageous, touching evening of literature and music, HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX. From childhood stories of curiosity to adult tales of lovemaking gone very, very awry, audiences will reel through eight tales told from eight very different perspectives - male, female, straight, gay, young, and...less young. It's blue enough to please the prurient, but silly enough for the straightlaced, too.
Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, has announced the Broadway cast of HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. The new 'Tribe' will debut on Tuesday, March 9, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street, NYC).
I got my Equity card in 1954, when I was offered a job in a Broadway show, TONIGHT IN SAMARKAND starring Louis Jourdan...
UK editor-in-chief Carrie Dunn talks to the West End and Broadway star about her return as Roxie...and what she really thinks about Emma Bunton replacing her on Dancing on Ice!
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Sound of Music has enjoyed a record breaking run at The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. The show is very unique in that it comprises a lot of children, some very young. Natali Ioffe is one of the three actresses who share the role of Gretl, the youngest of the Von Trapp children. She also the only Gretl to be with the production since it opened over fifteen months ago. Natali took a few minutes (with the help of her Mom) to talk to BWW about what it is like being in a large scale production at such a young age.
James Earl Jones talked at length with Maddy Costa of the UK's Guardian about several topics including his role in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, how he got into acting, and how he formed a relationship with his absent father later in life.
Though Julie Wilson was certainly not the first and by all means not the last great singer to have her heart stomped upon by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's 'Surabaya Johnny,' there is no one I can name more deserving to claim it as their signature song. (Okay, maybe Lotte Lenya, but you know that's a special case.) Though for many years now the 83-year-old beloved cabaret star has been singing songs less and less and speaking them more and more, there are few who can match her for painting vivid word pictures and bringing complex dramatic subtext to a lyric. With pianist Christopher Denny doing a marvelous job of softly supporting her many pauses and tempo changes, Wilson's crushing performance of Marc Blitzstein's translation, played to a pin-drop silent crowd on opening night of her new show at The Metropolitan Room, is an emotionally striking portrayal of a woman who can explode with anger at the mistreatment she endures from her faithless lover while moments later barely control a sob at the admission that she still loves him. Through the years I've seen Julie Wilson sing 'Surabaya Johnny' many times but her performance that night was the best I've ever seen or heard from anyone. (And as is typical of her modesty, she actually introduced the song by complimenting Donna Murphy's performance of it on Broadway in LoveMusik.) She follows it with a devilishly humored 'Mack the Knife' (also Blitzstein's translation) that builds so slowly and precisely that she goes through the entire song twice in order to hit the climax. I heard no complaints.
M. Bevin O'Gara directs Adrianne Krstansky in Lisa Kron's one-woman show to open fourth season of Downstage@New Rep
Single tickets for Long Wharf Theatre's 2009-10 season will go on sale Tuesday, September 8 at 10 a.m.
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