Come Easy 1933 - Articles Page 2

As a sometimes-self-identifying Millennial, it may come as little surprise that opera is relatively new territory for me. I've grown up as a lover of musical theater, but classic opera is a whole other ball o' wax. Mainstream media doesn't exactly drop Verdi, Mozart, Leh r, or even Gilbert & Sullivan into one's lap. I've had to seek out the experience of opera, going into it knowing that there's a risk involved. A risk of disappointment and of the experience affirming what current trends seem to have decided for me: that opera's rightful place is in the past.

Emma Palzere-Rae is currently playing Essie Miller, a savvy wife and mother in a Connecticut town in 1906. She's a loving wife to Nat, a newspaper owner, an understanding sister to Sid, who has trouble keeping a job, and a concerned mother for her children, ages teenage on up. Emma herself lives in southeastern Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Inspired by Little Orphan Annie, the 1924 comic strip by Harold Gray, Annie is a heart-warming story, filled with adventure and laughs that defines what family truly means. One of the longest running shows in Broadway history and the winner of seven Tony Awards, Annie, returns to the WBT stage from June 29 toSeptember 10, 2017!

On June 29, The Ensemble Theatre opened the final production for their celebratory 40th anniversary season with a bang, a belt, and a whole lotta sass! With its powerhouse vocalists, entertaining and sassy storytellers, and vast musical variation, SIMPLY SIMONE is anything but simple.

Marking an incredible milestone of presenting 'stars under the stars,' the HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival presented by Bank of America with Swedish Fish, JLL, WeWork, and Time Out in association with Bryant Park Corporation, celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a New York themed line-up. The free outdoor festival returns Monday evenings at sunset, beginning June 19 and running through August 21. 

Marking an incredible milestone of presenting 'stars under the stars,' the HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival presented by Bank of America with Swedish Fish, JLL, WeWork, and Time Out in association with Bryant Park Corporation, celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a New York themed line-up.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) announced today the 2017/18 season, which features 250 performances delivering groundbreaking produced and presented works in dance, music and theater from locally, nationally and internationally renowned artists and companies.

Ensemble Studio Theatre and Radio Drama Network announced today the lineup for the 36th MARATHON OF ONE-ACT PLAYS, the biennial festival series of brand new plays from emerging playwrights.

With her throaty elegance, sharp comic bite and aggressively sexual allure, Tallulah Bankhead quickly earned a loyal following when she appeared in her first five Broadway plays in the years between 1918 and 1922. Unfortunately, her performances were often the only positive attraction and each of the quintet closed very quickly.

Henry David Thoreau was a rebel. A rebel with many causes. He opposed taxation, contested war on foreign soils, was a strong advocate for the abolition of slavery, refused to pay fees for things that he thought were earned and therefore should not cost money (e.g., as a Harvard graduate he rejected paying the dollar required for getting his official graduation certificate). He believed in the interdependence of man and nature, independent thinking, education through discovery, and he rebuffed organized religion.

The 2016 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, a prestigious honor that carries a $25,000 cash prize, will be presented to contemporary choreographer, dancer, and artistic director Camille A. Brown in acknowledgement of her vision and outstanding contributions to the dance field. Regularly garnering acclaim for her 'vividness and versatility' (Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times), Brown holds a New York Dance and Performance ('Bessie') Award, two Princess Grace Awards, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and her work has toured nationally and internationally. The Jacob's Pillow Dance Award was established in 2007 and, in honor of its 10th anniversary, the Pillow has broadened the scope of this honor with a commitment to the artist's growth and future work. In addition to the unrestricted cash prize, this Award also includes a committed engagement for the 2017 Festival and a Creative Development Residency at Jacob's Pillow. Previous recipients of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award include the legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham; MacArthur Fellows Michelle Dorrance and Kyle Abraham; and John Heginbotham of Dance Heginbotham, among others.

It is rare that an exhibition can take an artist you have known for most of your museum-going life and make him live anew. PICASSO SCULPTURE is one such glorious rarity.

Long before there was “American Idol” or “The Voice,” there were the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions. A 62-year tradition in the opera world, it comes to a head at the National Council Auditions Finals Concert, which took place this year on Sunday afternoon. It was the culmination of a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional and national levels. And while it's not glitzy and not performed before an audience of millions, well, it's at the Met. Enough said.

Theater luminaries John Patrick Shanley, Keir Dullea, Mia Dillon, Martin Sherman, Brenda Currin, John Lahr, John Waters, Bryan Batt and Joel Vig are just a few of the illustrious headliners who will participate in the 29th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, this week, March 25-29, 2015.

Theater luminaries John Patrick Shanley, Keir Dullea, Mia Dillon, Martin Sherman, Brenda Currin, John Lahr, John Waters, Bryan Batt and Joel Vig are just a few of the illustrious headliners who will participate in the 29th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, March 25-29, 2015.

In BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK, now playing at Penumbra Theatre as part of their 'Womansong' season, the title character is a black actress in 1930s Hollywood who gets her big break playing a loyal slave in an antebellum Southern melodrama. She imbues the stereotypical role with as much humanity and depth as possible, and so begins a long and successful career, until she mysteriously disappears from the spotlight. Vera is a controversial figure because on the one hand her characters perpetuate the stereotypes seen in movies, but on the other hand she makes her characters as real as possible and has built a successful career for herself and opened doors for black actors in Hollywood. The play examines these issues in a funny, entertaining, innovative way, jumping across time and using video of Vera's first movie.

Prepare to be thoroughly enchanted by Oregon Shakespeare Festival's transfer of INTO THE WOODS newly arrived at the Wallis Center in Beverly Hills. It is, without a doubt, the most inventive and inspiring production of this Sondheim musical I have ever seen. Amanda Denhert's direction delights at every turn such that watching this INTO THE WOODS left my heart bursting with unadulterated joy, devastated by its unflinching honesty, and breathless with anticipation of each moment to come.

This summer, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival marks its 31st season in the beautiful seaside setting of Long Island's East End. The Island's longest-running classical music festival this year features 12 concerts from today, July 30 to August 24, featuring the signature mix of renowned and up-and-coming artists and classic and new music that has made it one of the most noteworthy summer music festivals in the country.

This summer, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival marks its 31st season in the beautiful seaside setting of Long Island's East End. The Island's longest-running classical music festival this year features 12 concerts from today, July 30 to August 24, featuring the signature mix of renowned and up-and-coming artists and classic and new music that has made it one of the most noteworthy summer music festivals in the country.

This summer, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival marks its 31st season in the beautiful seaside setting of Long Island's East End. The Island's longest-running classical music festival this year features 12 concerts from July 30 to August 24, featuring the signature mix of renowned and up-and-coming artists and classic and new music that has made it one of the most noteworthy summer music festivals in the country.

I was just a little more than a year into my new side career as a cabaret show reviewer when I first saw a Karen Oberlin show. It was Valentine's Day night 2012 and Oberlin—with guitarist Sean Harkness and guest violinist Aaron Weinstein—would be performing her romance-laced set, Stringing Along With Love, at the Metropolitan Room. At the time, all I knew about Oberlin was that she was considered among New York's best female cabaret singers, and I hadn't researched her performing history pre-show. About a third of the way into her set I leaned over to my wife (it was Valentine's Day after all) and whispered, “You know, she has a real Doris Day quality in her voice and in the way she delivers some lyrics.” This immediately ratcheted up my appreciation for Oberlin since there are four passions I inherited from my Dad—baseball, reading the morning papers, sports writing and Doris Day (well, also Sophia Loren, but that's for another column). Since Dad had grown up during the prime of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, I heard the sultry sounds of a young Doris Day singing songs like “Sentimental Journey” on the family stereo more than a few times. Once I saw Day's strikingly adorable blondness on a record cover and her rocking body in one of her films, I knew what Dad was talking about. As popular, famous, and near iconic as Doris Day became, in my book, as a singer and screen beauty she's always been vastly underrated. Little did I know that Karen Oberlin had been doing a Doris Day tribute show so since 2001 at places like Firebird, Iridium, and the late Danny's Skylight Room, and produced a CD, Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, in 2002. Karen Oberlin had instantly become my secret love.

This summer, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival marks its 31st season in the beautiful seaside setting of Long Island's East End. The Island's longest-running classical music festival this year features 12 concerts from July 30 to August 24, featuring the signature mix of renowned and up-and-coming artists and classic and new music that has made it one of the most noteworthy summer music festivals in the country.

The 'invaluable' Metropolitan Playhouse--2011 Obie Award winner--revives The Hero, by Gilbert Emery. Directed by Artistic Director Alex Roe at Metropolitan Playhouse: 220 E 4th Street. Previews begin tonight, March 1, with an opening slated for March 8. The show runs through March 30, 2014.

The 'invaluable' Metropolitan Playhouse--2011 Obie Award winner--revives The Hero, by Gilbert Emery. Directed by Artistic Director Alex Roe at Metropolitan Playhouse: 220 E 4th Street. Previews begin March 1, with an opening slated for March 8. The show runs through March 30, 2014.

City Winery Napa at the Historic Napa Valley Opera House hased announce the much-anticipated artist lineup from the soft launch in April through June 2014. Over the next few weeks ten new concert dates a week will be released until the complete schedule of approximately twenty shows per month is announced. All shows begin at 8pm unless otherwise noted. Tickets available at citywinery.com.