As well-traveled and widely recorded as alto saxophonist Mark Lewis has been over the past four decades, his new CD 'The New York Session' is likely to be the album that helps rectify his current under-the-radar reputation
The story begins in 1958 and continues through 2011. 'It starts with my childhood and my views as I grew up. Then came the gift of my first son who was labeled autistic, and without speech. He could not tell me his thoughts, so the only place I could go was inside to see my own thoughts, and as I relearned myself, I knew him. Then the awareness I was given allowed me to see within my thoughts, and this is how I met my son at twenty-nine-and-a-half,' says the author.
As with their Vineyard Theatre success of five years ago, THE LYONS, in THIS DAY FORWARD, the team of playwright Nicky Silver and director Mark Brokaw display an impressive talent for packaging complex family drama as hip, off-beat comedy before getting to the guts of the long-term effects of dysfunctionality.
The two-day celebration of Smokey Robinson's 50-year career—and his selection as the 2016 recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song—began in the nation's capital with a touching trip down the keyboard of George Gershwin's piano and ended with a rollicking concert of his greatest hits.
Since writing his first opera, SILENT NIGHT--the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner for Music--with librettist Mark Campbell, composer Kevin Puts he has done two other operas, also with Campbell. This time around, he has a different collaborator: famed American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whose correspondence provides the text of his song cycle, LETTERS FROM GEORGIA, commissioned for opera superstar Renee Fleming by the Eastman School of Music. It makes its New York debut on November 14.
To celebrate the publication of the play Black Like Us, BrownBox Theatre joins forces with Sound Theatre Company to present an 'encore' staged reading of the Gregory Award Winning Play at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. Black Like Us is a funny, poignant, and deeply relevant story about the bonds of family, the struggles of identity, and the far-reaching effects of one woman's decision. The play is set in Seattle's Central District neighborhood, not far from the location of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and spans decades of change that have impacted that community.
In the opening scene of 'The Pride,' we immediately understand two things about the men on stage: they are British, and they are uncomfortable. It's 1958. Oliver says hello to Philip. The conversation is taught, small, and as light-hearted as two people 'with nothing in common' can muster. In this middle-class London home, it is not what these polite people say to one another, but what they don't say--or, perhaps, can't say--that drives Alexi Kaye Campbell's sentimental split-period piece. When Philip's wife says she feels something in the room, the light bulb in your head goes off, and the tension makes sense.
Joshua Bell is a classical superstar: violinist, cultural ambassador, and all-around inspiration. Musical Director of The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, television performer (Mozart in the Jungle!), and subway station busker-provocateur, he's a deep and unique talent.
Returning for his 57th consecutive year as a Las Vegas headliner, internationally distinguished comedian, actor and entertainer Don Rickles will perform at The Orleans Showroom on Oct. 22 and 23.
Next summer, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival celebrates its 60th season with performances of the plays that started it all.
They say that hindsight is 20/20, and in the case of Broadway, time has certainly illuminated some of the injustices of Tonys past. True, sometimes it takes years for art to truly be understood and appreciated, but theatre fans are well aware that it doesn't necessarily take that long to recognize some of the Tony voters' biggest mistakes. Next week marks six months from the 2017 Tony Awards, and to celebrate the half-way point, we're taking a closer look at some of those outright 'Huh?' winners of the past.
Caffe Cino, which was founded in 1958, is noted as the site that gave birth to off-off Broadway theatre. It was the invention of retired dancer Joe Cino, who offered a place to do inexpensive creative works in New York City and not have to conform to Equity rules. Cino bankrolled the adventure. The shows were staged on a make-shift small platform.
Even without eye-popping special effects, a gimmicky storyline, or those oft-used literary or cinematic source materials, some stage musicals just manage to entertain by sheer likability alone. A big warm hug of a show that's brimming with lots of surprisingly snappy wit and, arguably, some of the previous century's most melodious pop hits, BEAUTIFUL---the Broadway stage musical based on the life of treasured Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Carole King---is a show that certainly lives up to its title. This charming, swiftly-paced bio-musical's first national tour continues performances at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through October 16.
From 1964 to 1967, the extraordinary Nina Simone released seven albums on PhilipsRecords, further establishing her peerless artistic expression and singular voice. During this exceptional purple patch, she recorded some of her best and most important work of her career, much of it fuelled by the Civil Rights Movement and the turmoil of 1960s America. In conjunction with their 60(th) anniversary this year, Verve is celebrating the genius of Simone, the supernaturally gifted singer, pianist and prolific songwriter, and her incredible mid-'60s run with the release of her entire Philips catalog on vinyl.
The award-winning East Lynne Theater Company of Cape May, NJ has announced complete casting for S. N. Behrman's effervescent 1932 comedy, Biography.
Returning for his 57th consecutive year as a Las Vegas headliner, internationally distinguished comedian, actor and entertainer Don Rickles will perform at The Orleans Showroom on Oct. 22 and 23.
Celebrate the 2016 U.S. Open with episode six of the American Masters Podcast, featuring tennis superstars Chris Evert and Venus Williams, who discuss athlete and social icon Billie Jean King's impact both on and off the tennis court, as well as her predecessor, tennis champion Althea Gibson, with American Masters
The award-winning East Lynne Theater Company of Cape May, NJ has announced complete casting for S. N. Behrman's effervescent 1932 comedy, Biography.
Before teaming with Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick contributed songs to several Broadway revues.
Fourteen-year-old Jack Abrams may live in Los Angeles, but he's making quite an impression on the Broadway community.
You can feel the standing ovation building the second they start working their way through 30 hit songs that the audience sings along with gleefully. I saw the production the second weekend, and already audience members were proclaiming to others 'This is my THIRD time!'
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) is proud to present Paul Anka one of the greatest songwriters in pop-music history with over seven decades of creating lifetime hits including 'In the Still of the Night,' 'Sincerely,' '(You're) Having My Baby,' 'Times of Your Life' and so much more.
For nearly 60 years, the University of Minnesota has been presenting a summer melodrama on a docked showboat on the Mississippi River, currently across from downtown St. Paul. The Minnesota Centennial Showboat was christened in 1958, as those who know their Minnesota history could guess. The first show was UNDER THE GASLIGHT, which returns this summer for their last season at the Showboat. While this is only the second U of M show I've seen at the Showboat, I'm sad that it was my last. The creative team includes some of the top talent in town, and the cast is chock-full of talented young people that are the future of theater in this town. The melodrama is a fun, entertaining, and little-seen genre that encourages the audience to 'vocalize appropriately.' The Showboat is a unique and charming venue, and I hope that someone puts it to good use. Whether you've seen dozens of Showboat melodramas, or none, it would behoove you to board the Showboat one last time for this uniquely pleasing theatrical experience.
As the characters Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Mark Edward Lang and Alison J. Murphy seem to be a perfect fit in the play about the famous Broadway actors. Lang and Murphy are married in real life and have been performing together for many years. Recently visiting San Antonio, Texas, BWW had a chance to sit down and chat with them about their roles and about the show LUNT AND FONTANNE 'THE CELESTIALS OF BROADWAY.'
The name of the game in show biz is never to settle for greatness, but rather to go that extra mile and make it better. Such is the case with Recorded in Hollywood. In its transferal from a smaller Hollywood space to the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the show provides a book by Matt Donnelly and Jamelle Dolphin that opens up even more than before to tell the true story of record producer John Dolphin. The story takes place from 1948 to 1958 in South Central, Los Angeles, when blacks were arrested for the slightest infractions of the law. Since I did not see the initial production, I am basing my opinions on this newer version. It is slick, a very slick show with a dynamic, triple threat ensemble headed by Stu James, directed superbly by Denise Dowse and choreographed to the max by Cassie Crump. The bad feature is that it only runs through August 7.
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