A Long and Happy Life - Articles Page 13

Members of the Santa Ana community-and others-are invited to attend one or more staged readings of a new community-inspired play by Jose Cruz Gonzalez. The play-in-development is part of Dialogue/Dialogos, a creative partnership between South Coast Repertory (SCR) and Latino Health Access (LHA).

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, and another in its acclaimed series introducing Canada's finest playwrights to the UK, the European premiere of Daniel Macdonald's Velocity opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from Sunday, 27 April 2014.

Kerrigan & Lowdermilk, Bobby Cronin, Timothy Huang, Lyons & Pakchar, Leanna Renee Hieber, William Demaniow, Amanda Taraska star in INSPIRED 4: A Benefit Concert for Eleventh Hour Rescue NJ & The Low Cost Vet Mobile NYC, on Monday, March 31 at 7pm at Stage 72, NYC. Scroll down to watch the trailer!

May and June sees some new artists and some returns at The Crazy Coqs, including: Harold Sanditen (May 2-3); Simon Green with David Shrubsole (May 6-10); Lauren Fox with Jon Weber (May 13 - 17); Gary Williams (May 20 -24); KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler (May 26-28); Opera Tottie (May 29 - 31); Bryan Batt (June 3 - 7); Judy Carmichael with Colin Oxley (June 10 -14); Elaine Delmar (June 17 - 21) and more. Details below!

The new musical ROCKY, starring Andy Karl and Margo Seibert, opens tomorrow, March 13, at Broadway's historic Winter Garden Theatre. Scroll down to learn more about the full company, plus watch footage of Sylvester Stallone's speech following the first preview of Rocky on Broadway!

Produced, created and hosted by Bobby Cronin, INSPIRED is a benefit concert series for animal rescue organizations across the country that will play every other month, with a rotating line-up of some of today's exciting musical theatre writers in a casual and intimate setting as they sit behind the piano and, unlike traditional concerts of their material, perform songs by other writers that have inspired their work. The INSPIRED series hopes to spread the word about the 2.7 million adoptable animals that are euthanized each year in America. Jessica Kahkoska serves as associate producer.

David Arquette (Scream) and Gloria Reuben (Lincoln) star in the Lifetime Original Movie Happy Face Killer, premiering tonight, March 1, at 8pm ET/PT. The movie follows the grisly true-crime story of a truck driver who, during his work travels across the country, kills numerous women and hauntingly leaves a confession of each murder with a scrawled happy face as cryptic evidence of his crime. Reuben portrays Melinda Gand, the FBI investigator leading the case.

Bay City Players, Michigan's oldest continuously operating community theatre, will open its 97th season with Stephen Sondheim's Company next autumn, and close with family favorite The Sound of Music in spring 2015. In between, playgoers will be entertained with a unique interpretation of the holiday favorite Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the classic American comedy You Can't Take It With You, and the 2013 Tony Award winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written originally for David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests is a three-part play cycle that takes place over the course of one weekend. The trilogy paints a deeply insightful portrait of six individuals bound by love, hate, trust, need, and fear. Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company is currently remounting their 2013 production, with hilarious, heartfelt results.

Alley Theatre presents the world premiere of a new comedy by Theresa Rebeck, Fool. In Rebeck's new comedy, two kings get together and place a wager on their fools - a jester competition, and the funniest one gets to keep his head. Two evil minions have a lot to say about this, but not as much as the kitchen wench. And what's the queen been up to all night? A dramatical comical farcical tragical play about power, love and laughter, set in a medieval kitchen. Adult Language, Adult Situations, Beheadings.

David Arquette (Scream) and Gloria Reuben (Lincoln) star in the Lifetime Original Movie Happy Face Killer, premiering Saturday, March 1, at 8pm ET/PT. The movie follows the grisly true-crime story of a truck driver who, during his work travels across the country, kills numerous women and hauntingly leaves a confession of each murder with a scrawled happy face as cryptic evidence of his crime. Reuben portrays Melinda Gand, the FBI investigator leading the case.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for the world premiere of a new comedy by Theresa Rebeck, Fool. In Rebeck's new comedy, two kings get together and place a wager on their fools - a jester competition, and the funniest one gets to keep his head. Two evil minions have a lot to say about this, but not as much as the kitchen wench. And what's the queen been up to all night? A dramatical comical farcical tragical play about power, love and laughter, set in a medieval kitchen. Adult Language, Adult Situations, Beheadings.

Megan Mullally is a two-time Emmy-winning star of TV's Will & Grace, and star of Broadway's Young Frankenstein. On Saturday, February 22 she debuts Broadway@ The Broad: Megan Mullally, her live music and comedy concert special, in Santa Monica, CA's - for two shows only.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents the world premiere of THESE PAPER BULLETS!, a modish ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Rolin Jones, with songs by Billie Joe Armstrong, and directed by Jackson Gay, March 14-April 5 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 20.

A Finborough Theatre commission, and another in its series premiering the work of Canada's most acclaimed playwrights, the UK debut of award-winning Canadian playwright Matthew Edison - The Domino Heart, starring Amanda Hale - nominated for two Evening Standard Awards for Outstanding Newcomer and Best Actress, plays a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from 2 February 2014 (Press Night: Monday, 3 February 2014 at 7.30pm ).

Oprah Winfrey. J.K. Rowling. Vera Wang. Marilyn Monroe. What do these successful and influential women have in common? They are women who failed before they succeeded. While the women who have achieved such celebrated status are few, those who have gone through similar inspiring life transformations abound; and among them is Sarah Tauber, the author who debuted with a genuine revelation in 'For Dear Life.'

2014 sees some new names and some returns to The Crazy Coqs. January starts with the London debut of the sizzling cabaret performer Carole J .Bufford and her show Body and Soul (tonight, January 7 - 11) followed by the popular Broadway star Brent Barrett and his show Night Songs (January 14 -18) and then actress and singer Linda Purl with her show Midnight Caravan: Celebrating the Great Ladies of the Glamorous Nightclub Era of the 40s & 50s (January 21 - 25).

Last December, after I posted my list of the Best Cabaret Performers of 2012, I followed up my original 'listmania' with a column that served as a way to include some 'honorable mentions,' basically a recognition of other memorable shows and performances of songs that were striking, unique, and/or original that year. The column received a positive response so I thought I'd wheel it out again this year. So as the hours tick away on 2013 and we anticipate the coming of a new year, here is an addendum to the 2013 New York Cabaret Performers of the Year--a totally random list of 30 Honorable Mentions of the 'Best' and 'Most' in Cabaret for 2013 . . . mainly because I can and it's fun. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

2013 was a marvelous year for theatre in Tampa Bay. There were stellar National Tours, Regional Theatre, and Community Theatre productions filled with 5 Star talent and production qualities. It is a real challenge to narrow down a listing for 'CRITIC'S CHOICE'.

n this space back in mid-July, BroadwayWorld.com New York cabaret reviewer Stephen Hanks offered up his list of the Best New York Cabaret Performances for the first half of 2013. Now, here is his list of the performers he feels were the best and most exciting in cabaret this year.

Author Michael Ross McLeod makes a compelling debut into the publishing world as he releases 'Lenaber and the Zwitch Team,' a tour de force fantasy novel that introduces readers to a new dimension where wizards, witches and their magic are real. In this good versus evil tale, a young man steps up to inherit the knowledge and power of his grandfather-albeit unknowingly at first-and journeys to a place and time where strife and danger are inevitable.

'Freedom,' answers Robert Seybold when asked what his memoir is about. Titled 'Life & Times Thru My Eyes...,' the author believes that with this coming-out-of-the-closet book, he is a step closer to living the life he deserves - one free from white lies, fibs, alibis and whatnot. Having lived his life in the shadows for fear of hurting his kith and kin, he finally musters enough strength to tell the truth and settle doubts and speculations about his identity.

Ah, yes. 2013 was indeed an outstanding year for theater in Southern California. Even better: Orange County---my home base---boasted some of the best shows, period---marking an exciting theater renaissance in brilliance and artistry that I hope continues to grow here inside L.A.'s next door neighbor. With that said, here is my Top 10 Stage Shows of 2013 from Orange County and adjacent locales nearby, followed by my picks for the year's best performances.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Other Desert Cities. A riveting new play by Pulitzer Prize nominee and creator of TV's hit drama Brothers & Sisters, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities was named the Outstanding Play by the Outer Critics Circle and called 'the best new play on Broadway' by The New York Times. Jackson Gay returns to direct this new production after helming the Alley Theatre's productions of August: Osage County, Red andIntelligence-Slave.

Always trying to fit in and figure out how where to position himself in society since he was twelve years old, author Roland Alric finally found his niche. It is part of a journey he shares even as his life is caught in the turbulent pass of HIV-AIDS infection that will be an inspiration and a lesson for readers of his memoir. Dedicating his new book to his beloved daughters, Alric dismantles the wall he hid behind for so long and tells readers 'The Truth Behind A Happy Face'.