Just So 1990 - Articles Page 8

BroadwayWorld Book Club is officially off and running! Or should we say, reading! The first BroadwayWorld Book Club selection is Jennifer Ashley Tepper's The Untold Stories of Broadway Volume 1. Tepper has just released the first volume of the book for free on Kindle!

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the greatest theatrical works (non-musical) from 1920-2020; see if your favorites made the list!

Alt-rock duo Local H have shared the live video for their recently released banger 'Hold That Thought.' Of that video, Scott Lucas says, 'Ryan got a GoPro for Christmas, so we decided to put it to use. It's a pretty good video representation of what that tour with Soul Asylum was like. The decision to start dressing like WHAM! and wear those 'CHOOSE LIFE' shirts seemed like a pretty obvious idea to me —our new record is called “LIFERS”— but I'm not sure people got it. I think some people thought we were making some kind of a pro-life statement. We were NOT making a pro-life statement.'

ASSASSINS, the 1990 Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman show featuring the stories of nine successful and would-be presidential assassins, may seem like an odd choice of subject for a musical, particularly as the first musical in the Gamm Theatre's 35 season history. However, with inventive staging and a top-notch cast guided by artistic director Tony Estrella, this selection pays off.

Iconic alt-rock duo Local H just keep getting better. Last Friday, they released another undeniable banger 'Hold That Thought' -- a bouncy, riotous track which revamps classic rock tones with the band's signature style. The offering is the third single off of their most ambitious and exciting album to date, LIFERS, due April 10th via AntiFragile Music.

I've often talked about the embarrassment of theatrical riches that we have in Seattle. We have several companies that bring us new works, many of which have made their way on to Broadway. We have a wealth of extremely talented performers who constantly wow us with their gifts. And we have a reputation that brings in talented others to play in our sandbox. But we also have a local connection to one of America's most acclaimed playwrights, August Wilson, and so we get things like the Tony nominated Broadway production of Wilson's a?oeJitneya?? remounting at the Seattle Rep with the Broadway director, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and several of the Broadway cast.

Pieter-Dirk Uys returns as Bambi Kellermann in the satirical, scandalous and sparkling NEVER TOO NAKED. Coming to the Fugard stage later this month, Uys reveals Bambi's beginnings, journey, and what to expect next from Tannie Evita's younger sister.

Bay Area acting luminary Wilma Bonet is currently starring in the Magic Theatre's world premiere of a?oeDon't Eat the Mangos,a?? Ricardo Pérez González' wickedly funny drama about a Puerto Rican family confronting its own legacy. Bonet has had a remarkably long and varied theater career, including six years with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and stints with most of the top-tier Bay Area theater companies. BroadwayWorld spoke with her just a week before performances of a?oeMangosa?? were set to begin. In conversation, Bonet is plainspoken and quick to laugh, with an enduring passion for political theater underlying her responses.

REELZ today announced new programming for March 2020 with three new original specials, five new episodes of returning original series Autopsy: The Last Hours of... , the U.S. premiere of documentary ABBA: Secrets of Their Greatest Hits and the REELZ premiere of Dolly Parton: Here She Comes Again! Every Sunday in March a new episode of Autopsy: The Last Hours of... premieres celebrating the lives and examining the untimely deaths of celebrities including disco sensation Andy Gibb, Diff'rent Strokes star Dana Plato, WWE champion Chris Benoit, Academy Award(R) winning actress Audrey Hepburn and country music legend Glen Campbell. Natalie Morales hosts two new original Behind Closed Doors specials about hit family sitcom The Facts of Life and romantic comedy Pretty Woman which marks its 30th anniversary since hitting the big screen in March 1990. New original special House of Horrors: The Friends Speak explores the Turpin family nightmare in which 13 children were abused by their parents for decades.

It's been 30 years since Bran Nue Dae was first brought to the stage at UWA's Octagon Theatre for the 1990 Festival of Perth. Its full-circle return to Perth brings the groundbreaking musical to The Regal Theatre in Subiaco, as an Opera Conference Production in association with Perth Festival. For those of us who weren't around in Perth in '90, and who have only come to know the musical through the film version made in 2009, this revival is timely and sorely needed.

The Tony winner brings her 3 decade old show to the Birdland Theater Valentine's weekend.. and what a guest cast she has! Stephen Mosher chats with the iconic New Yorker about what to expedt

Kaskade joins forces with the Swedish trio BROHUG (composed of John Dahlbäck, and Chris and Niklas Lunde) for perhaps the most prolific throwback single in electronic music to date, a tribute to one of the most significant years in music - 1990. The namesake-titled track is a play on SNAP!'s iconic 'The Power,' reworked with snippets of the original vocals set to Kaskade and BROHUG's ingenious production. Opening with a groovy melody as the backdrop to nostalgia-ridden lyrical riffs, '1990' progressively builds the tension to almost unbearable levels. We all know the moments just before a track of this magnitude drops, and the pressure is real right before the bouncy and driving crescendo, on which every old school fan's favorite line, 'I've Got the Power!' rides perfectly. '1990' is out on Kaskade's Arkade imprint.

The title of his one-man show, The Spouse Whisperer, was a playful jab at the reality TV shows with whisperer in the title. a?oeIf they can go around and tell how to make dogs and horses better than I'm going to be the spouse whisperer. Everybody gets the title.a?? Mark said that The Spouse Whisperer was all humor-driven with some scientific information thrown in, so it had some basis in fact. It's also interactive. From 18 to senior citizens, everyone can find something to relate to. The audience is given cards upon entering the show and asked to write questions and comments that he will respond to in the second half of the performance. He noted that no matter the corner of the country, the concerns about relationships were surprisingly universal.

'... About 26 years ago, I was in New York playing a gig at Nel's on 14thStreet. Late night, the 5 Train would stop running and you would have to catch a shuttle from 180thStreet, which ran really infrequently, so I decided to catch the 4 Train uptown to Gun Hill Road and walked down to the corner of Bainbridge and Gun Hill to catch the BX 28 (which used to be the BX 15). So here it was, about 3:00 in the morning and I'm standing across the street from Montefiore Hospital, watching a Black squirrel dart in and out of the sparse shrubs next to the building, when suddenly, an old man popped out from behind the parking garage, just behind the bus shelter where I was standing. The man was about 5'5', wearing slacks, a collared shirt, fall coat and a Totes hat. In his left hand, he carried two shopping bags stuffed with collard greens. There was something in the way he walked... a rather slew-footed stride, that told me he was from the islands.'

Harry Connick Jr - A Celebration of Cole Porter, honoring one of America's most respected songwriters, just opened on Broadway last week. Featuring a vibrant, 25-piece orchestra and a modern, multi-media presentation, this entirely new production brings back to Broadway both the magic of Cole Porter's compositions and one of the world's most celebrated live performers.

The powerhouse singer that she is, Ledisi takes on the songs of legendary Nina Simone, honors them and makes them uniquely her own in LEDISI: THE LEGEND OF LITTLE GIRL BLUE (A MUSICAL JOURNEY INTO THE LIVES OF NINA SIMONE AND LEDISI), opening at The Wallis December 13, 2019. Transcending a wide range of musical genres, Ledisi will take you on her own path of musical discoveries, while describing the influence Ms. Nina Simone has made on her. Ledisi ever so graciously blocked open some time to answer a few of my tuneful queries.

Based on the classic novel by S.E. Hinton which she started writing at the age of 15 in 1965 and published in 1967, The Outsiders is a coming of age novel about the conflict between two rival gangs: The Greasers and The Socs (Short for Socials). The book is written in the first person as told by Ponyboy Curtis. The play does try to stick to that also by having Ponyboy narrate numerous parts. The Play was first published in 1990 and I hear there is a musical adaptation in the works.

Miranda recently chatted with Page Six about the project. 'I was a kid who wanted to be a filmmaker all my life,' Miranda explained. 'I was the kid who found it easier to have a camcorder on my arm than engage with people my age,' he said. 'So when I watched 'Rent' and there's a character who's always spinning a camera, and at one point, another character goes, 'You just film us because you're scared of connecting' ... I went [gestures to looking uncomfortable], in the last row of Nederlander Theatre was Jonathan Larson attacking me and my adolescence.'

Here are some of the highlighted events coming to QED from Dec. 11-17, including: flex your modeling knowledge with host Selena Copock at 1990's Supermodel Show: Quiz + Tribute (Dec. 11); fat-positive comedy with hosts Glo & Lo at Bertha's Big Fat Pool Party (Dec. 12)

I am often asked what my all time favorite Broadway musical is. I always reply A Chorus Line. I consider it to be a perfect musical in every way. The show's original director/choreographer Michael Bennett captured the heart and soul of the dancer so beautifully in what I consider to be his masterwork. Marvin Hamlisch's music and Edward Kleban's lyrics were and still are one of the most inventive theatre scores ever written. James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante's book (based off of taped interviews of Broadway dancers conducted by Bennett) frame the songs to sheer perfection. Paul's monologue in the show is actually based on Dante's true story.

One of the great songwriters, performers, and all-around creative figures of late-20th-century, Prince Rogers Nelson, known to the world simply as Prince, told his story in song and on film. But when he died unexpectedly in April of 2016 at 57, he had just started a tantalizing project -- writing his memoirs -- and it appeared to have been lost with him. It was not.

'Oklahoma! Is and will always be my first love,' explained Brynna Horswell, who portrays Laurey in Charleston Light Opera Guild's (CLOG) upcoming production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. 'It was the first musical I remember being exposed to as a very little girl. I grew up singing and dancing to those songs and dreamed that one day I'd be Shirley Jones with my own Gordon MacRae.'

One Performance Only! This Sunday, November 3, 2019! Long ago but not far away at all, there were many TV Variety Shows, Award Ceremonies, Music Centers and Theatre abounding with live Musical Performances, all with massive budgets; and dancers in this town, Los Angeles, made a darn good living, albeit having to work their asses off to do so, but it was a good and plentiful, fulfilling life. Besides myself, there was a plethora of working, professional dancers who ended up bonding together pretty easily, as a dancer's life is one of a nomad, or gypsy, going from one job to another, but in doing so, finding kindred spirits and lifelong connections. Jay Johnson, husband of one of these dancers and artistically gifted himself, was part of the artistic community, as was his wife, Sandi, and, typical with dancers, became close friends and comrades with other dancers, choreographers, and like-minded performers. As Jay was earning international fame as a ventriloquist, actor and comedian, and starring on the hit TV Series 'Soap,' us dancers were slaving away, happy to be able to make a living doing what we loved. Jay is best known for his role on ' Soap' as Chuck Campbell, a ventriloquist who believed his puppet Bob was real and demanded everyone treat Bob as human.

The tribute album is certainly not a new concept, as artists have raised their voices in celebration of iconic musicians and songwriters in all sorts of creative ways over the years. So conventional wisdom would suggest, there's no new way to approach this concept? Well what if you celebrated a 'sound” – more specifically, you celebrated the personal influence and impact of a 'vocal range' in a particular genre? If you contemplate the creation of a modern day tribute to the impact of 'deep male voices' of the past in 'romantic ballad' settings, one name should instantly stand out from the all the rest – The Prince of Sophisticated Soul himself, Will Downing.

Anyone who has undertaken a show by Stephen Sondheim knows that the music is seriously difficult, often including dissonant cords, tricky intervals, and overlapping lines. Assassins is no exception. Written by John Weidman and Sondheim, it was first produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1990 and hit Broadway in 2004. It was originally scheduled to play on Broadway in 2001, but was postponed due to the events of September 11, 2001. The story of those who assassinated or attempted to assassinate various Presidents throughout US history, Assassins combines quirky characters such as the Proprietor and Balladeer with historical characters such as Emma Goldman and John Wilkes Booth. It covers complex themes ranging from broken dreams to corruption to classism with dark humor. The show approaches these themes and the overarching theme of disillusionment with the American dream in a way that may make audiences feel uncomfortable as they are confronted with truths that are all too real about our country, our history, and human nature. Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg takes on Assassins now through November 3rd.