My Favorite Year 1992 - Articles Page 5

The inimitable Emily Skinner will be headlining 42nd Street Moon's gala fundraiser a?oeCome to the Moona?? on Tuesday, February 4th at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. After bursting onto the scene with her Tony-nominated performance in a?oeSide Show,a?? Ms. Skinner has gone on to star in several more Broadway shows, most recently a?oeThe Cher Showa?? in 2018-19, and performed at top regional theater companies and done innumerable concerts throughout the country. Ms. Skinner's trademarks are a spectacular voice that can move seamlessly from a luscious lower register to a thrilling high belt, an irreverent sense of humor and a deep passion for the classic American musical. She is the type of performer who can dazzle you with her vocal prowess one moment, then make you laugh out loud with a perfectly-timed bon mot, then break your heart with a tender ballad. BroadwayWorld spoke recently by phone with Ms. Skinner from her home base in Manhattan. In conversation, Ms. Skinner is delightfully chatty, smart and warm, sort of a mashup of a gimlet-eyed leading lady from a bygone era, a brainiac specializing in Broadway arcania, and your best friend from high school.

The February lineup of acts performing at City Winery Chicago (1200 W. Randolph St) has been announced. See full details below!

The Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College present the 15th edition of The Big Broadcast! on Saturday, March 7 at 2PM & 7:30PM at Chapin Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, MA. Snow date is Sunday, March 8.. Created and directed by Mark Gionfriddo, who is also onstage as a?oeMatt Morgana??, The Big Broadcast! is a re-creation of a live 1940's radio show featuring the Mount Holyoke College Big Band, Vocal Jazz, and Chamber Jazz Ensembles performing well-known tunes from the swing era and the American songbook. WWLP-TV meteorologist Brian Lapis is emcee a?oeFred Kelleya?? for his 13th consecutive season. Mount Holyoke alum, bassist and singer Caitlin Jaene Mercer, will join The Big Broadcast! as special guest.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Michael Stotts- Managing Director), recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, begins the new year with the world premiere Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and written with Richard Curtis. Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber begins performances Thursday, January 30, 2020, and will continue through Sunday, March 1, 2020 at Paper Mill Playhouse (22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ). JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the major sponsor of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Paper Mill Playhouse's 2019-2020 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank. Opening Night is Sunday evening, February 9, 2020 at 7:00pm.

Something magical is flying into the Straz Center. Disney's Aladdin is landing its magic carpet at Morsani Hall on December 19, 2019 a?' January 5, 2020. Based on the on the Academy Award-winning 1992 animated film, Aladdin combines adventure, comedy and romance, featuring a full score, with familiar songs and more written specifically for the stage adaption. Aladdin ensemble actress Carissa Fiorillo is especially excited to be returning to Tampa. Aladdin at the Straz means Christmas with the family that she hasn't seen since the beginning of the year.

Because Christmas is mandatory on entertainment stages all month, it's no surprise that a cabaret at Signature Theatre is again devoted to the Yuletide songbook. But in a clever and very welcome variation, they've approached the holiday through the classic interpretations of one of America's favorite labels.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the company for A Thousand Splendid Suns, adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma and based on the 2007 New York Times bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini (Kite Runner). Set in 1992 in war-torn Afghanistan, this gripping story centers around a friendship that develops between two Afghan women following a tragedy. While facing insurmountable odds of a brutal and oppressive way of life, the two form an unlikely bond in a heart-rending fight for survival. Directed by Carey Perloff, A Thousand Splendid Suns runs January 17 - March 1, 2020 in the Kreeger Theater.

2019 has come and gone, which means it's time to get excited for the new shows coming in 2020! This year will bring anticipated revivals of Company, West Side Story, and The Music Man, fan favorite Six, brand new musicals Diana, Mrs. Doubtfire, and MJ, and many more.

Disney's Aladdin is flying into East Lansing from December 4th through 15th at the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts. The hit musical, based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature film, has been amazing audiences since the show's Broadway debut back in 2014. It has the music that we all know and love from the film and new songs that add to the Disney magic. a?oeMagical, romantic, surprising, exhilarating and funny,a?? is how Jonathan Weir, who plays Jafar the villain on the tour, described the show. a?oeIt's a fantastical story of a young man's adventure to become himself, the friendship he creates with a genie in a lamp, and the adventures and romance it unfolds.a?? Read more of BroadwayWorld Detroit's conversation with Jonathan Weir below to find out why he thinks Disney's Aladdin is special and if Jafar is really all that villainous!

Last week the book 'Me' was released by the legend Elton John and it got me thinking about Elton's contribution to musical theatre. His music and his generous personality have touched millions. His musical fantasy movie Rocketman, that came out earlier this year, based on his life is one of the greatest, in my opinion, films ever made. He has such a passion and love for everything he does and what he has given the magical world of musical theatre is just as extraordinary.

This is not your ordinary play: it features a wrestling match, ballet, jug band, vaudeville show, and a presidential roast. Kennesaw State University's Department of Theatre and Performance Studies will present the cult classic '45 Plays for 45 Presidents' September 24-29 at the Onyx Theater on the Kennesaw campus.

The 4th Annual Adirondack Film Festival, presented by the Adirondack Theatre Festival has announced its full slate of films and special guests.  This year's lineup includes more than 135 films shown in one weekend (October 17-20) across 6 screens in Downtown Glens Falls.  To open the festival, AFF will feature James Franco's PRETENDERS – shot entirely in Albany and the Capital Reigon. 

The White Plains Performing Arts Center (WPPAC) is proud to announce an exciting fall season featuring AIDA, NEWSIES, Lainie Kazan, and more!

The Women's Forum of New York will present the 9th Annual Elly Awards Luncheon benefiting The Education Fund of the Women's Forum on Monday, June 17th, at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The awards, named for the Women's Forum founder Elinor Guggenheimer, will honor outstanding women leaders. This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the Education Fund of the Women's Forum, which has helped over 260 women, age 35 and over, whose lives have been disrupted by extreme adversity, complete their college degrees.

From stage to screen and everywhere in between, Liz Callaway's four-decades-long career has been non-stop. That includes numerous cabarets, and, hot off the heels of her hit solo show A HYMN FOR HER, Liz Callaway gets even hotter with SETS IN THE CITY, an eclectic mix of old and new favorites written by Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Burt Bacharach, and more.

Today, D23, the official Disney fan club, has announced the eleven recipients for the 2019 Disney Legends Award. This year's recipients are Bette Midler, Wing Chao, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, James Earl Jones, Kenny Ortega, Barnette Ricci, Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer, Ming-Na Wen, and Hans Zimmer. 

The anxiously-anticipated arrival of Aladdin is finally here! The national tour stops in Sacramento through June 2 and brings with it the songs that you know and love from the 1992 animated movie, along with new numbers written specifically for the stage musical. After its debut on Broadway in 2014, it was nominated for 5 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Broadway World Sacramento was able to speak with Reggie DeLeon, who originated the role of Iago on the national tour and has returned after a brief hiatus. Reggie is well-known for his recurring role as Shep in the Pup Star films. He can also be seen on 'MOM' (Paul), 'Superior Donuts' (Zale), and 'Melissa & Joey' (Wyatt).

Paul Rush is the artistic director of Sixty-six Theater Co. located inside the Strasberg Institute in Hollywood. This past weekend April 26 - 28 he opened a new play in the Marilyn Monroe Theater of the Institute entitled My Thing of Love. In our chat Rush talks about the play, the Sixty-six Theater Co. and why he started it three years ago. Tell us about Sixty-six Theater Co. and its mission. It was founded by myself and two of my friends (Maggie Cleary and Coleman Kelly) while we, new to LA, were in that typical Hollywood routine of asking people to look at us, and we got kind of tired of just humbly asking to be looked at. We thought we weren't giving to the community. We wanted to really create thought-provoking theatre with an intention of giving to our audience. Do you always do first-run shows?

Over the course of each Broadway season, unexpected and unique storylines inevitably pop up. This morning, with the announcement of the 2019 Tony Award nominations, a number of new narratives have come to life.

Oh my god, I have literally nothing to say about Les Miz. Well, maybe not nothing... not literally! It's not gonna be hard to throw these out, I'll tell you that much. I have so many freaking Les Miz CDs and they all take up so much space at two--even three--discs a pop. The only one I ever really listened to in its entirety more than a couple of times was the Original London cast anyway.

As I'm going through all my Gypsy CDs (yes, to ensure I have them all either on my hard drive or accessible in the cloud, before throwing them out), I'm finding myself weirdly most drawn to Tyne Daly's recording, from her Tony-winning performance in the 1989 revival. The thing is I know Tyne Daly, I mean I know her work. She's been a familiar and distinctive presence on stage and screen for as long as I can remember and I even have a few musical theater recordings featuring her singing, but hers is not a singing voice I live with on a LITERALLY daily basis like, say, Ethel Merman's, Angela Lansbury's, Bette Midler's, Bernadette Peters's or Patti LuPone's. So to me, Tyne Daly's Rose is a unique sound that I can only identify with Tyne Daly's Rose and, therefore, a character. For today, that's the Gypsy I most feel like listening to.

In 10th Grade, I was in the chorus of a production of Oklahoma! in the auditorium of my synagogue and it was the best theatrical experience I've ever had. I remember getting home from the closing night cast party and crying myself to sleep. I could cry now putting on the movie or listening to 'The Farmer and the Cowman,' or maybe most of all, if I sing a little bit of the introduction to the title song.

Okay, this week, I only have to throw out two CDs, but it hurts! I'll never forget May 31, 1992--the 46th Annual Tony Awards. I had just turned 16 and was eagerly tuning in to absorb the Broadway of it all. I didn't really know much about any of the shows, other than that friends and family in New York had flipped for Guys And Dolls and that my parents had loved an earlier incarnation of Jelly's Last Jam when it played the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Glenn Close was hosting and Patti LuPone was presenting and I was not moving from my seat on the couch until I had a ranked list of the shows I wanted to see when I got to New York to visit my grandparents for Thanksgiving.

Being the theatre fan that I am, was beyond ecstatic when I read that the Eden Espinosa would be in the production. If I had a dollar for every time I watched the various performances of her belting in shows like Evita and Wicked then I could pay off my student loans. Imagine how thrilled I was when I had the opportunity to interview her as well on her experience in this show, what she hopes audiences take away and also some fun rapid fire questions.