Pacific Overtures Revival 2004 - Articles Page 2

In honor of the one-year anniversary of Broadway stage manager Arthur Gaffin's passing, Gaffin's boyfriend since 1980, Danny Baron, is donating $100,000 from Gaffin's estate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge and Broadway Rewind continues with a look at two offerings of the 2004- 2005 theatre season. A sneak peek at the new musical All Shook Up, which featured a breakout performance by Cheyenne Jackson, and we start things off at the opening night of Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Pacific Overtures. This bold and underrated 1976 musical spans over 150 years. It starred two original members from the 1976 Broadway production, Sab Shimono and Alvin Ing. Tony award winner BD Wong who joined them, told me how exciting it was to be a part of this glorious musical. 'We have gone on this journey as a company. Just an incredible amount of very stimulating and creative work with an incredible director. I mean world class, no pun intended. Fantastic, loving, caring, passionate, creative person. And to have that experience is so rare, and to be in a Sondheim, Weidman musical, when Sondheim and Weidman are there in the room, taking notes and telling you what they think and why they wrote something, is unbelievable.'

BroadwayWorld was saddened to report that Broadway veteran Merwin Foard recently passed away at 59 years old. Born September 16, 1960 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Foard was last seen on Broadway in Aladdin as a standby for Jafar/Sultan.

Alan Muraoka and 'Sesame Street' Muppeteers Jennifer Barnhart and Kathy Kim delighted children and their parents as they shared traditions of the Lunar New Year in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium during two performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lunar New Year Festival celebrating the Year of the Rat on February 1, 2020. The trio posed with families in The Temple of Dendur after the performances.

Classic Stage Company (CSC; Artistic Director, John Doyle) has announced that Ethan Slater will join their John Doyle-directed upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, as Lee Harvey Oswald/The Balladeer.

Adam Chanler-Berat, Tavi Gevinson, and Andy Grotelueschen have joined the upcoming Classic Stage Company revival of Assassins. They will play the roles of John Hinckley Jr., Squeaky Fromme, and Samuel Byck respectively.

Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts presents Sing-A-Long with Alan Muraoka featuring Sesame Street songs and puppeteers on Sunday November 17, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Ticket prices range between $20.00-$40.00, plus applicable fees. Purchase online, by phone or at the box office. For more information, visit PatchogueTheatre.org, call the Patchogue Theatre Box Office at 631-207-1313, or stop by 71 East Main Street, Patchogue, NY.

Classic Stage Company announces that five celebrated actors have joined its upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, directed by John Doyle

The Broadway community mourns the loss of beloved Production Stage Manager, Arthur a?oeArtiea?? Gaffin, who passed away on September 13, 2019. To commemorate his life and work, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of the American Airlines, Marquis, New Amsterdam, St. James, and Broadhurst Theatres in New York for one minute on Wednesday, September 18 at exactly 7:45pm.

Steven Pasquale may be returning to the stage in an upcoming production of the musical Assassins at Classic Stage Company

Lovers of new theatre will gather this August for an advance look at tomorrow's hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2019 New Works Festival at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre. This unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development, and hear about the creative process in a "Meet the Artists" panel discussion. With multiple performances of each work, playwrights and composers are able to revise and refine their shows during the festival, allowing audiences to view the exciting evolution of brand new pieces of theatre. The popular festival runs August 9 - 18, 2019 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes ($65 general$49 season subscribers) and single event tickets ($20) can be purchased online at theatreworks.org or by calling (650) 463-1960.

Teri Schwartz, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, announced today that two-time Golden Globe-nominated actor Pierce Brosnan has been named the 2019 commencement keynote speaker. Filmmaker Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust) will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award in Film/Television/Digital Media and actor-activist George Takei (Allegiance) will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award in Theater. Dean Schwartz will preside over the event to be held on Friday, June 14 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Zions Bank in partnership with Spike150, CRWDA and Ogden Musical Theatre presented Gold Mountain, written by 2017 ASCAP Foundation's Cole Porter Award recipient Jason Ma as a series of semi-staged concert performances at the Regent Street Black Box at The Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City and in partnership with Ogden Musical Theatre, at the historic Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden, May 8 - May 11.

Jason Ma and his company of Asian American actors are currently in rehearsal at different venues around Salt Lake City for the upcoming semi-staged concert presentations of his new musical Gold Mountain, which has sold out its Salt Lake City run. Those hoping to catch one of the Spike 150 celebration performances can see this original musical in nearby Ogden.

Classic Stage Company announces their 2019-2020 season. Bookended by two John Doyle-directed productions-William Shakespeare's Macbeth (October-December 2019) and Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins (April-June, 2020)-the lineup also includes two canonical works of gothic horror: Dracula and Frankenstein, presented in repertory, January-March 2020, based on the novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley.

Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) presented the MOCA 2019 Lunar New Year Soiree at the famed Rice & Gold, a unique Asian Eatery in the Hotel 50 Bowery on February 20, 2019.

Utah's Governor Gary R. Herbert held a press conference last week to announce not-to-miss musical headliners, performances that will be a part of the Spike 150 celebration of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, including events starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Megan Hilty and Ali Ewoldt.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) has just announced complete casting for Fiasco Theater's new production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Fiasco's production will be directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Director Noah Brody, is based on and with additional material from the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and will feature Music Direction & Orchestrations by Alexander Gemignani and Choreography by Lorin Latarro.

Porchlight Music Theatre begins its sixth season of Chicago's "lost" musicals in staged concert series with Porchlight Revisits 1776, music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone with direction by Artistic Director Michael Weber, musical direction by Jeremy Ramey and musical staging by Michelle Lauto.

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, today announces the complete cast for Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, will star three Japanese born performers, all of whom are now based in New York: Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) has just announced a new collaboration with Roundabout's Company in Residence: Fiasco Theater. Roundabout will present Fiasco's new production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG featuring a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Merrily We Roll Along is based on and with additional material from the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

The U.S. Premiere of Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room opens this Sunday, May 20, at the Mezzanine Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres. Presented by The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, Time's Journey Through a Room is PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa and director Dan Rothenberg. This haunting play, set in Japan after the Fukushima disaster, stars the Japanese-born, New York based performers Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, today announces the complete cast for Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, will star three Japanese born performers, all of whom are now based in New York: Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

Vietgone by Qui Nguyen is the Vietnamese-American playwright's own creation story-a telling of his parents' 1975 refugee camp romance in a "geek theater" spectacle that's at turns affecting, sage, raucous, and fantastical. A screenwriter for Marvel Studios and founder of Obie Award-winning company Vampire Cowboys, Nguyen's work champions representation and diversity on stage while dripping with pop culture nods, contemporary music, and action-adventure narrative. The production pairs this Studio-commissioned playwright with director and Studio Cabinet member Natsu Onoda Power. Drawing on Vietgone's comic book aesthetics, Studio's Stage 4 is transformed into a garage concert with a live band and original funk-rock-punk-n-roll score, giving audiences a front row seat to this anything-but-typical story of boy meets girl.

Award-winning and critically-acclaimed Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC - Jesse Marchese, Executive Director; Dev Bondarin, Artistic Director) concludes its 17th mainstage season with a production of the legendary musical Follies by James Goldman (Book) and Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics), directed by APAC artistic director, Dev Bondarin (New York Innovative Theatre Awards nominee for Best Director for APAC's 2017 production of Raisin) and choreographed by Sara Brians (Resident Choreographer, Matilda, Broadway). Follies runs from May 3 - 26, 2018 at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St. (at 30th Road), Astoria, NY 11102.