A Class Act - 2000 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 20

A delight in watching celebrities behave badly drives most of the audience's interest in the new musical REMEMBER RUDY, directed by Carla Parker and running at the Ochre House Theater through May 11.

Risk is something that is important for theatre. If theatres never took risks, they never would be able to grow, or know what their audience is comfortable seeing. Ankeny Community Theatre is taking risks with their Studio series. For the final show of their 2018-2019 studio series, the presented 'Proof' by David Auburn. This show closed on 04/28/19 after a planned 1-week run.

While the 'Avengers, Endgame' movie is breaking records and bedazzling audiences with superhuman fireworks at the local movie theaters, another impressive pyrotechnic feat is taking place. White Plains Performing Arts Center is currently presenting 'The Bodyguard, the Musical' in a limited engagement. With the Whitney Houston catalog at its disposal, this show blows the roof off the theatre with vocal special effects rivaling the power of any Marvel hero.

The energetic Theatre Prometheus has skillfully mounted a timely production of 14, a play by Jose Casas in the 30-seat Caos on F Street space. Inspired by the deaths of 14 Mexican migrants in the desert bordering the USA and Mexico back in May 2001, Casas' play takes an unsparing look at the situation that has, of course, become worse 18 years later. He does it not by writing the stories of those who died (though he honors them by name); rather his characters live near the border, some in Mexico, others in Arizona, Texas, and California. Their stories combine to illuminate many facets of America's current argument/conversation about who gets to come into this country. The stalwart cast of four play 16 very recognizable people, each with opinions about and connections to that border. By concentrating on ordinary lives, Casas avoids politics and spotlights human behavior. Spending time with these 16 people is more informative than a long article in The Washington Post, as entertaining as reality TV, and frequently moving.

Derek Hough is coming back to Detroit! After the sold out successes of Move Live on Tour and Move - Beyond Live on Tour, he is returning with his own solo show, Derek Hough - Live! On Tour this Tuesday, April 30th at the Fox Theatre. It is a brand-new stage production featuring a live band with high-end choreography, and, as always, Derek's magnetic stage presence. It is a true fusion of dance and music as he explores styles ranging from ballroom and tap to salsa and hip-hop and everything between. Creative team and two-time Emmy winners, Napoleon and Tabitha Dumo, also known as NappyTabs, co-created, directed, and supervised choreography for the tour. Derek is an Emmy Award-winning and New York Times Best-Selling author, as well as the only six-time champion winner in franchise history on the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars. This solo show has already been out on tour for a few weeks and pleasing fans across the country. BroadwayWorld Detroit had a chance to speak with Derek before one of his shows to find out what makes his Derek Hough - Live! on Tour show so unique and why Detroit fans are going to have a night to remember. Check out what he had to say below!

Magic Theatre announced today that the company's 2019 Gala Fundraiser, Magic Masquerade: Warhol's Factory, will be held at Gallery 308

GRAMMY®-winning rock band SWITCHFOOT is gearing up for an exhilarating summer as direct support for legendary rock band Bon Jovi's This House Is Not For Sale 2019 European tour. The multi-platinum selling alternative rockers will also host their 15th annual SWITCHFOOT BRO-AM Beach Fest on June 29. For more information and tickets, please visit www.switchfoot.com.

BWW Review: THE GENTLEMAN CALLER at New Conservatory Theatre Center is a poignant, intimate meeting between two literary giants- Tennessee Williams and William Inge.

Class is in session at the School of Rock and they're teaching Jacksonville all about rock-n-roll! The musical featuring music from Tony Award winner Andrew Lloyd Webber, is based on the 2003 movie School of Rock. The musical follows a man, Dewey Finn (Merritt David Janes), as he impersonates his best friend Ned Schneebly as a substitute teacher at Horace Green. When Dewey realizes he is in way over his head, he hears his students playing classical music. He decides he will teach them about rock-n-roll, and they will compete in 'The Battle of the Bands.' The musical displays amazing music, a great story, and life lessons for everyone to take away.

Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and San Francisco Ballet today announced programming for the 2020 Repertory Season. Building on a heritage of commissioning groundbreaking dance from today's top choreographers, uncovering new choreographic talent, staging modern classics, and preserving the works that make up the canon of classic ballet, the 2020 Season places SF Ballet at the forefront of innovation and preeminence. Highlights include two new SF Ballet commissions by Cathy Marston and Trey McIntyre, and a co-commission with American Ballet Theatre of a work by Alexei Ratmansky; as well as works by George Balanchine, David Dawson, Harald Lander, Edwaard Liang, Benjamin Millepied, Mark Morris, Liam Scarlett, Helgi Tomasson, and Stanton Welch. The Season's three story ballets include Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Wheeldon's Cinderella, and Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet.

All My Sons, playing through June 1st at The Purple Rose Theatre Company, is a dramatic and intense adaptation of the Tony-Award winning play. The play follows the story of Joe Keller, a working man who desperately wants to secure the business he spent so many years constructing. He is ready to hand it down to his son, Chris. Joe's wife Kate is still waiting for their eldest son Larry to return from war, determined that he is alive and will marry the former neighbor girl from next door, Ann, who happens to be the daughter of Joe's former business partner. To complicate this family drama, Chris and Ann are in love and want to get married. All My Sons shows a post-war American family in a spiral of lies, greed, love, and loss.

BroadwayWorld has learned that The Muny announced today 25 principal cast members for the first season of its second century. Complete company casting will be announced throughout April and May. The 101st season opens on a brand new, state-of-the-art stage with Muny favorite Guys and Dolls followed by the U.S. regional premiere of Kinky Boots. The season continues with 1776, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, Footloose and a newly-reimagined Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon. Season 101 closes with the highly-anticipated Muny debut of Roald Dahl's Matilda.

Come to Omaha Community Playhouse's ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS prepared to die. Because you may die laughing at this all out wacky play by British playwright Richard Bean.

The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival is pleased to announce that Kathleen Turner, a living legend of the stage and screen, will be the guest of honor at this year's Performance Gala, the festival's annual fundraising dinner.

The Cabaret Theatre at Rutgers University finishes its 2018-19 season with their final musical production, The Wild Party.

I recently rang her up to catch up on life and stuff and then thought to ask if we might schedule some time together to talk about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Donna had first hand experience with both brilliant talents and at two very different times in her career. We also chatted about the upcoming FX Series, which would have friends and colleagues both onscreen and behind the scenes. F

Sometimes ballet can be tricky. It's an art form that, when misunderstood, can come off as stuffy and out-of-date. Neither of those labels are an accurate description of the program New York City Ballet is showcasing at the Kennedy Center. With a skillful blend of contemporary and classic techniques, there's something for everyone in this thrilling presentation.

Ayckbourn's plays have proven to have worldwide appeal, and naturally New Jersey is no exception. Although sandwiched between busy theatrical hubs New York City and Philadelphia, the New Jersey has substantially contributed to Ayckbourn's popularity with numerous productions throughout the Garden State.

'Native Son' is a heavy drama with an important story to tell. But what makes this production really shine is Psalmayene 24's guiding emphasis on "radicalizing empathy." In Mosaic Theater Company's production, the audience isn't asked to excuse Bigger, but to try to understand him. That understanding, that empathy, it's suggested, can go a long way in ensuring that the circumstances surrounding Bigger's story can maybe be kept in the past.

From Founding Artistic Director, Ari Roth: 'The eight amazing plays in Mosaic's 5th Anniversary Season offer up Stages of Awakening-urgent, exhilarating and humble-that hurtle our characters, and by extension, us, forward to new levels of awareness, puncturing bubbles of pretension along the way. To be 'woke' is to be no longer in the dark about what's happening around us; about the systems of oppression and persistence of racism that permeate daily life. But it can be tricky terrain, these states of 'wokeness,' leading to pats-on-the-back of self- congratulations and new forms of denial. Our extraordinary playwrights are hip to our follies and foibles, just as they're poised to wake us up to the realities of our moment and the relevance of history still knocking on our door.

Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning SWEAT, now in its Chicago premiere at Goodman Theatre under the direction of Ron OJ Parson, focuses on a group of blue-collar factory workers in Reading, Pennsylvania. Bound together by the toils of working-class life in the town's steel-tubing factory, these friends and family members gather at a local bar to let off steam and celebrate special occasions. And though the work at the factory may not be fulfilling, Nottage makes clear this work is vital for the characters' livelihoods. For many of them, a life of working at the factory dates back generations. As the play toggles between 2000 and 2008, Nottage also reflects how her characters' lives intersect with current events and questions of race, class, and success in America.

From the lobby of its home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company announced its 45th Anniversary Season last night. Producing Artistic Director Paige Price and Managing Director Emily Zeck announced PTC's slate for 2019-2020, their second producing season at the helm of the theatre. The duo has assembled a line-up of plays that continue the theatre's commitment to seek stories that center around women.

This April, The Marsh San Francisco brings Paul Sussman's The Wrong Kind of Pessimism to The Marsh Discovery Series, a showcase for works under development. Humans have traded up their caves, tripled their life spans, written Ulysses, and gone to the moon. And along the way, melted the ice caps, oppressed the crap out of each other, and elected you-know-who. Are humans getting anywhere? From the first gentrification (sorry, Neanderthals) to the secrets of the genome, Sussman takes on (and smacks down) the big questions of progress, faith, and where it all ends in The Wrong Kind of Pessimism. Directed by Kenny Yun, The Wrong Kind of Pessimism will be presented April 27 -May 18, 2019 with performances at 5:00pm Saturdays at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($25-$35 sliding scale Thursdays and Fridays; $30-$35 sliding scale Saturdays; $55 and $100 reserved) or more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh Box office at 415-282-3055 (open Monday through Friday, 1pm-4pm).