A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - 2004 - West End Articles Page 16

Today, we present the final section of the Sondheim Palooza for this week with a discussion of Sondheim's work in the last two decades. The shows themselves stand as solid proof that this is a composer/lyricist still at the absolute height of his abilities and at the top of his game, as we can very clearly hear in the scores for ASSASSINS, PASSION, THE FROGS and ROAD SHOW...

National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will hold its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit on Monday, April 19 at the St. Regis New York hotel. This year, NCTF Chairman James S. Turley, Chairman & CEO of Ernst & Young, will honor Nathan Lane (returning to Broadway this season in The Addams Family), set designer Eugene Lee (Wicked) and Wells Fargo & Company. Accepting the award on behalf of Wells Fargo will be Joe Kirk, Regional President for New York and Connecticut. All net proceeds of the event will be distributed as the NCTF/WELLS FARGO FUND FOR NEW AMERICAN THEATRE.

On May 6-8, 2010, the National Symphony Orchestra Pops will present NSO Pops: Sondheim at 80, a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of 16-time Tony Award®-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will conclude its 2009-10 season in the company's revolutionary home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, with a Spring Repertory that features Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe's outrageous Off-Broadway Musical of the Year, Bat Boy: The Musical and William Shakespeare's magical masterpiece, A Midsummer Night's Dream. The productions will be performed in rotating repertory April 8 - May 16, 2010. The Spring Repertory features GLTF's resident artistic company of actors performing two alternating plays on the same stage over six weeks. Veteran Festival artist Victoria Bussert will direct Bat Boy: The Musical and GLTF's Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee will direct A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Laughter will fill the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction as Northern Stage's presents the Off-Broadway smash Greater Tuna. This madcap romp features two veteran Northern Stage actors, Scott Cote (Beauty & the Beast, Cabaret, Moon Over Buffalo) and Kevin Loreque (I Am My Own Wife, The Full Monty, CATS, The Elephant Man, Cabaret,) playing 19 characters-men, women, even Yippy the dog-in 90 minutes. With 15-second costume changes and rapid-fire humor, this promises to be an audience favorite.

Rehearsals begin today, Monday, April 5 for the World Premiere production of PARADISE FOUND, a new musical under the combined direction of Theater legend and 21-time Tony Award winner Harold Prince (the original productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, Company, Follies, Evita) and 5-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (Crazy For You, Show Boat, The Producers, Contact). This is their first collaboration since the landmark, Tony Award-winning revival of Show Boat. Following the New York rehearsal period, the production will open at London's acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory with performances running May 19 through June 26.

Signature Theatre, the current recipient of the Tony Award® for Regional Theatre, presents the world premiere musical Sycamore Trees by Ricky Ian Gordon, composer of the acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath and the OBIE Award-winning Orpheus and Euridice, as well as the musicals My Life with Albertine and Dream True.

Act II Playhouse presents the intimate new musical The Story of My Life, on stage April 27-May 23 and written by Neil Bartram (music and lyrics) and Brian Hill (book). Directed by Bud Martin, The Story of My Life stars Tony Braithwaite and Jim Stanek as lifelong best friends.

Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones, currently starring in the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music, have joined the all-star cast performing in Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday celebration April 26 at New York City Center. Like Lansbury and Zeta-Jones, all of the performers have either originated Sondheim characters or performed them in notable revivals.

The New York Philharmonic will present SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert on March 15 and Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. This celebration of the 80th birthday of the great Broadway and film composer/lyricist will include his most enduring orchestral music and songs - performed, in some cases, by the stars of the original Broadway cast productions - in addition to rarely-heard material. Joining the celebration will be (in alphabetical order) Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Jason Danieley, Nathan Gunn, George Hearn, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, and others to be announced, including surprise guests. Paul Gemignani, Mr. Sondheim's longtime collaborator, will conduct the New York Philharmonic; Lonny Price is the director; and Mr. Price and Matt Cowart are the producers.

The New York Philharmonic will present SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert on March 15 and Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.

National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will hold its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit on Monday, April 19 at the St. Regis New York hotel. This year, NCTF Chairman James S. Turley, Chairman & CEO of Ernst & Young, will honor Nathan Lane (returning to Broadway this season in The Addams Family), set designer Eugene Lee (Wicked) and Wells Fargo & Company. Accepting the award on behalf of Wells Fargo will be Joe Kirk, Regional President for New York and Connecticut. All net proceeds of the event will be distributed as the NCTF/WELLS FARGO FUND FOR NEW AMERICAN THEATRE.

Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will conclude its 2009-10 season in the company's revolutionary home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, with a Spring Repertory that features Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe's outrageous Off-Broadway Musical of the Year, Bat Boy: The Musical and William Shakespeare's magical masterpiece, A Midsummer Night's Dream. The productions will be performed in rotating repertory April 8 - May 16, 2010. The Spring Repertory features GLTF's resident artistic company of actors performing two alternating plays on the same stage over six weeks. Veteran Festival artist Victoria Bussert will direct Bat Boy: The Musical and GLTF's Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee will direct A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Producers Cameron Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher are pleased to announce full casting for the Denver engagement of MARY POPPINS. Denver's most eagerly anticipated stage production will begin performances at the Buell Theatre on Thursday, March 4 for a limited engagement of five weeks through April 4. The opening night is Friday, March 5 at 7:30pm.

Tom Aldredge, Len Cariou, Nathan Lane, Alexander Hanson and Michele Pawk have joined other stars who have shone in Stephen Sondheim musicals, including Michael Cerveris, Barbara Cook, Raúl Esparza, Sutton Foster, Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason, Patti LuPone, Donna Murphy and Bernadette Peters in a gala celebration of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim on the occasion of his 80th birthday on Monday, April 26. The gala, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, will highlight numbers from shows for which Mr. Sondheim has written both music and lyrics, and will feature a full orchestra conducted by Encores! Music Director Rob Berman. The benefit will help fund New York City Center's artistic and education programs. In addition, a portion of the evening's proceeds will go to Young Playwrights Inc, a charity of great importance to Mr. Sondheim.

David Hyde Pierce will host the New York Philharmonic's presentation of SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert, Monday, March 15, and Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.

Variety reports this morning that A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC helmer, Trevor Nunn, is set to direct a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ASPECTS OF LOVE for London's Menier Chocolate Factory. Nunn directed the show's premiere in 1987, as well.

Alley Theatre's world premiere of the new musical Wonderland will close on Sunday, February 14.

Producers Cameron Mackintosh and Thomas Schumacher are pleased to announce that Caroline Sheen will reprise the role of 'Mary Poppins' in the North American Tour of MARY POPPINS, after originating the title role in the critically acclaimed UK Tour. Sheen replaces Ashley Brown, who will play her final performance in Los Angeles at The Ahmanson Theatre on Sunday, February 7. Sheen joins the production in Tempe, AZ where performances begin at ASU Gammage Auditorium on Thursday, February 11 for a limited engagement of 3 weeks through Sunday, February 28, 2010. The opening night is Friday, February 12 at 7:30pm.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce Writers' Cabaret-Four Evenings of Song, a series of Monday night performances on the set of Oh Coward!, 664 Vernon Ave. in Glencoe, and the CD release of Bright Young People-The Songs of Noel Coward, featuring Kate Fry, Rob Lindley and John Sanders with Doug Peck (piano).

Alley Theatre presents the world premiere of the new musical Wonderland about Alice, a children's book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a strange-yet-familiar Wonderland for her to regain her life's balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all - if we know how to look. With a book by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy (The Civil War), lyrics by Jack Murphy, music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War), and directed by Gregory Boyd, Wonderland begins previews Friday, January 15, opens officially Wednesday, January 20 and runs through Sunday, February 14.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is thrilled to present Indulgences a New England premiere and farcical comedy by Chris Craddock. Indulgences opens for the press on Monday, January 18, 2010 at 7:30pm and plays through Saturday, February 6, 2010 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

Tickets for RACE, the critically acclaimed new play, written and directed by DAVID MAMET, starring JAMES SPADER, DAVID ALAN GRIER, KERRY WASHINGTON and RICHARD THOMAS, have now been put on sale through JUNE 13th, 2010.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) announces the complete cast of Sondheim on Sondheim. Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine return to Studio 54 with Sondheim on Sondheim, a new original Broadway musical starring Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, Leslie Kritzer, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton, Erin Mackey & Matthew Scott. Music & lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim and the production is conceived & directed by James Lapine.

Alley Theatre presents the world premiere of the new musical Wonderland about Alice, a children's book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a strange-yet-familiar Wonderland for her to regain her life's balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all - if we know how to look. With a book by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy (The Civil War), lyrics by Jack Murphy, music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War), and directed by Gregory Boyd, Wonderland begins previews Friday, January 15, opens officially Wednesday, January 20 and runs through Sunday, February 14.