As You Like It - 1950 - Broadway Articles Page 17

Today, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre announced a brand new season of shows, taking audiences into the autumn of 2020 with a variety of hit musicals, classic dramas, one night concerts, opera, dance and comedy.

Watching Richard O'Brien's a?oeThe Rocky Horror Showa?? at San Jose Stage Company, I was struck by what an odd duck the show is. There really is nothing else even remotely like it in the musical theater canon. At this point in its stage-to-screen-back-to-stage evolution, it invites you not just to experience the live stage play unfolding in front of you, but also encourages you to re-enact own your own experience of having seen the movie, probably decades ago. To aid in the latter, goody bags including all the necessary accoutrements such as newspaper, squirt guns, toilet paper, etc. are available in the lobby at 5 bucks a pop. Audience members gleefully shout out all the expected callbacks from midnight screenings of yore (a?oeAsshole!a??, a?oeSlut!a??) while engaging in a playful competition to come up with the most clever and unexpected contemporary retorts. Surely audiences in the late 1970's did not reference such things as Mar-a-Lago. So here we have a show set more or less in the 1950's, written in the 1970's, and with references to 2019. Talk about your time warp!  

Written by Dann Berg and Avital Asuleen (Director/Choreographer), THE FLOORSHOW intersperses song-and-dance numbers into the dramatization of the personal and professional hurdles that an all-female performance troupe faces in 1951 New York City. Moving between onstage and backstage at The Gilded Palace, THE FLOORSHOW nests an emotionally rich female-sisterhood narrative within a framework of creative competition and sexism.

The Rochester Broadway Theatre League opens its 2019-2020 season with a glitzy, glamorous, and soulful look at the queen of the disco era, Donna Summer. 'Summer: The Donna Summer Musical', which began its national tour in Rochester this week, isn't just for children of the 1970's, but for anyone who wants a more intimate look into the life and career of one of the music industry's most iconic figures.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature ALMOST FAMOUS, Rob McClure As MRS. DOUBTFIRE, and more!

In the annals of musical theater, Norma Desmond is one of those larger than life characters, like Mame Dennis, Dolly Levi, and Eva Peron, who cries out for an actor with a specific and rare combination of skills to play the role. Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley ascends to playing the faded silent-screen star in the North Shore Music Theatre production of SUNSET BOULEVARD, after originating the role of Betty Schaefer in the 1994 original Broadway cast which starred Glenn Close. In so doing, Ripley joins the pantheon of singular talents who have put their personal stamp on the musical iteration of Norma, stepping out of the shadow of the indelible mark Gloria Swanson made on celluloid in Billy Wilder's 1950 film.

You asked, and we've answered! We asked BroadwayWorld readers to give us their most burning questions about theatre's inner workings, and we received a question asking about the Legacy Robe. We've put together a guide to let you know all about the history behind the ritual of the robe and to give you a glimpse inside what the ceremony is like. Check it all out!

The London Theatre Company by special arrangement with Elliott & Harper Productions and Catherine Schreiber, presents the much-celebrated Leeds Playhouse production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over the 2019/20 festive season at the Bridge.

The 32nd Annual Virginia Film Festival will feature a deep and diverse program of more than 150 films, including some of the hottest titles on the festival circuit today, and an array of special guests from throughout the industry, and from across the globe. This year's lineup includes award-winning actor, writer, and director Ethan Hawke, noted actor Ann Dowd, international bestselling author John Grisham, actor Dennis Christopher, acclaimed filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu - plus more than 100 filmmakers in all.

The STRAY CATS--Brian Setzer (guitar, vocals), Lee Rocker (bass, vocals) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums, vocals)--came back strong this year with red-hot shows and the critically acclaimed 40. It's their first new album in 26 years and one celebrating the iconic American rock and roll trio's 40th anniversary. Issued by Surfdog Records and distributed by BMG (CD, vinyl, digital), the album spun off four singles: 'Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me),' 'Rock It Off,' 'Cry Danger' and the latest, 'Desperado,' described by the Washington Post as an 'instrumental that could have been plucked from one of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns' (5/21/19).

Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel's soaring romantic and tragic musical a?oeLight in the Piazzaa?? is not often tackled a?? thank the theater Gods. I'm not saying it's bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just that I'd hate to see every small company, without the resources to handle it well, take it on. Fortunately, they've built in a few traps that may dissuade. First off, it's not your typical, rollicking musical with songs you'll be singing after. Second, there's all that Italian that your cast needs to learn and deliver authentically. And finally, it's some tough music. It needs to be done by insanely talented professionals who can handle these beautiful melodies that fly up into the rafters (often in Italian) as well as the heartfelt story. Enter Showtunes Theatre as they begin their 20th season, who routinely gather together the cream of the crop of Seattle artists for just a few weekends, books in hand, and you'll find yourself gifted with the mind-blowingly gorgeous evening that is their current production of a?oeLight in the Piazzaa??.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) today announced the second year of The Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists, a juried cash and production grant to be given annually to support the early work and career of a deserving musical theatre librettist. The Award commemorates the life and work of playwright/librettist Eric H. Weinberger (1950-2017), who was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical (Wanda's World, and the playwright/librettist of Class Mothers '68, that earned Pricilla Lopez a Drama Desk Award nomination.

James Gelmi, the Bar Director for Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen in downtown Morristown, NJ is being featured as Broadwayworld's 'Master Mixoligist.'

On December 4, 1956, four recording legends dropped by Sam Phillips' famously small Sun Records Studios for various reasons, completely unplanned and coincidental. Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash had both been under contract for some time to Phillips, though Cash's contract would be up soon and he wouldn't be renewing. Jerry Lee Lewis had just signed, and Elvis Presley had long since been sold to RCA. Never one to let an opportunity pass him by, Phillips got the four stars to record an impromptu jam session, and a musical legend was born.

Elvis may have left the building but that doesn't mean his spirit doesn't live on.  Nowhere is that more apparent than in the 1950's fun musical ALL SHOOK UP by San Diego Musical Theatre now playing through September 1st.

Dot Time Records is proud to announce the September 27th release of Armstrong in Europe. Part of Dot Time's Legacy Series, and the fourth Armstrong release, Armstrong in Europe features the audio from two recordings of quintessential European performances by the great Louis Armstrong which were recovered from the archives of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.  Tracks 1-9 on the CD release of Armstrong in Europe feature the audio from a 1948 performance recorded from Louis Armstrong and His All Stars' run at the Nice Opera House in Paris.  This historical concert marked Armstrong's performance at the first ever Nice International Jazz Festival.  Tracks 10-16 feature the audio from a Titania Palast, Berlin recording of Louis and his All Stars which was initially broadcasted on RIAS (Radio in the American Sector).  Accompanying this CD and digital release will be a stunning vinyl package of Armstrong in Germany released on the same date.  The Nice Opera House performance features a 46 year old Louis Armstrong in his musical prime, with Jack Teagarden on trombone and vocals, Barney Bigardon clarinet, Earl “Fatha” Hines on piano, Arvell Shaw on bass, and Sid Catlett on drums.  Armstrong's band in 1952, features Trummy Young on trombone, Bob McCracken on clarinet and vocals, Marty Napoleon on piano, Arvell Shaw on bass, Cozy Cole on drums and Velma Middleton on vocals.  Both European performances demonstrate Armstrong's stunning musicality, expert showmanship and ferocious leadership.

Shakespeare & Company presents MacArthur a?oeGeniusa?? Award recipient Suzan-Lori Parks' pulitzer prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog directed by the distinguished Regge Life, who helmed the Company's acclaimed razor sharp comedy God of Carnage in 2017.

The classics are my favorite, and Broadway at Music Circus' fresh take on Guys and Dolls is no exception. When it opened on Broadway in 1950, it won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. With three more Broadway revivals, it has cemented itself as a staple of American musicals. It is based on the short stories of Damon Runyon, an American author and reporter who favored tales about the seedier happenings of Broadway.

OVID.tv, the leading streaming service for documentary and art-house films, announced its line-up of 24 films joining its growing library of films in August 2019, most of which are not available on any other platform.

FX has set the extraordinary ensemble cast that will star with Chris Rock in the fourth installment of the Golden Globe(R) and Emmy(R) Award winning limited series Fargo, it was announced today by Gina Balian and Nick Grad, Presidents, Original Programming, FX Entertainment.

The impetus behind ROCK AND ROLL MAN: THE ALAN FREED STORY was not the Freed family. Gary Kupper was approached by Larry Marshak, with whom he had worked for many years, about a third party's desire to do a story about Alan Freed as a 'jukebox musical'. The intention was that Kupper might be able to write a couple of songs for the piece. Kupper realized that Freed's story is a classic one. A rise and fall and then redemption story that can't be told as a jukebox musical because Alan Freed wasn't a singer. He feels that a jukebox musical would have cheated the story. This is the story of this man, and the story of Rock-and-Roll. That notion gave birth to the 'book musical'. In 2011, Kupper started writing original songs and sometime later, the team started writing the script. Freed's son, Lance, stepped-in and helped to secure the rights to the Rock-and-Roll classics. They have combined the music of the era with storytelling. They admit it's both risky and tricky and has never really been done to the extent that it is in this show. Thirty to thirty-five original songs were written, most of which were thrown out. A little more than a dozen are in the current iteration of the show.

For his starring role in Netflix's groundbreaking first original series, 'Lilyhammer,' actormusician Steven Van Zandt explored uncharted waters as a New York mobster who flees to Norway under the witness protection program. In addition to acting in, co-writing and co-producing the acclaimed show as well as directing the final episode, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer also scored the music for most of the three seasons, where just like his character, the musician best known as Little Steven of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and an accomplished solo artist who helped pioneer the rock-meets-soul sound, also delved into some terrain foreign to him: the worlds of New York jazz and Norwegian folk music.