Ear for Eye - 2018 - West End Articles Page 4

Jukebox musicals have been quite a trend lately. Owing its origin to Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, which successfully ran on West End from 1989 to 2003, the genre's popularity has been boosted by many others that followed suit, such as Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, featuring the music and life of Carole King. Just recently, Manila had seen the staging of a tribute to one of the country's more enduring musical groups, The Apo Hiking Society, with the successful Eto na! Musikal nAPO! This mid-October, yet another jukebox musical, built around the iconic songs of major karaoke staples provider, Air Supply, beckons.

Adam Bock's A Life, commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory, will receive its West Coast debut at The Armory following the success of the play's world premiere in New York. A Life begins preview performances on September 29, opens on October 5, and runs through November 11 in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan, who has frequently partnered with Bock, will direct. Nat DeWolf (Broadway: Take Me Out) will make his company debut as the astrology-loving and hopelessly single Nate Martin. DeWolf is joined by Cycerli Ash, also making her debut at The Armory, as well as returning artists Dana Green (Major Barbara and many others) and Gary Norman (Our Town).

Adam Bock's A Life, commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory, will receive its West Coast debut at The Armory following the success of the play's world premiere in New York. A Life begins preview performances on September 29, opens on October 5, and runs through November 11 in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan, who has frequently partnered with Bock, will direct. Nat DeWolf (Broadway: Take Me Out) will make his company debut as the astrology-loving and hopelessly single Nate Martin. DeWolf is joined by Cycerli Ash, also making her debut at The Armory, as well as returning artists Dana Green (Major Barbara and many others) and Gary Norman (Our Town).

The Nap celebrates its opening night tonight at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street)!

Tony Award-winner Sarah Jones will be encoring her one-womanmulti-character show SELLBUYDATE in Los Angeles, this time at the LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre, with previews beginning September 27, 2018. Having seen Sarah's show earlier this year at the Geffen, I jumped at the chance to dive into the back stories of Sarah and her multiple personalities she shares the stage with.

Adam Bock's A Life, commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory, will receive its West Coast debut at The Armory following the success of the play's world premiere in New York. A Life begins preview performances on September 29, opens on October 5, and runs through November 11 in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan, who has frequently partnered with Bock, will direct. Nat DeWolf (Broadway: Take Me Out) will make his company debut as the astrology-loving and hopelessly single Nate Martin. DeWolf is joined by Cycerli Ash, also making her debut at The Armory, as well as returning artists Dana Green (Major Barbara and many others) and Gary Norman (Our Town).

Jamal Ajala, Tosin Cole, Seroca Davis, George Eggay, Demetri Goritsas, Michelle Greenidge, Eric Kofi Abrefa, Lashana Lynch, Hayden McLean, Kayla Meikle, Shaniqua Okwok, Nicholas Pinnock, Sarah Quist, Anita Reynolds, Faz Singhateh and Angela Wynter have been cast in the world premiere of ear for eye, written and directed by debbie tucker green.

For the past ten editions, the biennial BomPlenazo Festival (Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture; October 4-7, 2018) has celebrated the Puerto Rican culture of its Bronx home and created an internationally recognized space for Puerto Rico's vital Afro-Latin traditions, bomba and plena. This year, BomPlenazo features all Puerto Rico-based ensembles to support artists and their communities recovering from Hurricane Maria. Audiences will get to hear traditional and the innovative sounds from all of Puerto Rico's diverse regional styles.

PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL, with original music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and his longtime songwriting partner Jim Vallance, a book by Garry Marshall and the film's screenwriter J.F. Lawton, and direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell, opens tonight, Thursday, August 16, 2018, at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre.

The Detroit Repertory Theatre, in partnership with neighbors Dream of Detroit, the HUDA Clinic, Muslim Center, and HUG Community Garden, is excited to announce the 2nd Annual Arts & Culture Festival and Street Fair at its home in the geographical center of Detroit on Saturday, August 25, 2018 from 10 am to 8 pm. This free, all day, outdoor event is made possible by a grant from ART Ops, and Community HeART of Highland Park and is a celebration of the arts, neighborhood revitalization, healthy living, community, and the power of diversity acting in unity in Detroit.

Plays through the 18th of August, 2018

For the past several summers, I have attended the Festival of Arts and The Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. But this year, I also decided to also visit two other art festivals along Laguna Canyon Road rather than spend any time cruising the town as I had done before. The full-day of exploring all the artistic delights on display this year at all three locations left me dazzled by all the talent on display, while wishing I had lot of extra income to purchase and bring home many of the awe-inspiring items that caught my fancy. But the real highlight of the day was viewing the abundance of 'local color' on display in this summer's 'Under the Sun' themed Pageant of the Masters.

A demanding, but rewarding, production of Britten's opera about ancient Rome, with plenty of lessons for today.

The Grand, in Ellsworth is holding a week long celebration for its 80th birthday!

Equality needs you! This weekend, the 2018 NYC Pride festivities kick off, featuring a roster of iconic LGBT events including the March, Rally, PrideFest, Teaze, and Youth Pride, along with a variety of other events for LGBT and allied people of all ages.

If the rousing and prolonged applause and immediate standing ovation is any indication, this show is going to wow local audiences all throughout the summer.

From first-time playwright and theatre director Tim Phillips, The Joy of Sax follows the journey of amateur saxophonist Luke, whose playing causes euphoric, toe curling, sweat inducing, spine arching, eye-rolling reactions in anyone within earshot. As a result of his "gift", Luke's life and very identity are soon exploited by a shameless agent, an obsessive landlord, and a diverse collection of insatiable fans. He stumbles through this new world of fame and fandom while simply trying his best to blow his own horn.

Kevin Gordon's Louisiana is a strange place. In his songs, it's a place where restless teens road trip to where the highway dead-ends at the Gulf of Mexico; a place where prisoners who are in for life compete in a rodeo in front of spectators; where a man can get lost in the humid afternoon and where religion may not signify hope; where the KKK greets a high school marching band and its African-American teacher along a parade route; where a post-ZZ Top show hang out outside a McDonald's reveals a hidden gun; where a Pontiac GTO gets stolen, ends up in a lake, and punishment takes precedence over remuneration; where half-Comanche folksinger Brownie Ford can escape death and proffer advice on staying real and free; where Jimmy Reed is the true king of rock & roll; and where rivers, never far away, carry secrets behind levees.

For three years, I have obsessed over the Original Broadway Cast Album of Lin-Manuel Miranda's ingeniously constructed, powerfully-rendered musical masterpiece HAMILTON, mostly because it just wasn't possible for me to see the show at its home at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York. Fast forward to Fall of 2017 and the show finally makes its long stop in Los Angeles. I snagged a ticket and it was transcendent. Fast forward again to now May 2018, and the show's second national tour has finally arrived in my back yard at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa for a three-week run through May 27. This production not only successfully reignited my love for this show, but it has also promptly solidified it as, in my humble opinion, one of the best musicals of all time. Apart from being one of the most undeniably creative stage shows ever produced for the American theater, HAMILTON is also one of the most deeply moving and shrewdly intelligent stage musicals I have ever experienced---made even better thanks to an insanely talented ensemble cast that raps, sings, and acts their way into this gripping, very American story. All that hype? Completely justified.

Regina Marie Williams plays 'another maid' in this thought-provoking adaptation of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. But Williams has a lot more to say, much like her Tillie, in this 6 Questions & a Plug.

Space 55 Theatre Ensemble, the innovative voice for performing arts in downtown Phoenix, announces the appointment of producer, director and actor John Perovich to the position of Artistic Director.

The epic musical love story Chess starring Michael Ball as Anatoly, Alexandra Burke as Svetlana, Cedric Neal as The Arbiter, Tim Howar as Freddie, Cassidy Janson as Florence and Phillip Browne as officially opened last night, 1 May 2018, for a strictly limited 5 week season.

Trinity Repertory Company (TRC) punctuates the conclusion of its 2017-18 performance calendar with a definite exclamation mark. RAGTIME, now playing at TRC's upstairs Chace Theatre, is a season's best production both for the company and for the arts community statewide.