From Up Here - 2008 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 4

The Key West Film Festival has announced the recipients of its Golden Key Award for Artistic Excellence, honoring comedian and performer Billy Connolly. The festival also celebrates its tenth annual Golden Key Award for Excellence in Costume Design, honoring Academy Award-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott.

“You have to prepare your soul and clear your mind as you’re getting ready to go on. I ask myself, ‘why are you sending this message?’ and ‘what does the message mean to you today?’ every day before I go out on stage.” Mary Mulovhedzi

On Friday October 10 and Saturday October 11, comedy legend Rita Rudner returns to Midtown Manhattan hotspot 54 Below. Read a conversation with her about her upcoming show at 54 Below.

In October of 2025, 54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond, including Joy Woods, Adrienne Warren and more. Learn more!

The Queen of Versailles will release its Original Broadway Cast Recording. The first single “Caviar Dreams,” performed by Tony and Emmy winner Kristin Chenoweth and the cast, is available now.

Target is set to release Wicked: The Official Visual Companion, a tie-in book to the 2024 hit adaptation of the Broadway musical. With more than 300 full-color images, the book features extensive visual content from the first film, including Munchkinland, Shiz, and more.

To mark the release of David Gilmour's live film LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS, ROME, a new full-song preview has been unveiled of the track ‘Between Two Points’, from the 2024 UK number one album ‘Luck and Strange’. Watch it now!

BroadwayWorld talks to Brian Copeland about 'The Waiting Period,' his searingly honest and surprisingly humorous life-saving solo show which will have its 500th performance September 20th at The Marsh Berkeley, coincidingBrian Copeland could easily point to any number of impressive achievements from his multi-faceted career. As a standup comic, he’s opened for icons like Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson. His seminal theater piece Not a Genuine Black Man still reigns as the longest-running solo show in San Francisco theater history. For 5 years, he co-hosted KTVUs Mornings on 2, and for 27 years hosted his own radio program on KGO. Related to the latter, he will be inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame next month, something of which he is particularly proud. But – if you ask him “What is the most worthwhile thing you’ve ever done?” he answers without hesitation, “The Waiting Period,” because it has actually saved people’s lives. I spoke with him recently to learn more about this uniquely impactful solo theater piece, which will mark its 500th performance on September 20th at The Marsh Berkeley. As has become standard practice for The Waiting Period, tickets are free of charge. Based on his personal experience, the piece is an exploration of depression and suicidal ideation, its title referring to the state-mandated 10 ten days that must elapse between purchasing a gun and taking possession of it. For Copeland, those ten days were literally a lifesaver, and so he felt compelled to share his story. Although he’d long struggled with depression, back in 2008 he was faced with an unimaginable chain of events that was more than he could handle. Within a short time, the grandmother who’d raised him died of a stroke, his wife announced out of the blue that she wanted a divorce, and he got into a horrific accident that totaled his car and necessitated spinal cord surgery, putting on his couch in a neck brace for three months, popping Vicodin. Thoughts of suicide became inescapable so he purchased a TomCat, planning to use it to end his life. Against all odds, he managed to “white-knuckle it” through the waiting period while the most acute aspects of his depression lifted just enough to stop him from killing himself. But, as Copeland says, “The thing about depression is it’s never cured – it’s better, it’s worse, it’s manageable, there are times when it’s absent - but it’s always a hair trigger away from something, from some catastrophe or some chemical imbalance.” Once the fog had lifted at least temporarily, he seriously started rethinking his experience as someone who believes in finding reasons for things. During that period, a young man within Copeland’s circle committed suicide at the age of fifteen and Robin Williams killed himself as well, although the complicating factor of Lewy Body Dementia had not been made public at that time. Copeland took those incidents like a blow to the solar plexus and began to explore what he could personally do to help prevent such tragedies. He was encouraged to bring his own struggles to light by his publicist, who happened to have represented film icon Rock Hudson in 1985 when the actor announced to the world that he had AIDS, thereby removing some of the stigma from that disease. The publicist suggested to Copeland that by going public with his story maybe he could do the same thing for depression and suicidal ideation. Copeland had received his mission. Collaborating with the Bay Area’s guru of solo performance, David Ford, Copeland set out to “create a show about depression that wasn’t depressing,” making sure to include enough reality-based humor to draw audiences in and counterbalance the heaviness of the topic. As he puts it, “the comedy makes the drama much more impactful, and the drama makes the comedy funnier because it’s a release.” The Waiting Period opened at The Marsh in 2012 and became an instant sensation, winning awards and getting extended multiple times. After a year or so, Copeland realized he couldn’t keep performing the show on a regular basis because it required him relive some very dark and harrowing episodes. But he felt he could continue to do the show on an occasional basis, maybe twice a month or so, without seriously endangering his own mental health. He also talked to Stephanie Weisman, artistic director of The Marsh, about making the show free of charge to audiences so that cost wouldn’t be a barrier to attending. Weisman readily agreed to having a GoFundMe campaign was set up to cover basic production costs like theater staffing. Copeland and his publicist then placed calls to various industry contacts and were stunned by the outpouring of support from celebrities like Glenn Close, Ed Asner and Lucie Arnaz, whose lives had been personally touched by depression and suicide. Fast forward to 2025, and Copeland is now embarking on the 500th performance of The Waiting Period on September 20th, timed to coincide with Suicide Prevention Month. Copeland remains committed to continuing to do the show because he knows the profound impact it’s had on the lives of so many people, from the letters he’s received and follow-up conversations he’s had. Just one example: a woman planned to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge one Sunday morning and stopped off at her favorite café enroute to savor one last coffee and pastry before ending her life. She noticed the San Francisco Chronicle “pink” section lying on her table and thumbed through it while finishing her coffee. It happened to contain a brief article about The Waiting Period that noted a performance would be happening that very afternoon. She was intrigued enough to alter her plan - slightly. She decided to flip a coin and if it came up heads, she would proceed straight to the bridge; if it came up tails, she would go see Copeland’s show first. It came up tails, and so she went to see The Waiting Period, the core message of which is “If you’re thinking of doing some kind of harm to yourself, tell someone first.” When the play was over, she remained in her seat crying for another twenty minutes, then called her sister to tell her what she was thinking of doing, and her sister got her help. Or there’s the story of a woman who struggled with depression and her husband always wondered why she couldn’t just lighten up and smell the roses. She basically dragged him to The Waiting Period, and afterwards he said to her, “That’s what you’ve been going through? I had no idea.” And that’s the thing with depression: it is so misunderstood. It’s not something that can be cured by thinking happy thoughts. As Copeland says, “You know, we’re dealing with a disease, and yet people are ashamed of it. There’s such shame and stigma attached to it, and I want people to know they have nothing to be ashamed of, any more than if you had Lou Gehrig’s Disease or muscular dystrophy or cancer. You wouldn’t be ashamed of those afflictions. And the world, society, would be a lot more sympathetic.” As a comedian and talk show host, i.e. someone who earns his living projecting amiability and cheerfulness, Copeland makes a perfect communicator for that message. If someone as seemingly light-hearted as him can suffer from depression, then it can truly happen to anyone. When he started debuted The Waiting Period in 2012, some people were quite surprised to learn that he’d ever wanted to kill himself. And yet, what sticks with him most over the years is the number of people who’ve approached him after a performance and whispered in his ear that they, too, are “one of us,” as Copeland refers to those who experience acute depression. Some of them are people Copeland knows well and are in the public eye, people he says you would never guess struggled with the disease. Toward the conclusion of our conversation, Copeland tells me, “If there’s nothing else at all worthwhile I’ve done while I was here, at least there are a couple of people walking around who might not be here.” I tell him that’s a statement most of us can’t make, myself included, and he responds, “You don’t know that. That’s the thing. I’m fortunate enough that I’m in a position where people are able to reach out and tell me. But you don’t know who you told to have a nice day to, who were planning on doing something and ended up not because of your kindness, you know, in tipping the barista and saying they did a good job one day when they thought they were worthless and were going to do something right after they got off work. There are stories like that, and those stories are real.” (Header photo of Brian Copeland by Joan Marcus) --- The Waiting Period will play its 500th performance 5:00pm, Saturday, September 20 at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. Additional dates are soon to be announced. Thanks to the support of generous donors, general admission tickets are FREE. Supporters may donate $50/$100 for reserved seats, funds which make it possible for others to see the show at no cost. To order free tickets or reserve seats, please visit themarsh.org. with National Suicide Prevention Month.

The Conspirators will present Duck Soup by Harry Ruby and Burt Kalmar, adapted from the Marx Brothers' movie for the stage by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, at the NEW Stars & Garters venue.

Sherie Rene Scott, who is the standby for the role of 'Jackie' in The Queen of Versailles on Broadway, has announced upcoming dates in which she will step into the role. 

The BBC Proms marks a milestone this summer as conductor, arranger and orchestrator Jules Buckley returns to the Royal Albert Hall for his 25th Prom.

Ahead of the Broadway premiere of The Queen of Versailles this fall, New York's Angelika Film Center will host special screenings of the 2012 documentary on which the musical is based, with the filmmaker and members of the musical team in attendance at select shows.

A new full-song preview from the forthcoming David Gilmour live film LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS, ROME has been unveiled, highlighting the title track from the 2024 UK number one album ‘Luck and Strange’. Watch it now.

Kristin Chenoweth recently made an appearance outside the St. James Theatre to announce the complete cast for the Broadway premiere of The Queen of Versailles. Check out the video here!

Did you know that the Richard Rodgers Theatre, current home of Hamilton, has housed more Best Musical Tony Award winners than any other Broadway house? Since the Tony Awards began in 1947 and began issuing a Best Musical Award in 1949, nine Best Musicals have played the Richard Rodgers Theatre, which used to be named the 46th Street Theatre.

At its heart, Sister Act: The Musical is a celebration of sisterhood and the unexpected bonds formed in the most unlikely places. While Deloris Van Cartier begins her journey chasing fame, her time with the nuns reveals a deeper calling: not spiritual in the traditional sense, but rooted in connection, community, and self-worth.

Here we go again! The beloved jukebox musical classic turned global film phenomenon MAMMA MIA! has returned home to Broadway is now playing at the Winter Garden Theatre. Read the reviews!

This fall, superstar Jessica Simpson is set to play an exclusive, one-night-only concert at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.

Rachel Potter (“The X Factor,” Evita) will sing selections from her new album at this live concert. The 8/11 concert will also feature guest singers from the album including Ali Stroker (Oklahoma!), Christine Dwyer (Wicked), and more.

Superman has his cape. The Lone Ranger has his mask. And John van der Put has a spikey green felt dragon costume. Yet once he slides into his outfit, he transforms from van der Put to Piff the Magic Dragon. The Las Vegas headliner will bring his magic show to town Sept. 10 at the Southern Theatre (21 E. Main Street in downtown Columbus).

The trailer has been released for LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS, ROME, the forthcoming live film from musician David Gilmour. The movie will be shown in cinemas & IMAX worldwide on 17th September for a limited time only. Watch the trailer here.

The forthcoming David Gilmour live film, LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS, ROME, will be shown in cinemas & IMAX worldwide on 17th September for a limited time only.

The Tank has revealed the casts for a limited four performance run of Stan Zimmerman's suicide awareness play, Right before I go. Learn more and see how to purchase tickets.

The best part of this production is the way in which every actor appears fully engaged every moment they are on stage, and they all look like they’re having the time of their lives.

The award-winning Grid Iron Theatre Company has announced details for a remount of its hugely successful outdoor, site-specific production of Doppler, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Norwegian author Erlend Loe.