Hard Times - 2000 - West End Articles Page 14

THE BROTHERS SIZE, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu and produced by Soulpepper, is a look into the lives of two brothers following the youngest's return home from prison. Tarell Alvin McCraney's 2000 work is an emotional examination of brotherhood and redemption in the deep south.

The Atlanta Opera broke new records this season. Even before its final presentation Francesca Zambello's new take on La traviata, which closed this past weekend 2018-19 was already guaranteed to be the company's highest-grossing season of the past decade, highlighted by last fall's West Side Story, the highest-selling production in the Atlanta Opera's 39-year history (Opera News).

I can remember so well senior year of college when my friend Claudio came back from a trip to New York all abuzz over little drag rock show he'd seen Off-Broadway called Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I was grilling him for details on Audra and Marin in Ragtime and whether there was anything we could steal from Sam Mendes for our off-campus production of Cabaret, but Claudio only wanted to talk about Hedwig. The clincher for me was when he mentioned the star--and author--was John Cameron Mitchell. I was obsessed with John on the original cast albums of The Secret Garden and Hello Again. 'Okay, okay,' I agreed. I would see this Hedwig when I moved to New York four months later.

The 29th annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival (Inside Out), championing innovative LGBTQ filmmakers from across the globe, revealed its full feature and short film lineup. The announcement was made today by Inside Out's Executive Director Andria Wilson and the festival's Director of Programming Andrew Murphy. Inside Out, which launched the first ever annual LGBTQ Film Finance Forum, has established itself as an international home and incubator for LGBTQ emerging and established filmmakers. This year's festival will take place May 23 to June 2, 2019.

City Springs Theatre is the new kid on the block in the ATL theater scene, but they've been making a big splash with their last musical South Pacific. Now they're offering up BILLY ELLIOT, a musical based on the 2000 film. With music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Lee Hall, who also wrote the screenplay, this show boasts ten Tonys and ten Drama Desk awards including best musical in 2008. This is the story of Billy, a motherless boy living with his father in Great Britain during the 1984-85 coal miner's strike. The story promotes the subversion of traditional gender roles, as Billy gives up his boxing gloves in exchange for dancing shoes. He finds himself drawn to dance like a moth to a flame. This is a story of acceptance, tolerance, and love.

There are two apartments across the hall from each other in The Bigot.  In the messy one on the right, Bill O'Reilly's book Killing Reagan is perched on the couch.  Bottles of pills are sitting on a tray.  On the left is a much neater, more modern home.  Two young lesbians have just moved in after a brief courtship.  They are celebrating their anniversary of two months, two days, six hours and twenty three minutes.

A play intended to shock the conservative and probe at society's typical imaginings of marital breakdown, the Baxter's latest offering of the award-winning THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? has an equally acclaimed director and cast behind it; making it stand in good stead as a must-see for those brave enough to approach what they cannot 'unsee'.

Ford Theatres presents an immersive experience: Last Whispers - Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree, on Friday, June 14 at 8:00pm. Last Whispers is simultaneously a spatially-designed sound composition and a film -- an invocation of languages that have gone extinct and an incantation of those that are endangered.

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to speak with James Hayden Rodriguez, who is currently playing Luke/Ares in the national tour of THE LIGHTNING THIEF, based on the Rick Riordan novel of the same title. I reached him in beautiful, breezy Eugene, Oregon, where the weather was great and he was enjoying some time before his show this evening.

Kids rock! in SCHOOL OF ROCK- The Musical. Don't miss Kids' Night on Broadway, Wednesday, April 24. Buy one, get one free for one adult and one child up to 18 years old. Mention code KNOB at checkout at TicketOmaha.com. The first 150 kids will also receive a show swag bag.

We found ourselves in the conflict zone of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, where protesters on stage were shouting "Down with Mubarak!" as we entered The Singapore Airlines Theatre of LASALLE College of the Arts. We settled down to watch the latest production of Aida, as part of The Lasalle Show, an annual graduation showcase.

Magnet Theatre's award-winning EVERY YEAR, EVERY DAY, I AM WALKING returns over a decade later after its initial creation in 2006. Speaking to themes of human resilience, injustice and imagination, the heart-wrenching tornado of emotion EVERY YEAR, EVERY DAY, I AM WALKING leaves one with is nothing short of poignant brilliance in theatre.

The play, a fair and angry indictment of social injustice, asks a number of important questions, and the gorgeous cast, under the adept direction of Atlanta-favorite Tinashe Kajese Bolden and Keith Arthur Bolden, and with help from an incredibly able design team, brings the indictment to powerful life.

There are plays that win a multitude of awards back in the day and become the 'must see' event for the mainstream. It becomes the talk of the town and if you are lucky enough to get to see it, you are one of the fortunate and can proclaim bragging rights. 'Proof' by David Auburn is one those plays that lives up to the hype and eighteen years later, still is riveting and thought-provoking.

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.

RIOULT Dance NY's 2019 Spring Gala and Live Auction held on Wednesday, March 20, raised over $200,000 to benefit the creation of new Company works, a performance space and community arts programs.

The Tribeca Talks program will return to entertain and inspire audiences at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, taking place April 24 - May 5. This year's lineup will include intimate and once in a lifetime conversations with a diverse list of groundbreaking and critically acclaimed filmmakers, artists, entertainers, and icons.

As a playwright you always hope that your script gets a first class production at a top theatre. Today's subject, Heather McDonald, is currently living her theatre life on a high as her world premiere play Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity is receiving such royal treatment. Featuring the likes of performers Holly Twyford, Felicia Curry, and Yesenia Iglesias, the production plays through April 7th in Signature Theatre's ARK space.

Multiple Grammy and Oscar winning artist, musician and producer T Bone Burnett gave a thought provoking keynote speech at SXSW today, warning of the current dangers of the dominance of digital monopolies like Google and Facebook, while championing the value of the independence of artists. See below for the full text of the speech.

MusicWorks today invited music fans of classic folk and rock to five more super fun concerts at Old School Square, located at 51 N. Swinton Avenue in Delray Beach.

Given that they don't come around all that often, the announcement of a new collection of Adam Carroll songs is always cause for a certain amount of celebration by discerning aficionados of quality Americana music. Mind, nothing too showy or over-the-top, because that would be at odds with the whole modestly unassuming and quietly impactful nature that's long been such a key part of Carroll's charm - but a celebration just the same, as is warranted any time the world is gifted a new album by the artist who, in the estimation of none other than Jon Dee Graham, 'may be the best songwriter that Texas ever produced.'

San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, launches its 62nd season offering audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow. The 2019 Merola Summer Festival announces this year's 29 Merola artists, selected from more than 800 international applicants from as far away as Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, and Colombia, as well as across the U.S. Along with the announced world premiere of If I Were You (August 1-6) by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, the singers will perform in the Schwabacher Summer Concert (July 11 & 13) and Merola Grand Finale (August 17). The 2019 Merola Summer Festival includes performances in San Francisco at various locations. Individual event tickets and information available at www.merola.org or 415-864-3330.

Combining the big band swing of the 1930s and '40s with contemporary music, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band has become an international phenomenon, developing a reputation as one of the most innovative and versatile big band collectives in the last thirty years. On Sunday, March 10 at 4pm, Gordon Goodwin will bring his exciting Big Phat Band to Chapman University for a very special afternoon opened with a short set by the Chapman University Student Big Band. 

Premium network EPIX® has greenlit Slow Burn, a six-episode docuseries based on the hit podcast of the same name.  From Nixon and Watergate to Clinton's impeachment, host Leon Neyfakh excavates the strange subplots and forgotten characters involved in the downfall of a president—flashing back to politically tumultuous times not so far removed from today.  Slow Burn, winner of Best Podcast at the first iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, is produced by Slate. The docuseries will be produced in partnership between Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company, and Slate.

On the Norwegian musical theatre scene he has originated roles such as Sky in Mamma Mia and Galileo in We Will Rock You, as well as playing Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, Karl Oskar in Kristina and Freddy in Chess. Currently he is playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera for which he recently won Best Actor in a Musical at the Regional BroadwayWorld Awards. The show also won Best Muscial.