Have a Nice Day - 2018 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 16

We thought things were exciting last week, when Christian Van Horn brought his Mefistofele to the Met last week, getting all his exercise for the month in the athletic staging and nailing his first big role in the house. However, that was “business as usual” compared to the mid-performance debut, just a few days later, of baritone Alexander Birch Elliott, as Zurga, in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) in the opera's first performance of the season.

U.S. and Canada's top pay-TV service providers are bringing back fan favorite Santa Tracker, inviting their viewers to celebrate the holiday season with an interactive, Christmas holiday-themed programming experience, powered by zone·tv. Families can once again come together to enjoy holiday themed fun features and track Santa's path across the globe on Christmas Eve. This highly engaging TV experience is available, free of charge, in over 72% of TV homes with kids nationwide.

I caught up with rising star bass-baritone Christian Van Horn the other day, to find out what the devil was going on with his starring role in the Met's first performance of Arrigo Boito's MEFISTOFELE in almost 20 years. Were you nervous as hell (pun intended) on the first night, I asked Van Horn, winner of this year's prestigious Richard Tucker Award, in your role as the Devil?

Last night at the 6th Annual Save the Children Illumination Gala, Save the Children, the leading organization investing in childhood, honored award-winning journalist David Muir, anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight;" SB Projects Founder Scooter Braun; and the organization's philanthropic corporate partner Mondel?z International. The event, which took place onWednesday, Nov 14, 2018, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, was hosted by actor and Save the Children Trustee Jennifer Garner and featured a special musical performance by MILCK.

Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with the following acts:

Spend the holiday season on the Kimmel Center Cultural Campus, with themed programming and family-friendly activities, including: returning favorites spanning rock, Gospel, jazz, and brass; treasured traditions from various Kimmel Center Resident Companies like the Pennsylvania Ballet, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and The Philly POPS; and opportunities for holiday community service and city-wide celebrations.

For some years, Drose & Norberg has set up a family musical based on a famous story like The Wizard of Oz, Snow White the Musical and the Aladdin Adventure- The story they chosen this year is the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. It's not a Disney version of the Jungle Book but a new musical with newly written music by Marin Landh and Peter Nygren. The well-known characters such as Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan and the snake Kaa is still in the story.

ABC celebrates the most wonderful time of the year with special '25 Days of Christmas' programming starting Dec. 1. The network joins Freeform, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior in this fan-favorite TV event. The 'Kickoff to Christmas' begins in late November with perennial holiday treat 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.' The month of December is filled with special Christmas-themed episodes, the return of 'The Great Christmas Light Fight' and 'The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition,' and timeless animated classics and holiday films. The celebration continues after Christmas with New Year's-themed programming ringing in 2019.

Already in previews at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater of the Geffen Playhouse, HUGHIE & KRAPP'S LAST TAPE (by Eugene O'Neill & Samuel Beckett, respectively), a double bill starring Brian Dennehy, will open November 14, 2018. I had the chance to chat with director Steven Robman, a frequent collaborator of Brian, as he was driving to a mid-day appointment.

“We have resources. Things can be taken away from us, but certain things can NOT be taken away from us: the ability to love, the ability to imagine, the ability to build.” 

Food Network is serving up fresh and fun holiday episodes this December all month long. On Sunday, December 16th at 9pm, the gingerbread artists of Holiday Gingerbread Showdown pull out all the stops for the exciting season finale, and Holiday Baking Championship crowns the most impressive festive baker on Monday, December 17th at 9pm. Then, at 10pm competitors wow host Eddie Jackson and the judges with 3D displaysin hopes of winning the ultimate prize on the season finale of Christmas Cookie Challenge. The edible architecture is next level at the 25th annual National Gingerbread Competition as seen on the holiday special Gingerbread Giants 2 premiering Sunday, December 23rd at 9pm. On Monday, December 24th at 9pm, former Holiday Baking Championship competitors return for redemption on the 'Homecoming Special'episode. Also in primetime, don't miss premieres and themed episodes of Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy's Grocery Games and Triple-D Nation. In daytime, Ina Garten invites special guests Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rob Marshall and John DeLucaover for a special Mary Poppins episode of Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro on Sunday, December 9th at 12:30pm. Also catch premieres and holiday episodes including Crazy Christmas Cakes, Giada's Holiday Handbook, Girl Meets Farm, Guy's Ranch Kitchen, The Kitchen, Martina's Table, The Pioneer Woman and Trisha's Southern Kitchen. FoodNetwork.com is serving up holiday recipes, videos and how-tos that will help you impress your guests. Join the Food Network conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat Discover.

Rarely produced in full, Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre (MET) presents the entirety of Horton Foote's nine-act  Magnus Opus “The Orphans' Home Cycle” running in repertory through November 18, 2018. This massive production utilizes over 30 veteran performers from across the Metro KC area in 64 roles throughout the expansive production.  

2018 has seen Rosalie Craig take on jobs side by side at the Gielgud. Appearing in The Ferryman earlier this year, Rosalie returns for Company in a role normally played by a man. Sharing her love of Bobbie, Rosalie looks back on her other roles that came before, how Company speaks to today, and looks to the future of the production.

After thousands of sold out shows, it's clear - Bon Jovi = One Wild Night. One of the planet's biggest rock bands, Bon Jovi announce their return to the UK, continuing a triumphant world tour that has visited the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Chile and will hit Japan and Australia later in 2018.  A huge year of 80 shows and counting has also seen them inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Their This House Is Not For Sale European Tour is set to be another blockbuster. Tickets go on sale on 02 November at 9am at LiveNation.co.uk.

'How I Learned To Drive' took a circuitous route to CV Rep, but the end results are so very, very satisfying.

Forget about those whiny, cry-baby Walking Dead fans and the increasing din of their lamentations regarding the imminent demise of Rick Grimes from their universe and instead focus your attention and horror film-inspired energies on Evil Dead, The Musical - a wickedly wild and ridiculously off-kilter send-up of the genre - now onstage in a terrifically entertaining, if uneven, production from Radical Arts, the little theater company who, for all intents and purposes, can.

Though it's 2018 in Houston, Texas, at the height of the 2018 primary election, but thankfully, there's an escape from the tumultuous political climate where blue and red are the subject. The color of today is green.

Magic Tree House, the #1 bestselling chapter book series of all time comes to life in a brand new spectacular just perfect for the season. This premiere of Magic Tree House's Holiday Musical: A GHOST TALE FOR MR. DICKENS features a large-scale cast donned in festive attire and celebrating the joy of giving. It also marks the first time it will be produced by any professional TYA (Theater for Young Audiences) company in the country.  Dallas audiences will be the first to see brother and sister duo, Jack and Annie, whisked back in time aboard their magical tree house to the foggy streets of Victorian England to help Charles Dickens write what will ultimately become a treasured tale. Holiday magic is in the air at DCT this season as Magic Tree House's Holiday Musical: A GHOST TALE FOR MR. DICKENS runs from November 16 - December 23, 2018 at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts.

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Theater J's new production of Actually, which opened on Monday night, provides new voices to the issue of campus safety and sexual assault. Anna Ziegler's script undoubtedly has important things to say-and Actually is a crucial piece which dives into the intricacies of campus safety. It's tough material that suffers from some uneven pacing but one which, nevertheless, encourages continued engagement and thought.

Kevin Harvey returns to the Almeida (that is a truth), for his seventh (that is a lie) first Ibsen play: The Wild Duck. Catching up during rehearsals, Kevin talks to us about tackling Ibsen, the relevance of the play today, and reuniting with director Robert Icke.

At the end of a long week, Lauren Elder, playing the titular Mary in Mary and Max, sat down with me to have a quick chat about the show and her journey to the Max Bell Theatre.

Twenty-five features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 91st Academy Awards.

National Asian Artists Project and Prospect Theater Company presented a sold-out concert reading of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods at The TimesCenter in New York on October 20.

Goodspeed Musicals announces the full cast of their new production of A Connecticut Christmas Carol - the musical treat infused with more Connecticut flavor by LJ Fecho and Michael O'Flaherty.