How Much How Much? - 1970 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 19

Teatro El Publico's production of Petra von Kant, which regrettably only saw two performances at the Kennedy Center's Family Theatre, is both a thoughtful exploration of humanity and a classic actor's vehicle. Featuring leggy poseurs, lavish costumes, wild hairstyles (thanks to a small vault's worth of wigs), the show is a fascinating character study, and a showcase for some of Cuba's most brilliant theatrical talent.

Hal Prince really loves Brecht. This is my first initial reaction after seeing EVITA, the revival of Mr Prince's original West End and Broadway production of the musical by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, now running in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Acamedy of Performing Arts for its international tour with a brand new cast

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director), an award-winning company presenting Shakespeare alongside other classic and contemporary drama at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Downtown Brooklyn, is pleased to announce its 2018-19 season-the 39th since its founding in 1979.

Let It Be: A Celebration Of The Music Of The Beatles returns to the UK for a national tour starting in Summer 2018.

Continuing the momentum created with the current season launch of its Music Knows No Borders series, Executive Director Thor Steingraber unveils the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts' 2018-19 Season, which features four world premieres, two American premieres, several of the world's greatest orchestras, innovative jazz programs, two tributes to Hollywood legends, Broadway classics plus artists from 18 different nations who will appear on stage at The Soraya next season.  New Subscription Series tickets will go on sale May 1, 2018.

Now about to turn thirteen, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, the ever-evolving spring fling of dance that exuberantly commandeers the various theaters of La MaMa each year, takes on yet another challenge in 2018. This year's festival showcases nine artists who take the road less travelled, daring to speak out in new and forceful ways about issues that trouble and inspire them: race, gender, religion, exclusion, each using the body to voice concerns in ways words cannot. Eleven companies, nine performances, including five premieres are on the boards. New this year will be two offsite events: panel discussions about artists and cultural identity, and screenings of rarely-seen films. The 2018 festival runs May 10-June 3.

Today, BWW speaks with John McGinty about making his Broadway debut in a play that asks audiences to stop, listen, and really communicate with each other so that we can all get to a better place. 

Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance have announced a new co-presenting partnership that will consolidate contemporary dance productions under one roof at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 2018-19 season, Annenberg Center Live and NextMove Dance will present 11 dance ensembles for Philadelphia audiences: Circa, Spectrum Dance Theater, Jessica Lang Dance, Caleb Teicher & Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance Heginbotham, Union Tanguera + Kate Weare Company, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, BODYTRAFFIC, and Parsons Dance. Subscriptions to the 2018-19 season dance series are on sale now at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900. Single tickets will go on sale in July.

'Now that you're gone, all that's left is a Band of Gold….' Well, that was 1970, and while the singer of the song's husband may have quit, Freda Payne the songstress is very, very much still around. She stars in Delaware Theatre Company's regional premiere of ELLA: First Lady of Song, opening April 18.

Anyone who has ever been involved in a volunteer theatrical production will certainly understand the craziness associated with amateurs attempting to put on a play due to both their lack of acting experience, taking direction, or the maddening interference from its meddling playwright who drops in at every rehearsal with newly revised and/or added scenes which contradict what they have already been rehearsing. Such is the case in Rick Abbot's comedy PLAY ON! which is currently being presented at Theatre Palisades as the second show of its 2018 season, directed by Sherry Coon and produced for the community theater group by Martha Hunter and Sue Hardie.

Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera that tells the story of the final week in the life of Jesus Christ. It begins with the preparation for the arrival of Jesus and his disciples in Jerusalem and ends with the crucifixion. It also highlights the political and interpersonal struggles between Jesus and one of his 12 apostles, Judas Iscariot that are not present in the Bible narratives.

There is much to enjoy in Coyote Stageworks' production of THE COCKTAIL HOUR, by A.R. Gurney: the script is funny, the directing is top-notch, and there is a great deal of excellent acting. Unfortunately, one actor was sick at the performance I attended, resulting in problems for the show that night.

A strong play, well-directed by Lavina Jadhwani, that features a bravura turn by Terri Weagant as Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. 'Jane Roe.'

Belly dance's roots in Eastern cultures, North African cultures in particular, is undeniable. Black and Brown dancers fill the scenes of ancient Egyptian wall paintings and of dance history gems such as Dr. Magda Saleh's 1975 documentary “Egypt Dances.” So why is it so hard to find Black and Brown dancers making a name and a living for themselves in the modern belly dance scene?

The tragic events surrounding the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime in mid-70's Cambodia serves as the overarching backdrop that links the past and the (near) present in Lauren Yee's stunning new play CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND---which continues its World Premiere production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theatre South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through March 25, 2018. Commissioned by SCR as part of its CrossRoads Initiative, this powerful and searing new drama---sprinkled with welcome bits of comedy and, yes, rock concert music interludes---had its initial staged reading at last year's Pacific Playwright's Festival and is now an absorbing, full-fledged production under the admirable direction of Chay Yew.

Known as the 'King of Ghazals', Talat Mahmood was the first to bring the genre to mainstream music in the film industry. I felt strongly about re-introducing his music to today's youngsters. He was a very famous man but the children today neither know his name nor his music. It is a treasure trove we are sitting on and letting it fizzle away. In my own little way, I am literally helping our youth re-discover what already exists. 

Rubicon Theatre presents a timely and trenchant production of Shakespeare's tragedy KING LEAR as the centerpiece of the company's 20th Anniversary Season. Directed by Co-Founder James O'Neil, the production features a 20-member cast led by acclaimed actor and company memberGeorge Ball, who has starred in previous Rubicon productions of All My Sons, Man of La Mancha, and Jacques Brel… (New York, L.A., and international companies of the latter).

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, partnering with national and local community organizations, artist practitioners and scholars, continues its B-Series, a biannual celebration of hip hop and street dance, with Under 1 Roof: A House & Hip-Hop Convergence featuring B-Bout It, a street-dance jam and battle. Partnering with Kuumba Lynx, Urbanized Music, BraveSoul Movement, Modern Dance Music Research and Archiving Foundation, New Rhythm Arts Center and The Community Schools Program, the B-Series presents a mini hip-hop and street dance festival featuring presentations, workshops, dialogue sessions and a community dance jam and competition.

Carnegie Hall's The '60s: The Years that Changed America, a citywide festival from January 14-March 24, 2018, concludes this month with a vast array of events presented at Carnegie Hall and at more than 35 leading partner cultural institutions throughout New York City. This special exploration of the '60s invites audiences to explore this turbulent decade through the lens of arts and culture, including music's role as a meaningful vehicle to inspire social change.

The SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film presents Company, by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, running Friday, March 9 - Saturday, March 17 in the Don Powell Theatre. Stephen Brotebeck directs.

This summer, Theater at Monmouth celebrates wily, wicked, and wonderful women through classic literature's most fantastic females. From fierce matriarchs, unfaithful wives, and every Madonna in-between, Roar! The Year of the Woman spotlights the ladies who move mountains for their families, friends, and most importantly, themselves. Taking on tyrants, freeloaders, and faithless frauds these femme fatales fight for what they believe in, charting a course to a better world for their sisters and daughters.

Get Groovy with a Girl Power Musical!! Maplewood Playhouse follows up their all male coming of age musical Glory Days, with the all-female production, SHOUT! The Mod Musical, a celebration of all things swingin' '60s. A cultural mish-mash from go-go boots to the pill, a hilarious 'Dear Abby' column and a rainbow of fun. Continuing the first season of live theater in the Lake Park Art's District, SHOUT! The Mod Musical opens February 16th at the Kelsey Theater.

THE PRICE by Arthur Miller premiered on Broadway in 1968 and was nominated for two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Scenic Design. It is a timeless piece regarding the choices we make and the consequences we eventually face. It is about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions, taking place in a soon to be demolished family house where two brothers, estranged for decades, meet together to dispose of their late parents' property. The resulting confrontation leads them to examine the events and qualities of their very different lives and the price each of them has had to pay to have the lives they now lead.

The punk rock scene of the 1970s and '80s in Southern California is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant and creative periods in rock and roll. Over the years, many books have come out exploring this explosive time in music and culture, but none have exclusively focused on the vitality and influence of the women who played such a crucial role in this incredibly dynamic movement.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David, whose pop songs pretty much defined the mid-to-late 1960s and early 1970s, only wrote one Broadway show, Promises, Promises. There may have been many reasons for the success of the show. With stellar turns by Marcelo Medici as the big-corporation employee whose idea on how to get ahead in business consists of lending his bachelor apartment to his married bosses, and by Malu Rodrigues as the cafeteria waitress with whom he falls in love even though she is having an affair with the personnel director, and with Alonso Barros in charge of choreography and Claudio Botelho & Charles M eller directing, the musical proves that it is still as fresh and vibrant as it was when it was first created, opening in Brazil now, 50 years after his debut on Broadway.