I Have Been Here Before - 1938 - Broadway Articles Page 5

Pearl Buck, the Nobel Prize winning author, once wrote that 'if you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.' Which is what Australian Ballet Artistic Director David McAllister has attempted with his new production of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, which will premiere in Melbourne, Australia, on September 15 2015, before touring to Perth from October 7-10, and Sydney from November 17-December 16.

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents a world premiere adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Antigone, translated and directed by ANW Resident Artist Robertson Dean, beginning September 20 and playing through November 20, 2015 (opens on September 26).   Antigone is the second production in the Company's 2015-2016 BREAKING AND ENTERING season, preceded by the West Coast Premiere of David Ives' translation of Georges Feydeau's classic farce A Flea in Her Ear (September 6-November 22) and followed by All My Sons by Arthur Miller, in celebration of the Miller centennial (October 11-November 21).

I consider OUR TOWN, which is now being performed at Blank Canvas, to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. It not only won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, it has become one of the most performed and studied plays in the English language. It, along with Arthur Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN, Eugene O'Neil's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, Tennessee Williams' STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, and William Inge's DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, continue to be listed as the best written modern American plays by theatre experts.

One of America's most versatile and prolific living composers, Andre Previn, joins Pacific Symphony as the honored guest and focus of the 15th American Composers Festival (ACF). Previn, who has been called one of America's least easily categorized musicians, began his remarkable career as a Hollywood "wunderkind" and a best-selling jazz pianist. Now 86, Previn has received four Academy Awards for his work in film, 10 Grammy Awards for his recordings (plus one more for his Lifetime Achievement), and he is also an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's held a series of major conducting posts, including the L.A. Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, but now exclusively composes. The concert is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, whose great admiration for the legend shaped this year's ACF to reveal the scope of Previn's prowess as a composer. 

The Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Musical Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company continues with three concerts celebrating the genius of two of the most prolific and most important writing teams in musical theatre history in a show entitled RODGERS & HART & HAMMERSTEIN.

It was 'out with the old, in with the new' for another of the Franco Zeffirelli productions that were once the Metropolitan Opera's bread and butter, designed for audiences to cheer for the scenery even when the cast might not have been top drawer. This time, the victims of changing times (and administrations) were the twin bill of Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and Leoncavallo's PAGLIACCI.

Orange County, Calif.-May 11, 2015-One of America's most versatile and prolific living composers, Andre Previn, joins Pacific Symphony as the honored guest and focus of the 15th American Composers Festival (ACF). Previn, who has been called one of America's least easily categorized musicians, began his remarkable career as a Hollywood "wunderkind" and a best-selling jazz pianist. Now 86, Previn has received four Academy Awards for his work in film, 10 Grammy Awards for his recordings (plus one more for his Lifetime Achievement), and he is also an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's held a series of major conducting posts, including the L.A. Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, but now exclusively composes. The concert is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, whose great admiration for the legend shaped this year's ACF to reveal the scope of Previn's prowess as a composer. 

The Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Musical Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company continues with three concerts celebrating the genius of two of the most prolific and most important writing teams in musical theatre history in a show entitled RODGERS & HART & HAMMERSTEIN.

'If music be the food of love, play on.' Even before the invention of the musical comedy (more on that later), William Shakespeare knew the importance of music in telling stories on stage. For our March feature, my colleague Jeff Walker and I thought that instead of marking the Ides of March with songs about murder, betrayal, and fate, we would focus on the synergy between showtunes and Shakespeare.

Orange County, Calif.—March 6, 2015—The world's most brilliant playwright—William Shakespeare—is reimagined in unexpected ways when Pacific Symphony partners with Chapman University to present “Shakespeare Reimagined,” a festival that explores how The Bard's plays have inspired not only other playwrights and directors, but also composers, choreographers and filmmakers. The festival, which runs through April 19, began last month with “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” at Chapman University, and continues on March 13 with a semi-staged version of Mendelssohn's “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” performed by The Chapman Orchestra, Women's Choir and Department of Theatre students. The festival culminates April 16-19 with four Pacific Symphony concerts featuring Prokofiev's “Romeo and Juliet.” The ballet is presented with actors and dancers who help reinstate the composer's original happy ending, which was banned by Joseph Stalin. For a complete listing of events, which include classical concerts, discussions, film screenings, dance, lectures, theater, master classes and a symposium on interpreting Shakespeare, please see the calendar below, or visit http://www.chapman.edu/events/shakespeare-reimagined/event-calendar.aspx.

Tonight, March 6, noted arranger Fred Barton will bring the music of Broadway and the American Songbook showmanship to the Schimmel Center at Pace University in American Showstoppers: An Evening of Irving Berlin.

The New Black Fest, a theater organization celebrating provocative storytelling, music and discussion from the African Diaspora, is proud to announce The New Black Fest at The Lark.

On Friday, March 6, noted arranger Fred Barton will bring the music of Broadway and the American Songbook showmanship to the Schimmel Center at Pace University in American Showstoppers: An Evening of Irving Berlin. Hailed by George Gershwin as 'the greatest songwriter that has ever lived,' the legendary Irving Berlin composed some of the most influential and widely-known songs ever written, many of which have come to form the Great American Songbook. Fred Barton now brings the power of Berlin's Broadway sound front and center, with a hot 14-piece orchestra and a cast of 17 Broadway singers and dancers, and direction and choreography by Jason Wise.

"I wish't I knew someone to have a Christmas tree with," says Calliope Marsh to Mrs. Sykes in the small town of Friendship Village. At first, even Calliope doesn't know what she means by what she just said, but then her ideas take shape in the form of how to get the big tree in the center of town lit with electric lights for Christmas Eve.

This season's revival of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning play YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU opens on Broadway tonight, and in honor of the playwriting pair's long list of contributions to the theatre, we've rounded up some of their most notable works. Scroll down to learn more about the duo's canon!

With the reopening of one of the country's oldest community theaters and some unique staging in unexpected venues, New Orleans' historic French Quarter will pulse with productions of Tennessee Williams' works, as well as some inspired by or dedicated to the legendary playwright and his life in the city he considered his "spiritual home."

Howard Hawks, the quintessential Hollywood director known for his mastery of many genres, will be the subject of a complete retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image from today, September 7 through November 10, 2013. The Museum will present 39 features. All of the films will be shown in 35mm-many in stunning restorations-except for Red Line 7000, which will be shown in 16mm.

Howard Hawks, the quintessential Hollywood director known for his mastery of many genres, will be the subject of a complete retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image from September 7 through November 10, 2013. The Museum will present 39 features. All of the films will be shown in 35mm-many in stunning restorations-except for Red Line 7000, which will be shown in 16mm.

Back on April 1, when he posted his third compilation of delayed cabaret reviews from shows staged during the winter, BroadwayWorld.com's lead New York cabaret reviewer promised Number 4 would come with arrival of summer. Okay, so he missed his self-imposed deadline by a couple of weeks. but here's yet another catch-up column with critiques of a half dozen spring shows performed by Bryan Batt, Dawn Derow, Lynly Forrest, Dennis McNeil, Anastasia Barzee, and Nina Hennessey.

An overwhelming lust for power, a manipulative wife, and witches' prophecies spur a Scottish general onto a tragic path of betrayal, murder and madness. Long Beach Opera (LBO) closes its 2013 season with Macbeth, Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch's re-discovered powerhouse, sung in English. Performances at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, CA. begin tonight, June 15, 2013 and continue on June 22 and 23.

An overwhelming lust for power, a manipulative wife, and witches' prophecies spur a Scottish general onto a tragic path of betrayal, murder and madness. Long Beach Opera (LBO) closes its 2013 season with Macbeth, Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch's re-discovered powerhouse, sung in English. Performances at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, CA. begin on June 15, 2013 and continue on June 22 and 23.

Back from its seven-concert tour in South America, the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal will be playing Mahler's Fifth Symphony in May under the direction of conductor David Zinman. For the Mahler concert, the OSM will also be hosting pianist Stephen Kovacevich in Mozart's Concerto No. 18, K. 456, 'Paradis.' The Orchestra will wind up its 79th season with a performance of Honegger's grand-scale oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bucher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)with Carole Bouquet and Guy Nadon under Kent Nagano.

Tickets go on sale today for New York City Center Encores! Off-Center, a new series featuring seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists, opening on July 10. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all, the majority of tickets will be $25.

'Hello Dolly...it's so nice to have you back where you belong.' I have to admit, prior to seeing the ebullient production of 'Hello Dolly!' at Georgia Ensemble Theatre, I generally considered the musical, by Jerry Herman (music and lyrics) and Michael Stewart (book), to be a relic of a bygone era, based on a play of an era even more bygone (Thornton Wilder's 1938 comedy 'The Merchant of Yonkers,' reworked as 'The Matchmaker' in 1955). However, after seeing this joyful production, directed by Suzi Award winner Heidi Cline McKerley, I must concede that this heart-warmingly energetic show is in fact back where it belongs, on stage entertaining audiences young and old.

New York City Center goes Off-Broadway this summer with the launch of Encores! Off-Center, a new series featuring seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists. In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all, the majority of tickets will be $25.