I Have Been Here Before - 2005 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 19

"There's a quote from Thornton Wilder that I love. He writes, 'Anyone can make a comedy which is cruel; it is very hard to make a comedy which is kind. To give a fellow feeling between young and old - that's art. HELLO, DOLLY! is one of those old gems. It has some of the best of the best material in all of musical theatre." Actor Matt Gibson is enthusing about his upcoming performances as Cornelius Hackl in Maine State Music Theatre's HELLO, DOLLY!, which runs from July 17 - August 3 at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick. "He might be my favorite character in the traditional canon," Gibson says of the innocent young man from Yonkers. Gibson has played the part twice before at the Virginia Music Theatre and Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatres, and he is thrilled to revisit the role in Maine, where he is just finishing a run of TREASURE ISLAND, playing the ill-fated sailor, Mr. O'Brien.

The Huntington Theatre Company's annual Summer Workshop began rehearsals July 9 and will conclude in public readings of four new plays on July 20 and 21, 2019. The workshop allows selected members of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program two weeks to focus on developing new plays. The workshop and public readings will take place in the South End at the Huntington's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston. 

There is tremendous support in our audience for bringing younger people into the theatre, and we're having some success in that regard. I'm positive, but I'm also unsure of where we are headed with digital technologies and what they mean for our industry and the larger culture. Our challenge, I suppose, is to be adaptive to what comes along without giving up the wisdom and glories of the past.

The Rocket Summer's 'mastermind (Billboard),' multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and performer, Bryce Avary, shares his new video and single, 'Peace Signs,' today. The track is the third single from the forthcoming, new album, Sweet Shivers, due out this summer, on August 2, 2019. Anthemic and summery, the track has a groovy, beachy, cruising on the coast kind of feel. Describing the single, Avary says, 'Take it as a plea for peace, or take it as a bit of apathetic satire, but either way I hope you take a drive with your windows down blasting the new single Peace Signs this weekend.'

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural and language center, today announced the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival, featuring 11 performances and a gallery exhibition from a geographically, generationally, and artistically diverse group of artists whose work transcends genres and boundaries. All performances are world, US, or New York premieres; they are united by their convention-breaking fearlessness as they confront topics from social injustice to personal demons. Many of the performances pay homage to legendary artists of our time and previous eras, while the theme of migration and its transformational effects on identity informs several others. The festival runs from September 12 to October 12. Ticket are available at crossingtheline.org.

The UK's leading biennial festival of live art, Fierce has announced the full programme for its 2019 festival, the second edition under Artistic Director Aaron Wright.

The Rocket Summer's 'mastermind (Billboard),' multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and performer, Bryce Avary, shares the second single, 'Morning Light,' from his new album, Sweet Shivers, due out this summer, on August 2, 2019. 

Celebrated Tony, Emmy and Grammy nominated producer of five-time Tony Award-nominated ROCK OF AGES Broadway show Matthew Weaver announced today that the production will return to its LA roots -- where it first started in 2005 at King King on Hollywood Boulevard -- with the opening of ROCK OF AGES Hollywood this September.

McCarter will welcome a group of esteemed and emerging playwrights and theater artists to Princeton for the Sallie B. Goodman Artists' Retreat. The annual retreat in June is a centerpiece of McCarter's LAB, a platform and creative incubator devoted to ongoing theatrical development and artist cultivation. The 2019 Retreat will take place from June 12 - June 19.

Despite its general pleasant nature, many cute moments, and a plethora of genuine talent on stage, this stage musical adaptation of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY---Roald Dahl's beloved 1964 children's novel about a sweet, affable kid who wins a meet-and-greet (and more!) with an eccentric Candy Man named Willy Wonka--- comes off less magical and whimsical than one would hope it would be considering its source material. Is this national tour production---now continuing performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts through June 9---joyful enough for kids and kids-at-heart to enjoy? Sure. But, overall, something about it feels just slightly under-baked, as if all the additional necessary ingredients that would have made this musical extraordinary didn't quite make it into the mix.

A Red Orchid Theatre announces the addition of eight new members to the Artistic Ensemble: Karen Aldridge, Myron Elliott-Cisneros, Levi Holloway, Travis A. Knight, Jess McLeod, Sadieh Rifai, Grant Sabin, and Steve Schine. A Red Orchid also welcomes two Resident Stage Managers Stephanie Heller and Christa van Baale.

Sergio Trujillo has been dazzling Broadway audiences with his fancy footwork for hit musicals like Memphis, Jersey Boys, On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Musical and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. The Columbia-born choreographer's latest, Ain't Too Proud-The Life and Times of The Temptations is another crowd-and-critics pleaser and has been nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including a nod for Trujillo in the Best Choreography category.

What makes a Broadway theatre? Technically any venue with 500 seats or more, located along Broadway in New York City's Theatre District is a Broadway theatre, and the art that is produced in these special places is widely considered the highest form of theatrical entertainment in the world. Today, forty-one theatres are technically Broadway houses, each with their own rich history. Below, we're giving you the scoop on the life of every one of them!

General Director Robert K. Meya today announced two new world premiere operas commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera. Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly will open on August 1, 2020. 

tars of the show and co-conceivers of this new production, Lauren Molina (who plays Lucy) and Nick Cearley (who plays Linus) took the time to answer a few questions about the show.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas today announced complete details for Festival 2019, which opens on June 8 and continues for two weeks through June 22 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Legendary metal band Demons & Wizards have just announced their A Magical Encounter With Demons & Wizards North American headline tour today. The band will hit the road starting August 17th in Los Angeles and will be wrapping with their sold out show on September 7th in Atlanta. The band will be joined by special guests Lizzy Borden and Tyr and will be playing major markets like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and more. Tickets are available for purchase HERE.

Andrew Dykstal, a writer from Arlington, VA, has been named the Grand Prize Winner of the 35th Annual Writers of the Future, and Aliya Chen, an illustrator from Fair Oaks, CA has been named the Grand Prize Winner of the 30th Annual Illustrators of the Future L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards for Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests in the genres of Science Fiction & Fantasy held at the Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood, CA on Friday evening, April 5, 2019.  A capacity crowd of 400 people attended the Black-Tie GALA. Presented by Author Services, Inc. and Galaxy Press, the theme for the two-hour awards show was Retro Robotics.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardiandeclared: “The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character.” Widely referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a significant international career. Past winners include such luminaries as Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Matthew Polenzani, and Deborah Voigt. Oropesa will be inducted into this who's who of American opera at the foundation's annual gala, a perennial highlight of the opera season, on Sunday, October 27, at Carnegie Hall.

 In 1962, fifty-seven years ago, the magnificent TONY BENNETT recorded "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."  The song was honored with two Grammy Awards, including "Record of the Year" and gave Tony a signature tune that, as he delights in saying, has made him "A Citizen of the World."  Last March, the classic was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as "an aural treasure worthy of preservation." Now in 2019, and about to turn an ageless 93, the legendary performer -  himself a world treasure - continues to leave his heart in each song that he sings and in every aspect of his life.

JERSEY BOYS has been a Broadway favorite since the jukebox musical premiered in 2005. It can still be seen Off-Broadway at New World Stages, but in case you're not traveling to Manhattan any time soon, you can catch the show as it travels across America to a city near you. The story of the Four Seasons wouldn't be complete without the character of the incomparable Frankie Valli, whose perfect falsettos gave the group its iconic sound. I caught up with Jonny Wexler in Atlanta, who's been playing Frankie on tour for his second season. He's been with the production for 5 years total, having played Joe Pesci for 3 seasons. Here's what he had to say:

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota presents the Goldstein-Peled-Fiterstein Trio with Alon Goldstein, piano, Amit Peled, cello and Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet, Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 7, 3:00 p.m., at the Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota

Lauded jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, accompanied by THE MEMPHIS SOULPHONY, will be bringing her latest show MEMPHIS: YES, I'M READY, based on her latest musical release Memphis: Yes, I'm Ready to The Wallis for one night only March 23, 2019. The most warm and delightful Ms. Bridgewater managed to entertain and enlightened me on the phone for an informative, heartfelt forty-five minutes.

UrbanTheater Company (UTC) and Teatro Aguijon announced today they will be staging two separate productions of Not for Sale, Guadalis Del Carmen's powerful play about gentrification, as a result of a unique and groundbreaking collaboration. Recently revised by Del Carmen, UTC will present the English-language version of the play, directed by Dominizuelan's Wendy Mateo from March 8 to April 7 at UrbanTheater Company @ Batey Urbano, 2620 W. Division St. on the Paseo Boricua in the heart of Humboldt Park. Teatro Aguijon will present the Spanish-language version translated and directed by Marcela Muñoz in mid-April at their home base, 2707 N. Laramie.