If - 1927 - Broadway Articles Page 19

'A man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?' once wrote the poet Robert Browning. The line is about setting goals, striving, and ambition, all of which can be commendable desires. But sometimes in the world of cabaret, the desire to achieve the next level or to raise one's personal bar can be an overreach and overly ambitious. Such was the case with two shows staged this past week by two accomplished singers-Shana Farr and Jillian Laurain--who over the past couple of years have garnered mucho kudos for their vocal prowess and solid shows. Nobody could fault these lovely ladies for pushing their performance envelopes, but in both cases they fell short of their goals.

What happens when a strapping young Englishman suddenly finds he has become a woman? It's an amazing journey, to say the very least, in Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's sweeping and witty Orlando, beginning a 5-week run at Stage West on Thursday, April 3.

Jennifer Bowles will play the title role opposite Rob McClure in New York City Center Encores! production of Irma La Douce, running for seven performances,May 7 - 11, 2014. The final production of the 2014 Encores! season will also feature Sam Bolen, Allan Corduner, Ben Crawford, Stephen DeRosa, Ken Krugman, Zachary James and Chris Sullivan. Irma La Douce will be directed by John Doyle and choreographed by Chase Brock, with music direction by Rob Berman.

The big question surrounding the fate of Harmony: Is Broadway ready for another musical about the turbulent 30s and Nazi occupation of Germany? With The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof (although set in Russia and at an earlier time, it's still about the plight of the Jews) and Cabaret firmly planted in our minds as three of the greatest musicals ever written about the Nazis, do we need one more? Barry Manilow has been trying desperately for over 10 years to get his Harmony, the true story about the Comedian Harmonists, onstage. Now at the Ahmanson through April 13, Harmony is beautifully produced and mounted, exceedingly well-performed and a thoroughly moving story about 6 singers/performers whose careers and lives were interrupted and controlled by Naziism. The answer to the big question is a shaky maybe.

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod met with composer John Kander to discuss his work on Cabaret.

Village Playwrights has announced a few new and exciting events.

After watching Crazy for You in New York City in 1992, Claudia Raia dreamed of one day producing this musical in Brazil. Two decades later, she finally makes her wish come true with an outstanding show at the Teatro Bradesco, São Paulo, directed by José Possi Neto, original choreography by Susan Stroman, and starring Jarbas Homem de Mello, who has been increasingly recognized as one of the most complete performers of musical theater in Brazil.

Music has always played the role of Muse for me as a stage director. Occasionally, when I am stuck creatively or wanting to be around the actors in the rehearsal room or need to assistance in focusing, I will play the same piece of music over and over. I have meditated on Dvorak when considering the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West in Vita & Virginia, on Bach's cello concertos when considering Julius Caesar, on Bartok when constructing A Midsummer Night's Dream, Zoe Keating for The Tempest, Rachmaninoff for Hamlet, and many others.

VILLAGE PLAYWRIGHTS has announced its upcoming events. Details below!

VILLAGE PLAYWRIGHTS has announced its upcoming events. Details below!

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has added an exciting roster of screen legends and beloved titles to the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival,

Gotham Chamber Opera and the Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation announce the inaugural cycle of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music, a competitive prize awarded to a composer to support the creation of a new work for voice and chamber ensemble. For more information and to apply for this commissioning award, visit www.gothamchamberopera.org/registration. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2014.

Village Playwrights has announced news about its upcoming events in January and February 2014. Details below! Visit http://villageplaywrights.googlepages.com for more information.

Village Playwrights has announced news about its upcoming events in January and February 2014. Details below! Visit http://villageplaywrights.googlepages.com for more information.

Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Machinal, starring Rebecca Hall, written by Sophie Treadwell and directed by Lyndsey Turner, opens tonight, January 16, 2014 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, January 5, 2014 - Sunday, January 5, 2014.

Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now.

Sophie Treadwell's Machinal, directed by Lyndsey Turner, the second production of the 2013-14 season at the American Airlines Theatre begins previews December 20.

How much food can you fit in the bed of a Toyota Tundra? How many Tundras does it take to deliver 70,000 meals? We're about to find out at noon this Friday, thanks to the Tri-State Toyota Dealers' annual "Toyota Tundra Food Drive" for Philabundance, the region's largest hunger relief organization.

Through some 65 bronze sculptures by 28 artists, the traveling exhibition The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 18, will explore the aesthetic and cultural impulses behind the creation of statuettes with American western themes so popular with audiences then and now.

Ethereal swaths of smoke combine to form familiar yet odd images: flowers that grow in slow motion as if by magic, elephants floating in cocktail glasses, flying flutes, dancing bells, an enigmatic black cat-anything is possible in LA Opera's new staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Created by the British theater group 1927 in collaboration with Barrie Kosky, artistic director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, the staging had its production premiere in that city last year, playing to sold-out houses and rave reviews. London's The Guardian described 1927's distinctive aesthetic: 'A perfect mixture of all the things worth loving: silent films, the cabaret of the Weimar Republic, David Lynch and the Brothers Grimm.' To view a video preview, please click here.

San Francisco audiences were delighted to welcome a powerful and wistfully evocative production of The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess to the bay area and to the stage of the Golden Gate Theatre where it plays now through December 8. Opening night was also the launch of the much anticipated national tour of this Tony award-winning revival. Directed by Diane Paulus, with a book adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks from DuBose and Dorothy Heyward's original book, Porgy and Bess's dramatic story of love, death, addiction and hope comes alive once again for a whole new audience of theatregoers.

To celebrate the publication of The Untold Stories of Broadway on November 12 by Dress Circle Publishing, Jennifer Ashley Tepper will be sharing three short excerpts about each of the Broadway theaters featured in the book-countdown style! Today: The Winter Garden Theatre!

(Los Angeles) October 31, 2013 — Ethereal swaths of smoke combine to form familiar yet odd images: flowers that grow in slow motion as if by magic, elephants floating in cocktail glasses, flying flutes, dancing bells, an enigmatic black cat—anything is possible in LA Opera's new staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Created by the British theater group 1927 in collaboration with Barrie Kosky, artistic director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, the staging had its production premiere in that city last year, playing to sold-out houses and rave reviews. London's The Guardian described 1927's distinctive aesthetic: “A perfect mixture of all the things worth loving: silent films, the cabaret of the Weimar Republic, David Lynch and the Brothers Grimm.” To view a video preview, please click here.