If I Were You - 1931 - Broadway Articles Page 4

Aurora's Paramount Theatre, home to more than 33,000 subscribers for its Broadway Musical Series, continues its growth as one of the nation's preeminent regional theater powerhouses with today's announcement of four must-see, blockbuster musicals slated for its 2017-18 season: Million Dollar Quartet, Elf: The Musical, Cabaret and Once.

We were finally able to track him down and ask him to help our readers learn more about him via our Getting to Know… feature while he was on a trip to Ireland where he represented NCT at an international conference on theater for younger audiences. In fact, Nolan's been so peripatetic since settling down in Nashville and starting his job on February 1, that he answered our queries from the airport in Belfast…

The venerable Martha Graham Dance Company, founded 91 years ago in 1926, is thriving anew after getting past protracted legal battles following modern dance pioneer Graham's death and coping with the loss of historical material during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Much of the credit for the success of the current iteration of the troupe goes to Janet Eilber, a former Graham principal who has been at the helm as Artistic Director since 2005. She has instituted a policy of not only presenting Graham's classics but also commissioning fresh visions from today's finest choreographers.

Palo Alto Players, the Peninsula's first theatre company, announces its 87th season - "The World Turned Upside Down" - featuring the Bay Area regional premiere of the Tony-nominated musical MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET. 

The 2016 BroadwayWorld Detroit Award winners were announced January 6th after weeks of theatre fans nominating then voting for their favorites in the Detroit community! It was the biggest year yet for awards with theatre fans first submitting their nominations in each category then having to make the tough decision on who to place that final vote for. Thanks to all who voted!

Next month, The Studio Theatre Tierra del Sol (806 San Marino Drive, The Villages, FL) will continue its inaugural season with Private Lives, the award-winning romantic comedy about two couples that are intertwined in more ways than one.

Ernie Nolan, an award-winning director and playwright based in Chicago, has been named as the new artistic director of Nashville Children's Theatre, beginning February 1, 2017. Nolan succeeds Scot Copeland, NCT Producing Artistic Director for 31 years, who died unexpectedly in February of this year.

Have you ever wanted to spend time with Stephen Sondheim in the lobby during one of his shows? Did you know that Patti LuPone once had a Broadway ghostly encounter? Have you wondered what it was like to be in the landmark Broadway premiere of Angels in America?

Playwright Robert O'Hara's BARBECUE deservedly earned a rousing reception (and standing ovation) from The Geffen Playhouse's enthusiastic opening night audience September 14.  BroadwayWorld and I had a chance to chat with O'Hara's frequent collaborator, actor/playwright/director Colman Domingo a few days after his directorial success.

Known as 'the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out,' The Ensemblist podcast has become the champion of the unsung performance heroes and inner workings of the theatre world. Co-created and co-hosted by Nikka Graff Lanzarote (Chicago, Women on the Verge) and Mo Brady (SMASH, The Addams Family), the podcast has covered everything from the Gypsy Robe ceremony, to the audition process, to what it's like to be a Broadway babysitter during its first three years on the air. Now, following a successful first season covering the 'Ensemblist Essentials,' this past spring, The Ensemblist is entering into its second season (check out the first episode below!) and I sat down to talk with Nikka and Mo about how the podcast has grown, what it looks like to balance careers in the arts with being podcast masters, which Broadway ensemble they'd like to join, and more-check out the full interview below!

BroadwayWorld continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Charles Morrow, Cataloger for  Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on: Political Satires in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

Legendary newsman Morley Safer has passed away at the age of 84, just one week after announcing his retirement from CBS's long-running news show 60 MINUTES. 

Based on John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera which was adapted from Christopher Isherwood's short story Goodbye to Berlin, Cabaret is based in the nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub as the Nazis were rising to power in Berlin back in 1931. The action is overseen by a Master of Ceremonies with the club serving as a metaphor for some of the ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany. The story revolves around 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Clifford Bradshaw. A sub-plot involves a doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider and her suitor Herr Schultz.

Broadway has given the world some of it's greatest songs, but the Broadway beginnings of some classics aren't known to all.

Scot Copeland, longtime producing artistic director of Nashville Children's Theatre and one of the world's leading proponents of theater for younger audiences, died during the overnight hours of February 25 from an apparent heart attack. He is survived by his wife, Rene Dunshee Copeland, producing artistic director of Nashville Repertory Theatre, his two sons, many family members and countless 'chosen family' and friends all over the world.

Sometimes a flop Broadway show is better appreciated after closing, and may even return as a hit!

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Excitement grows for 'La Revolution Francaise!' Also, Black Ensemble Theater and Raven Theatre take on more recent history, and 'Spamalot' opens northwest and southeast. 'Triassic Parq' and 'Goblin Market' play the city, 'Shrek' and 'Avenue Q' play the 'burbs, and 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' and 'My Little Red/Green Coat' sing from small screens!

Last November, the Broadway community mourned the loss of acclaimed director, producer, writer, and performer Mike Nichols, who passed away at age 83. Vanity Fair collected a thorough oral history of the EGOT-winner, as told in anecdotes and fond memories from film stars like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Dustin Hoffman. See what these stars had to say about Nichols as a director and friend!

A breathtaking dome and ornate stained glass are once again on display at the former Hammerstein's Theater.

In Scene Two of Lynn Riggs' play, Green Grow the Lilacs, farm girl Laurey Williams speaks passionately to her Aunt Eller about the ranch where she grew up:

With his unmistakable tenor voice, legendary songwriting skills and bass guitar chops to boot, Chicago frontman and solo star Peter Cetera defines an entire era of American rock music.

The Home Grown Theatre Company production of Cabaret currently runs at the Kit Kat Club located above Morningside Antiques in the Westport entertainment district. John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the music, lyrics, and Joe Masteroff the book. The musical is based on the book I Am a Camera by Christopher Isherwood.

Lady Rizo, as any of her fans will tell you, has a magnificent voice.

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

Friends, today is a sad day. INTRUDERS, the creepy, paranormal series that reminds other shows in the genre that sophisticated writing and directing actually meshes really well with blood and gore, comes to an end. But if we've learned anything from tonight's episode, it's that “In the end, there is no end.” (Thanks for that wisdom, Richard.) So instead of wondering how we're going to fill our Saturday nights, let's have faith that there will be a season two (there better be a season two), take a walk down memory lane, and reminisce about tonight's season finale.