If Love Were All - 1998 - Regional (US) Articles Page 18

RAGTIME is such an underrated piece of art. Although written in 1996 and staged for Broadway in 1998, it is almost prophetic in its reflection of the social unrest, racism and immigration sanctions prevalent in our world today. Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, RAGTIME is as relevant today as it was when first conceived. Its timelessness is a credit to its brilliant and perceptive writing, albeit a sad commentary of our present society which has not learned from its past and has not progressed much in civility or compassion.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, in a co-presentation with Pomegranate Arts, is thrilled to announce the special guest artists who will perform in Taylor Mac's ambitious, internationally acclaimed work A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Local Philadelphia performance artists and musicians will join Mac in these final U.S. performances of the full, 24-hour-long pop odyssey, June 2 & 9 at the Kimmel Center's Merriam Theater, as part of the 2018 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA). Mac will perform A 24-Decade History of Popular Music as two distinct 12-hour concerts, Saturday, June 2 (1776-1896) and Saturday, June 9 (1896-present day) - Mac's longest continuous performances since the work premiered at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn in 2016.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, in a co-presentation with Pomegranate Arts, is thrilled to announce the special guest artists who will perform in Taylor Mac's ambitious, internationally acclaimed work A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Local Philadelphia performance artists and musicians will join Mac in these final U.S. performances of the full, 24-hour-long pop odyssey, June 2 & 9 at the Kimmel Center's Merriam Theater, as part of the 2018 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA). Mac will perform A 24-Decade History of Popular Music as two distinct 12-hour concerts, Saturday, June 2 (1776-1896) and Saturday, June 9 (1896-present day) - Mac's longest continuous performances since the work premiered at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn in 2016.

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.

During the curtain speech Seattle Shakespeare Company Artistic Director (and director of the night's show) George Mount and Managing Director John Bradshaw joked on how they don't often get to present a Washington premiere since they usually deal in 400-year-old plays. What they also don't usually contend with is the trend of turning every successful movie into a theatrical endeavor but here we are with the Seattle Shakespeare Company presenting the stage version of 'Shakespeare in Love' based on the 1998 film. Now don't get me wrong, not all stage adaptations are awful and this one seems to be almost directly lifted from the wonderful Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard screenplay by the adapter Lee Hall so the script isn't entirely the problem here. No, the problems I have are threefold and amount to two very egregious things for a show entitled 'Shakespeare in Love'. There's not enough 'Shakespeare' and not enough 'Love'. But let's start from the top.

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.

On the occasion of the 20-year mark of Matthew Shepard's tragic death, the Ford Theatres presents Considering Matthew Shepard, on Friday, June 15 and Saturday June 16 at 8:30pm, in association with Chris Isaacson Presents. Part of the 2018 Season and the IGNITE @ the FORD! series, Considering Matthew Shepard is performed by the 30-member GRAMMY Award-winning Conspirare choir, and composed and conducted by its GRAMMY Award-winning artistic director, Craig Hella Johnson. 

In response to overwhelming demand and near universal critical acclaim, Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist - extends its 20th anniversary engagement to July 15. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

BBC AMERICA announced today that it will air the Royal wedding of HRH Prince Henry of Wales and Ms. Meghan Markle, as a live and direct simulcast of BBC ONE's coverage. The historic event airs with limited commercial breaks as the centerpiece of a week of celebratory programming that includes the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and the US television premiere of Harry and Meghan: A Very Modern Romance.

World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.

Chichester Festival Theatre is a place of firsts for Tracy-Ann Oberman. Last year, she performed in The Fiddler on the Roof, her first professional musical. This Spring, she returns to CFT once again for her first Noel Coward play, Present Laughter. With tech week coming up, Tracy-Ann spoke to us about why she wanted to take on Coward, what else is on her wish list, and what audiences can expect from Present Laughter. 

 American Lyric Theater concludes the 10th Anniversary of its nationally acclaimed Composer Librettist Development Program this season with InsightALT: Opera in Eden, a one-night-only concert featuring three new one-act operas written by ALT Resident Artists, hosted by composer/librettist Mark Adamo and producing artistic director Lawrence Edelson.

Support Act is humbled to announce that this year it will honour artist, storyteller and singer/songwriter, Archie Roach, at its annual fundraising event, Music in the House. Archie will be presented with Support Act's Excellence in the Community Award in recognition of his powerful contribution to the voice of First Nations' people and all Australians. 

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) second stage and club-theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces events to be presented at OBERON during April and May 2018-including OBERON Presents, Glowberon, and usual suspects, and more.

Now celebrating the 23rd anniversary in Houston and the 26th season since its inception in Brussels, Belgium, Dance Salad Festival promises another gathering of world-class performers. Famous in their own countries, classical, modern and contemporary dance companies/dancers share the Dance Salad Festival stage to form a mix of movement and compelling choreography.

Talk of Melvin began on the West Coast, but the heart of Melvin started beating in the small mountain town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and has since spread nationwide.  Jeremy Tofte founded Melvin Brewing in 2000.  He was working as a waiter at a Thai restaurant called "Thai Me Up" and just like a lot of  new restaurants, it went under.  He talked the landlord into giving him the keys to the space.  After Selling his 1984 Mercedes wagon to pay for a 20 gallon brewing system and a little polishing up, he re-opened and immediately started ruining people's vacations by playing loud hip hop (mostly Wu-Tang Clan) and Kung Fu movies alongside beers from the future, which became the birth of Melvin Brewing Company.

Performing Arts Fort Worth announces its 2018-2019 Broadway at the Bass Season at Bass Performance Hall! Comprised of seven shows, plus two add-on specials, the series offers a mix of all-time favorites with brand-new shows direct from Broadway. Season ticket packages start at $268.40 - that's seven shows for $38 each!

Today's subjects, Bill Largess and Ann Norton, are living their theatre lives as the Artistic Director and Executive Director of one of the gems in our local theatre scene.

LOVE NEVER DIES is an unnecessary sequel to the megahit PHANTOM that wisely skips Broadway and hits the national tour road for ALW fans. The ladies of this evening rule even though the guys are (supposed to be) in charge of the action in this passable evening of musical theatre.

World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence).  Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement atThe Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).  Opening Night is Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

'No other record captures that period so perfectly,' says Elbow's Guy Garvey. 'The concerns of the songs, the stories, the experimental sounds. It was so brave for a band to record themselves at that time: it allowed a direct and undiluted account of the band as aspirational, big-hearted friends in love with making music and each other. It dared us to record ourselves. But they did it first. It's the most deserving recipient of the Mercury Prize in its history: a breathlessly ambitious and lovingly crafted masterpiece. It should be called Bring It 'The F***' On.'

Eva Cassidy's SONGBIRD album was initially released by independent label Blix Street Records in April, 1998.  The posthumous release, an anthology of recordings by the Washington, DC-based singer who had died in November of 1996, is comprised of four tracks from her first solo album, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY(taken from her January 3, 1996 performance with her band at the Georgetown jazz club and locally released a few months before she died); five tracks from EVA BY HEART, the studio album she was recording at the time of her passing, posthumously released locally a year after she died; and one track (Over The Rainbow) from THE OTHER SIDE, a 1992 collection of jazz and blues duets with Washington's Chuck Brown.

2018 Pyeongchang Olympics 2/20 Primetime Highlights

Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "Genius" Basil Twist - returns to its original home at HERE in a 20th anniversary production for 12 weeks only, March 29-June 17. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production is set to open on April 4 and a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.