If They Could See Me Now! - 1984 - London Articles Page 6

Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the 1988 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for St. Elsewhere, and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for My Favorite Year. She had previously received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the film version of My Favorite Year (1982). Her other film appearances include The Delta Force (1986), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Beaches (1988), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016). Kazan made her Broadway debut in The Happiest Girl in the World in 1961 followed by Bravo Giovanni (1962).

Angels in America:  Millennium Approaches is not just a national treasure, it is a glimpse of history in the making; it is a then-marginalized community seizing the stage, demanding attention, and beginning the long process of changing hearts and minds across the country.  To watch the kaleidoscope of characters, brilliantly portrayed here by some of Washington DC's finest actors, can be incredibly moving.  Not just for the performances themselves, which are memorable indeed, but for how those performances remind us of the changes this play made possible.

The Next Stage Theatre Festival returns this January with a lineup of ten theatre companies that showcase the very best indie theatre in the country.

'It was pretty hardcore, you sink or swim; I went into the deep end of the pool, but I was determined and I was just thrilled to be jamming with these guys. Meeting Otis Rush; playing with Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Junior Wells. I can't believe I'm actually doing all this! I was 22, 23 years old.'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ The nation's best will be competing at the USA Track & Field Masters Championships at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, Today through Sunday, July 14-17. Forty current world champions and approximately 100 defending US champions are among 1018 athletes who will take part in 2560 events, including 104 participants from Michigan in 187 events, with many Grand Rapids area stars.

Marc Robin and Samantha Hewes-Cramer bring the movie to life on the Fulton stage. Kevin Bacon may not be dancing through a warehouse, but there's still a lot going on, dancing and otherwise, in Bomont.

There seems to be a trend in the choices theaters are making regarding musicals they produce. Maybe it's a desire to attract younger audiences, or it's the popularity of comic book heroes as the subject of television shows and movies, but like it or not, the age of 'unusual' protagonists is here.

Ballet Preljocaj, under the direction of Angelin Preljocaj, opened its New York premiere engagement of Empty Moves (Parts I, II, & III), to Empty Words, by John Cage, on April 20, 2016, when I had the opportunity to attend. Preljocaj has created 45 choreographic works for his company, formed in December 1984, ranging from solo to larger formations. His productions (49, to date) are now part of the repertoire of many companies, many of which also commission original productions, notably La Scala of Milan, New York City Ballet, and the Paris Opera. I was excited to see the work of this acclaimed contemporary choreographer, aware that his dancers are known to be very good.

Tom Viertel, exec director of the Commercial Theater Institute, talks about how his organization trains people to produce on Broadway.

Tim Robbins truly relishes the value and reach of theatre; and he persistently works to disseminate it throughout the world. We got a chance to talk with Tim, co-founder of The Actors' Gang and its current Artistic Director, the day after his latest directorial project ORWELL'S 1984 opened. See any of the productions Tim has directed and be challenged only not to be entertained, but thinking about what the play is saying.

In her latest intimate and in-depth conversation with a New York cabaret star, BWW reviewer/writer Remy Block learns more about veteran singer/performer Meg Flather, who has just won a 2016 MAC Award for Best Original Song and is currently performing a critically acclaimed show PORTRAITS at Don't Tell Mama.

The great playwright and drag artist recalls his early days at Alphabet City's Limbo Lounge.

Should you ask Bryce McDonald to point out the year of his life in which it was changed - irrevocably, but most certainly, for the better - chances are he would have difficulty in pinning down the most significant time in his life. He might select 1984, the year he first attended a show at Cumberland County Playhouse (it was Annie), or 1996 when he first stepped onto the CCP stage as a young man (in Oliver!) or it might be 1999, when he first began to train as a stage manager at the iconic Crossville theater (again, it was Annie) that has become 'home' for countless theater artists over the years.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was originally a short story penned in 1953 by Dorothy M. Johnson (1905 - 1984), who wrote numerous articles and stories with Western themes. In 1962, Valance was adapted for motion pictures in a blockbuster film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, James Stewart, and Lee Marvin, in the title role of the sadistic gunslinger who is taken on by Stewart, who portrayed a tenderfoot attorney new to the dusty town of Shinbone. Jethro Compton's new stage play is based on the short story instead of the movie, getting its start in England in 2014. The Rubicon Theatre Company's new production marks the play's American debut, starring Gregory Harrison in the role of Bert Barricune, the equivalent of John Wayne's Tom Doniphon in the film. Reviews of the play have called it 'gripping drama' and 'consistently absorbing.' We spoke with Jenny Sullivan, who is directing Rubicon's production and she talked about the process of presenting a subject that has become much more famous through the film adaptation than for the original story.

In his early days circa 1984, when he won 13 consecutive weeks on TV's Star Search, Sam Harris was flatly denied work on TV and in film because he was labeled 'too theatrical'. This quality - and I say quality - is what makes a performer exceptional; it sets him apart from the crowd, separating the men from the boys, so to speak. But casting people and agents frankly did not know what to do with him; his enormous talent defied categorization. He can sing, he can dance, he can act the bejesus out of a piece, injecting so much raw energy and passion into it that its substance literally leaps off the stage, directly into our hearts. Well, times did change. He has worked on television and on Broadway to great acclaim, and now he is back onstage once more with his autobiographical show HAM: A Musical Memoir for a limited run at the Renberg Theatre of LGBT, Hollywood through February 7 only.

Now that 2015 is squarely in the rearview mirror, and everyone is back to work after the holidays, it is time to take a look at some of the best films of the past year. As was the case with my Top 15 TV Shows of 2015 list, this is not intended to be a comprehensive list. I am one man, and I have not yet seen every major movie released last year. However, as I continue to work through screeners and upcoming screenings (I live in Orlando, so not all of the awards-bait has been released here yet), I will count down the top 2015 releases that I saw during the calendar year. Notable omissions are BRIDGE OF SPIES, THE REVENANT, THE DANISH GIRL, and CONCUSSION, all of which I hope to see by the end of the week.

You can take the writer out of the theatre, but you can't take the theatre out of the writer. For the past 20 years, Aaron Sorkin has been one of Hollywood's most successful scribes. From THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT to THE WEST WING to THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and many more remarkably successful projects in between, he has continually redefined the way audiences appreciate complex and intelligent characters. However, the writer made his name with his 1989 Broadway play A FEW GOOD MEN. Three years later, when the now iconic story made its way to the big screen, Sorkin wrote the screenplay, and his career as a screenwriter was born. However, with his latest film, STEVE JOBS, which opens nationwide on Friday, Sorkin proves that he still knows how to write an incredibly powerful three-act stage play, even if it just so happens to appear on the big screen.

·         In 2016 the Royal Court Theatre celebrates its 60th birthday by looking towards the future. The new season includes six world premieres, five UK and worldwide collaborations, one European premiere, a major collaboration with LIFT, a partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas, the return of Open Court and ongoing work in Tottenham and Pimlico.

Mark Benninghofen is known to many from years of performances at the Guthrie, on screen and in the ad world but not so much in musicals. Learn more about the man and this musical and get to Latte Da to see it pronto.

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been a mainstay at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) since 1995, and has become identified with actor/director William McNulty, who eight years ago was invited to forge his own adaptation of the horror classic. The result only intensified audience demand and acceptance, and the play now stands as the second holiday perennial (with A Christmas Carol) for Louisville's highly acclaimed regional theatre. This interview with Mr. McNulty was originally published in 2013 by Arts-Louisville.com, and covers Dracula as well as the veteran actor's long association with Actors Theatre.

Before The Spice Girls, before The Supremes…there was The Andrews Sisters. During the late 1930's and 1940's the original girl group were a global sensation, their records sold in the millions and their music still resonates to this day.

Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton, stars of the film, Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain, will be among the participants kicking off the Seventh Annual Kat Kramer's Films That Change The World cinema series highlighting socially significant films,

Coming to New Orleans tomorrow night is an act that no JERSEY BOYS loving theatergoers, including myself, are going to want to miss! THE MIDTOWN MEN, four original cast members from the Broadway hit JERSEY BOYS (Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer) have come together and have formed their own music group which brings to life the music of the 60's in what's sure to be an energy packed show.

The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are presenting the 24th annual New York Jewish Film Festival at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, January 14-29, 2015.

I talk to Rahul Varma, Canadian playwright and Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre. We discuss his play BHOPAL, now for a limited time at Houston's own Shunya Theatre. He talks critiquing India, critiquing Canada and spinning the messy straw of life into first words on a page, and then people on the stage.