In April - 1915 - Broadway Articles Page 16

Music has the power to touch the human spirit, transcending time, place, boundaries and language and spurring understanding and connection. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck are deeply committed to music's ability to promote and spread a spiritual and universal message, and to that end invite the public to two free "Music for the Spirit" concerts on Thursday, November 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair and on Saturday, November 22 at 8 p.m. at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School in Cranberry.

On February 12, 1915, the Abrons Arts Center's Henry Street Settlement Playhouse opened its doors on the Lower East Side. Since that day, it has remained a vital cultural resource, providing audiences with artistically bold work while offering artists opportunities to dynamically grow.

L.A. Theatre Works celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2014-15 with a season of ten radio-theater productions, each recorded by a star-studded cast in front of a live audience for future radio broadcast, distribution on CD, digital download and online streaming. All performances take place at the 300-seat, acoustically vibrant James Bridges Theater located on the campus of UCLA in West Los Angeles. In addition, the company heads out on its 10th annual national tour.

Victory Gardens Theater presents the 2014 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian Quijada; Lack and Lack by April Fools (Kristiana Colon & Damon Williams); Sender by Ike Holter; Slingshot by Kia Corthron; Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath; For Tomorrow, Please Prepare by Paul Downs Colaizzo; and Cocked by Sarah Gubbins. The festival will take place today, July 24-27, 2014. The IGNITION festival creates a productive environment for both emerging and established playwrights to explore and develop their new work.

Victory Gardens Theater announces the complete lineup for the 2014 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including Where Did We Sit on the Bus? by Brian Quijada; Lack and Lack by April Fools (Kristiana Colon & Damon Williams); Sender by Ike Holter; Slingshot by Kia Corthron; Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath; For Tomorrow, Please Prepare by Paul Downs Colaizzo; and Cocked by Sarah Gubbins. The festival will take place July 24-27, 2014.

Houston Grand Opera drew the season to a close with hit new productions of Das Rheingold and Carmen that prompted CultureMap Houston to conclude: 'This is, without doubt, the epitome of early twenty-first century opera production. It's where we are going, and it's thrilling.'

Artistic Director Charles Bruffy brings his two professional Grammy winning choirs, the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale, together to perform the pinnacle of Russian sacred music, Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. Bruffy has led the Kansas City Chorale since 1988 and the Phoenix Chorale since 1999. The concert takes place tonight, May 23, 2014, in Kansas City at Redemptorist Church, 3333 Broadway.

If you are even a semi-regular reader of this column of reviews, you know that about every three or four months, I post a compilation of observations of shows from the previous quarter of the year. This cabaret critiquing mash up happens for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I admittedly see too many cabaret shows for the amount of time I have to promptly review them (and then, of course, the usual writer's procrastination sets in). So I have to prioritize the timeliness of the reviews based on the prestige of the performer, the length of a show run, the strength (or lack thereof) of the performance, etc. The quality of the shows in these compilations—which can range from a half dozen to a dozen reviews in one shot—are usually a mixed bag of outright raves, qualified positives, and constructive pans (I'm not a fan of the word “negative” in the reviewer lexicon). With that in mind here are a collection of cabaret show reviews going back to the start of a very harsh winter.

New Ground Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House's annual showcase of new theatrical works will open with the world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's thought-provoking Informed Consent. The Festival is comprised of 25 performances of works ranging from fully-produced, large-scale collaborations to solo performances, to readings of plays hot off the writer's printer that represent a variety of new work from nationally-recognized artists. This year's lineup also includes work from Tony Award nominee and CWRU/CPH alumna, Elizabeth A. Davis, as well as critically acclaimed playwrights George Brant and Eric Coble, and Roe Green Award Winner Heidi Schreck. For the third consecutive year, the Roe Green Award brings a leading American playwright to Cleveland to develop a new project culminating in a reading and public conversation with the playwright. CPH is indebted to Honorary Producer Roe Green, Supporting Sponsor Ohio Savings Bank and Associate Sponsors Ulmer & Berne, Westlake Reed Leskosky and Walter Haverfield. The New Ground Theatre Festival will run from today, May 7 - 17.

The 2013-2014 season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with the compelling world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent. Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center, this incredibly thought-provoking production is inspired by the real life court case between the Havasupai Indian tribe and Arizona State University, and sparks an intriguing debate on both ethicality and morality. Directed by Sean Daniels and Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth, Informed Consent will serve as the centerpiece to CPH's 2014 New Ground Theatre Festival and will run from today, April 23 - May 18 in the Second Stage.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast today, April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village).

New Ground Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House's annual showcase of new theatrical works will open with the world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's thought-provoking Informed Consent. The Festival is comprised of 25 performances of works ranging from fully-produced, large-scale collaborations to solo performances, to readings of plays hot off the writer's printer that represent a variety of new work from nationally-recognized artists. This year's lineup also includes work from Tony Award nominee and CWRU/CPH alumna, Elizabeth A. Davis, as well as critically acclaimed playwrights George Brant and Eric Coble, and Roe Green Award Winner Heidi Schreck. For the third consecutive year, the Roe Green Award brings a leading American playwright to Cleveland to develop a new project culminating in a reading and public conversation with the playwright. CPH is indebted to Honorary Producer Roe Green, Supporting Sponsor Ohio Savings Bank and Associate Sponsors Ulmer & Berne, Westlake Reed Leskosky and Walter Haverfield. The New Ground Theatre Festival will run from May 7 - 17.

The 2013-2014 season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with the compelling world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent. Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center, this incredibly thought-provoking production is inspired by the real life court case between the Havasupai Indian tribe and Arizona State University, and sparks an intriguing debate on both ethicality and morality. Directed by Sean Daniels and Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth, Informed Consent will serve as the centerpiece to CPH's 2014 New Ground Theatre Festival and will run from April 23 - May 18 in the Second Stage.

GRAMMY-winning conductor Charles Bruffy brings his two professional choirs, the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale, together to record an album of Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. The anticipated release date is the spring of 2015, to mark the 100th anniversary of the world premiere of the All-Night Vigil, which was performed by the Moscow Synodal Choir on March 10, 1915.

The multi-talented British singer, actress and writer, NINA KRISTOFFERSON, debuted her passionate and exhilarating, self-penned, one-woman show 'Billie Holiday Story' in 2011 at the Edinburgh Festival. Following a sellout season at London's Charing Cross Theatre in the spring of 2013, Nina will now be hitting the road in April and May 2014, taking her critically acclaimed show about the life of Lady Day to audiences around the UK.

Raven Theatre's 32nd Season, under the theme 'Family Business,' will include four plays exploring the nature of family ties, according to Producing Artistic Director Michael Menendian and Co-Artistic Director JoAnn Montemurro.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Asolo Repertory Theatre announced its 2014-2015 season and the third season of its ambitious five-year American Character Project, an in-depth exploration of the soul of this country's people, past and present. Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards and FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training Director/Asolo Rep Associate Artistic Director Rep Greg Leaming presented both season line-ups to more than 350 patrons in Asolo Rep's Mertz Theatre.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village). It is the first part of a trilogy (called 'The Road to Damascus' in earlier translations) that has been described as 'Strindberg's most complex plays' and as 'his greatest plays,' due to their synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form. August Strindberg Rep will present Part 2 in March, 2015 and Part 3 in 2016. It will be the first time the trilogy will have been presented complete in any language in 99 years.

Diamond Head Theatre (DHT) will present Show Boat. The stars come out for DHT's Show Boat! Diamond Head Theatre is proud to present a simply stellar cast for its upcoming production of Show Boat. We have secured the very talented opera singer Lea Woods Almanza to play 'Magnolia Hawks'-plus direct from Honolulu's run of Disney's The Lion King, John Sloan III who will be playing the unforgettable 'Joe' and performing the classic "Ol' Man River"! The show also features Anthony Feliciano as 'Gaylord Ravenal" joined by Fedrico Biven as 'Captain Andy Hawks,' Lisa Konove as 'Parthy Ann Hawks,' Tricia Marciel as 'Julie LaVerne,' and Alison L.B. Maldonado as 'Queenie.'

Artistic Director Charles Bruffy brings his two professional Grammy winning choirs, the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale, together to perform the pinnacle of Russian sacred music, Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. Bruffy has led the Kansas City Chorale since 1988 and the Phoenix Chorale since 1999. The concert takes place on May 23, 2014, in Kansas City at Redemptorist Church, 3333 Broadway.

Quintessence Theatre Group concludes its fourth season of progressive classic theatre with its first American masterpiece, Eugene O'Neill's MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA directed by Alexander Burns. MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA will begin previews on Wednesday, April 2 at 6:30pm and open on Saturday, April 5 at 7pm. All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave in Mt Airy, Philadelphia, 19119. To purchase tickets visit www.QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 215.987.4450.

The 49th season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, which will run from November 2, 2014 through May 10, 2015, was announced today by Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director. Highlighting the season are the return of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, led by Riccardo Chailly and of Michael Tilson Thomasconducting the London Symphony Orchestra. The "Art of the Song" series returns in 2015 with recitals by four outstanding vocal artists. The 2014-2015 season also features a period-instrument chamber orchestra series, a recital series, and a film series, and includes pre- and post-concert discussions and lectures. A new series, "Complimentary Classical" will bring four compelling string quartets to the David Rubenstein Atrium in free concerts in 2015.

The multi-talented British singer, actress and writer, NINA KRISTOFFERSON, debuted her passionate and exhilarating, self-penned, one-woman show 'Billie Holiday Story' in 2011 at the Edinburgh Festival. Following a sellout season at London's Charing Cross Theatre in the spring of 2013, Nina will now be hitting the road in April and May 2014, taking her critically acclaimed show about the life of Lady Day to audiences around the UK.

Frank Kafka's terrifying but bizarrely comic story Metamorphosis bursts onto the stage in a theatrically explosive new version by renowned British playwright and director David Farr (Associate Director of Royal Shakespeare Company) and actor/director Gisli Örn Gardarsson, of the award-winning Icelandic theatre company Vesturport.

Now entering its 99th season, the Seagle Music Colony, the country's oldest and one of its most respected summer vocal training programs, continues its longstanding tradition of presenting both operatic and Broadway fare to audiences both young and old.