Intermission! the Musical - 2018 - Regional (US) Articles Page 19

The nation's most diverse orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Music Director Mei-Ann Chen are proud to present the finale to the illustrious 2018-2019 season with SoundSketch, a concert rooted in painting portraits in rhythm, blues and beyond. The orchestra puts its own spin on the concept of "the tribute" by highlighting musical icons throughout history in a string-centric program, with MacArthur Genius and violin virtuoso Regina Carter as a featured special guest. Chicago Sinfonietta's performances will occur Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8 p.m. at Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville, and on Monday, May 13, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

Grand Rapids Symphony will conclude its 2018-19 Great Eras Series on Friday, May 3, with a concert titled The 20th/21st Century Concert: Celebrating Women featuring music by women plus a woman as guest soloist.

Daring to dream, to allow one's imagination to soar and one's creativity to thrive is at the core of theater and thanks to a clever and engaging retelling of a time-honored fable now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theatre - Jack and the Giant, the latest offering of ACT 1's 2018-19 season - audiences are reminded of the power of live performance to transport them to another world.

San Jose Stage Company (Randall King, Artistic Director and Cathleen King, Executive Director) has announced the cast and creative team for the final production of The Stage's 36th Anniversary Season, the smash hit ABBA musical MAMMA MIA! The production run from May 29 - July 7, 2019 at San Jose Stage Company (490 South 1st Street, San Jose, CA, 95113). MAMMA MIA! will be directed by Allison F. Rich* (who will also play the role of "Tanya Cresham-Leigh"), with choreography by Keith Pinto (who will also play the role of "Harry Bright"). Martin Rojas Dietrich will serve as Associate Music Director. The press opening will take place on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.

Pure Joy turned into Grief and Terror then finally Relief coursed through me. For 90 minutes, I was completely immersed in the experience that is AMPARO. And that is exactly what AMPARO is; a complete theatrical experience. As I am writing this I can still feel all the emotions I went through when I first participated in AMPARO. I say participated because you don't watch AMPARO, you live it. I also haven't stopped talking about it to anyone who will listen and even now when I describe the experience as I am urging family and friends to GO SEE IT, I get goosebumps. I fear that I won't do the experience justice with my mere words but I will do my best.

There are certain things that really bother me in theater.  One of the biggest is when a theater company that is capable of brilliance presents a show that should be a perfect fit – and unfortunately ultimately delivers a final product that does not meet my expectations.

First Stage concludes its 2018/19 mainstage season with a sparkling new adaptation of TINKER BELL, written by playwright Patrick Flynn and based on the works of Sir J.M. Barrie. This family-friendly adventure brings to the stage characters audiences know and love - Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook - but told all from the unique perspective of the feisty fairy, Tinker Bell. With over a dozen different puppets, original music and even some potent fairy dust, Milwaukee families will get to experience theater magic at its best. The world of Neverland will come to life in the Todd Wehr Theater like it has never been seen before! Audience members young and old won't want to miss taking this fantastic voyage in TINKER BELL.

Stages Theatre Company (STC) is excited to continue its 2018/2019 Most Magnificent Season with The Most Magnificent Thing, based on Ashley Spire's bestselling book published by Kids Can Press. The STEM-inspired production follows a creative little girl, Maggie, who is determined to make the most magnificent thing for her canine best friend but discovers that the invention process is anything but easy. With colorful characters, beautiful music, and a lovable dog, this world-premiere musical adaptation about learning through perseverance and hard work jumps off the page and onto our mainstage on April 12 through May 12, 2019.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, concludes its 2018-19 season with the Tony-winning rock 'n' roll tribute, Million Dollar Quartet. The production will be performed in the company's intimate home at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square, May 3-26, 2019. GLT's production of Million Dollar Quartet will feature a number of Broadway actors from shows such as Monty Python's Spamalot, Hello Dolly!, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Anything Goes and more playing the iconic quartet and supporting roles. Tony-Winning Broadway star, Hunter Foster, directs.

Music Director Jaap van Zweden will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 at the 28th Annual Free Memorial Day Concert, Monday, May 27, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the performance; ticket distribution will begin at 5:00 p.m. The audio of the performance will be broadcast onto the adjacent Pulpit Green, weather permitting. The program will be presented without intermission.

Jack and the Giant is described as "a joyous, heartfelt, and family-friendly new folk musical." This new spin on the classic fairy tale 'Jack and the Beanstalk' has a dynamic score and intriguing new characters. Directed by Jacob Heinz, the world premiere production features Dwayne Benn, Ryan Harrelson, Brett Myers, Caroline Nelson and Alaina Smith who found time this week to answer our questions for the latest Friday 5 (+1) on Thursday...

If you're a fan of the Percy Jackson novels, mark your calendars because lightning will strike the Mahalia Jackson Theatre with the arrival of THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL this April.

San Jose Stage Company (Randall King, Artistic Director and Cathleen King, Executive Director) has announced the complete cast and creative team for The Stage's next production, the World Premiere of Luis Valdez's ADIÓS MAMÁ CARLOTA.Presented in partnership with El Teatro Campesino and directed by Kinan Valdez, ADIÓS MAMÁ CARLOTA will run from April 3 - 28 2019 at San Jose Stage Company (490 South 1st Street, San Jose, CA, 95113). The press opening will take place on Saturday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets range from $32 - $72 and can be purchased through the Box Office at (408) 283-7142 or online at www.thestage.org.

The Key Pianists Series, founded in 2015, will present noted American pianist Terry Eder in recital, Monday evening, April 8, 2019, 8 pm at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (154 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019). The complete program follows:

Oh, those wacky Brits: They love their comedy dry, broad and often rather lowbrow, they adore mistaken identities, hijinks in the bedchamber and a bit with a dog. And that, gentle readers, is exactly what is delivered in the deliciously irreverent, surprisingly heartfelt Shakespeare in Love - Lee Hall's stage adaptation of the 1999 Oscar-winning best film of the same name - now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theatre in a sparkling new production from Nashville Repertory Theatre.

Award winning composer and pianist Dustin O'Halloran (Marie Antoinette, Lion, Transparent) whose “sublime” and “enveloping” (DIS) music creates “altered states” (Mojo) teams with choreographer and Company Wayne McGregor member Fukiko Takase to explore ideas of technology, humanity and mind-body dualism in a new electronics-forward existentialist performance 1 0 0 1. As we approach the age of AI, the collaborators ask: how will a new form of consciousness manifest inside a body? What will happen to our soul? 

New York Live Arts (Live Arts) to present the world premiere of Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug's Darkness Odyssey Part 3: Non-Opera, Becoming, April 3-6, 2019, having commissioned the work as part of the Live Feed Residency Program. A co-presentation with Mount Tremper Arts, the final installment of Yamazaki's Darkness Odyssey series, is a non-operatic dance celebrating the bridge between 'this self' and 'the other self.' Bessie Award winning Yamazaki magnifies the ever-changing state and process of 'becoming' while encouraging exchange between performers from different dance practices, and cultural backgrounds.

In 2017, the Broadway musical version of Anastasia (which opened at Hartford Stage nice months earlier), based on the 1997 film, featuring music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally debuted to much fanfare, and now Nashville audiences are in the thrall of the cast and crew of the national touring company, onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, March 24.

The National Music & Global Culture Society will present the rising Norwegian star, violinist Eldbørg Hemsing and internationally noted Azerbaijani pianist Nargiz Aliyarova in recital at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (111 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10023) on Wednesday evening, April 24, 2019 at 7 pm. The program-entitled 'From East to West'-will focus on solo and chamber works from both Norway and Azerbaijan.

The AA Arts Incubator Program of Asian Improv Arts Midwest (AIRMW) is pleased to announce that its historic series, 'Our Perspective: Asian American Play Readings,' continues with its second reading in 2019. The next reading is the comedic full length play Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon by Matthew C. Yee, Monday, May 13, at the Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre, 1700 N Halsted St, at 6:30 p.m. The running time is 90 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $8 for general admission seating and may be reserved online at steppenwolf.org. Seating is limited. For any additional information about the event, go to Our-Perspective.com or call 773.972.6745.

San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon (Daren A.C. Carollo and Daniel Thomas, Co-Executive Directors) has announced the full cast and creative team for Moon's next production, the 8-Time Tony Award-nominated musical 110 IN THE SHADE. Based N. Richard Nash's acclaimed 1954 play THE RAINMAKER (the basis for the 1956 film starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn),110 IN THE SHADE features music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones (THE FANTASTICKS), and a book by Nash adapted from his own play.

Performance Space New York in collaboration with Arika and the Whitney Museum of American Art presents I wanna be with you everywhere, a gathering of, by, and for disabled artists and writers and anyone who wants to join in a series of programs that refuse policies of individuation and inclusion in favor of (and in the flavor of) whatever disability aesthetics has in bodymind. Organized by Arika, Amalle Dublon, Jerron Herman, Carolyn Lazard, Park McArthur, Alice Sheppard, and Constantina Zavitsanos, the festival features performances and readings by Eli Clare, John Lee Clark, Kayla Hamilton, Johanna Hedva, Jerron Herman, Cyr e Jarelle Johnson, Camisha L. Jones, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Jordan Lord, NEVE, Akemi Nishida and Alice Sheppard.

Adapted for family audiences from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, BIG RIVER: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of Huck and his friend Jim, a slave, as they travel along the mighty Mississippi River. Huck tries to help Jim escape to freedom and reunite with his family.

Leslie Odom Jr., who rose to national fame after his show-stopping debut performance as Aaron Burr in the Broadway smash hit "Hamilton," will be making his debut with Pacific Symphony March 15-16, under the baton of guest conductor Matt Catingub for a full night's show, including intermission. A stellar performer of Broadway and American classics, Odom, Jr.'s show will include numerous hits from "Hamilton," the evergreen jazz gem "Autumn Leaves," "Joey Joey Joey" and a Nat King Cole medley.

 Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) continues its Spring 2019 season on Friday, April 12, 2019 at 7:30pm with a performance by St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble +Adam Rosenblatt, percussionist, at BAC's Jerome Robbins Theater (450 W. 37th Street). Rosenblatt will perform Belgian composer Thierry de Mey's theatrical and dramatic piece Light Music, in which movements and gestures produce light and sound through interactive technology. This interdisciplinary solo performance will be bookended by Viennese classics - Joseph Haydn's festive Divertimento for Strings from 1754 and Joseph Lanner's charming 19th century waltzes, performed by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. These virtuosic musicians make up the artistic core of the renowned Orchestra of St. Luke's - who share the performing arts complex with BAC at 450 W. 37th Street.