Leave It to Me! - 2001 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 14

Feeling the urge to let your imagination run wild, your spirit to soar or to just leave the world in which you live and go on an adventure? Sounds like a trip to the theater is in order! Luckily, companies all over the Volunteer State have been hard at work, creating new productions to transform and to transport, shows that will entertain you this summer. That's where THE NASHVILLE THEATER CALENDAR comes in handy: Peruse our listings every week to find out what shows you should see!

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! According to my iPhone today is Monday, 22 May 2017 - the weekend, busy as it was, is over and we're left hankering for a few days off in order to relax and rejuvenate…which makes us ponder this musical question: What are your plans for next weekend? In our mind, of course, our mama is warning us that such queries are symptomatic of us 'wishing [our] life away,' as she would always admonish us to live in the now instead of trying to leap-frog over the next five days. So sayeth my beloved mama: 'Live life dramatically.' Therefore, a nap might have to suffice…

Drew Cohen, President of Music Theatre International (MTI), announced today that MTI will represent the secondary stage performance rights to five musicals by the legendary writing team of Lerner & Loewe, including their masterpiece My Fair Lady, the beloved classics Camelot, Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, and their newly-restored early work, The Day Before Spring.   MTI, from June 1, will begin representing My Fair Lady in the US, the UK, and all English-language territories, and will represent the four other titles on a worldwide basis. (Some restrictions may apply).

Queer|Art has announced the new Mentors for the 2017-2018 program cycle of Queer|Art|Mentorship. Applications open June 1st.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Most will give the world premiere performances of Topos, a new work by Anthony Cheung, at the Orchestra's Severance Hall concerts May 18 and 20, 2017.  Mr. Cheung is in his second season as the Orchestra's ninth Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow.  Prior to each of the concerts on May 18 and 20, Cheung will participate in a 'Meet the Composer' talk in Reinberger Chamber Hall with Rabbi Roger C. Klein of The Temple-Tifereth Israel.

SFIAF 2017 has announced its performance listings. The full Festival lineup with project descriptions is as follows (projects listed chronologically by discipline: dance, music, theatre/ performance art). An online calendar is available here.

There are 29 shows at the Tampa Fringe Festival. Why is the psychological thriller Dark Vanilla Jungle the one you can't miss?

The Pilot Dance Project will present the final evening-length production at the Pilot on Navigation, formerly Frenetic Theater, before the independent black box theater closes its doors on May 15.

San Francisco Ballet, long recognized for pushing boundaries in dance, has announced its 2017-18 Season program and schedule. This summer, SF Ballet will return to Festival Napa Valley for one performance only on Friday, July 21, 2017, accompanied by members of the SF Ballet Orchestra. In addition, this October, the Company will once again participate in World Ballet Day LIVE, a day-long streaming event (details to be announced).

Folger Theatre concludes its very successful 25th anniversary season this spring with Shakespeare's gripping tragedy Timon of Athens.

Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Michelle Branch will release her highly anticipated fourth studio album Hopeless Romantic on April 7, 2017, through Verve Records.

Theatre legend Fatima Dike styles herself as a playwright, director, teacher and mentor. Her latest directorial work, the staging of Pfarelo Nekamonde's THREE'S A CROWD at the Guga S'Thebe Arts & Culture Centre, is currently on the boards. Dike found time during rehearsals to answer some questions about the production and the vibrant cultural scene in Langa.

In the Dark Times will there also be Singing? The San Francisco International Arts Festival takes Bertolt Brecht's rhetorical question as its theme for 2017 (and beyond) and forms the bedrock of a commitment to develop an artistic platform that addresses the dangerous domestic and foreign policy political abyss currently confronting the United States of America.

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network announced today it has ordered two new docu-series that will join its popular Saturday night programming line-up later this year.

It is a known fact that any cold heart can be warmed by a seven foot mute monster in tap shoes singing Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz". If you happen to be a fan of Mel Brooks' film Young Frankenstein, you already know this. But, if you happen to be like me and have never seen the iconic film, you need to go see The Des Moines Playhouse's production of Young Frankenstein immediately.

The Skirball Cultural Center today announced details about its West Coast presentation of Paul Simon: Words & Music, an exhibition originally curated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Coachella Valley Repertory's DISGRACED examines identity and prejudice. It is expertly performed, timely, and searing and will almost definitely leave a lasting impression on theatregoers.

The Minnesota Orchestra announces plans today for Sommerfest 2017, unveiling a celebratory summer festival in which the Orchestra salutes two of its artistic leaders: Doc Severinsen on his 90th birthday, and Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, who has announced that this summer will mark his final season as the head of the festival. Running from July 3 to August 5, Minnesota Orchestra's summer season includes two tribute concerts to Pops Conductor Laureate Severinsen; performances by Litton and his friends André Watts, William Wolfram and New York City Ballet dancers; and culminates with the opera Litton has long wanted to conduct in Minnesota, Strauss' Salome. The summer season also involves the annual Symphony for the Cities concerts, two previously announced regular season programs and the return of the Minnesota Orchestra Fantasy Camp.

The Virginia Arts Festival presents Brooklyn-based dance company Urban Bush Women (UBW) in the world premiere of Hair and Other Stories on Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m. at the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk, Virginia. Tickets are $20-$35, available online at vafest.org, by phone at 757-282-2822 or at the Virginia Arts Festival box, 440 Bank St., Norfolk (10 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday).

Enchantment abounds as the season continues with the Bay Area Premiere of Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard and Lee Hall's effervescent romance, Shakespeare in Love, coming to MTC this holiday season. In the Elizabethan era, when women are forbidden to become actors, what's a stage-struck lady to do? Lady Viola de Lesseps adores plays, especially those by a young writer named Will Shakespeare, but can only look on longingly as men and boys perform them. Will, meanwhile, has his own struggles: his inspiration fled, his debts and unwritten commissions piling up…until he meets an unknown young player named Thomas Kent, who speaks his words as he's always dreamed they'd be spoken, and a beautiful woman named Viola, who could be just the muse he needs. Under the direction of MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis, this stage adaptation of the beloved film finds its true essence: a love letter to the power of theatre and the imagination.

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 at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive on: George C. Wolfe.

Today, BWW speaks with Geno Carr about making his Broadway debut in a musical which proves that even when horrible things happen, the human spirit will always prevail.

Today Ryan Adams released his first album of all new original material since 2014's Ryan Adams. The launch of Prisoner coincides with the announcement of a tour for Ryan Adams and his band. The tour includes a show on June 18 at the brand-new Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City.

'Hopeless Romantic' (Available 4/7) marks Branch's first solo album since Grammy nominated Hotel Paper (Certified Platinum) and is produced by Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) and Gus Seyffeert (Beck, Norah Jones, Sia)  Hopeless Romantic weaves a tale of love-lost and found. 

I am reminded that one of the beauties of dance is not always to tell a story but to evoke an idea that lives on its own wild life within each member of the audience and echoes out into our individual, very real lives long after we leave the theatre--and Alvin Ailey does just that.