Leave It to Me! - 2001 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 8

Happy December! Are you counting down the days to Christmas? At BroadwayWorld, we've decided to recount (pun intended) our favourite shows of a numerical theme - some of which you can currently see around the UK - over the course of advent.

The national tour of 'Come From Away' is warming hearts across America. A 'Best Musical' winner all around the world, the smash hit musical has won the Tony Award for 'Best Direction of a Musical' (Christopher Ashley), 4 Olivier Awards (London) including 'Best New Musical,' 5 Outer Critics Circle Awards (NYC) including 'Outstanding New Broadway Musical,' 3 Drama Desk Awards (NYC) including 'Outstanding Musical,' 4 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (North American Tour) including 'Best Production,' 4 Helen Hayes Awards (D.C.) including 'Outstanding Production of a Musical,' 4 Gypsy Rose Lee Awards (Seattle) including 'Excellence in Production of a Musical,' 6 San Diego Critics Circle Awards including 'Outstanding New Musical,' 3 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards including 'Best New Musical,' 3 Dora Awards (Toronto) including 'Outstanding New Musical/Opera' and 'Outstanding Production,' and the 2017 Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award (Toronto).

Sierra Repertory Theatre is celebrating 41 years of continued artistic and entertainment excellence in Tuolumne County. The recently announced 2020 Season of plays and musicals has already seen an influx of Season Subscribers rushing to reserve their tickets. 

One Performance Only! This Sunday, November 3, 2019! Long ago but not far away at all, there were many TV Variety Shows, Award Ceremonies, Music Centers and Theatre abounding with live Musical Performances, all with massive budgets; and dancers in this town, Los Angeles, made a darn good living, albeit having to work their asses off to do so, but it was a good and plentiful, fulfilling life. Besides myself, there was a plethora of working, professional dancers who ended up bonding together pretty easily, as a dancer's life is one of a nomad, or gypsy, going from one job to another, but in doing so, finding kindred spirits and lifelong connections. Jay Johnson, husband of one of these dancers and artistically gifted himself, was part of the artistic community, as was his wife, Sandi, and, typical with dancers, became close friends and comrades with other dancers, choreographers, and like-minded performers. As Jay was earning international fame as a ventriloquist, actor and comedian, and starring on the hit TV Series 'Soap,' us dancers were slaving away, happy to be able to make a living doing what we loved. Jay is best known for his role on ' Soap' as Chuck Campbell, a ventriloquist who believed his puppet Bob was real and demanded everyone treat Bob as human.

The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC), a nonprofit cultural arts center, announced today Edie Demas is stepping down as Executive Director.

Tenor Carl Tanner is in San Diego to sing Radames, the lead male role in Verdi's Aida, a role he's already sung 145 times before. We met to discuss his background and career just before he was due at a rehearsal. Tanner's is the most unlikely tenor in the history of opera.

Internship application season is officially underway! To help you navigate it all and prepare you to apply, we're giving you an inside look at some of the New York theatre community's most coveted internships, including Feinstein's/54 Below, Marathon Digital, and more to see what the day-to-day intern life is like and what these companies look for in applicants. Check it all out!

Only through September 15th can you catch the recent Broadway hit Come From Away at Wharton Center in East Lansing. This poignant yet uplifting tale opened up on Broadway in 2017, and has since launched productions all over the world.

Making its Michigan-debut as the season opener at Wharton Center September 10th through the 15th, Come From Away is about the story of the 38 planes that were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, on 9/11. BWW Detroit got the opportunity to talk with Marika Aubrey, who is currently playing Beverley, Annette, and others on the Come From Away national tour.

Keeping us gasping is what Cabaret in all of its incarnations has always been about. Gasping at the opulence, gasping at the decadence, gasping at the heedlessness and the horror. It is intentionally strong stuff, and if it delivers, then it succeeds. And by that yardstick, this version, whatever it may or may not owe to its predecessors, is a smashing success.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts Producing Artistic Director BT McNicholl announces its most ambitious and a?oeSpectacular, Spectaculara?? season of special events ever! Revel in the unmistakable sounds of THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS and THE FOUR FRESHMEN and to the songs of country legend TRAVIS TRITT; sing along with MOULIN ROUGE and THE LITTLE MERMAID, and do the time warp with ROCKY HORROR's Dr. Frank-N-Furter!  

Returning to Revealed Recordings after 3 years since his last solo release 'Blaze', Dutch driving force Dannic once again collaborates with UK vocalist, DJ and producer Harrisonwith 'Burn Me Down', their first release together since 2015's acclaimed 'Mayday' also featuring LuckyDate.

Porchlight Music Theatre's 25th anniversary season began with the 14th Annual Chicago Sings concert: Chicago Sings 25 Years of Porchlight, Monday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m., at The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave, directed by Christopher Pazdernik and Artistic Director Michael Weber with music direction by David Fiorello and a band featuring Kelsey Boltz, Cara Hartz, John McCreary, Greg Strauss, Celeste Park and Jake Saleh.

The Huntington Theatre Company's annual Summer Workshop began rehearsals July 9 and will conclude in public readings of four new plays on July 20 and 21, 2019. The workshop allows selected members of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program two weeks to focus on developing new plays. The workshop and public readings will take place in the South End at the Huntington's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston. 

Last week we brought you a backstage look at some of the instruments played by  Come From Away band member Ben Power. Today, we take a closer look at even more instruments with Romano Di Nillo, Caitlin Warbelow and Carl Carter!

The Television Critics Association (TCA) announces the nominees for the organization's 35TH Annual TCA Awards. Comedy duo Desus & Mero, stars of the TCA-nominated Showtime series of the same name, will host. The 2019 TCA Awards, a celebration of all things television, honors the best series, creators, and stars of the 2018-2019 season. More than 220 professional television critics and journalists from the United States and Canada voted.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann begins performances on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre tonight June 28. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

Live Arts at the Morris Museum, a bold new performance series, introduces cultural climate change to Morris County's Morris Museum in historic Morristown, New Jersey. Innovative artists from around the world and around the area will dominate the season with world and regional premieres of the most interesting new work being created in music, dance and theater. Live Arts at the Morris Museum is the brainchild of the new Curatorial Director of Live Arts, Brett Wellman Messenger who comes to The Morris Museum by way of The Santa Fe Opera and Peak Performances.

Ritz' production of Big Fish is whimsical, funny and charming. It is emotional tapestry of sentiments that will leave you undoubtedly laughing, smiling, and sometimes teary-eyed. This father-son musical is relatable, teaching us to 'be the hero of your story' (make the most of life and create your own destiny). Big Fish is a family musical about the important role of stories in our lives, and will make you appreciate your own family's anecdotes.

There's an unfortunate guffaw in the otherwise well-calibrated British thriller of '46, 'Dead of Night,' when Mervyn Johns (Glynis' dad), sensing he's sinking into insanity, brings a shaky hand to his forehead and says, 'I've got to get to a mental specialist.'

To celebrate the release of beloved songwriter, guitarist and singer JJ Cale's Stay Around, Because Music will release an exclusive 7' vinyl for Record Store Day on April 13. The B-side features “Worrying Off Your Mind,” a bonus track from 2009's Roll On.

Razzmatazz, glitz, glamour, intrigue: 42ND STREET is filled with these classic themes, which is why it still thrills audiences decades after its premiere.

Remember Henry Albertson? Sure, you do. He's that ancient, arthritic, fragile/agile but eternally game actor who traveled by stage trunk from scene to scene throughout the longest-running musical of all time, 'The Fantasticks.' You may even remember during one exit, just as the lid was closing, he managed to peer urgently out of the trunk at the audience and implore them, with proper theatrical flourish, 'Remember me -- in light.'

 In 1962, fifty-seven years ago, the magnificent TONY BENNETT recorded "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."  The song was honored with two Grammy Awards, including "Record of the Year" and gave Tony a signature tune that, as he delights in saying, has made him "A Citizen of the World."  Last March, the classic was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as "an aural treasure worthy of preservation." Now in 2019, and about to turn an ageless 93, the legendary performer -  himself a world treasure - continues to leave his heart in each song that he sings and in every aspect of his life.

In anticipation of opening night of Theatre Calgary's production of Billy Elliot, I sat down with Dance Captain Amber Bissonnette to talk about her career and life as a dancer. 'I got started in dance when I was five. My second cousin's mom owned a dance studio and my mom and my sister had just moved to Edmonton - where I'm from - and she was looking for a way to keep us busy. I started singing and acting when I was about thirteen and it was all downhill from there.'