Let the Right One In - 2014 - West End Articles Page 16

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Marc Cohn performs at Pepperdine University at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.

This Month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

Playwright Payne's evident intent here was to illustrate the fullest range of things that can happen when Boy Meets Girl. Boy and Girl here are, respectively, a Wiltshire beekeeper named Roland (Christian Smith) and a University of Sussex cosmologist named Marianne (Ryan Gunning). We are plunged right into the multifariousness of possibilities as they first encounter each other at a party. Each version of the encounter starts approximately the same way, with Marianne venturing a pickup line about the impossibility of licking one's elbows. But in the first, he is not available, because he is still sorting himself out after a recently ended relationship. In the second, he is married. In the next universe, other facts are different, but he is again married. Only on the fourth a?oeGroundhog Daya?? variation do the variables permit them to proceed. And then we follow them in similar fashion through differently realized smorgasbords of first dates, him proposing, her cheating, him cheating, them breaking up, them encountering each other in a post-breakup context, etc.

The Seacoast Repertory Theatre's production of A Chorus Line represents a full circle in the career of its director, Bryan Knowlton. He has gone from unsuccessfully auditioning for a role in the musical as a youth to performing in its Broadway revival. Now he returns to Portsmouth two decades later to direct a production of the story which often mirrors his life. 

Fifteen years after its first production of the musical, Musical Theatre West revisits the Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME for only its second time---smartly reviving the musical in a similarly lavish production that beautifully converges the show's classic staging and vibe with wonderfully integrated 21st Century tech upgrades that help elevate the material rather than hinder its storytelling. Under the enlightened direction of Paul David Bryant (who also provides the production's high-energy choreography), this brand new, spectacularly engrossing production bellows with an emotional fervor and is one of my favorite iterations of this musical I have seen in recent years. This local revival---which continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through February 23, 2020---is a feast for the senses.

A single-act show, it could use an occasional shot in the arm. Some of the songs drag and none are especially memorable. As bus stories goes, the pacing is a long, long way from Speed. The central love triangle between Violet and two boys on the bus (military officers Monty and Flick) feels all too familiar, and its engagement with the theme of interracial romance (Flick is African-American, Monty and Violet are white) feels underserved in a show that is ultimately about self-shame and misguided faith. Still, the show...

The inimitable Emily Skinner will be headlining 42nd Street Moon's gala fundraiser a?oeCome to the Moona?? on Tuesday, February 4th at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. After bursting onto the scene with her Tony-nominated performance in a?oeSide Show,a?? Ms. Skinner has gone on to star in several more Broadway shows, most recently a?oeThe Cher Showa?? in 2018-19, and performed at top regional theater companies and done innumerable concerts throughout the country. Ms. Skinner's trademarks are a spectacular voice that can move seamlessly from a luscious lower register to a thrilling high belt, an irreverent sense of humor and a deep passion for the classic American musical. She is the type of performer who can dazzle you with her vocal prowess one moment, then make you laugh out loud with a perfectly-timed bon mot, then break your heart with a tender ballad. BroadwayWorld spoke recently by phone with Ms. Skinner from her home base in Manhattan. In conversation, Ms. Skinner is delightfully chatty, smart and warm, sort of a mashup of a gimlet-eyed leading lady from a bygone era, a brainiac specializing in Broadway arcania, and your best friend from high school.

Little Dragon returns with their new studio album New Me, Same Us, available physically and digitally on March 27th on Ninja Tune. Entirely self-produced and recorded at the pioneering Swedish four-piece's long-term home-built studio in Gothenburg, the album is another chapter in the continuing evolution of Little Dragon. The album's infectious lead single “Hold On” is a message about breaking away and moving on, and is a slice of classic Little Dragon awesomeness. “It started out as a slick house track but transformed once Fred played the base through it and we all worked it together,” the band explains. “It became something raw and soulful. It's a simple groove that makes us dance. We can't wait to play it live because once we play it live it most certainly will change again.” Listen to “Hold On” below!

The Drama League (Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Director Bevin Ross) will present the 36th annual *DirectorFest, the only festival in the United States dedicated to the art of contemporary stage directing.

Magnet Theater presents The Eleventh Annual New York Musical Improv Festival from March 12 - 15, 2020 at 254 W. 29th Street, ground floor (between 7th and 8th Avenues), NYC. Most tickets are $5-$15 and feature performances by two to four different musical improv acts per show. Festival Workshops are also being offered to people of all levels of experience! Tickets and Workshops will available for purchase at www.nymif.com.

'The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.' And so ends the Book of Revelation, with Chapter 22, in the New Testament...or does it? In speaking with creator-librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs, I find someone who clearly believes that too much is never enough. Thus, she decided that there was room for one more chapter after the Apocalypse of Revelation 22: REV. 23, an opera making its New York debut at the Prototype Festival 2020.

This winter and spring, Joe's Pub a?" a program and venue of The Public Theater a?" is honoring new voices in musical theater through a variety of shows. From Broadway performers in concert to new musicals presented in the concert setting, there's something for every fan of musicals happening this season. Audiences are invited to celebrate the art of musical theater in non-conventional yet intimate ways with returning artists and new faces alike at Joe's Pub.

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

Soho Rep. today announced technology entrepreneur Victoria Meakin-a board member of seven years-as the organization's new Chair, and acclaimed poet, playwright, and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine as a new board member. Meakin succeeds longtime Chair Jon Dembrow, who will now serve as Chair Emeritus.

25 Shows & Performances in the Tampa Bay Area That Rocked Our World from 2010 to 2019!

Broadway has been home to a lot of incredible shows over the past decade, and what better way to keep on living through those memories than by listening to those cast recordings?

From the songwriting team behind the smash hit, Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen comes A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL which brings the classic 1983 movie to hilarious life on stage at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans Dec. 17 - 22.

The Drama League (Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Director Bevin Ross) announced today the acting company for the 36th annual DirectorFest, the only festival in the United States dedicated to the art of contemporary stage directing. Directorfest will take place January 10 - February 4, 2020 at various locations around NYC: The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street), The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Avenue), and Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street). For festival details and tickets, visit directorfest.org or call (212) 244-9494 x102.

As the 2010s draw to a close, we thought we'd look back at all the incredible theatre of the past decade. What's been your highlight? Here, BroadwayWorld reviewers share some of theirs!

A frothy holiday confection playing out in Hollywood inspired Technicolor-come-to-life is the best way to describe the Shaw Festival's jubilant production of Irving Berlin's HOLIDAY INN now onstage at their Festival Theatre. Based on the 1942 movie of the same name starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, HOLIDAY INN has been overshadowed a bit by the later Berlin hit WHITE CHRISTMAS. But thanks to some crackerjack casting and a huge budget, The Shaw has breathed new life into the 2014 stage version written by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge.

The Drama League announced today the 2020 line-up of DirectorFest: The 36th Annual Directors Festival, the only festival in the United States dedicated to the art of contemporary stage directing. For its 36th year, the festival will include six fully-staged productions, a showcase concert of a new musical, a town hall, and conversations with directors including 2017 Tony Award Winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent), 2014 Tony Award Winner and 2010 Drama League Founders Award for Excellence in Directing Kenny Leon (A Soldier's Play), and Intimacy Director Claire Warden (HBO's Mrs. Fletcher).

There's a new Prince Ali in town! Just last month, Clinton Greenspan took over the title role in Disney's Aladdin, arriving directly from playing the role on the North American tour.

It's an incredible production with a cast that slays Misérables. Some will lament the use of projection mapping, but it's relatively minimal and tastefully integrated within giant, imposing, ever-moving physical set pieces that tower above the audience and create an incredible sense of scale. I won't spoil any surprises, but there are a handful of very neat effects on stage, physical and digital alike. And the lighting design is both gorgeous and brave, unafraid to cast characters in shadows and keep things dark for long periods of time when it fits the mood...

Since its inception in 2015, Jeremy Olander's label and event series, Vivrant, has become one of the most intriguing platforms for the melodic house and techno sound. As a home to new and established artists such as Marino Canal, Khen, Tim Engelhardt, Finnebassen, Henry Saiz, Ejeca and more, Vivrant and Olander have carved out a unique position in the ever so commoditized global electronic dance music scene.

Grammy-award winning American organist Paul Jacobs appears as soloist in Horatio Parker's renowned Organ Concerto with the Nashville Symphony and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero