Life With Father - 1939 - Broadway Articles Page 12

The Skirball Cultural Center announces the line-up for its eighteenth annual free Sunset Concerts. Circumnavigating the globe from the Americas to Africa, the 2014 season features a dynamic mix of traditions and styles. The schedule is as follows: the California debut of Noura Mint Seymali (tonight, July 24); the California debut of Conjunto Chappotin y Sus Estrellas (July 31); The Haden Triplets (August 7); Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca & Los Texmaniacs (August 14); Yiddish Tango Club (August 21); and Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys (August 28).

The entire Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra organization was saddened to learn of the passing Maestro Lorin Maazel, who served as the orchestra's music director from 1984 to 1996. Maazel, age 84, died on July 13, 2014 in Virginia from complications following pneumonia.

Dear Bookworks Bookworm, I read a book this month that I had every intention of liking, but didn't. It had a story line that interested me but the characters were one dimensional and flat and the writing that was not worth writing home about. Rather than review a book that disappoints, I decided to review a movie that I had just seen with Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche, Words and Pictures. This is a movie well worth the ticket price. It is always a pleasure seeing a movie where actors do what they should be doing best, acting and where writers are doing what they should be doing best, writing.

Asolo Rep's 2014-2015 season Historic Asolo Theater production will be Pulitzer and Greenfield Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz's lyrical new play, Sotto Voce. This exquisitely observed metaphysical romance will be co-directed by Asolo Rep's Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards and playwright Nilo Cruz, who crafted the Spanish translation for Hamlet, Prince of Cuba at Asolo Rep in 2012. Sotto Voce, which had its world premiere at the Theater for the New City in February 2014, opens Thursday, April 2, 2015 in the Historic Asolo Theater and runs through Sunday, April 26, with previews on Tuesday, March 31 andWednesday, April 1. The title of this celebrated new work is an Italian musical term that means to speak in a soft manner with purpose.

The Pear Avenue Theatre's closing production of its 13th season celebrates the 100th anniversary of a classic play from one of our most revered and beloved playwrights, George Bernard Shaw. Written in 1912, Pygmalion premiered on the London stage in April, 2014, and became an instant hit for Shaw and his leading lady, Stella Campbell, in the role of Eliza. Audiences for the last century have enjoyed this timeless tale of an East End flower girl and her West End phonetics tutor. Pear veteran actor and director Michael Champlin helms the production, which runs today, June 20 through July 13, 2014 (no performance on July 4th).

Bucks County Playhouse has announced Marsha Mason has joined the cast of its new production of Ira Levin's Deathtrap, directed by Evan Cabnet. Mason, who is currently directing the Playhouse production of Neil Simon's Chapter Two that begins performances tonight, will play the role of the mysterious Helga Ten Dorp. The comedy thriller begins performances tonight, June 19.

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Alexander Fraser, Robyn Goodman, Stephen Kocis, and Josh Fiedler announce complete casting for the remaining 2014 75th anniversary summer seaso

The Pear Avenue Theatre's closing production of its 13th season celebrates the 100th anniversary of a classic play from one of our most revered and beloved playwrights, George Bernard Shaw. Written in 1912, Pygmalion premiered on the London stage in April, 2014, and became an instant hit for Shaw and his leading lady, Stella Campbell, in the role of Eliza. Audiences for the last century have enjoyed this timeless tale of an East End flower girl and her West End phonetics tutor. Pear veteran actor and director Michael Champlin helms the production, which runs June 20 through July 13, 2014 (no performance on July 4th).

Bucks County Playhouse has announced Marsha Mason has joined the cast of its new production of Ira Levin's Deathtrap, directed by Evan Cabnet. Mason, who is currently directing the Playhouse production of Neil Simon's Chapter Two that begins performances tonight, will play the role of the mysterious Helga Ten Dorp. The full cast and creative team will be announced shortly for the comedy thriller that begins performances Thursday, June 19.

The Segal Centre for Performing Arts will present the World Yiddish premiere of Soul Doctor: Journey of a Rock Star Rabbi, the new bio-musical based on the life of the controversial father of popular Jewish music, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre presents the Yiddish version of the 2013 Broadway bio-musical written by Daniel S. Wise with lyrics by David Schechter from June 8 to June 29, 2014. Presented in Yiddish with English and French supertitles.

The Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, Calif., will again welcome six prominent national tours as part of the Broadway in Riverside 2014-15 Season lineup, as well as offer a season special add-on opportunity.

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.

First produced in 1939, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by American playwright Joseph Kesselring is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the 'Mayflower,' but now composed of insane homicidal maniacs. This classic play has been produced around the world and will continue to be done as long as audiences love to laugh at the outrageous situations and over-the-top characters, especially the eccentric, and frequently murderous and disturbed, family.

odman Theatre announces that a new production of The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author and Academy Award nominee, completes its 90th Anniversary 'Season to Celebrate.' Goodman Artistic Associate Henry Wishcamper directs the 1939 classic American Southern drama that 'could not be more timely, as the play's social skewering remains satisfyingly fresh' (Los Angeles Times). The Little Foxes is slated to appear today, May 2 - June 7, 2015 as the fourth production in the 2014/2015 Season, followed by Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which runs June 20 - July 26, 2015.

In celebration of the anniversaries of the 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York World's Fairs-both of which took place in Queens-Museum of the Moving Image will present an exhibit of films that were made for the fairs and which reflect post-World War II-era optimism and focus on American industry as central themes. The exhibit, The World Comes to Queens: Films from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, featuring excerpts from six films, opens today and will be on view through August 31 in the Museum's Video Screening Amphitheater.

Goodman Theatre announces that a new production of The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author and Academy Award nominee, completes its 90th Anniversary 'Season to Celebrate.' Goodman Artistic Associate Henry Wishcamper directs the 1939 classic American Southern drama that 'could not be more timely, as the play's social skewering remains satisfyingly fresh' (Los Angeles Times). The Little Foxes is slated to appear May 2 - June 7, 2015 as the fourth production in the 2014/2015 Season, followed by Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which runs June 20 - July 26, 2015.

Australia

The Skirball Cultural Center announces the line-up for its eighteenth annual free Sunset Concerts. Circumnavigating the globe from the Americas to Africa, the 2014 season features a dynamic mix of traditions and styles. The schedule is as follows: the California debut of Noura Mint Seymali (July 24); the California debut of Conjunto Chappotin y Sus Estrellas (July 31); The Haden Triplets (August 7); Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca & Los Texmaniacs (August 14); Yiddish Tango Club (August 21); and Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys (August 28).

Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) leads celebration of Marian Anderson on 75th anniversary of her Lincoln Memorial concert Soprano Jessye Norman, composer Ysaye Barnwell, opera singer Soloman Howard and vocalist Annisse Murillo (respectively an alumnus and current member of WPAS's Children of the Gospel), and an extraordinary 300-voice choir led by WPAS Gospel choir Artistic Director Stanley Thurston are just some of the talented artists who will join together under the banner of the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS) for Of Thee We Sing: The Marian Anderson 75th Anniversary Celebration.

Wicked has been wowing audiences all over the world. The show sells out wherever it goes and people can't seem to get enough of it. Many have fulfilled the role of the Wizard and made their marks. Walker Jones is one of the lucky ones to be in the dream role and is currently touring throughout North America.

Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson. While Robeson and Anderson are probably names that many Americans can identify, Hayes probably is not.

'Making a Rose After the Diaspora' by Eva Ross is an intimate look into a woman's lifelong journey of overcoming adversity.

Due to the sudden death of guest vocalist Alexei Mochalov's wife, tonight's February 7 program of Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica at the Harris Theater has been changed. Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Concertino, Op. 42 and Benjamin Britten's Young Apollo, Op. 16 replaces the previously scheduled Antiformalist Rayok by Dmitri Shostakovich and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10. With the addition of Concertino, Op. 42, audience members will have the extraordinary opportunity to hear two works featuring violinist Gidon Kremer. Kremer also leads Kremerata Baltica in Weinberg's Symphony No.10 for strings, Op.98, appearing onstage in three of the evening's four works.

Prepare yourself for a glorious night of vintage Hollywood as you're invited to the wedding of the year, and what a swell party it is gonna be!

Due to the sudden death of guest vocalist Alexei Mochalov's wife, the Friday, February 7 program of Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica at the Harris Theater has been changed. Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Concertino, Op. 42 and Benjamin Britten's Young Apollo, Op. 16 replaces the previously scheduled Antiformalist Rayok by Dmitri Shostakovich and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10. With the addition of Concertino, Op. 42, audience members will have the extraordinary opportunity to hear two works featuring violinist Gidon Kremer. Kremer also leads Kremerata Baltica in Weinberg's Symphony No.10 for strings, Op.98, appearing onstage in three of the evening's four works.