Life and Fate - 2018 - West End Articles Page 13

Producer Eleanor Lloyd and Nottingham Playhouse have announced that a brand-new adaptation of Dickens' classic Christmas tale written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Adam Penford will premiere at the Playhouse, prior to a Christmas run at London's Alexandra Palace.

Once in a while, you're lucky enough to witness something so special that you are forever changed. I've stared at this computer screen for hours trying to verbalize what is still swirling around in my head, impressions that are seemingly impossible to solidify into communicable thoughts. Last night's performance of Dear Evan Hansen plunged me into deep reflection, something only a handful of shows have accomplished. The show that won six Tony Awards in 2017 and a 2018 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album is in Sacramento now through January 26 for a west coast jaunt of its first national tour.

Dallas Summer Musicals (DSM), in partnership with Broadway Across America (BAA),  has announced the full lineup of Broadway shows coming to Dallas in the 2020-2021 season. The eight-show lineup features fan-favorites, fresh adaptations, and seven Tony Award® winners including 2019's Best Musical, HADESTOWN. Season tickets will go on sale at 12 p.m. on Friday, January 17.

Looking back at the (often unexpected) strides and achievements made in 2010s, Indonesian Broadway-style musical theater is poised for a renaissance in this decade. However, challenges are still abound for Nusantara thespians to keep the momentum going towards sustainable success.

Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) today announced its 2019 funding recipients.  A record fifteen new projects received funding including four funded through the Current Issues Fund, made possible by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Sacred Fools Theater Company is kicking off the new year with the World Premiere of Gifted by Bob DeRosa, directed by Rebecca Larsen. Opening Friday, January 24 and running through February 29 in the Broadwater Black Box, the show will run Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with Sunday performances on January 26, February 2 and 16 at 4pm and one performance on Monday, February 17 at 8pm. 

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced the full company for the world premiere of Eduardo Machado's (Havana Is Waiting, The Cook) Celia and Fidel.

Madison Lyric Stage, a professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, has announced its 2020 mainstage season: a double bill of Puccini's Suor Angelica and Schoenberg's Erwartung in April; the landmark Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band in July; and, for Halloween, the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd. All three productions will be directed by Marc Deaton.

The classic tale of a magical visit to a land frozen in eternal winter under a powerful witch's spell takes a new twist as Bay Area Children's Theatre presents 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' Saturday, February 1 - Sunday, March 15, at the BACT Berkeley Center, 2055 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704, with performances weekends at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4 p.m.

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and Trinity Church Wall Street (Trinity), together with PROTOTYPE: Opera|Theatre|Now, are pleased to announce a multiyear partnership in which BMP and Trinity will commission and produce five cutting-edge new opera-theater works for premiere at the PROTOTYPE Festival over three seasons (2021a?"2023). These comprise a new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-director team Du Yun and Michael McQuilken; two new works by librettist Royce Vavrek, paired with Mary Kouyoumdjian and Julian Wachner, respectively; a work by composer Ted Hearne with text by Halim Flowers and rap from Momolu Stewart; and a work by Paola Prestini with poet Brenda Shaughnessy.

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?

September Mourning are giving their fans a holiday treat with the release of an animated video for 'Overdose' as they simultaneously launch their new 'Volume III' EP. The collection also includes an additional new song 'Madness'. Rounding out the EP are an uncensored version of 'Unholy' and 'Hiding From Heaven'. The band has just announced a new round of tour dates that start in February (see below).

Book-It Repertory Theatre has announced Gus Menary as its Incoming Artistic Director. Menary comes to Book-It from Chicago where he was Artistic Director of Jackalope Theatre. Over the next eight months, he will work closely with Co-Founding Artistic Directors Jane Jones and Myra Platt. As Jones remains the artistic leader of the company until August 2020, she will be able to introduce Menary to Book-It and the Seattle community. He will succeed Jones and Platt in the 2020-2021 season.

Asolo Rep proudly kicks off its winter repertory season with Agatha Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. The classic edge-of-your-seat murder mystery will be brought to the stage with a new adaptation by two-time Tony Award-winning master of farce Ken Ludwig and directed by Asolo Rep Associate Artist Peter Amster. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS previews January 8 and 9, opens January 10 and runs in rotating repertory through March 8 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. 

At its most fundamental, theater is a group of people coming together to tell a story in front of an audience. In its earliest days, that's all it was, basic and pure, without any need for today's technological lights and sounds (not that there's anything wrong with those). Contemporary Theater Company's production of A Christmas Carol similarly keeps it simple, bringing a group of players to the stage to let them work together to tell the audience a timeless yet still magical story.

Renowned songwriter and Walkmen co-founder Walter Martin will release his new album The World At Night on January 31st via Ile Flottante Music. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman (The National, Hiss Golden Messenger, The War On Drugs), the album is Martin's most richly orchestrated and grandly cinematic collection to date, as well as his most poignant. Today he shared two new songs from The World At Night: 'The Soldier,' a vivid character portrait sung from the perspective of his 96-year-old grandfather-in-law, and 'That's All I Need,' a burst of humor and celebration about familial love.

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).

The Rubin Museum of Art has announced its first exhibition of 2020, 'Measure Your Existence,' a new group show organized by guest curator of contemporary art, Christine Starkman. Opening February 7, 2020, the exhibition will feature six contemporary artists who address the fleeting nature of existence through performance, installation, film, sculpture, and photography.

Live Arts Bard (LAB), the residency and commissioning program of the Fisher Center at Bard, announces Where No Wall Remains, the third edition of the acclaimed LAB Biennial, temporarily reconfiguring the Fisher Center as a site for innovative and interactive performances and installations (November 21-24).

The Conspirators invite you to end 2019 with a bang and Rand/Schultz! Chicago's favorite Neo-Commedians are happy as little elves to present Ayn Rand's a?oeIt's a Wonderful Lifea?? as Performed by The Conspirators Under the Direction of Debbie Wasserman Schultz Written by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, Rand/Schultz is an hour-long cabaret satire that highlights the irreverent antics and punk-rock nihilistic tragicomedy The Conspirators are becoming known for. The show runs for TWO NIGHTS ONLY, Friday and Saturday, December 20-21 at 8:00 pm at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago.

Actor Burt Grinstead gained recognition in Los Angeles for his terrific performance in Deathtrap at LGBTQ and later in The Rope at Actors Co-op. He formed his own production company and produced and co-starred in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which he also adapted with his partner Anna Stromberg. They won top prize at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2018. Grinstead is currently preparing to open as Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter at Laguna Playhouse this Sunday November 10. In our conversation he talks about the play in depth and lays bare his passion for the acting profession.

Live Arts Bard (LAB), the residency and commissioning program of the Fisher Center at Bard, announces Where No Wall Remains, the third edition of the acclaimed LAB Biennial, temporarily reconfiguring the Fisher Center as a site for innovative and interactive performances and installations (November 21-24). Co-curated by Lebanese live artist Tania El Khoury, a 2019 Soros Art Fellow, and Gideon Lester, the Fisher Center's Artistic Director for Theater and Dance, this four-day festival considers the subject of borders: political borders, physical borders, historical and contemporary borders, borders seen and unseen, the borders of the body, borders between art forms, between performers and spectators, the borders that divide or define us, borders to be crossed, tested, resisted, destroyed, rebuilt, or transcended. Where No Wall Remains follows The House is Open (2014), which explored the relationship between visual and performing arts, and We're Watching (2017), which examined contemporary states of surveillance. This third edition of the festival features nine new performances and installations by contemporary artists from the Middle East and Central America, commissioned by Live Arts Bard. Please see below for dates and times for each work. 

The Fire This Time Festival, the destination for early career and emerging playwrights from the African diaspora, announces its 2020 dates. The 14-day festival, presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, which annually honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will take place from January 20 to February 2, 2020. This year, seven commissioned dramatists will be presented in repertoire as part of the annual celebration held at the Kraine Theater in the East Village.

The Hollywood Film Awards announced today that Oscar-winning actress, producer, and activist Charlize Theron will receive the coveted “Hollywood Career Achievement Award” at the 23rd Annual “Hollywood Film Awards.”  Considered a true artist, Theron has been known throughout her career to fully transform into the characters she portrays, impressing critics and audiences alike with her ability to honestly and authentically convey their stories with heart and integrity.  She carries this same passion with her behind the camera and beyond, using her voice to speak for others, especially those in need in her home country of South Africa.  As busy as ever, this year Theron returns to the screen for her starring role in the highly anticipated film “Bombshell” alongside Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, where she plays real life journalist Megyn Kelly.  The “Hollywood Film Awards,” hosted by actor and comedian Rob Riggle, will take place on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA.