Like Other People - 1963 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 18

Lorna Luft... and The Beatles? That's right. Lorna Luft, famous for her Broadway belt and her concerts that pay tribute to The American Songbook and the musical legacy of a legendary Lady with whom she shares a special bond has a brand-new show, and it's an extremely personal one because it's all hers.

New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), is proud to continue its mission of educating and inspiring young musicians through its Orchestra, Jazz, Chamber Music, Composition, Musical Theater Composition, Apprenticeship Conducting, and First Music commissioning programs. This season includes seven world premieres of new works commissioned through the First Music program, composed for the Orchestra, Jazz, and Chamber Music ensembles. The season also features renowned and up-and-coming soloists including prodigy pianist Harmony Zhu, 2019 Sphinx Competition winner cellist Sterling Elliott, and leading young pianist Michelle Cann in the Carnegie Hall premiere of Florence Price's recently re-discovered Piano Concerto in One Movement with NYYS Orchestra, as well as in-demand drummer Matt Wilson, celebrated saxophonist Steve Wilson, and trombone virtuoso Wycliffe Gordon with NYYS Jazz. The complete NYYS 2019-2020 concert calendar follows at the end of this press release.

Four-time Grammy nominee and folk/rock innovator Chris Hillman chronicles his storied music career alongside long-time musical partner Herb Pedersen at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Saturday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.

When it comes to Tony Award snubbing, there are several artistic high crimes and misdemeanors. For instance, Fiorello! winning Best Musical over Gypsy, or the good Music Man besting the better West Side Story. Or how about this awful upset: Two Gentlemen of Verona (the since-forgotten musical) beating both Grease and Follies for the top honor. Perhaps worst of all is this: Even though A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM was Stephen Sondheim's first and most successful Broadway show as a composer and lyricist, and even though it would win six of its eight nominated Tony Awards in 1962-1963 (including Best Musical), Mr. Sondheim himself was not even nominated for his lyrics and score. A show that features some of the most beloved comic songs from the early 1960's--'Comedy Tonight,' 'Lovely,' and 'Everybody Ought to Have a Maid'--wasn't even nominated for these iconic numbers. (For the record, Oliver! won that year for Best Score.) Broadway's greatest composer would have to wait almost a decade to receive his first Tony Award.

Bill Hanney's award-winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) continues the 2019 Musical Season with JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. This special extended engagement plays for four week starting Tuesday, August 6 and playing thru Sunday, September 1, 2019. JERSEY BOYS is sponsored by Abiomed.

They have held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for over 50 years, playing music that is nothing less than a vibrant living history. Whether tapping into New Orleans' Afro-Cuban roots on their last recording, or providing a "joyous, wide-ranging account…crammed with fascinating facts and toe-tickling tunes" (New York Times) in the award winning award-winning documentary "A Tuba to Cuba," Dixieland jazz - a deeply American music - is deepened further in their capable hands. The Harris Center is proud to welcome them back to Folsom.

Tickets for State Theatre New Jersey's 2019-20 Broadway Season, featuring Tony Award-winning hits, beloved classics, and some returning favorites, goes on sale Friday, July 19 at 10am.

Theatre Aspen announced today that three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee, Beau Bridges, has been added to the organization's inaugural one-person show festival, Solo Flights, in Coach: An Evening with John Wooden, a new one-character play about legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, written by John Wilder. Coach: An Evening with John Wooden will open the festival on Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00pm and play an encore performance on Saturday, September 21 at 4:00pm.

Charley Pride: I'm Just Me will make its BBC network premiere Friday, July 5 at 9:30 p.m. BST on BBC4. The program will also be available to view on BBC iplayer for 30 days after its broadcast on BBC Four.

Westport Country Playhouse, in association with Hershey Felder Presents, will stage a musical tribute to Irving Berlin, one of the most successful songwriters of the 20th Century, with "Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin," from July 16 - August 3. 

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural and language center, today announced the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival, featuring 11 performances and a gallery exhibition from a geographically, generationally, and artistically diverse group of artists whose work transcends genres and boundaries. All performances are world, US, or New York premieres; they are united by their convention-breaking fearlessness as they confront topics from social injustice to personal demons. Many of the performances pay homage to legendary artists of our time and previous eras, while the theme of migration and its transformational effects on identity informs several others. The festival runs from September 12 to October 12. Ticket are available at crossingtheline.org.

Theatre for a New Audience founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz, having just received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 OBIEs, today announces TFANA's 40th anniversary season. The 2019-2020 programming exemplifies what makes TFANA, in the words of the OBIE committee, one of the city's most vital institutions championing adventurous and urgent productions of Shakespeare alongside other writers.

The Palace Theater is observing its 15th performance season this year since re-opening in 2004 and the programming reflects this milestone worthy of celebration.

Today the Merce Cunningham Trust announces Summer & Fall 2019 programming for the worldwide Merce Cunningham Centennial, which unites artists, companies, and cultural and educational institutions in a celebration of Cunningham's vital impact. Launched in the fall of 2018 and continuing throughout all of 2019, the Centennial honors Cunningham's legacy across continents and artistic disciplines. The diversity of activities and participating partners demonstrate the profound, enduring resonance of the choreographer's work and his approach to how the body moves in time and space.

The Almeida Theatre today announces two new Almeida Young Company shows.

When Emily Whitlow takes the stage and croons "I Fall to Pieces" or another of Patsy Cline's greatest hits at Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick this month, the 22-year-old will be immersing herself in the music of her hometown.

I must applaud Everyman Theatre's Artistic Director Vince Lancisi for having the brilliant idea of ending its season with two plays by Caleen Sinnette Jennings in repertory: QUEENS GIRL IN THE WORLD and QUEENS GIRL IN AFRICA. What a genius!

On May 18, more than 200 elementary students from the Oklahoma City Public School District will have the extraordinary opportunity to sing and dance on the Civic Center Music Hall stage as the result of a grant awarded to Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma by Disney.

Arthur, Guenevere, Lancelot, Merlin-these names spark the imagination and bring to mind images of knights, swords, castles, and magic. The tales of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the legendary Camelot are the subject of myriad novels, movies, TV shows, songs, plays, and musicals. From the 1938 tale The Sword the Stone (which was made into the animated film by Disney in 1963) to the 2008 TV series Merlin to the 2005 Broadway show Monty Python's Spamalot (based on the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail), for generations these stories have taken us on magical adventures. The 1960 musical Camelot, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe is based on the T.H. White novel The Once and Future King. Camelot comes to life at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre May 9-June 22. Check out our interview with Matthew Blake Johnson, who can be seen on stage at Dutch Apple as Mordred in Camelot.

On the heels of its spectacular, sold-out run of the Yiddish presentation of Fiddler on The Roof, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) has announced the 2019-2020 season. For the first time ever, NYTF will present a season with four mainstage productions with a flexible season subscription. The productions, concerts and readings were curated to accompany the incoming exhibit Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage beginning on May 8, 2019.

OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES has garnered rave reviews across the country, and I can certainly understand why it's kosher for a Jew to be a ham after watching these five talented and energetic actor/comedians take over the stage. Sets of jokes are broken into categories, with the titles displayed on a large screen at the back of the stage, upon which we also see various settings where jokes are set. Starting with Birth and Childhood, they move through Dating and Courtship, Business and Money, Marriage, Religion, Assimilation, School., Doctors and Retirement, making fun of everyone while the audience roared with laughter.

To celebrate the longstanding relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, BritWeek launched its annual event in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on Wed, 4-24-19 with the World Premiere of the new 60th anniversary documentary film 'THE CAVERN CLUB: The Beat Goes On' which shares the story of a Club whose fortunes have ebbed and flowed in tandem with that of the city of Liverpool itself. Not just the launch pad for The Beatles, The Cavern is landmark place that has embraced the ever-changing music scene, enduring the highs and lows, the dramas, the battles, the heartache, but above all… the music.

Over the course of each Broadway season, unexpected and unique storylines inevitably pop up. This morning, with the announcement of the 2019 Tony Award nominations, a number of new narratives have come to life.

Beehive: The 60s Musical, takes audiences on a musical journey from hip to groovy to raw, from innocence to loss of innocence, and how the evolution of the music of the decade impacted and propelled the female empowerment movement. You are guaranteed to leave singing some of your favorite 60s tunes for hours, maybe even days afterwards!

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE is Tony Kushner's (book and lyrics) semi-autobiographical, sung-through musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori (FUN HOME), that had its origins Off-Broadway in 2003, before transferring to Broadway in 2004 for 136 performances and receiving six Tony nominations. In the ensuing years, it had numerous productions in regional theaters and London, and it has long been on Moonbox Productions' short list, according to Producer and Artistic Director Sharman Altshuler. Under the direction of Allison Olivia Choat, the Moonbox staging is a solid effort with a cohesive ensemble, excellent musical direction and vocals, and vivid design elements. Yewande Odetoyinbo is a force in the title role.