Love Laughs - 1935 - West End Articles Page 2

Somewhere in the world tonight there are 7 performances of the hit musical MAMMA MIA! onstage entertaining audiences. In fact, the show based on the music by Swedish pop group ABBA, has become so popular that the only continent where a regional or touring production has not occurred is Antarctica, and the show has set the record for premiering in more cities faster than any other musical in history. And after seeing the current 3-D Theatricals production, it's easy to see why audiences continue to fill theaters to experience the fun, spectacle, great music, and overall happy atmosphere generated by this feel-good musical.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open the U.S. premiere of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's Snow in Midsummer, directed by Justin Audibert, on August 5 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Preview performances are August 2, 3 and 4, and the play runs through Oct. 27, 2018.

Summer in the Coachella Valley certainly has a dearth of theatrical choices. However, the companies that do produce shows recognize that hot summer nights call for big, brash comedies. Desert Theatreworks' current offering, The 39 Steps, more than qualifies. The company's Artistic Director, Lance Phillips-Martinez, is the valley's best director of physical comedy, and The 39 Steps is physical comedy on steroids!

The Second Street Players are proud to announce the 2019 Season. 2019 will showcase some classic stories along with  some new shows that have not been preformed in the area yet. There will be 5 Main Stage Shows and 3 Children's Theater shows. With this announcement the Second Street Players are also putting out a call to Directors. Anyone that is interested in directing one of the shows should submit a letter of intent by August 31, 2018.

Exeter Northcott Theatre announces a packed 2018 spring and summer season with tickets now on sale for more than 50 new shows. As a year of 50th anniversary celebrations begin, a diverse programme puts classical drama, new writing and modern adaptations alongside dance, opera, musicals and comedy.

Artistic Director Jeffrey Cass and Executive Director Julie Ann Kornak have just announced BrightSide Theatre's 2017-2018 Season.

When Monty Python's Flying Circus first premiered on television in 1969, few could have imagined how influential the program would become thanks to the inventive minds of its six main collaborators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Known for their surreal slapstick humor which satirized the over-politeness perceived to be the epitome of British culture, the series spawned multiple films, some stage performances, and the outrageously hysterical musical SPAMALOT, mostly based off the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and some of the television show's more memorable skits. The original 2005 Broadway production was nominated for 14 Tony Awards, including the scenery and costumes currently being used in the thoroughly entertaining 3-D Theatricals musical comedy extravaganza from August 4 - 13 at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center and August 18 - 27, 2017 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE), the professional Equity company in residence at the McAninch Arts Center opens its 2017-2018 season with "The 39 Steps," adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan. BTE Ensemble Member Kurt Naebig* directs this zany Hitchcock-inspired whodunit.  Performances runSept. 7-Oct. 8. There will be a preview performance on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.; press opening is Friday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m.

Chill out. Alfred Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS is at the Alley.

Shilvock is hands-on, overseeing in every facet of the company's management

Artistic Director Jeffrey Cass and Executive Director Julie Ann Kornak are proud to announce BrightSide Theatre's 2017-2018 Season - "Season Seven- Cinema to Stage" "Join us as we celebrate three entertaining pieces of theatre created from three award winning films.

The Drama League has announced the 2017 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award. Scroll down for the full list of nominees!

It was just announced by Pulitzer Prize administrator Mike Pride that Lynn Nottage's SWEAT has officially won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 

The award-winning East Lynne Theater Company of Cape May, NJ has announced complete casting for S. N. Behrman's effervescent 1932 comedy, Biography.

The award-winning East Lynne Theater Company of Cape May, NJ has announced complete casting for S. N. Behrman's effervescent 1932 comedy, Biography.

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director, Gabriel Shelian-Shanks) gathers today for the 82nd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony, hosted by 2016 Tony® Award-nominees, Zachary Levi (She Loves Me) and Megan Hilty (Noises Off), in the Broadway Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway). 

The 2016 Drama League Award Nominees for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award were just announced this morning at Sardi's, by Aladdin stars Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed and James Monroe Iglehart. Check out the full list of nominees below!

What do you do if you are bored? If you are Richard Hannay, the major character in Patrick Barlow's THE 39 STEPS, now on stage at Blank Canvas, you go to the theater to see 'something mindless and trivial.' If you, personally are bored and looking for something to fill your time, THE 39 STEPS should fill the bill!

Peninsula Players Theatre, America's oldest professional resident summer theater and Door County's theatrical icon, is thrilled to announce its 81st season performing June 14 through October 16, 2016. Nestled along Door County, Wisconsin's scenic shore, the award-winning acting company of Peninsula Players has been enthralling generations of audiences in its 600-plus seat, all-weather pavilion since 1935, presenting hundreds of pre-Broadway tryouts, world premieres, classic dramas, comedies and musicals.

THE 39 STEPS is a parody of the works of Alfred Hitchcock. It is adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept of a four actor version was by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Patrick Barlow rewrote their adaptation in 2005. The play's concept calls for the entirety of Hitchcock's 1935 film to be performed with a cast of only four. One actor plays the hero, Richard Hannay, an actress (or sometimes actor) plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements, and two other actors play every other character in the show: men, women, children, animals and even the occasional inanimate object. This approach to the film's serious spy story plays entirely for laughs. The script is chock full of allusions to (or puns on the titles of) the canon of Hitchcock films, including The Birds, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest. In a way, THE 39 STEPS is like the love child of Mel Brooks' High Anxiety and Monty Python. The production now playing in Wimberley is a great piece of theatrical fun.

In honor of the show's return to New York this year, BroadwayWorld caught up with Carter, who recently wrapped a run in the West End musical I CAN'T SING! (opposite Cynthia Erivo,) to find out what he thought the made the piece 'a little golden gem,' how he found his footing in the dozens of characters he portrays, and more!

Can you believe that it's already time to celebrate Independence Day - aka The Fourth of July - with the biggest-in-the-country fireworks display right here in Music City USA? We know how to celebrate America's Independence right here in Nashville and we expect even more tourists (playwright/actor/director/producer/bon vivant Del Shores is in town, for example, to get a taste of a down-home good time) than normal to fill our city's streets over the four-day holiday weekend.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Looking for a way to beat the heat this weekend? What's better than sinking into a seat in a darkened auditorium and letting the talented actors onstage whisk you way to a whole different world from the world iin which you toil Monday through Friday? Theater companies throughout the midstate are ready to dazzle you with their latest productions and here are some of this weekend's best bets...