Meet the People - 1940 - Broadway Articles Page 6

La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts presents a fascinating, stirring look at patriotism - and what it means to be an American - with YOU'RE A GRAND OLD RAG, aptly named thanks to the famous Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, celebrating the music of the legendary George M. Cohan on June 30that 2 PM. Recognized even today as the iconic Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cohan became synonymous with Americanism through his rousing songs "Over There," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Give My Regards to Broadway" and more. Today, the national dialogue brings this Congressional Gold Medal winner front and center.

Janis Stevens gives the performance of the year in a show that you won't be able to shake for a long time.

The Happenstance quintet delves into Ancient Greek Mythology with guest artist Craig Jaster generating a live musical score. In a pared-down 1940's aesthetic a chorus of workers assembles lightning bolts and mines the Underworld. Like Sisyphus they must endlessly repeat their tasks.

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, proudly announces its 10th Anniversary Season featuring five new commissioned works and five reprises from six different countries. The 2019/20 season continues ArtsEmerson's commitment to international work and to contemporary artistic forms including circus, mixed media, music theatre and first person narrative all from diverse perspectives. The landmark anniversary season will feature the world premiere of Detroit Red (produced by ArtsEmerson and written by Will Power) which uplifts Malcolm X's under-examined, life-shaping experiences as a young man who called Boston home. It will also feature the U.S. Premiere of Plata Quemada (TEATROCINEMA), the gritty true story of Argentina's most daring bank heist.

NATIVE SON, a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright, tells the story of 20-year of Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in 1939. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic inevitability behind them, making the case that there is no escape from his destiny since he is the inevitable product of the society in which he has lived since birth, faced by expectations imposed upon him by others tasked to teach him the proper way for a Black man to live in society. It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly the case in Wright's original story which could have been written today, given the similar news stories filling the airwaves right now involving police beatings of Black men and gun violence leading to senseless murders.

Actress Fay McKenzie Waldman passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of April 16th at the age of 101. She was born February 19, 1918 into a show business family where she was the youngest of two sisters and an actress cousin, and made her screen debut at only ten weeks old in "Station Content" (1918) in which she was carried in the arms of Gloria Swanson. Her parents, Eva & Bob "Pops" McKenzie were already veteran performers and apparently wanted their daughter to get an early start in films. She nearly stole the show from Oliver Hardy as "the baby" in the Alice Howell short "Distilled Love" (filmed in 1918 but released two years later). By the time she was six, Fay was considered an old hand, having played diverse parts in her father's stock company. Among her early films was the 1924 Photoplay Medal Winner, "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln." 

The 96th season of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will conclude on Saturday, May 11, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. with "Coming to New York - Immigrant Voices," the fourth program in this season's series of YPCs, Music Across Borders.Conducted by Thomas Wilkins, co-hosted by Mr. Wilkins and Philharmonic Teaching Artist Jihea Hong-Park, and directed by Habib Azar, the program will use music and storytelling to explore personal and collective identities in America. The program will feature selections from Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra; Girl from the Da Ban City from Huang Ruo's Folk Songs for Orchestra; Tumbao from Roberto Sierra's Sinfonia No. 3, La salsa; Enough! I Intended To Leave You from Kareem Roustom's Aleppo Songs for Orchestra; and Hero Brothers and Arbol de Sueños from Gabriela Lena Frank's Peregrinos. 

Park Theatre today announced their new July - December 2019 season. Featuring four World Premiere productions, two UK and London Premieres and a range of revivals from Broadway and the West End, the theatre also introduces a revised young person's membership scheme called Park Up.

'Native Son' is a heavy drama with an important story to tell. But what makes this production really shine is Psalmayene 24's guiding emphasis on "radicalizing empathy." In Mosaic Theater Company's production, the audience isn't asked to excuse Bigger, but to try to understand him. That understanding, that empathy, it's suggested, can go a long way in ensuring that the circumstances surrounding Bigger's story can maybe be kept in the past.

Pear Slices is like a box of chocolates - there's something for everyone's taste! Each spring Pear Theatre patrons gather at Mountain View's intimate theatre company for this collection of original, short plays from the members of the Pear Playwrights Guild. Pear Slices 2019, directed by Robyn Ginsburg Braverman and Troy Johnson, previews on May 2, with press and Opening Night on Friday, May 3, followed by a champagne gala.

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre strums a power chord with "Seven Guitars." August Wilson's reflective play about African-American life in Pittsburg in the late 1940's is now on stage at the Warwick Theatre. See what makes these characters tick in this time-bomb of a play. At the Warwick on Main ind Kansas City, MO through March 10, 2019

The Morris Museum is pleased to announce the return of What Makes it Great  on Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 2:00PM after its successful first outing this past October. This program features Rob Kapilow and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party who will delve into the music of Duke Ellington.  After the program, there will be a complimentary reception to meet and mingle with the performers.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Welcome to a new week full of Broadway goodness! Catch up on the latest news below!

Nine Spitfire veterans from Southampton and Portsmouth came face to face with members of the cast from Nuffield Southampton Theatres critically acclaimed play The Shadow Factory at a special after show meeting held on the stage.

Golden Globe-winner Clive Owen (Closer, Children of Men) returns to London's West End for the first time in 18 years to play Rev. T. Laurence Shannon in THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA at Noel Coward Theatre, in a new production directed by James Macdonald. Book tickets here! 

If you're looking for something to do on or around Valentine's Day in and around Albuquerque , look no further! These shows will not disappoint. From Los Lunas to Albuquerque, there are several productions that would be a wonderful way to spend an evening or two.

Irish Repertory Theatre announced today special events and programming for the month of February as part of the The Sean O'Casey Season, celebrating 30 years of Irish Repertory Theatre.

The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre presents Joe Landry's retelling of the motion picture and holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life (IAWL) December 6-16 at the Warwick Theatre.

American Repertory Theater will be presenting the classic Americana story MEET ME IN ST LOUIS in a radio-play/ song & dance format set in the 1940's. Showdates are December 14th & 15th, 21st & 22nd with all showtimes at 8 pm. There will be one Saturday matinee on December 15th at 4 pm. All shows will be performed at the company's new how at 545 Elmwood Avenue, in the heart of Buffalo's Elmwood strip. Prices are $20 General Admission and $15 for students and members of the WNY arts community. 

Love is in the air at PlayMakers Repertory Company. That's because the musical romance SHE LOVES ME opened earlier this week at the Paul Green Theatre as a love letter to the Triangle to ring in the holiday season. It's a familiar story, especially to fans of the rom-com film genre. Boy and girl meet through a lonely-hearts club ad and begin corresponding through a series of letters. Little do the pair know that the object of their affection may be someone they already know, perhaps even a coworker at that shop around the corner. Inspired by the 1937 play PARFUMERIE by Miklos Laszlo, SHE LOVES ME opened on Broadway in 1963. Two revivals followed one in 1993 and the other in 2016. The latter revival, starring Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, Jane Krakowski, and Gavin Creel, broke the Guinness World Record for being the first Broadway show to be live-streamed. If the plot sounds familiar, it just might be because Laszlo's 1937 play also spawned the 1940 Jimmy Stewart film 'The Shop Around the Corner,' the 1949 Judy Garland movie musical 'In the Good Old Summertime,' and the 1998 film, 'You've Got Mail,' starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

'Mula Sa Buwan,'the original Filipino musical, based on the Edmond Rostand play 'Cyrano de Bergerac,' written by Pat Valera (concept, book, and lyrics) and William Manzano (lyrics and music), returns for a third time, now through November 25, 2018, at the brand new 800-seater theatre at the Hyundai Hall, Arete at Ateneo de Manila University. Get tickets from Ticket2Me.net.

Ironically, Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play 'Parfumerie' was not produced in the United States until 2009. Yet that did not stop the Hungarian hit from becoming the inspiration for a whole host of American films, plays and musicals: first the 1940 film, 'The Shop Around the Corner' with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, then in 1949 as 'In the Good Old Summertime' with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, then in 1998 as 'You've Got Mail,' with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It also inspired the 1964 musical by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, (the team behind 'Fiddler on the Roof').

NETWORK begins previews tonight, November 10 at Broadway's Belasco Theatre. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

A 1930s comedy for Christmas, Jeannie by rediscovered female playwright Aimee Stuart will open at the Finborough Theatre for a four-week limited season on Tuesday, 27 November 2018 (Press Nights: Thursday, 29 November and Friday, 30 November 2018 at 7.30pm).

Milwaukee Ballet opens their 2018-19 season with Michael Pink's world-renowned Dracula, just in time for Halloween. The production will run Oct. 25-28, 2018 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.