Oh, What a Night - 1999 - West End Articles Page 13

Pioneer, innovator and the voice of an entire new musical theatre generation coming in the dawning of the age of GLEE, Tony Award recipient and Grammy-winning composer, lyricist and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda has merged the worlds of the two most significant of original American art forms - musicals and rap - in such a striking and surprisingly inventive way with his hit musical IN THE HEIGHTS - currently touring the country - and is setting out to do the same with his fresh collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning NEXT TO NORMAL composer Tom Kitt on their new musical BRING IT ON!, currently in previews out of town in Los Angeles as it eyes New York. In addition to discussing the development of IN THE HEIGHTS and BRING IT ON! in detail, Miranda and I also outline his experience working alongside the two modern-day masters of the musical theatre - Stephen Sondheim and the recently deceased Arthur Laurents - on the Spanish translation and new lyrics for the recent bilingual revival of WEST SIDE STORY - in addition to his forthcoming ALEXANDER HAMILTON project, which Miranda recently performed a medley from for President Obama himself at the White House Poetry Jam. As if all of that were not enough, we also delve into his thought process as he sets out to take on one of Sondheim's most challenging roles in all of musical theatre - that of Charley Kringas in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at Encores!, under the direction of James Lapine. Plus, news on his new feature film THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN, as well as recollections of his fondest Broadway shows, scores, cast albums, movie musicals and general musical and theatrical inspirations - and his favorite Shakespeare plays, too - as well as much, much more!

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, offers world-class Classic Soul, R&B, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Comedy, Revue and Cabaret entertainment.

Triple-Platinum Recording Artist Aaron Carter, who burst onto the pop music scene in the late nineties and quickly achieved worldwide superstardom and the adoration of millions of loyal fans, will join the cast of The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical, on Monday, November 7, 2011.

Soho Theatre's Season begins with a vibrant and packed programme spanning Theatre, Comedy and Cabaret performed across three performane spaces (and the seminar room).

Today we have a super-special DVD and Blu-ray overview as we take a look at and listen to five brand new Blu-rays hitting the shelves in October, including two stunning Blu-ray debuts of two of Quentin Tarantino's seminal 90s films - PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN. While Tarantino won his only Oscar to date for his screenwriting work on PULP - a credit he shared with co-storywriter Roger Avery - it is his studied, mature and delicate directorial work on JACKIE BROWN that won over many film fans who may have found a bit too much flash, pop, sizzle and razzmatazz in the packed-to-the-gills PULP. Although, if all the Tarantino tough guy talk and off-the-wall soundtrack selections are not quite your speed, we also have three early Halloween selections sure to send some shivers up your spine, with MANHUNTER, HANNIBAL and the recent remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. While MANHUNTER was the movie-going public's first glimpse of what became the most beloved movie villain of all-time - the cannibalistic genius himself, Hannibal Lector - it was in a very different, completely different guise: noted stage and screen actor Brian Cox plays the role that eventually was made famous (and Oscar-winning) by Anthony Hopkins in the second film of the Hannibal Lector series, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (by Jonathan Demme), just a few short years after Michael Mann's treatment of the original Thomas Harris novel, RED DRAGON. Of course, RED DRAGON was also made into a movie of the same name recently, directed by Brett Ratner and featuring an all-star cast comprising Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ralph Fiennes, Mary Louise Parker, Ed Norton, Harvey Keitel and many more. While many film fans certainly cite SILENCE as the finest Lector film - and it very well may be - my personal bias is for Ridley Scott's daring and gruesome 1999 hit, HANNIBAL, starring Hopkins alongside Julianne Moore in the role of Clarice Starling (made famous by Jodie Foster, who passed on the ultra-violent script), which is also finally getting the Blu-ray upgrade along with Mann's MANHUNTER. Then, there is the witty and disturbing remaining of one of the most scandalous and prurient torture porn films ever made - created long before that term was ever coined; in the age of Eli Roth and the SAW series - Wes Craven's harrowing horror revenge tale, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Recent PROMISES, PROMISES on Broadway star Tony Goldwyn was a recent InDepth InterView participant and told me about how pleased he was with this remake and while it does not have the seedy voyeuristic bent of the original, it makes an impact in a new and equally entertaining way. Whether checking out one or all of these superb new Blu-ray releases you are assured a memorable movie experience, just as the temperatures begin to cool and you yearn for nights of warmth inside away from the elements.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, offers the finest in world-class Classic Soul, R&B, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Comedy, Revue and Cabaret entertainment.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, offers the finest in world-class Classic Soul, R&B, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Comedy, Revue and Cabaret entertainment.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, offers the finest in world-class Classic Soul, R&B, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Comedy, Revue and Cabaret entertainment.

Academy, Tony and four-time Emmy Award nominee Bob Balaban; acclaimed 'White Collar' television star Matt Bomer; Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown; celebrated playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer; two-time Academy Award-nominated, multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning, two-time Tony Award-winning actor John Lithgow; Tony Award nominee and Broadway Impact Co-Founder Rory O'Malley; and Emmy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Whitford will appear in the world premiere of '8' on Broadway, joining the previously announced Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei. The production is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which eliminated the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples in California.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, offers world-class Classic Soul, R&B, Traditional Pop, Jazz, Comedy, Revue and Cabaret entertainment.

Academy, Tony and four-time Emmy Award nominee Bob Balaban; acclaimed 'White Collar' television star Matt Bomer; Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown; celebrated playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer; two-time Academy Award-nominated, multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning, two-time Tony Award-winning actor John Lithgow; Tony Award nominee and Broadway Impact Co-Founder Rory O'Malley; and Emmy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Whitford will appear in the world premiere of '8' on Broadway, joining the previously announced Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei. The production is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which eliminated the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples in California.

Artistic Director, Steve Marmion has announced the next season at Soho Theatre; with a vibrant and packed programme spanning Theatre, Comedy and Cabaret performed across three performane spaces (and the seminar room).

Buoyed by a charmingly droll book penned by Chad Beguelin and the film's original screenwriter Tim Herlihy, THE WEDDING SINGER--playing through July 24 at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach--isn't just a celebratory collection of 80's era sight gags, though it's chockfull of them. Rather, the musical is also quite an enjoyable, silly romp that's spiked with the kind of witty snarkiness and unexpected sweetness that fits snuggly alongside today's funniest sitcoms and rom-com movies. The fact that this wacky musical comedy is punctuated by some awesome singing and dancing is just pure, sugar-laced icing on a multi-tiered wedding cake. It's got plenty of laughs, and it easily earns every single one of them.

CLANCY O'CONNOR (TV - John Adams; Stage - The Listener, Edward II) will participate in the upcoming reading of the first evening-length act of RYAN TRACY's marriage epic, ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE during the HOT! Festival, Dixon Place's annual summer queer performance series.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson feted in star-studded farewell performance June 20th.

The HOT! Festival, Dixon Place's annual summer queer performance series, will present a semi-staged reading of the evening-length first act of ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE, the epic marriage play by RYAN TRACY, on July 26, 2011 at 9:30pm.

An experienced, talented cast takes on the age-old tradition of matchmaking with a contemporary twist in San Jose Repertory Theatre's world premiere of Love in American Times, by Philip Kan Gotanda. Love in American Times is directed by San Jose Rep's Artistic Director Rick Lombardo, and will run from May 12 through June 5, 2011.

An experienced, talented cast takes on the age-old tradition of matchmaking with a contemporary twist in San Jose Repertory Theatre's world premiere of Love in American Times, by Philip Kan Gotanda. Love in American Times is directed by San Jose Rep's Artistic Director Rick Lombardo, and will run from May 12 through June 5, 2011.

What do you get when you put Wonder Woman, Supergirl and other beloved spandex-clad females together on the same stage?

What do you get when you put Wonder Woman, Supergirl and other beloved spandex-clad females together on the same stage?

The long overdue London premiere of the Broadway musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd, directed by acclaimed West End and RSC director Ian Judge, and designed by three time Olivier Award winner Tim Goodchild, opens for a four week limited season at the Finborough Theatre on Tuesday, 7 June 2011 (Press Night: Thursday, 9 June 2011 at 7.30pm).

What is a weir? It usually serves as a liquid fence between the calm, but deeper areas of a river and the more tumultuous surfaces it overflows to below. Without it, rivers will crest with unpredictability and the danger of flooding threatens the villages that line them. Thus dictates the symbolic title of THE WEIR, Irish playwright Conor McPherson's moody, chills-inducing stage drama filled with somber, spooky and alternately bittersweet stories, now enjoying a thought-provoking revival production at South Coast Repertory through April 3.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater welcomes the spring with the Bay Area Premiere of LADY GREY (in ever lower light) and other plays by Will Eno, hailed by The New York Times as 'a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation.' LADY GREY (in ever lower light) and other plays, featuring Danielle O'Hare, Galen Murphy-Hoffman, Gwyneth Richards, and David Sinaiko, runs March 11-April 10 (Press opening: March 17) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater welcomes the spring with the Bay Area Premiere of LADY GREY (in ever lower light) and other plays by Will Eno, hailed by The New York Times as 'a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation.' LADY GREY (in ever lower light) and other plays, featuring Danielle O'Hare, Galen Murphy-Hoffman, Gwyneth Richards, and David Sinaiko, runs March 11-April 10 (Press opening: March 17) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006.

Monument Records - The House That Roy Built: The Big O's Monument Singles Collection Debuts First-Ever CD Release Of Original Mono Mixes of All A & B Sides Cut For The Label, Plus DVD of Nine Songs From 'The Monument Concert 1965' Digitally Restored, Includes The Official Video For 'Oh Pretty Woman'