Only in America - 1959 - Broadway Articles Page 8

As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company’s 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera’s glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim’s music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

The most important figure in musical theatre history is gone; let's celebrate his life by listening to his incredible works. Reviewer Peter Nason gets you started by listing his choices for the 91 greatest Sondheim songs.

Dallas Theater Center has announced the addition of several full-time resident artists!

TFANA and Saint Flashlight present The Will of the City, poems inspired by playwright and poet William Shakespeare, launching today and running through the fall. Spotlighting the work of over a dozen writers, this activation will transform the streetside and outdoor screens at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY)—Theatre for a New Audience's home in Fort Greene—into a bi-weekly updated anthology of poems inspired by Shakespeare's plays.

Later adapted for the stage by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.  A subsequent film version in 1959 received nine Oscar nominations and earned Shelley Winters an Academy Award for her performance.  Also of note about this Vermont production, director Jones’s late sister-in-law Susan Strasberg was the original ANNE FRANK when the play debuted on Broadway.

In a world where the Black Lives Matter movement is a focal point, and many organizations are changing their views on diversity, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill at STAGES Theatre in Montrose provides a glimpse of why equality is important. The title character's nickname of Lady Day, otherwise known as Billie Holiday, takes the audience on her life journey. While the origin story of her nickname is different, it brings to light a ton of trauma that women of color during her lifetime experienced. Played by the brilliant Dequina Moore, Moore brings Billie Holliday to life most playfully and tragically. As Moore dances, grooves, and moves about the stage, we see the character sip slowly into a stupor. In the beginning, we experience a bright and bubbly personality, and then the slow descent into a drunken stupor prevails, leaving the audience in an emotional daze. Moore provides a beautiful slow burn embodying Billie Holliday in her own uniquely passionate way.

Dallas Theater Center has announced the return of an in person season complete with their first touring production!

Dallas Theater Center has announced the return of an in person season complete with their first touring production! The triumphant return includes seven unique productions in addition to their annual production of A Christmas Carol and the Public Works Dallas pageant. 

It was just announced by the Pulitzer Prize organization that Katori Hall's The Hot Wing King has officially won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This year's finalists included Circle Jerk by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley and Stew by Zora Howard.

The Juilliard School today announced that its 116th commencement ceremony will be held in person on Friday, June 18, 2021, at 11am, outdoors on the Lincoln Center campus for a limited audience. The ceremony will also be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.

The story of Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion has continued to enthrall children and adults and been reinvented every generation. It found its most enduring place in American culture at the end of the Great Depression when The Wizard of Oz, the MGM feature film starring Judy Garland, opened on August 25, 1939.

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the 91 greatest Sondheim songs from stage, screen and beyond. See if your favorites made the cut! What's at #1?

Women have always played an important role on and behind our stages. It’s about time we talk about them.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has announced their Spring season of digital offerings from April 1 to July 1, which is dedicated to the late Gustave M. Hauser.  CMS presents 28 digital programs, with concerts premiering on Thursday evenings at 7:30 and educational and hybrid talk-and-performance programs premiering on Monday evenings.

The Jazz Festival has been preserving and expanding Jazz’s legacy and impact by igniting interest in new generations of Jazz lovers through their Jazz Assembly programs and educational initiatives.

Today, baritone Will Liverman has released Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sánchez on Cedille Records. Liverman says, “Right now, it is more important than ever to celebrate the contributions of Black composers, and I’m honored to give voice to the art songs on this album.'

There is a particular snobbery surrounding musical theatre: critics say that in a moment of high drama, crisis or emotion, the most unrealistic thing to do would be to break into song. Musicals are too camp, annoying and definitely not cool. They appeal to the coach parties of tourists rocking up in Leicester Square every weekend (those were the days!). However, musicals are not representations of real life, nor do they pretend to be. A successful musical has a magical combination of highly memorable music, an engaging storyline, incredible choreography and visually impressive set and costume design. It’s not a coincidence that the best musical theatre performers are called a triple threat, as they act, sing and dance, often without any perceivable effort.

On Friday, February 12, 2021, baritone Will Liverman releases Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sánchez on Cedille Records.

ELYOT & AMANDA: ALL ALONE from Noël Coward's PRIVATE LIVES is the next production in Playhouse on Park's 12th Main Stage Season. Veanne Cox and Ezra Barnes will co-star in this timely, lighthearted adaptation. It will be available to stream online from February 10th - 28th, 2021.

For twenty-six years, The Robey Theatre Company has made its mission the telling of the stories of the Black global experience on stage. It is now also doing so in print. The Robey Theatre Company Playwright Series currently has nine play scripts in publication, available in paperback edition and also in Kindle format.

This morning at 10 a.m., Union Station and GEHA officials cut the ribbon to open a fascinating new exhibit and tribute to the American postal pioneers of the Railway Mail Service (RMS) and Railway Post Office (RPO). This new addition to Union Station's permanent exhibition space, “Union Station Stories,” is being presented and made possible by Government Employees Health Association (GEHA), whose founding in 1937 was by a small group of local RPO employees. 

Need something new to read, watch, or listen to? Check out this week's list of new and upcoming releases! This week's list includes a book of stories behind the musical Jagged Little Pill, the Moulin Rouge! songbook, and more!

BroadwayWorld put together a list of all the live action musicals you can stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, BroadwayHD, and Disney Plus. Are you looking for something to get your mind off… all of this? So are we. Because everyone needs some escape,

Start sweater weather season off right with exciting new original series and A-list blockbuster movies coming this October to HBO Max.

For twenty-six years, The Robey Theatre Company has made its mission the telling of the stories of the Black global diaspora on stage. It is now also doing so in print. The Robey Theatre Company Playwriting Series currently has nine play scripts in publication, available in paperback edition and also in Kindle format. These plays, all by Black playwrights, are available through Amazon (See links below).