Pacific Overtures - 2004 - Broadway Articles Page 2

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.

Hugh Vanstone has won the 2020 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Play for A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Former Secretary of State and avid theatergoer Hillary Rodham Clinton will participate in Classic Stage Company's event Tell the Story: Celebrating Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, delivering remarks about the timely and timeless American musical.

The news is filled with reports of hate crimes against Asians during the last year. The numbers may be up, but the bigotry isn't new.

The criteria are that these shows have been nominated for Best Musical from the 3rd Tony Awards (the ceremony that started the Best Musical category) in 1949 to the nominations of what will now be the 74th Tony Awards in 2021. I will be determining their signs based upon their Broadway premiere date. With those rules in mind, here we go!

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?

Classic Stage Company will present Tell The Story: Celebrating Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins. The evening will feature cast members of the original Off-Broadway company, the Broadway revival, and Doyle’s upcoming CSC production.

In honor of the one-year anniversary of Broadway stage manager Arthur Gaffin's passing, Gaffin's boyfriend since 1980, Danny Baron, is donating $100,000 from Gaffin's estate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge and Broadway Rewind continues with a look at two offerings of the 2004- 2005 theatre season. A sneak peek at the new musical All Shook Up, which featured a breakout performance by Cheyenne Jackson, and we start things off at the opening night of Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Pacific Overtures. This bold and underrated 1976 musical spans over 150 years. It starred two original members from the 1976 Broadway production, Sab Shimono and Alvin Ing. Tony award winner BD Wong who joined them, told me how exciting it was to be a part of this glorious musical. 'We have gone on this journey as a company. Just an incredible amount of very stimulating and creative work with an incredible director. I mean world class, no pun intended. Fantastic, loving, caring, passionate, creative person. And to have that experience is so rare, and to be in a Sondheim, Weidman musical, when Sondheim and Weidman are there in the room, taking notes and telling you what they think and why they wrote something, is unbelievable.'

BroadwayWorld was saddened to report that Broadway veteran Merwin Foard recently passed away at 59 years old. Born September 16, 1960 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Foard was last seen on Broadway in Aladdin as a standby for Jafar/Sultan.

Alan Muraoka and 'Sesame Street' Muppeteers Jennifer Barnhart and Kathy Kim delighted children and their parents as they shared traditions of the Lunar New Year in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium during two performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lunar New Year Festival celebrating the Year of the Rat on February 1, 2020. The trio posed with families in The Temple of Dendur after the performances.

Classic Stage Company (CSC; Artistic Director, John Doyle) has announced that Ethan Slater will join their John Doyle-directed upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, as Lee Harvey Oswald/The Balladeer.

Adam Chanler-Berat, Tavi Gevinson, and Andy Grotelueschen have joined the upcoming Classic Stage Company revival of Assassins. They will play the roles of John Hinckley Jr., Squeaky Fromme, and Samuel Byck respectively.

Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts presents Sing-A-Long with Alan Muraoka featuring Sesame Street songs and puppeteers on Sunday November 17, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Ticket prices range between $20.00-$40.00, plus applicable fees. Purchase online, by phone or at the box office. For more information, visit PatchogueTheatre.org, call the Patchogue Theatre Box Office at 631-207-1313, or stop by 71 East Main Street, Patchogue, NY.

Classic Stage Company announces that five celebrated actors have joined its upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, directed by John Doyle

The Broadway community mourns the loss of beloved Production Stage Manager, Arthur a?oeArtiea?? Gaffin, who passed away on September 13, 2019. To commemorate his life and work, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of the American Airlines, Marquis, New Amsterdam, St. James, and Broadhurst Theatres in New York for one minute on Wednesday, September 18 at exactly 7:45pm.

Steven Pasquale may be returning to the stage in an upcoming production of the musical Assassins at Classic Stage Company

Lovers of new theatre will gather this August for an advance look at tomorrow's hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2019 New Works Festival at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre. This unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development, and hear about the creative process in a "Meet the Artists" panel discussion. With multiple performances of each work, playwrights and composers are able to revise and refine their shows during the festival, allowing audiences to view the exciting evolution of brand new pieces of theatre. The popular festival runs August 9 - 18, 2019 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes ($65 general$49 season subscribers) and single event tickets ($20) can be purchased online at theatreworks.org or by calling (650) 463-1960.

Teri Schwartz, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, announced today that two-time Golden Globe-nominated actor Pierce Brosnan has been named the 2019 commencement keynote speaker. Filmmaker Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust) will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award in Film/Television/Digital Media and actor-activist George Takei (Allegiance) will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award in Theater. Dean Schwartz will preside over the event to be held on Friday, June 14 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Zions Bank in partnership with Spike150, CRWDA and Ogden Musical Theatre presented Gold Mountain, written by 2017 ASCAP Foundation's Cole Porter Award recipient Jason Ma as a series of semi-staged concert performances at the Regent Street Black Box at The Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City and in partnership with Ogden Musical Theatre, at the historic Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden, May 8 - May 11.

Jason Ma and his company of Asian American actors are currently in rehearsal at different venues around Salt Lake City for the upcoming semi-staged concert presentations of his new musical Gold Mountain, which has sold out its Salt Lake City run. Those hoping to catch one of the Spike 150 celebration performances can see this original musical in nearby Ogden.

Classic Stage Company announces their 2019-2020 season. Bookended by two John Doyle-directed productions-William Shakespeare's Macbeth (October-December 2019) and Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins (April-June, 2020)-the lineup also includes two canonical works of gothic horror: Dracula and Frankenstein, presented in repertory, January-March 2020, based on the novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley.

Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) presented the MOCA 2019 Lunar New Year Soiree at the famed Rice & Gold, a unique Asian Eatery in the Hotel 50 Bowery on February 20, 2019.

Utah's Governor Gary R. Herbert held a press conference last week to announce not-to-miss musical headliners, performances that will be a part of the Spike 150 celebration of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, including events starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Megan Hilty and Ali Ewoldt.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) has just announced complete casting for Fiasco Theater's new production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Fiasco's production will be directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Director Noah Brody, is based on and with additional material from the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and will feature Music Direction & Orchestrations by Alexander Gemignani and Choreography by Lorin Latarro.