Reunion - 1999 - Off-Off-Broadway Articles Page 9

The York Theatre Company has announced the line-up for its 49th anniversary season at The York Theatre at Saint Peter's.

This year, a living legend of musical theatre turns 90: Lyricist-bookwriter Tom Jones (who also, under a stage name) appeared in the original company of his most famous and wildly successful record-breaking musical, The Fantasticks. His collaborator, composer Harvey Schmidt, just recently passed away. The production's record-breaking run closed, on January 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances. Their shows also include 110 in the Shade, I Do! I Do!, Philemon, Celebration and many more. And celebration is what it's about when Broadway veterans Carole Demas, who originated the role of Sandy in Grease, and Sarah Rice, who originated the role of Johanna in Sweeney Todd, return to celebrate Jones & Schmidt. Demas and Rice have based the show on their 50 years of work and personal relationships with Tom and Harvey. With very special guest Broadway's Hal Robinson who is also a Fantasticks alumni.

Life long Prince fan Beverley Knight will be re-united with NPG the backing group for Prince on stage at their London show on Thursday 2nd August, 11 years ago both NPG and Beverley were there celebrating the spectacular 21 nights residency at the O2 for the Earth Tour.  Morris Hayes longest serving member of NPG and musical director to Prince says “It's going to be special but emotional”. 

BroadwayWorld reported on June 29th that Tony winner Liliane Montevecchi passed away at 85 years old. Take a look back on some of our favorite memories of Montevecchi, in the photos below.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Tony winner Liliane Montevecchi passed away today, June 29, in New York City. She was 85 years old.

Next month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

San Francisco Opera's presentation of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) opens tonight with the first of three complete cycles, each presented over the course of one week as the composer originally intended, from June 12 through July 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Encompassing four operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-and more than 17 hours, Wagner's Ring is one of the most ambitious works of music, theater and stagecraft ever created.

CELEBRATING PRINCE and the reunion of the most original members of the New Power Generation (NPG) was born out of the exhilarating feedback from the fans after the official Prince Tribute concert in Minnesota 2016.

Prince played with many talented musicians over the course of his 40-year career, but his most celebrated and iconic allies will always be Bobby Z, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Matt Fink & Brownmark; The Revolution.  They resume their U.S. tour on June 9th at the Wichita River Festival in Kansas and will hit several major U.S. Festivals this summer and fall including: Arroyo Seco, Bumbershoot and ACL, before heading over to Europe, in early 2019, for their first tour in 33 years!   Full itinerary is below.

Azuka Theatre ends the 2017-2018 season with the world premiere of Mrs. Harrison, by R. Eric Thomas, from May 2 to20, 2018. Mrs.Harrison is the third and final show of the season that celebrated Azuka's commitment to notable Philadelphia playwrights and unique Philadelphia voices. Producing Artistic Director Kevin Glaccum directs this suspenseful dark comedy and drama about two women, one story and their very different memories about their relationship in college. The show runs through May 20, 2018, for a total of 18 performances.  All performances will take place at the Louis Bluver Theatre at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks Street. Tickets for shows this season are Pay What You Decide, whereas audience members see a show first, and pay what they decide after the performance. For reservations, visit azukatheatre.org. This production is produced with support from Honorary Producers Robin and Patrick Tracy. 

CHRISTAFARI return with their latest studio album, 'Original Love' (Lion of Zion Entertainment) - available now for pre-order at iTunes, with 4 instant tracks available upon purchase. After nearly three decades, CHRISTAFARI is the all-time top selling Gospel Reggae act and continues to be a driving force in world music. Their last 6 albums have debuted at #1 on the Billboard Reggae Chart. But the band considers themselves to be more than just musicians, but rather 'musicianaries' (musical missionaries), spreading the message of hope and salvation globally to approximately 20 countries per year.

There are many, very obvious spectacular things that stand out while watching LOVE NEVER DIES, Andrew Lloyd Webber's infamously, uh, troubled 2010 musical follow-up to his long-running global hit THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, now continuing its two-week engagement at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 5, 2018. While, sure, the show is stunning in its visual artistry and musical performances, the rest is repetitively frustrating. Unless you're a huge PHANTOM fan already or are perhaps maybe morbidly curious as to what the fuss is all about---LOVE NEVER DIES, sadly, doesn't offer much else to audiences beyond its superficial surface beauty.

Virginia Musical Theatre will close out its 27th season with the Tony-winning 1999 revival of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, April 27-29. The musical production blends the talents of William Shakespeare with the music of Porter to create one of the most chaotic, disruptive and enduring romances of all time on the stage. Kiss Me, Kate follows the embattled exes Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, and their onstage/offstage antics throughout a musical version of "The Taming of the Shrew," where Graham is Petruchio and Vanessi is Katharine. Add an ambitious showgirl, a Broadway hoofer who gambles often, and singing gangsters, and it's the perfect recipe for disaster. Featuring such classic songs as "Too Darn Hot," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," "I Hate Men," "Another Op'nin', Another Show," and "Always True to You (In My Fashion)," Kiss Me, Kate is a real crowd-pleaser.

En Garde Arts presents Asiimwe Deborah Kawe and Sean Christopher Lewis's Red Hills, returning the company to its trailblazing site-specific origins with a work that speaks "precisely to its time" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). This haunting two-person play follows an American and a Rwandan who, as teens during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, shared a chance encounter that changed them forever. En Garde, with director Katie Pearl, has adapted Red Hills to a New York-specific space: an empty floor in a downtown office building one block from Wall Street, where it will run from June 6-July 1.

Continuing the 120-year-old tradition of bringing music, oration and the arts to the Boulder community, the Colorado Chautauqua Association, steward of Boulder's cultural and historical gem the Colorado Chautauqua National Historic Landmark, is pleased to announce its 2018 Summer Concert Series. From Amos Lee and Andrew Bird, to Graham Nash, Ziggy Marley and Mary Chapin Carpenter, this year's lineup presents a diverse mix of performers across genres that appeal to every music fan. Laughter also returns to the stage with comedian Paula Poundstone and Boulder's own poet and activist Andrea Gibson.

CHRISTAFARI return April 13th with their latest studio album, 'Original Love' (Lion of Zion Entertainment) - available now for pre-order at iTunes, with 4 instant tracks available upon purchase. After nearly three decades, CHRISTAFARI is the all-time top selling Gospel Reggae act and continues to be a driving force in world music. Their last 6 albums have debuted at #1 on the Billboard Reggae Chart. But the band considers themselves to be more than just musicians, but rather 'musicianaries' (musical missionaries), spreading the message of hope and salvation globally to approximately 20 countries per year.

A completely sold-out Ultra Music Festival saw its most memorable show to-date this past weekend at Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami with the celebration of its landmark 20th anniversary. Swedish House Mafia, Will Smith, Above & Beyond, Halsey, Desiigner and Yo Gotti were just a few of the surprise performers that captivated 165,000 attendees from over 60 countries around the globe.

According to Variety,  an animated film project starring the Spice Girls is being shopped to potential production partners. According to a source, all five members of the group have signed off on their likenesses being used for a superhero-themed movie working off of the "girl power" message. Each character will be voiced by a Spice Girl - the group's members include Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"), Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice") and Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice") - and feature a "girl power" unique to that group member that reflects each girl's personality.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org. 

Donna the Buffalo is joining forces with legendary Producer/ Engineer Rob Fraboni to record their next album February 2018 at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, TX. It is one of the world's largest residential recording studios and is built around an 80-year-old hacienda and pecan orchard right along the border. Fraboni is well known for his work with Bob Dylan, The Band, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Tim Hardin, The Beach Boys, Joe Cocker, and Bonnie Raitt, and as Vice President at Island Records where he oversaw the remastering of the entire Bob Marley catalog. He produced the soundtrack on Martin Scorsese's groundbreaking concert movie, The Last Waltz, which included an all-star cast of famous rock and roll performers. He built and designed the legendary Shangri-La studios in Malibu to the specification of Bob Dylan and the Band. Referred to as a 'genius' by Keith Richards in his bestselling autobiography Life.

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: Rock of Ages will embark on a tenth anniversary tour, and more!

Music fans wanting a little variety with their summer tour package will get that very thing with the “Poison…Nothin' But A Good Time 2018” tour. Iconic rock band POISON, with all original members, will be joined by CHEAP TRICK and POP EVIL on its trek across the U.S. this summer. The tour is set to launch May 18 in Irvine, CA at Five Points Amphitheatre.

Music fans wanting a little variety with their summer tour package will get that very thing with "Poison… Nothin' But a Good Time 2018" tour. Iconic rock band POISON, with all original members, will be joined by CHEAP TRICK and POP EVIL on its trek across the U.S. this summer stopping at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Friday, June 22nd.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Streetbetween 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org.

Directors Guild of America President Thomas Schlamme today announced the DGA's nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Commercials and Documentary for 2017.