Ross - 1961 - Broadway Articles Page 11

Northern California based Concert Promoter Rick Bartalini Presents announced today that the one and only Diana Ross will return to San Francisco's SHN Golden Gate Theatre August 6 & 7, 2013. Tickets go on-sale this Friday, May 10 at 10:00 A.M.

Diana Ross has had a profound influence on American popular culture and has become an icon in the entertainment industry. She will return to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on September 11, 2013. She is an Academy Award nominated actress for her unforgettable role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings The Blues, a Tony and Golden Globe winner, a bestselling author, winner of 8 American Music Awards and a recipient of The Kennedy Center Honors. Her reputation as a woman of great style and beauty has put her on the covers of hundreds of magazines. Ms. Ross has sold over 100 million records and recorded 18 #1 hits. Her music became the sound of young America in the '60s soon after she signed with Motown Records in 1961 with The Supremes. She embarked on her extraordinary solo career in 1970, and has not stopped since.

The one and only DIANA ROSS will be making summer nights red hot as she returns to the Mortensen stage at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, August 13, 2013, at 8:00 p.m. The legendary icon will perform her greatest hits in a multi-city spectacular live show. Ms. Ross will be pulling out all the stops with breathtaking costumes and stage designs.

The one and only Diana Ross will be making summer nights red hot as she returns to the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) on Sunday, August 11, 2013 at 7P.

The Abrons Arts Center presents Casting THE PERILS OF OBEDIENCE: A Performance, the second stage of visual artist Itziar Barrio's exploration in power dynamics and constructed situations. Using the methods of casting, the performance will unfold the wills and desires of the actors to succeed and be recognized. By placing them within fictional and non-fictional parameters, whether movie scripts or their own lives, Barrio reveals the production of power through seduction.

A human ball of silver glitter hanging from a cord is lowered above what looks like a bungalow-sized muffin top.  (It's supposed to represent a turtle shell.)  Before the glitter ball makes its landing the cover is removed to reveal what looks like a tribe of humanish amphibians bouncing on trampolines and twirling on the muffin/turtle's frame.  Shortly after, a sleazy-looking clown in a tropical shirt tosses a condom to a woman in the front row and says, 'Call me!'  Yes, dear readers, Cirque du Soleil is back in town.

The Abrons Arts Center presents Casting THE PERILS OF OBEDIENCE: A Performance, the second stage of visual artist Itziar Barrio's exploration in power dynamics and constructed situations. Using the methods of casting, the performance will unfold the wills and desires of the actors to succeed and be recognized. By placing them within fictional and non-fictional parameters, whether movie scripts or their own lives, Barrio reveals the production of power through seduction.

Two-time Tony Nominee Christine Andreas, Tony Nominee Emily Skinner, Drama Desk Nominees Kerry O'Malley and Jeffry Denman, and two-time Nightlife Award Winner Scott Coulter starred in The Broadway Musicals of 1961 at Town Hall last night, March 11th. The critically-acclaimed new Broadway by the Year Chorus joined them in performing songs from Carnival, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Subways Are For Sleeping, Sail Away, Milk and Honey, and more! BroadwayWorld was there for the concert and you can check out photo coverage below!

According to the Daily Mail, Renee Zellweger is set to appear in a West End stage version of the movie The Hustler. She would play 'Fast Eddie' Felson's girlfriend. No further casting has been announced.

Two-time Tony Nominee Christine Andreas, Tony Nominee Emily Skinner, Drama Desk Nominees Kerry O'Malley and Jeffry Denman, and two-time Nightlife Award Winner Scott Coulter will star in The Broadway Musicals of 1961 at Town Hall on Monday, March 11th at 8 PM. The critically-acclaimed new Broadway by the Year Chorus will join them in performing songs from Carnival, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Subways Are For Sleeping, Sail Away, Milk and Honey, and more! The concert will be directed and choreographed by Jeffry Denman; the Broadway by the Year Chorus is under the direction of Scott Coulter; musical direction will be by Ross Patterson. The show, as always, will be written and hosted by series creator Scott Siegel.

Diana Ross will appear at the Hollywood Bowl this summer for a special one-night-only performance on Saturday, August 3. Subscriptions are now available for purchase. Single tickets will be available for purchase in early May 2013.

Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? This question, posed by Shen Tei, the good-hearted, penniless and cross-dressing prostitute of Bertolt Brecht's Good Person of Szechwan, is central to the work of The Foundry Theatre. The play's concerns, and the earmarks of the Foundry's new production, make it an ideal offering from the company, which is celebrated for creating memorable theatrical events while pursuing civic inquiry and social justice. The show, starring the singular Taylor Mac as Shen Tei, is directed by Lear deBessonet and features original live music by 'indie rock vaudevillians' (SPIN) Cesar Alvarez and The Lisps.

Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? This question, posed by Shen Tei, the good-hearted, penniless and cross-dressing prostitute of Bertolt Brecht's Good Person of Szechwan, is central to the work of The Foundry Theatre. The play's concerns, and the earmarks of the Foundry's new production, make it an ideal offering from the company, which is celebrated for creating memorable theatrical events while pursuing civic inquiry and social justice. The show, starring the singular Taylor Mac as Shen Tei, is directed by Lear deBessonet and features original live music by 'indie rock vaudevillians' (SPIN) César Alvarez and The Lisps.

Veteran writer, director, producer and actor Carl Reiner, along with seven-time SAG Award winner and 18-time nominee Alec Baldwin, will present the SAG 49th Life Achievement Award to Dick Van Dyke at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, executive producer and director Jeff Margolis announced today.

Adapted from the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Book, music, and lyrics by Lionel Bart. Directed by Susan Kosoff. Musical direction by Jon Goldberg. Choreography by Laurel Conrad. Scenic design by Anthony Hancock. Lighting design by Franklin Meissner, Jr. Costume Design by Charles G. Baldwin.

Stephen Hawking and his fellow physicists may not have yet figured out the formula for traveling through the time-space continuum, but apparently the Metropolitan Room discovered the secret. Last Friday night (October 26), I walked through the curtain into the main performance space and entered a time tunnel that took me from the 21st century into the 1960s and '70s. Two lovely, rising young stars of cabaret, Lauren Fox and Jennifer Sheehan (photo left), had obviously hurtled though that same time warp because in two separate shows on the same evening, they performed songs that had been written and recorded 15 to 25 years before they were born. In the process they transported this particular Baby Boomer joyously back to his youth and to the days of cultural upheaval, generation gaps, peace, love, war, and some of the best pop/rock music ever written.

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens this evening, Saturday, October 13, 2012, at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street), exactly 50 years to the day of the play's original Broadway opening on Saturday, October 13, 1962.

Preview performances of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? begin this evening, Thursday, September 27, 2012, at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street). Opening night is set for Saturday, October 13, 2012, exactly 50 years to the day of the play's original Broadway opening on Saturday, October 13, 1962.

TVGuide reports that Billy Dee Williams has been cast in the CBS drama NCIS. In the episode airing this October, the actor will portray LJ, described as 'a World War II veteran and close friend of the Gibbs clan.'

Producers Kevin McCollum (Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, The Drowsy Chaperone), Doug Morris (Chairman and CEO of SONY Music Entertainment) and Berry Gordy will present MOTOWN The Musical, based on the life of iconic Motown founder Berry Gordy, will open in the Spring of 2013 on Broadway at a Nederlander Theatre to be announced. Music legend Berry Gordy is looking for a super-talented African-American young man (age 8-11) to play the multiple roles of young MICHAEL JACKSON, little STEVIE WONDER and pre-teen BERRY GORDY in MOTOWN The Musical, coming to Broadway in 2013.

The smash-hit exhibition Star Quality: The World of Noël Coward will close on August 18 after a five-month, twice-extended run. The show focuses on Coward as playwright, composer, director, stage, screen, cabaret performer, and international celebrity, and represents the most comprehensive exhibition on Noël Coward ever assembled, including unique material from the collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Since it opened on March 11, 2012, the Exhibition has attracted over 17,000 visitors.

From adultery on a dart team to Chicago White Sox players on trial for throwing the World Series, the July offerings on 'Reel 13' - including 'Heartlands,' 'The Hustler,' 'Eight Men Out' and 'Rocky II' -- show that, whatever the game, good sportsmanship doesn't always prevail.

On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.

According to an Equity Audition notice, the Steppenwolf's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf will begin previews on Broadway on September 27, 2012 in anticipation of its previously announced October 13, 2012 opening at a Shubert Theatre to be announced. Pam Mackinnon will continue to helm the project. Jerry Frankel, Jeffrey Richards Susan Q. Gallin and Mary Lu Roffe will produce.

When the national touring production of WEST SIDE STORY made its way to the OHIO THEATER last night, I embraced the opportunity to re-visit this 1957 Arthur Laurents' adaptation of Shakespeare's 'ROMEO AND JULIET' and experience the delight of what is truly timeless about classic musical theater.