The Challenge - 1992 - London Fringe Articles Page 9

Tickets are on public sale from Monday 10 February 2020 for new shows announced at Sadler's Wells across 2020, featuring five world premieres, 10 UK premieres, and six Sadler's Wells Productions and co-productions, as well as a host of new creative partnerships involving artists from all over the world.

In a working partnership approaching three decades, composer Stewart Copeland and librettist Jonathan Moore bring their latest opera 'Electric Saint' to Kunstfest Weimar in September of 2020. The project is a co-commission of the innovative Kunstfest alongside Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar (DNT). The world premiere performance will take place at Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar on September 6, 2020, with seven subsequent performances in Weimar.

Disney's Aladdin is flying into East Lansing from December 4th through 15th at the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts. The hit musical, based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature film, has been amazing audiences since the show's Broadway debut back in 2014. It has the music that we all know and love from the film and new songs that add to the Disney magic. a?oeMagical, romantic, surprising, exhilarating and funny,a?? is how Jonathan Weir, who plays Jafar the villain on the tour, described the show. a?oeIt's a fantastical story of a young man's adventure to become himself, the friendship he creates with a genie in a lamp, and the adventures and romance it unfolds.a?? Read more of BroadwayWorld Detroit's conversation with Jonathan Weir below to find out why he thinks Disney's Aladdin is special and if Jafar is really all that villainous!

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) announces a one week extension for the world premiere production of Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven by Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy), directed by Obie Award winner John Ortiz, and co-produced with LAByrinth Theater Company. The production, which opens on Monday, December 9th will now play through Sunday, December 29th, 2019 Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

Jet City Improv, a 501 c 3 non-profit and one of Seattle's longest running improv shows will lose their University District theater to development in 2020.   Jet City Improv has occupied their current home since 2002, when they turned a dilapidated punk rock club into a well-known destination for improv comedy lovers across the Puget Sound region.

Elton John talks about writing his great new memoir a?oeMe,a?? touring since he was 17, wanting to be home with his kids, letting Stevie Wonder drive his snowmobile, playing charades at Neil Diamond's house with Bob Dylan, being a technophobe, not owning a cell phone, his love of paper shredding, and he weighs in on the shoe color debate.

I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing actor Korie Lee Blossey, who at the time of our conversation was getting ready to start performances as the Genie in the national tour of Disney's Aladdin in Charlotte, North Carolina. He made his national tour debut as a standby for the role about two and a half years prior to this. A New Yorker by way of Michigan, some of Korie's previous credits include Kerchak in Tarzan, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Caliban in The Tempest, and Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors.

On this day, we celebrate the birthday of playwright, activist, actor, and educator, Anna Deavere Smith.

This is not your ordinary play: it features a wrestling match, ballet, jug band, vaudeville show, and a presidential roast. Kennesaw State University's Department of Theatre and Performance Studies will present the cult classic '45 Plays for 45 Presidents' September 24-29 at the Onyx Theater on the Kennesaw campus.

The 4th Annual Adirondack Film Festival, presented by the Adirondack Theatre Festival has announced its full slate of films and special guests.  This year's lineup includes more than 135 films shown in one weekend (October 17-20) across 6 screens in Downtown Glens Falls.  To open the festival, AFF will feature James Franco's PRETENDERS – shot entirely in Albany and the Capital Reigon. 

Blackfriars Theatre is proud to be celebrating its 70th year of artistry in downtown Rochester as it kicks off the next chapter of professionally-minded, artistically-ambitious local theatre-making! To commemorate this milestone, the theatre has planned a Party in the Parking Lot bash to take place on Saturday, August 17th from 5 p.m. a?" 8 p.m. This FREE, family-friendly community event will include food from Rob's Kebabs, Donna Daddy's, Waffles R Wild, and Taste The ROC. An outdoor bar will be provided by The Penthouse at One East Avenue, in addition to live music, lawn games, prizes, a vendor bazaar featuring the work of local artists, children's activities, backstage tours, and much more.

Last year, in 2018, the third annual Dancers For Good Benefit supporting the Actors Fund Dancers Resource in East Hampton was so impressive that I challenged the founders to 'high-kick it up a notch even higher next year'. I'm thrilled to announce that not only did they clearly accept that challenge, they superseded all expectations!

ALADDIN is a vibrant kaleidoscope of extravagant costumes, choreography, and vocal performances. An entertaining musical comedy jam-packed with a cast of over 30 members, there is always something to marvel at throughout the show for children and adults alike. It's glitz, dynamic, and sure to entertain. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw with orchestrations by Danny Troob, this show packs an impressive punch when it comes to presentational musical numbers.

Extra! Extra! This just in! Disney's sensational blockbuster musical Newsies leaps onto the stage at the Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend for three weeks only. This exciting mega-musical, and winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Choreography, will entertain audiences of all generations with its heart, humour, and high-energy dancing from June 27 to July 13.

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural and language center, today announced the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival, featuring 11 performances and a gallery exhibition from a geographically, generationally, and artistically diverse group of artists whose work transcends genres and boundaries. All performances are world, US, or New York premieres; they are united by their convention-breaking fearlessness as they confront topics from social injustice to personal demons. Many of the performances pay homage to legendary artists of our time and previous eras, while the theme of migration and its transformational effects on identity informs several others. The festival runs from September 12 to October 12. Ticket are available at crossingtheline.org.

Overall, FALSETTOS makes a strong impression at Kennedy Center and is most definitely worth the trip.

AstonRep Theatre Company, under the artistic leadership of Derek Bertelsen and Sara Pavlak McGuire, announces its 2019-20 season, to be presented at its new artistic home, The Edge Theater in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.

From stage to screen and everywhere in between, Liz Callaway's four-decades-long career has been non-stop. That includes numerous cabarets, and, hot off the heels of her hit solo show A HYMN FOR HER, Liz Callaway gets even hotter with SETS IN THE CITY, an eclectic mix of old and new favorites written by Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Burt Bacharach, and more.

Every founder has a unique personal tie to the organization they bring to life. After 28 years of daily interaction with the Shotgun Players, Patrick Dooley and the theater he created can be hard to define as separate entities. Thanks to the O2 Sabbatical Award, Dooley will get a chance to discover that distinction with a well-earned break.  

In just one week's time, the stories of over fifty members of the armed forces community from across the West Midlands will be presented in the world premiere of a new play. Reparation Island plays at The Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome from Thursday 13 - Saturday 15 June.

On Tuesday May 28, 2019 during the 40th Dora Nominee Press Conference at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, Jacquie P. A. Thomas was honoured with the George Luscombe Award for Mentorship in Professional Theatre. The George Luscombe Mentorship Award was inaugurated in 1999. Revolutionary theatre founder and artistic director George Luscombe founded Toronto Workshop Productions (TWP) in 1959, marking the beginnings of Toronto's alternative theatre movement. He was Artistic Director for 27 years at TWP.

Now would seem the perfect time for a Nashville revival of Christopher Hampton's Les Liasions Dangereuses - an intriguing play about powerful men subjugating women to their sexual domination, private missives between aristocrats made public in order to cause embarrassment, and any perceptibly well-meaning act of charity is undermined by far baser instincts - which is perhaps best known for the movies it has inspired: Dangerous Liaisons and Cruel Intentions.

When Lee Atwater passed away in 1991, he left behind a legacy that shaped the modern political landscape, and turned negative politics into the norm. Though he asked for forgiveness for his 'sins' on his deathbed (including attacks against politicians Tom Turnipseed, Gary Hart, and Michael Dukakis), the damage had been done. Premiering at the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival, 'Son of a Bitch' is a new play that grapples with Atwater's role in the 1988 Bush/Quayle Presidential campaign, and his legacy.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

Chicago Magic Lounge, Chicago's home for close-up magic, continues its Artist-In-Residence series with Sean Masterson's Timeless Magic, Wednesdays at 7:30pm starting June 26, 2019. Tickets for all Chicago Magic Lounge shows are available at the box office, (312) 366-4500 or online at chicagomagiclounge.com.