The Circle - 1938 - Broadway Articles Page 14

In the glory days of the movie musical, folks joked that MGM stood for 'Makes Great Musicals' and it boasted more stars than in the heavens.

The NYC400 is the first-ever list of New York City's ultimate movers and shakers since the City's founding?from politics, the arts, business, sports, science, and entertainment.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 18th season, focusing on 'family and fortune,' with Clifford Odets' classic Depression-era drama AWAKE AND SING! Bay Area theater veteran Joy Carlin (Jack Goes Boating, Hysteria, The Price), who first directed this play for Berkeley Repertory Theatre 24 years ago, revisits this landmark drama for Aurora.

Tony® Award-winner Lillias White will join the cast of Fela!, the new Broadway musical based on the life and music of African composer and performer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, playing the role of the iconic artist's mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 18th season, focusing on 'family and fortune,' with Clifford Odets' classic Depression-era drama AWAKE AND SING! Bay Area theater veteran Joy Carlin (Jack Goes Boating, Hysteria, The Price), who first directed this play for Berkeley Repertory Theatre 24 years ago, revisits this landmark drama for Aurora.

Civic Theatre of Allentown's 82nd stage season has been finalized, and we're thrilled to officially announce that the biggest musical of the past 15 years is coming to Civic's stage. Civic will produce Rent in May of 2010, less than two years after the Broadway production closed a blockbuster run that placed it among the top ten longest-running shows in Broadway history.

The Wilma Theater will bring its 30th Anniversary Season to a spirited finish with the East Coast Premiere of Hysteria, written by Terry Johnson and directed by the Wilma's co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka.

A.C.T. Conservatory Director Melissa Smith announced today that honorary master of fine arts degrees will be conferred upon Grammy Award-winning musician Tracy Chapman and master playwright John Guare.

EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE, Paul Adams, Artistic Director, and Derek Jamison, Associate Artistic Director, present the Illuminating Artists- New Works Series, for three weeks at TADA Theatre. Performances begin Monday, April 27, 2009, and continue through Sunday, May 17, 2009.

The Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Michael Bloom announces the world premiere production of Thornton Wilder's novel Heaven's My Destination, adapted by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. The play is the centerpiece of the fourth annual FusionFest, a multidisciplinary performing arts festival.

The Wilma Theater will bring its 30th Anniversary Season to a spirited finish with the East Coast Premiere of Hysteria, written by Terry Johnson and directed by the Wilma's co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka.

EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE, Paul Adams, Artistic Director, and Derek Jamison, Associate Artistic Director, present the Illuminating Artists- New Works Series, for three weeks at TADA Theatre. Performances begin Monday, April 27, 2009, and continue through Sunday, May 17, 2009.

A.C.T. Conservatory Director Melissa Smith announced today that honorary master of fine arts degrees will be conferred upon Grammy Award-winning musician Tracy Chapman and master playwright John Guare.

The Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Michael Bloom announces the world premiere production of Thornton Wilder's novel Heaven's My Destination, adapted by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. The play is the centerpiece of the fourth annual FusionFest, a multidisciplinary performing arts festival.

The American Actor's Company (The Traveling Lady) is proud to present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Unseen by Craig Wright. Performances of this limited Off-Broadway engagement will be at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St) beginning previews March 5th, Opening March 8th and closing March 28th. Performances run Tuesdays ? Sundays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or by going to www.telecharge.com. For more information please visit www.unseentheplay.com.

Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter present the acclaimed David Cromer production of' Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Performances will began on February 17th with an official opening night set for tonight, Thursday, February 26th, 7:30 p.m., at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street), whose space was completely redesigned for this production.

The producers of Blithe Spirit are pleased to announce the show will play The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street). Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Filled with colorful criminals, biting social satire and a brilliant score, The Threepenny Opera opens International City Theatre's 2009 Season at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Jules Aaron directs Michael Feingold's translation of the trailblazing musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that became one of the most influential plays of the 20th Century. Darryl Archibald is musical director and Kay Cole choreographs the five-week run February 20 through March 22; low-priced previews begin February 17. First performed in 1928, Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was a revolutionary musical theater masterpiece that mocked the bourgeois political movement of pre-Hitler Germany. Brecht's brittle, sardonic tale of beggars, thieves and prostitutes, adapted from the 1728 play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, was a fierce social and political critique, and Weill's innovative score that fused American jazz with German cabaret captured the ironic tone of the lyrics. Part acid social criticism, part bittersweet romance, the now eighty-year old saga of 'Mack the Knife' and his entourage of criminals and whores has never lost its theatrical punch. 'It's a satire on capitalism and corruption told from the viewpoint of the 'little people',' notes Aaron. 'If there was ever time to revive this show, it's now. Michael [Feingold]'s translation is earthy, gritty and very funny. I think it's going to strike a chord with audiences.'

The Glass Menagerie is a timeless, contemporary American classic. Williams' beautifully crafted, semi-autobiographical play portrays the transformation of Tom Wingfield from a St. Louis warehouse worker during the depression who can only dream of adventure, to a merchant seaman who wanders the world. Tom's freedom comes at acost: he must escape his overbearing mother and his adoring, childlike sister, Laura, who is onlyfree to express herself with the animals in her glass menagerie. When Tom's attempt to provideLaura with a gentleman caller ends in disaster, he is forced to abandon his sister in order to save himself.Anyone who has ever loved their family, but needed to go on their own journey of discovery, will laugh and perhaps cry at this tender portrayal of an artist's life in a glass menagerie.

Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter present the acclaimed David Cromer production of' Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Performances begin Tuesday, February 17th with an official opening night set for Thursday, February 26th, 7:30 p.m., at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street), whose space was completely redesigned for this production.

The American Actor's Company (The Traveling Lady) is proud to present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Unseen by Craig Wright. Performances of this limited Off-Broadway engagement will be at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St) beginning previews March 5th, Opening March 8th and closing March 28th. Performances run Tuesdays ? Sundays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or by going to www.telecharge.com. For more information please visit www.unseentheplay.com.

Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter have announced complete casting for the acclaimed David Cromer production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Performances will begin on February 17th with an official opening night set for Thursday, February 26th, 7:30 p.m., at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street), whose space will be completely redesigned for this production.

Filled with colorful criminals, biting social satire and a brilliant score, The Threepenny Opera opens International City Theatre's 2009 Season at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Jules Aaron directs Michael Feingold's translation of the trailblazing musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill that became one of the most influential plays of the 20th Century. Darryl Archibald is musical director and Kay Cole choreographs the five-week run February 20 through March 22; low-priced previews begin February 17. First performed in 1928, Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was a revolutionary musical theater masterpiece that mocked the bourgeois political movement of pre-Hitler Germany. Brecht's brittle, sardonic tale of beggars, thieves and prostitutes, adapted from the 1728 play The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, was a fierce social and political critique, and Weill's innovative score that fused American jazz with German cabaret captured the ironic tone of the lyrics. Part acid social criticism, part bittersweet romance, the now eighty-year old saga of 'Mack the Knife' and his entourage of criminals and whores has never lost its theatrical punch. 'It's a satire on capitalism and corruption told from the viewpoint of the 'little people',' notes Aaron. 'If there was ever time to revive this show, it's now. Michael [Feingold]'s translation is earthy, gritty and very funny. I think it's going to strike a chord with audiences.'

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2008-09 season with John Guare's Rich & Famous, directed by John Rando (Urinetown, The Musical and Wedding Singer on Broadway) in its first major revival since its 1976 New York debut. From the ingenious mind of John Guare, who brought Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves to the American stage, this delicious dark comedy springs to life with twisted humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and outrageous plot twists. The revival script includes significant rewrites to the original text, as well as hilarious songs freshly scribed by Guare himself. In Rich and Famous, playwright Bing Ringling yearns to savor the sweet taste of celebrity, and he's hoping play number 844 will be his lucky break. But on opening night, he slips into a nightmarish phantasmagoria that shows him just how wrong things can go.