The Good - 1938 - Broadway Articles Page 20

Cumberland County Playhouse's 2015 Golden Anniversary Season features stories of Tennessee, the South, and families, in new comedies and musicals by nationally recognized Tennessee playwrights and songwriters. The Playhouse continues to feature strong local talent, in both new works and great family favorites like The Wizard of Oz and the professional regional premiere of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins. Unlike movies and touring shows, attending a performance at the Playhouse keeps millions of entertainment dollars in the Tennessee economy, creating performance and production jobs and career opportunities!

First Night Award winning playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler's Southern Fried Funeral will be featured among productions celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse in 2015.

Early in Giselle, the heroine starts picking petals off flowers. Does he love her or does he not? That's very much the way I felt when I went to see the Mikhailovsky Ballet's November 14 performance of Giselle at Lincoln Center's Koch Theatre. I thought the odds were against me. When you have seen the ballet close to 1000 times, some great, some good, and some beyond mention, your spirits don' exactly soar with anticipation. So what can I say after seeing Giselle 1001 times? Welcome back. It's nice to see you in such pristine shape.

Perth, Australia

After six consecutive years, Disney's Beauty and the Beast has relinquished its place as the top musical in the annual survey of most-produced titles in United States high school theatres, unseated during the 2013-14 season by another adaptation of an animated anti-hero: Shrek the Musical. Returning to the list, and rounding out the top three, is Godspell, which has seen its popularity rise after a recent Broadway revival and subsequent national tour.

The State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare is rocking. Rocking with sounds of the likes of Diana Ross, The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Rocking with a full orchestra, a visually stimulating electronically enhanced production, and the story of Berry Gordy.

Acclaimed actress of stage and screen, Lauren Bacall, who passed away in August 2014, had formed an astonishing art collection which included works by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The Bacall Collection, estimated at $3m, will be sold at Bonhams, New York – 580 Madison Avenue – in March 2015.

Johnny Marr releases his second solo album 'Playland,' today, October 7 via Warner Music Group. Last year, the legendary guitarist for The Smiths enjoyed a monumental start to his solo career with an abundance of critical acclaim (including the honor of being named NME's 'Godlike Genius') for his Top 10 debut solo album 'The Messenger.' Meanwhile, his shows were celebrated for his ability to combine the best of his new material with select highlights from The Smiths, plus others from his extensive back catalog.

What to do when you have a sure hit film or TV show that everyone's heard of? Make a Broadway Musical, of course.

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU opens tonight, September 28, 2014, at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street), after 32 previews. The production is directed by six-time Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Scott Ellis (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Twelve Angry Men, 1776) and will play a 19-week limited engagement.

Karen Carpenter, a producer, director and teacher, a theater-maker for more than 30 years, has been appointed the interim Artistic Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts and the 34th Annual William Inge Theatre Festival. The Inge Festival is the Official Theater Festival of the State of Kansas, hosted on the campus of Independence Community College, which houses the William Inge archives.

Fans of Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, can content themselves with the remaining three new episodes of David Suchet's career-capping portrayal, now being streamed by AcornTV. ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, the 90 minute reworking of Christie's 1972 novel (here more successfully set in 1938), features Poirot and his irritating friend, crime write Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker) in an adaptation that remains long on incredible plot (the chestnut of twins and unrecognized identity) but finds its success in nuanced, layered performances. This episode includes sufficient red herrings to divert the casual Christie viewer, but there are fewer superfluous characters. This tighter core of suspects renders the still-complex intersecting plotlines easier to follow and savor than some previous outings. SPOILER ALERT: Pay attention to Dr. Willoughby's research on twins as a key to the original murder, and to secretary Marie McDermott's bland disregard for St. Patrick in solving the second.

Johnny Marr has announced the release date for his second solo album 'Playland,'which is set for release on October 7 via Warner Music Group, and available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon. Last year, the legendary guitarist for The Smiths enjoyed a monumental start to his solo career with an abundance of critical acclaim (including the honor of being named NME's 'Godlike Genius') for his Top 10 debut solo album 'The Messenger.' Meanwhile, his shows were celebrated for his ability to combine the best of his new material with select highlights from The Smiths, plus others from his extensive back catalog.

The New York Philharmonic will present its 11th season of Summertime Classics, July 2-6, 2014, featuring five themed concerts with Bramwell Tovey, who has been the host and conductor of the series since its founding in 2004. On the first program, July 2-3, 2014, titled 'Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Friends,' the New York Philharmonic will perform Shostakovich's Festive Overture; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Joyce Yang as soloist; Musorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain; Rachmaninoff's arrangement of his own Vocalise; and Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker, and Marche slave. The second program, July 4-6, 2014, titled 'Star-Spangled Celebration,' will feature the New York Philharmonic and United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps - 'The Commandant's Own,' which is celebrating its 80th-anniversary year - in a program that includes Copland's Clarinet Concerto, with Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist, and Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin's 'Strike Up the Band' from Strike Up the Band; Sousa marches; and more. In these performances Major Brian Dix, director and commanding officer of 'The Commandant's Own,' will share conducting duties with Bramwell Tovey.

Under the able direction of Doren Elias, the actors all get the period feeling just right, and the wealthy family feels like a wealthy family - all upper-crust manners and comfortable ease with the fancy trimmings.

The 2014-2015 season of The REP, Point Park University's professional theatre company, will include two world premieres by Pittsburgh playwrights, a classic by Nobel laureate John Steinbeck and a hilarious comedy about an American singer renowned for her lack of rhythm, tone and especially an ability to sing.

Producers of the upcoming Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize winning play You Can't Take It With You announce that tickets go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, and will be available by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting Telecharge.com.

Balanchine and Massine on the same program on February 20, 2014? I can't remember that last time I saw that. I wonder if the two would approve. But there is one fundamental difference separating the two choreographers. Balanchine, even 30 years after his death, is still in the forefront of modern ballet choreography, and most of Massine's ballets have fallen into oblivion. To be honest, the only Massine ballets I have seen prior to this were Parade and The Three Cornered Hat, both of which I enjoyed. I'd like to see The Good Natured Ladies, Le Beau Danube, La Boutique Fantasque, Rouge et Noir, Choreartium and Les Presages one of these days, but the chances are very slim. As the old saying goes, keep dreaming.

The Old Globe presents Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning farce Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which will include Candy Buckley as Masha, Marcia DeBonis as Sonia, Tyler Lansing Weaks as Spike, Allison Layman as Nina, Martin Moran as Vanya, and Haneefah Wood as Cassandra. Jessica Stone will direct, based on the Tony-nominated Broadway direction of Old Globe Associate Artist Nicholas Martin, whose loss on April 30 devastated the theatre world*. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run today, May 17 - June 22, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run tonight, May 17 through the 21st. Opening night is May 22 at 8:00 p.m.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Scott Alan releases his new EP today, Marilyn Maye tributes Johnny Carson at 54 Below, and THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES returns off-Broadway -- in Spanish!

The Old Globe today announced the cast of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning farce Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which will include Candy Buckley as Masha, Marcia DeBonis as Sonia, Tyler Lansing Weaks as Spike, Allison Layman as Nina, Martin Moran as Vanya, and Haneefah Wood as Cassandra.

According to the New York Times, James Earl Jones will return to Broadway later this year- this time in the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy You Can't Take It With You. The play will open at a Shubert theatre on September 28, 2014, with previews beginning in August. Scott Ellis is set to direct the revival.