The Show Goes On - 1997 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 9

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced the 2022/23 Season today. With six Steppenwolf Membership Series productions and two SYA productions, the 47th season is the storied company’s first full season in its expanded home—welcoming audiences back to experience the next chapter of Steppenwolf’s bold, visceral and muscular work.

From stand-up comedian and TV legend Harry Hill and his long-time collaborator Steve Brown comes the premiere of the rock opera the world has been crying out for: a reckless reappraisal of the life of former Ugly Rumours front man and Britain’s first pop Prime Minister Tony Blair. 

THE DJANGO, downtown Manhattan’s premier jazz club, is celebrating the next generation of jazz with a special concert series this month. During the month of May, The Django welcomes rising stars as part of its new Next Gen Series.

Titanic the Musical opened on Broadway in April of 1997. The musical tells the story of the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, or what would soon be aptly named “The Unsinkable Ship.” However, as history tells us the ship sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. The 1997 Broadway production won five Tony Awards including Best Musical and was directed by Richard Jones. Following the opening of its Broadway run, Titanic was adapted for film and released the same year in 1997 by James Cameron starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Both of which the musical and film have no correlation to the other. Maury Yeston who was a Broadway composer and lyricist for Nine was inspired by the discovery of the wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland in 1985. Yeston said he was inspired by all the ship represented. So Yeston met with Peter Stone who wrote the libretto and Titanic the Musical was born. Of the five Tony’s that Titanic went onto win among them were Best Score, Best Book, Best Orchestrations, Best Scenic Design as well as Best Musical mentioned above. Previews started in 1997 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and received mixed but positive reviews. After 804 performances, Titanic the Musical closed in March of 1999. Boasting a whopping 20 musical numbers in Act One and 12 in Act Two this behemoth of a musical is grand in design, and song. This musical also features a cast of 37 some doubling multiple roles. Proving to be a huge undertaking for amateur productions and professionals alike.

The Full Monty is curious musical. While being essentially a raunchy comedy about six guys who decides to become strippers to escape unemployment and economical despair, it also have the potential to be deeply moving. When done right! And this new production presented in Sarpsborg has done just that... for the most part.

The longest-running Annual Solo Festival for women in Los Angeles, LAWTF will take place March 24- March 27, 2022. The Festival will be presented virtually again this year. The overall theme of the Festival is Beyond Boundaries.

This brand new production by Pravesh Kumar with Goldy Notay as Beverley casts the attitudes to class and social standing of Mike Leigh's classic in a whole new light.

Dear Readers, some of you may remember the 1997 animated rendition of “Anastasia” that the current musical production at the Paramount is based on … loosely. We still have most of those lovely Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty songs from the animated version and the story is still about a young girl discovering that she is the lost Romanov daughter and trying to make her way to Paris to reunite with her grandmother. But don’t expect to see the magical immortal Rasputin as the villain or a wise cracking bat for comic relief. However, if you really wanted that animated version on stage, you may be in luck as many of the performances last night were inexplicably cartoonish in a show with a few memorable songs but a convoluted story that made little sense if you pay attention to it.

Meet all of the Broadway actors in THE GILDED AGE! The new series features appearances by Audra McDonald, Denée Benton, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Kelli O'Hara, Carrie Coon, Claybourne Elder, Donna Murphy, Katie Finneran, Debra Monk, Taylor Richardson, Douglas Sills, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Patrick Page, Michael Cerveris, and more.

Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater are open this February with a full slate of nightly performances! 

Broadway In Chicago will celebrate Chicago Theatre Week with three fabulous shows, The Play That Goes Wrong, Come From Away, and The Simon & Garfunkel Story. Chicago Theatre Week is an annual celebration that features value-priced tickets to musicals, improv, dramas, and beyond.

To celebrate 25 years of The Stage 100, The Stage has today announced a new list celebrating 25 individuals or partnerships tipped to become the future stars of the UK theatre industry.

Russian-set musicals figure highly in this actor's nontraditional path to the tour stage. ANASTASIA, the new Broadway musical, and its Dowager Empress are on the Orpheum's stage till Dec. 19.

Tonight, NBC will air its sixth live musical production. Following in the footsteps of The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz, Hairspray, and Jesus Christ Superstar, the peacock network will be presenting Annie. Based on Harold Gray's comic strip titled Little Orphan Annie, this musical tells the story of a little orphan with equal measures of pluck and positivity who charms everyone's hearts, despite a next-to-nothing start in New York City in the year 1933.

Diana, The Musical celebrates official opening night tonight, Wednesday, November 17 at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). Diana, The Musical stars Jeanna de Waal as Diana, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles, Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles and Judy Kaye as Queen Elizabeth.

At the intersection of Packer fandom, Wisconsin pride, and musical theater lies Dad’s Season Tickets.

The cast includes Spencer Plachy as 'Scar,' Gerald Ramsey as 'Mufasa,' Gugwana Dlamini as 'Rafiki,' Nick Cordileone as 'Timon,' Jürgen Hooper as 'Zazu,' Ben Lipitz as 'Pumbaa,' Darian Sanders as 'Simba,' Kayla Cyphers as 'Nala,' Keith Bennett as 'Banzai,' Martina Sykes as 'Shenzi' and Robbie Swift as 'Ed.' Jaylen Lyndon Hunter alternates the role of 'Young Simba', along with Charlie Kahler.

During a press conference held today, Taylor Hackford, director,  Board member of the Franco-American Cultural Fund and COLCOA Program Committee member, announced the opening film of the 25th Annual COLOCA French Film and Series Festival will be the North American Premiere of writer/director/author Emmanuel Carrère!s BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, star ring Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche.

The Hanover Theatre will present a number of exciting shows in its 2021-2022 season, and the company looking forward to welcoming audiences back to the theatre after this long intermission.

Elevate Atlanta is a public arts festival throughout the city of Atlanta, focused by neighborhood. The Old 4th Ward, home of your pals at Dad's Garage, is featured the weekend of September 24th-26th. Please join us for a weekend of free outdoor programming, including improv shows and the unveiling of a new community mural. 

The Seacoast Repertory Theatre is serving up a Halloween-season gothic treat with its production of Jekyll & Hyde, a rock-and-roll musical version of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story.

Coinciding with DREAMGIRLS 40th Anniversary, DREAMGIRLS’ original Effie Jennifer Holliday will perform her concert HERE’S TO LIFE at The Wallis October 9, 2021. Had the chance to chat with Jennifer of her current LIFE, her signature song, and her one-upping lockdown.

Overcome with nostalgia, Marge decides to stage a revival of her high school musical, “Y2K: The Millennium Bug.” 

The interrupted 2020 world premiere of Rosanna Gamson’s SUGAR HOUSES will re-open the REDCAT July 8, 2021 for four live performances. SUGAR HOUSES, RGWW’s re-imagining of Hansel & Gretel, will also live stream July 11th. We had the chance to update my interview with Rosanna after all these pandemic months.

Hayesville, North Carolina is a charming, historic, mountain town with a population of less than 400. Anchored by an old town square, it offers the sort of attractive shops and eateries one might expect to find in this type of scenic, Sunday drive destination. But just a few blocks from Main Street, Hayesville holds an unusual surprise––The Peacock Performing Arts Center, a venue that looks as it if had been plucked from the arts district of a large metropolitan city.