The Thin - 2019 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 17

Superhero officially opened last night, February 28, 2019 at the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street). Let's see what the critics are saying...

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! We'd like to first wish a great first preview to both Ain't Too Proud and King Lear, as well as a happy opening to Superhero off-Broadway!

Taking us back to a world of hideous stonewashed denim, huge hair and even bigger rock anthems, Rock of Agesis on a new national tour. The jukebox musical has been doing the rounds since it first appeared in Hollywood in 2005, but this particular version shows that it has not aged well. The paper-thin plot focuses on sweet Southern gal Sherrie arriving in LA's bright lights. Here she meets the sweet and clean-cut Drew at the Bourbon Club. With the threatened demolition of the club as a background, Sheree is drawn into the murky LA underworld where she ends up working in a strip club. After various misunderstandings, the show concludes with a vaguely happy ending; so far, so predictable.

Four symphonic orchestras, a major heritage museum and one of Los Angeles' leading performing arts centers will join forces in 2020 for an ambitious collaborative initiative that will bring to life the sounds of music once lost. 

Kennedy Theatre and the University of Hawai'i at M noa's Department of Theatre and Dance present Integral Bodies on April 5, 6, 12, and 13, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. and April 14, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. as part of the Mainstage series.

Lost Nation Theater presents the culminating project of its one-week Dance-Theater Storytelling Camp: The Impossible Voyage.

Need a good laugh? The Chatham Community Players may have the cure with Rick Abbott's hilarious play within a play, Play On! Directed by John A.C. Kennedy, it's an uproarious behind-the scenes comedy in the tradition of Noises Off.

The world's fastest growing independent record label, Golden Robot Records, continues it's upward trajectory into 2019. Golden Robot Records is pleased to welcome guitar legend John Sykes to their already impressive roster of artists. John recently signed a worldwide deal with Golden Robot Records, which will see his long anticipated forthcoming new album released later this year. Sykes is now part of an international roster that includes such iconic artists as Skid Row, King's X, Gilby Clarke, Guns 'N' Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed, Little Caesar, RavenEye, The Lazys and the all star A New Revenge which features Tim 'Ripper' Owens, Keri Kelli, Rudy Sarzo and James Kottak. Golden Robot Records is also home to an incredible line up of Australian acts, led by Rose Tattoo, The Superjesus and Misex and featuring Steve Kilbey, Palace Of The King, Jailbirds, Fyre Byrd, The Kids, Destrends, Flickertail and many more.

Denver-based four-piece Flaural is set to release their debut LP, Postponement, which is due out April 19, 2019 and can be pre-ordered now HERE. Following a string of EPs — 2015's Thin King and 2016's Over Imaginary Cigarettes — Postponement has been three years in the making. During that time, the band experienced both communal growth and personal loss while writing and recording and playing shows across the United States. On March 27th, 2017, frontman Collin Johnson's father passed away after a long struggle with ALS, and Postponement's album cover serves as an homage to his death: an image resembling a clock with hands that read 3:27. The album's first single, “The Thinker,” shared via Stereogum today, was originally written following his father's diagnosis, with Johnson singing, “Nobody likes when you're not well / Come up, come up, and feel better now.” The song's lyrics were reworked after he passed, adding the line, “Unanswered questions still haunt me.” The upbeat, emotional track ends with a dark, hectic, instrumental frenzy of piercing baritone saxophone squeaks layered over sporadic, aggressive guitar and driving drums.

“He would have wanted the show to go on,” Band of Friends bassist Gerry McAvoy laments about the passing of his lifelong friend and drummer, Ted McKenna. The two men had crisscrossed the globe together for decades playing high octane blues-rock at clubs, theaters, and festivals before McKenna passed away due to complications from a routine surgery he elected to undergo on his down time between tours.

Fuel have today announced the cast for the UK tour of Inua Ellams' critically acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles which returns by popular demand.

The young, energetic cast of ROCK OF AGES' 10th Anniversary Tour is too young to have even been conceived on any Prom Night before 1993, but they don't seem to mind. The script, such as it is, builds stock scenarios and characters to form a through-line for more than 30 big-hair eighties rock standards that are the backbone and muscle of the ROCK OF AGES experience. The band is top notch, handling all the quirks and signatures of big-hair rock like champions. Enjoy this revisitation of your youth as performed by the greatest '80s cover group you're likely to encounter.

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL is bursting with kids, all of them bursting with talent. Based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the stage version is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a guy who knows a thing or two about creating successful musicals. Nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, the show ran for more than three years on Broadway, a little over a year in London, and the national tour has been on the road since September, 2017. It's a feel good musical with a happy ending, something to lighten up the winter doldrums.

When 12 people live in a converted warehouse in North London, what could possibly go wrong? The Worst Little Warehouse in London is an off-the-wall comedy cabaret, starring every housemate you've ever lived with. The show enjoyed sell-out success and critical acclaim at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe.

Crafting a musical theater hit is a lot like alchemy - the ancient study focused primarily on creating gold from baser elements - and oftentimes no matter the ingredients, directors never quite achieve the outcome for which they strive. But in the case of director/choreographer Everett Tarlton's production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate (now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre through March 7), he has crafted something so special that it essentially defines the theatrical gold standard.

When 12 people live in a converted warehouse in North London, what could possibly go wrong? The Worst Little Warehouse in London is an off-the-wall comedy cabaret, starring every housemate you've ever lived with. The show enjoyed sell-out success and critical acclaim at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe and is heading to Adelaide for the 2019 Fringe.

When 12 people live in a converted warehouse in North London, what could possibly go wrong? The Worst Little Warehouse in London is an off-the-wall comedy cabaret, starring every housemate you've ever lived with. The show enjoyed sell-out success and critical acclaim at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe.

Heavy Pettin' first stirred into action when vocalist Hamie, guitarists Gordon Bonnar and Punky Mendoza, drummer Gary Moat and bassist Brian Waugh first burst out of Glasgow in 1981. They were vibrant, priapic, anthemic and focused. As they showed on a three-track demo, and on the subsequent debut single for independent label Neat ('Roll The Dice'/'Love Xs Love'), they were more than mere Def Leppard slaves. In fact, the Pettin' had an international sound that owed something to AC/DC, UFO, Thin Lizzy and Foreigner, but also had its own raging momentum.

PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES is a Tony nominated 1981 musical written by the performance group of the same name. The group, Pump Boys and Dinettes, consisted of John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. The members also jointly directed and starred in the original Broadway production. The show is basically a series of standalone songs rather than a conventional story tied together with music. The book for this musical is very thin and really only exists to get to the next song. Each song represents some element of small-town life: the sacredness of fishing, the fun of owning a pair of "Drinkin Shoes," and other assorted blue collar tales including growing up with with their grandma, whom they called Mamaw. The company tosses off 21 short-form songs with performances that harken back to simpler, more straight forward times with good natured knee-slapping, song, dance and humor. They shatter the fourth wall by talking directly to the audience and eventually coming right out into it and the end result is a refreshing blast from the past.

The Crossing and Donald Nally have won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for their recording of Lansing McLoskey's Zealot Canticles. The award was presented yesterday, February 10, 2019, at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. This marks the Philadelphia new-music choir's second consecutive Grammy in the category, previously winning the 2018 Grammy for Gavin Bryars' The Fifth Century with PRISM Saxophone Quartet on ECM. The Crossing's recording of Thomas Lloyd's Bonhoeffer (Albany 2016) was nominated for the 2017 Grammy in the same category.

After the surprise announcement that legendary musician PETER MURPHY would be doing a special tribute performing songs by the late great Thin White Duke, DAVID BOWIE, tickets for the March 26, 2019 show at San Francisco's The Chapel sold out in just THREE HOURS!

Today, Guitar World premieres the debut video from Memoirs of an Uprising, the self-produced new album from singer/songwriter/guitarist,  Damon Johnson. The clip for the single “Shivering Shivering” was directed by Chris Hopkins and shot on location in Nashville. Double Dragon Records will release the full album Memoirs of an Uprising on March 8, 2019. A  limited run of Red Vinyl pressings of the album can be ordered here.  

Mosaic Theater Company of DC is proud to announce the second installment in its annual Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, the world premiere workshop production of Shame 2.0 (With Comments From The Populace). Previews begin on January 30, 2019 with a press opening today, February 7, 2019 at 7:30pm in the Lang Theatre at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The 19 performance run will be informed by a stripped down aesthetic and an emphasis on script updates through the lengthier than usual preview period and the evolving nature of the documentary-based rehearsal process.