What Did You Expect? - 2016 - Articles Page 9

Life on the road can be grueling, especially if you're a performer belting "Defying Gravity" several times a week for over a year, as actor/singer Jessica Vosk did from September 2016 to 2017. Now that she has her feet planted firmly back in New York, she's detailing her experience with BEING GREEN, her new show at Feinstein's/54 Below premiering this week.

Sundance Film Festival: Juries, Awards Night Host Announced

Nashville based duo, Don & Lori Chaffer have been making music together for a long time. With over 15 full-length albums under their belt, they continue to write and record music and, as of the last 10 years, musicals. Yep musicals.

A look back at the very best local productions that 2017 had to offer.

The upcoming 28th annual The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival will present movies from around the world, opening with BODY AND SOUL: An American Bridge, focusing on the early performance history and cross-cultural impact of the jazz standard by Jewish composer Johnny Green.

This year, New Orleans has had just about as white of a Christmas as we've seen in quite a while. With the excitement of last week's snowfall and Christmas coming up on Monday, the touring production of Irving Berlin's WHITE CHRISTMAS couldn't have come to the Saenger Theater at a more perfect time.

This past March, at 2017's MAC Awards, honoring the best of cabaret in New York over the past season, as in most years, there were five nominees for Female Vocalist: Celia Berk, Sally Darling, Meg Flather, Josephine Sanges, and Lisa Viggiano. It's not particularly important, in this case, who won. (Flather did.) If their shared story met the usual expectations, it would've ended there and each nominee would've gone on her own way to do her next big thing. You'll be happy to hear their story defies those expectations.

It has been 4 years since 2013's critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated, and number 1 Billboard Blues album Seesaw was released by singer-songwriter and blues-rock powerhouse Beth Hart and guitar hero Joe Bonamassa.

This month, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond, just in time for the holidays. Scroll down for details!

This December, Theater Close-Up will raise the curtain for viewers on Tony Award-winning playwright and director Richard Nelson's compelling three-play cycle, The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family.

Yes, we've heard it before, but this time she says she means it! In a new interview with The Associated Press, legendary singer and entertainer Barbra Streisand insists she would never do another concert tour because it's just too exhausting.

Broadway producer Scott Sanders is the mastermind behind this kind of experiential entertainment and he's telling us all about how the concept came to be.

Vance Avery, born and raised in Edmonton, is one of the Canadian cast members of the Pre-Broadway Canadian Premiere of Hadestown at the Citadel Theatre. Avery plays one of the Workers, who are a new addition to the show since the Off-Broadway production at New York Theatre Workshop in 2016. The Citadel's Sydnee Bryant spoke with the actor about his role, why Hadestown is a unique musical, and how special it is to perform at the Citadel for the first time.

Riding the wave of renewed interest in August Wilson's 10 play, American Century Cycle, South Coast Repertory has one particular Wilson drama on their sonar at the moment: GEM OF THE OCEAN, the riveting, epic-sized 2003 drama now continuing at the Costa Mesa theater through November 11. An exquisitely rendered, mesmerizing production superbly directed by Kent Gash and featuring a truly impressive, excellent ensemble cast, SCR's new regional production of GEM OF THE OCEAN combines a bountiful interweaving of historical references, personal and emotionally-tinged character confessionals, and mystical, magical elements to fashion one of the most fascinating and engaging works of drama I have experienced in this Tony Award-winning regional theater.

This November, Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

For McGee Maddox the dancer/actor who plays Jerry Mulligan in the national tour of An American in Paris, which opens at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall on Tuesday, October 31 it's knowing that every Tuesday means a new venue, a new city and a new backstage crew that keeps him focused and the role fresh even after 128 performances.

The hit musical CAGNEY, direct from the Off-Broadway boards, will tap their tapping feets at the El Portal Theatre beginning October 5, 2017. This story of Hollywood legend James Cagney receives its complementary accentuations and punctuations from the double pullbacks, the shuffle ball changes and switching wings of award-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse. Josh took a break from his time-stepping to answer our digging (another tap term) questions.

Check out the November lineup for Martinis Above Fourth!

WARCROSS by Marie Lu was the first book to give me a book hangover in 2017. I read an advance copy at the tail end of March, only a fourth of the way into the year, and I was seriously up until after 1 a.m. two worknights in a row devouring this book. IT WAS THAT GOOD. I couldn't put it down!!! I read until my eyes drooped, then woke up in the morning, read some more, crammed some more reading into my lunch break, and stayed up again the next night until I'd finishe

The first and second day of the third-annual ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival at Boulder at the Main Boulder Public Library, September 15 and 16, featured 29 sessions that covered topics ranging from Slumdog Millionaire and Spotlight to climate change, sexuality, Russia and North Korea.

The last of the new operas at the center of Opera Philadelphia's O17 opera fest is THE WAKE WORLD, a chamber piece written by composer/librettist David Hertzberg and directed by RB Schlather. It opens on Monday September 18 at the Barnes collection--the great museum in central Philadelphia--and promises a one-of-a-kind experience for those savvy enough to snare a ticket. (Its five performances are sold out.)

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances, tomorrow, September 13, through September 24. Scroll down for details!

The Flat Rock Playhouse 2017 season continues with the stage play turned cult-classic film, Amadeus. This larger-than-life production stars Nat Zegree (Jerry Lee Lewis of last year's hit Million Dollar Quartet) as one of the original bad boys of popular music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Amadeus runs September 15th through the 30th at the Clyde and Nina Allen Mainstage in the Village of Flat Rock, NC.

The first thing that drew me to SPARK was the theatre influence. What are some of your favorite stage plays and/or musicals? You don't have to live in the heart of New York City to love the theater, do you? I'm a lifelong resident of Springfield, Missouri, which has a fairly long history of producing actors—Brad Pitt, John Goodman, Kathleen Turner, Tess Harper have all lived here. There's definitely something in the air! Springfield's also home to several vintage theaters—I grew up going to productions inside them. I referenced a few in SPARK (The Fantasticks), as well as a few Shakespeare works (especially Romeo and Juliet). But I also wanted to show my readers what was in my mind's eye as I created the Avery theater. My local color video takes you on a tour: