What Goes Up…! - 1963 - West End Articles Page 10

When Jersey Boys opened on Broadway in 2005 it won numerous Tony awards and was heaped with praise. This week, the national tour makes a second stop in Des Moines, to remind us that the awards and praise are well deserved.

Four songs into Lauren Robert's show at Iridium this past Tuesday night (her third appearance at the jazz club since last August), she was already producing her usual pulsating, percussive, and passionate presentation of hard-driving blues and soulful pop when the show took a transformative turn and reached a higher ground. The mature, sultry, blue-eyed blonde, whose sound goes beyond blue-eyed soul, put on her Louisiana accent cultivated from years playing down south with her old band, Mojo Hand, and told her audience that the set's fifth song was 'inspired by the swamps and sexy action of N'awlins.' Then Robert and her new band, which included three members of the old gang, really got their mojo going, jumped into a musical swamp boat and navigated through a Robert original called 'Two Alligators' (from Mojo Hand's 1992 album Zulu Parasol), an intense and rhythmic mix of blues, hard rock n' roll, and Zydeco, and that featured a cool background vocal arrangement and Robert playing a washboard-better known as a fotoi (fo-twa)-draped down her chest. Like an alligator, the song stalked and then snapped, and with Noe Matos supplying some frenetic percussion, it was a draw-dropping number that wouldn't let you stop bouncing in your seat.

Today, May 14, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) releases 16 new single-disc collections in its acclaimed ICON series from some of music's most legendary artists.

Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of The Big Knife, by Clifford Odets, opens tonight, April 16, at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street). This will be a limited engagement through June 2, 2013. Let's see what the critics had to say...

110 in the Shade is a 1963 musical based on the award-winning 1954 play The Rainmaker with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Tom Jones, and music by Harvey Schmidt. It followed the team's success creating The Fantasticks- the world's longest running musical. A one-time professional boxer who later went on to teach at Princeton and Yale, playwright Nash has written for theatre, television and film as well as works of fiction and poetry, however, The Rainmaker is his most widely known work which also was made into a film starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster.

In this new, in-depth interview below, RAIDING THE ROCK VAULT's Howard Leese [guitarist] and John Payne [Lead Vocals, Bass and producer of the show] discuss how the show was born, its evolution from premiering in Los Angeles last year (November) to kicking off a year-long engagement in Las Vegas

Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse, Giles Croft, has today revealed plans for the fiftieth anniversary of its iconic building, which was opened by Lord Snowdon on 11 December 1963 under the leadership of John Neville, Frank Dunlop and Peter Ustinov. Reflecting the rich array of work produced there over the last half century, this year's programme contains the wide range of ambitious and high quality drama that has established The Playhouse as one of the leading regional theatres in the UK.

Paul Taylor remains one of the greats of our time. Though he's been choreographing for almost 60 years, he continues to create worlds that audiences still want to enter.

Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse, Giles Croft, has today revealed plans for the fiftieth anniversary of its iconic building, which was opened by Lord Snowdon on 11 December 1963 under the leadership of John Neville, Frank Dunlop and Peter Ustinov. Reflecting the rich array of work produced there over the last half century, this year's programme contains the wide range of ambitious and high quality drama that has established The Playhouse as one of the leading regional theatres in the UK.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is at work on a musical based on the events surrounding the 1963 Profumo Affair. Today, the Daily Mail has confirmed that Lloyd Webber will be leading a sing-through of the musical's score with Alexander Hanson as Stephen Ward and Hal Fowler as Profumo. Joining them will be Iris Roberts as Christine Keeler, and Carly Bawden as Mandy Rice Davies.

The commercial success of DIRTY DANCING on stage is a testament to the enduring popularity of the 1987 coming-of-age drama that inspired it.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) has named a quartet of iconic Japanese filmmakers - Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni - as honorees of its 2013 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement, given to an international writer(s) who has advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of screenwriter.

The Picture Show at Bay Street Theatre, sponsored by Peconic Landing continues with classic films this winter and spring. All films start at 8 pm. Tickets are $7 at the door and include a small box of popcorn. For the $28 prix-fixe 'Dinner and a Movie' package, call Page at 63 Main (631-725-1810), IL Capuccino (631-725-2747) or Sen (631-725-1774). Beginning February 15, the dinner package will be available at Dockside (631-725-7100). Cost does not include sales tax, beverage or gratuities.

This past Saturday night, I was finally able to catch Jeff Macauley's show 'It Was Me: The Lyrics of Norman Gimbel,' and found it to be one of the most charming cabaret shows-male or female-that I saw this year. Macauley doesn't possess a particularly powerful voice or a wide vocal range, but he has a smooth, endearing baritone that can occasionally hit tough tenor notes, and for this show he displayed a knack for offering interesting and humorous biographical anecdotes as if he were a smooth jazz FM deejay. Dapper and Mad Men-esque in a tight black suit and black bow tie, Macauley presented his show as if he was a classic 'lounge lizard,' but in the best sense of that term.

The Picture Show at Bay Street Theatre has announced announce that Peconic Landing is sponsoring its long-running, classic Picture Show Series for the 2013 Season.

Flocking back to movie theaters nationwide on Wednesday, September 19, Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS is the latest in a seriously impressive series of classic films being re-released for one night only in HD with special attendant interviews and behind-the-scenes features, hosted by noted film historian Robert Osborne, as part of an unprecedented, ongoing Turner Classic Movies film festival hosted by NCM Fathom-equipped cinemas. This special presentation of THE BIRDS will begin with an introduction, mini-documentary and interview with film star Tippi Hedren prior to the presentation of the film itself, so, today let us take a look back at one of the most influential and terrifying films of the 1960s, as well as the formidable icon who made it, Alfred Hitchcock.

Flocking back to movie theaters nationwide on Wednesday, September 19, Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS is the latest in a seriously impressive series of classic films being re-released for one night only in HD with special attendant interviews and behind-the-scenes features, hosted by noted film historian Robert Osborne, as part of an unprecedented, ongoing Turner Classic Movies film festival hosted by NCM Fathom-equipped cinemas. This special presentation of THE BIRDS will begin with an introduction, mini-documentary and interview with film star Tippi Hedren prior to the presentation of the film itself, so, today let us take a look back at one of the most influential and terrifying films of the 1960s, as well as the formidable icon who made it, Alfred Hitchcock.

Compellingly dramatic and musically inspiring, Caroline, Or Change-the musical now onstage at Street Theatre Company through the end of the month-might very well be the most startling and thoroughly extraordinary production from the company in its rather brief existence in Nashville.

Fifteen of the most acclaimed films by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock come together on Blu-ray for the first time ever when Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection is released on October 30, 2012 for a limited time only. Digitally restored from high-quality film elements and presented in perfect high-definition picture and sound, Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection brings the Master of Suspense's best work to home audiences as it's never been seen before. This ultimate collector's set features 13 films previously unavailable on Blu-ray, a collectible 50-page book featuring storyboards, costume sketches, correspondence, photographs, and much more. Plus a treasure trove of over 15 hours of documentaries, filmmaker commentaries, interviews, screen tests, trailers and a new documentary 'The Birds, Hitchcock's Monster Movie,' enough to satisfy even the most ardent Hitchcock fan.

Main Street Theatre has been a staple in the Houston theatre scene since Rebecca Udden found the company in the 1970s. Over time, the company has continued to evolve and grow. It seems that Houston audiences may not be fully aware of just how dynamic this stellar theatre company is. To help set the record straight, Rebecca Udden, Founding and Executive Artistic Director, and Vivienne St. John, Theater For Youth Producing Director, spoke with me about this fantastic and multifaceted theatrical company.

Composer Marvin Hamlisch, whose latest musical theater work is on display in Nashville in the Broadway-bound production of The Nutty Professor, has died in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. He was 68 years old, and his death was made public by a family spokesperson. He is survived by his wife, Terre.

With this week's news of the passing of American literary and political icon Gore Vidal at the advanced age of 86, now seems a particularly apt time to look back at a truly anomalous career and some of the highlights of a life lived on pages, stages, planes, trains and many of the most exclusive locales in the world.

Fairly exploding onto the stage, The Nutty Professor-the new musical based on the classic 1963 film comedy-opened at Nashville's James K. Polk Theatre last night in a vibrantly told and visually stunning production helmed by Jerry Lewis, the man who co-wrote the movie and, at this moment, is probably booking a ticket to Broadway . The story of nerdy Professor Julius Kelp and his transformation into the suave and sophisticated (if boorish) Buddy Love offers plenty of laughs to be certain, but perhaps surprisingly, there's a whole lot of heart to be found in Rupert Holmes' book, set tunefully to a classic Marvin Hamlisch score.

There's just something about Klea Blackhurst: The very first moment you meet her you know you're gonna like her and that, given the chance to perform for you, she's sure to wow you, to put you in your place, to make you fall in love with her. Consider yourself forewarned.

Today the spotlight falls on Sarah Marie Jenkins. And I've gotta tell you, there's just something about Sarah-she's charming and funny and disarmingly appealing, she's pretty and talented and, well, you're just gonna love her. Hell, I've only shared emails and Facebook messages and posts with her and I'm already crazy about her (but in a talented girl-crush sort of way, not like some creepy stalker kind of way)! Seriously, if you're not just absolutely taken with her after reading this interview, then read it again.