The Review

What did our critic think of AN IRISH CAROL at Keegan Theatre?

In Nikki Shaffeeullah’s A POEM FOR RABIA, three centuries of women come together to explore the currents of change that shape their lives. Expansive and thoughtful, it’s a fearlessly creative play as messy and complex as the themes of colonialism and queer womanhood it investigates, both to its major credit and minor detriment.

With Marjorie Prime currently running at the company's home base in South London and Funny Girl on Broadway, the Menier Chocolate Factory announced forthcoming programming for 2023. Learn more about the lineup here!

The clash of cultures –between West and East—is portrayed with poetic and musical flourish in Signature Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s rarefied and insightful Pacific Overtures. This very specialized of musicals should now appeal to a larger audience thanks to the savvy, relevant and comprehensive direction by Ethan Heard.

Natalya Pavlova as Violetta, together with her Alfredo and Giorgio Germont (Ivan Magri, and Giuseppe Altomare, respectively) battle mightily against the inanity of Nicola Raab's direction, unfortunately, to no avail. One must say, that Ms. Raab has achieved what I thought was nearly impossible -- she has drained the passion, drama, and romance out of Verdi's heretofore 'indestructible' masterpiece, and turned it into a lifeless, bloodless exercise in tedium. 

Five years ago, Anna Netrebko unveiled her take on Verdi's Lady Macbeth at the Met and wowed audiences from here to eternity. But since the first week of the Met season, she's brought her sexy, ebullient and take-no-prisoners Lady Macbeth back and showed that she's even better than ever--singing the pant (and the spots) off the role.

On June 1, 2019, Los Angeles Opera revived Marta Domingo's production of Giuseppe Verdi's beloved La Traviata (The Lost One). The story concerns Marie Duplessis, an enormously famous courtesan whose life has fascinated the public for well over a century. She is the subject of La Dame aux Camelias (The Lady of the Camelias) by Alexandre Dumas the younger, who claimed to be one of Marie's lovers and she is the heroine of Verdi's opera. Los Angeles Opera reprised its 2006 production of La Traviata for the third time on June 1, 2019, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature HUGH JACKMAN, 1776 on Broadway, AUGUST RUSH, and More!

Over the course of the last twenty years, Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos has been a man with a mission. During that time period, he has systematically presented the works of composer Stephen Sondheim at the Lyric Stage Company, beginning with ASSASSINS in the 1998-1999 season, and concluding with PACIFIC OVERTURES to wrap up the 2018-2019 season. In spite of the daunting nature of the undertaking, Veloudos has tackled it with gusto and proven himself to be a meritorious interpreter of the Sondheim canon. Collaborating with Music Director Jonathan Goldberg, Choreographer Micheline Wu, and his familiar roster of designers, Veloudos recreates the musical in his own vision, downsizing what originated as a behemoth show to fit the parameters of the Lyric's thrust stage.

Opening on the past Saturday night at the Ordway Center, MN Opera staged a magnificent production of Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 Opera La Traviata. Verdi's breathtaking love and death opera accompanied by Francesco Maria Piave's libretto was adapted after Alexander Dumas' 'Lady of the Camellias' or 'La Dame aux Camelias. In Verdi's reimagining of the Dumas novel, his music showcases the prodigious talents and voice of the protagonist, Violetta. For the company's opening night, Nicole Cabel masterfully sang the challenging operatic role.

Marigold Page is a Tohono O'odham woman.  She is also an activist working with her tribe to resist a wall being built across their Nation.  She meets John Morales-Rio, a Native land surveyor working in the southern U.S. and Mexico.  He is smitten and charms her into a spontaneous picnic.  Why this particular career?  His family has a history of protecting their lands and ensuring that the most sacred sites are protected for generations to come.  John tells Marigold, 'I feel BOUND to it.'

American Pianist Jason Hardink Performs Works by Jason Eckardt, Debussy, Xenakis, Liszt, and Messiaen.

As with most tales of doomed romance, Giuseppe Verdi's LA TRAVIATA highlights the contrasts between two social spheres and the difficulties faced by lovers who try to bridge this chasm. In this 1853 opera, based on a play by Alexandre Dumas, fils, the beautiful courtesan Violetta Valery (Albina Shagimuratova) tries to escape her past life among the hedonistic upper classes of Paris to settle down with her true love, Alfredo Germont (Giorgio Berrugi). After a brief period of bliss, the couple is driven apart by the strict bourgeois morality of Alfredo's family, in particular his father, who refuses to overlook Violetta's shameful past until she is on her deathbed.

American Pianist Jason Hardink Performs Works by Jason Eckardt, Debussy, Xenakis, Liszt, and Messiaen.

The imaginative and increasingly important Key Pianists concert series, founded by pianist Terry Eder in 2015, embarks on its fourth season with a recital by Norman Krieger, who 'owns a world of technique' (Los Angeles Times), on Wednesday evening, October 17, 2018 at 8 pm at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His program will include Brahms' Sonata in C Major and Beethoven's Sonata in D minor, as well as works by Chopin, Lazaroff, and Fine. On Tuesday evening, February 26, 2019 at 8 pm, pianist Jason Hardink-dubbed 'a pianist of such extraordinary power-and memory-that he is difficult to forget' by ConcertoNet's Harry Rolnick (14 Dec 2015)-will give a recital of 19th- and 20th-century gems by Eckardt, Debussy, Liszt, Xenakis, and Messiaen. To close out the season, series founder Terry Eder, noted for her 'fascinating [performances] full of life and risk' (New York Concert Review, Summer 2006), performs Schubert's Impromptu in F Minor, Op. 142, No. 1 and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 28, as well as works by Debussy, Dohnanyi, and Kodaly.

Austin Opera never fails to dazzle, but their current production of LA TRAVIATA is so incredibly stellar, superlatives fail to describe its glittering pageantry.

Plácido Domingo adds yet another role to his legendary Met career in this rarely performed Verdi gem, a heart-wrenching tragedy of fatherly love. Sonya Yoncheva sings the title role opposite Piotr Becza?a in the first Met performances of the opera in more than ten years. Bertrand de Billy conducts.

PACIFIC OVERTURES with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman, with additional material by Hugh Wheeler had its Broadway premiere in 1976 and was presented in Kabuki style, with men playing women's parts and set changes made in full view of the audience by people dressed in black. It opened to mixed reviews and closed after six months, despite being nominated for 10 Tony Awards. Given the unusual casting and production demands, there is good reason why this remains one of the least-performed Sondheim musicals. So it's no wonder it has been 19 years since the musical has been presented in Los Angeles.

I was not prepared to laugh that much. Theatre Lab's THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SHADOW could have easily been called Peter Pan Gone Wrong . The musical-comedy takes the familiar story and flips it on its head.

The Dallas Opera is proud to present the second mainstage production of the 2017-2018 Motives Unmasked! Season: Giuseppe Verdi's tender and bittersweet romance, LA TRAVIATA, opening on Friday, October 27, 2017 (The Amy and Vernon Faulconer Performance) at 7:30 p.m.in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas. Verdi's tragic-yet-beautiful tale of a fallen woman consistently appears at or near the top of the list of the world's most popular operas.

Six new films from Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) will premiere on public television's WORLD Channel in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 (September 15-October 15).

The best thing about Classic Stage Company's small-scale, extensively trimmed production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's extraordinarily-written 1976 musical, PACIFIC OVERTURES, is a chance to see a terrific ensemble of actors taken from the New York stage's severely underutilized pool of Asian-American talent. The company includes notables of the musical stage such as Ann Harada, Orville Mendoza, Thom Sesma and Marc Oka.

Classic Stage Company's new production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Pacific Overtures, directed and designed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, celebrated its opening night this evening.

As the history books and Stephen Sondheim tell us, in 1853 Matthew C. Perry, Commodore of the United States Navy, sailed to Japan on a mission to forcibly end the island empire's policy of national seclusion and establish trade with America.

 Pittsburgh Opera announces its 2016-2017 season. The season includes the very first world premiere in our 78 year history and two Pennsylvania premieres. The season will encompass four operas produced at the Benedum Center and two Resident Artist operas - the annual production at Pittsburgh CAPA Theater and the Second Stage Project at Pittsburgh Opera Headquarters.