Passion Photos - New York

Chita danced onto the stage at the Skirball Center to present the Chita Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award to her friend and collaborator, 96-year-old John Kander.

Another lovely early evening of pure dance bliss. Sun still shining on another ideal California spring day; the final performance in the three-part dance series by nine talented and soul-sharing dancers included Shari Washington Rhone, Justin Edmonson, Latrice Postell, Kacy Keys, Chris Smith, Tashara Gavin-Moorehead, Laura Ann Smyth, Alex Rasmussen and Bernard Brown; all a part of JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble. They performed mainly outside on the grounds surrounding the Library.​​​​​​​ This was the third and final performance of the Brand Associates Dance series that included Nickerson-Rossi Dance, Tropicaleiza and 4 weekends of workshops. Pat Taylor is a master at her craft. She created and is Artistic Director/Choreographer for the prestigious jazz dance company established in 1993. She not only chooses her music, dancers, production people, etc. to gel with her initial idea for a dance piece; she develops it with input from all the dancers as well, and creates through her emotions, her knowledge, love and history in Dance, and what she draws from each of her full-of-joy/life dancers... and they are into it! The program consists of excerpts from a new work they are now continuing to develop, after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, entitled “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” which, Pat Taylor explained, “celebrates music and reflections by renowned African-American women that are jazz artists, activists and engagers. It is a celebration of community, and a soul-stirring shout-out to living, learning and loving.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is opening its stunning new in-the-round Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell with ensemble member Yasen Peyankov’s extraordinarily funny and lyrical adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull, April 28–June 12, 2022.

The beauty, intelligence, charisma and singular silver voice of Melissa Errico has been wowing audiences since she was plucked out of Yale to star in the first national touring company of Les Miserables. Since then, Broadway has embraced her in My Fair Lady (Eliza, 1993 revival), High Society, Amour (Tony nomination) and, most recently, Irving Berlin's White Christmas. Kennedy Center audiences applauded her performance as Dot opposite Raul Esparza's George in Sunday in the Park with George. Having sung throughout the world in some of the most prestigious concert halls, and having released three critically-heralded CDs, Blue Like That, Lullabies and Wildflowers and A Legrand Affair (produced by Phil Ramone), look for Melissa lighting up 54 Below this Fall with a brand new evening of tales and tunes right before she starts rehearsals for the first New York revival of Stephen Sondheim's Passion! Directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, Musical Direction by John Oddo.

Stephen Sondheim is widely acknowledged as the most innovative, most influential, and most important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. He is the winner of an Academy Award, numerous Tony Award, multiple Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Some of his other accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors (1993), the National Medal of Arts (1996), the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Music (2006) and a special Tony Awardâfor Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008).

Italy's Dario D'Ambrosi, a radical innovator of the theater and founder of the movement called Teatro Patologico (Pathological Theater), will stage a novel version of 'Romeo and Juliet' at La MaMa December 3 to 13. His interpretation is meant to contrast the marvel of love with the fragility of life, the shock of the moment of total loss, and what he calls a 'schizophrenia of the world.'

At a black-tie Gala Benefit on Monday night at the Embassy of Italy, Signature Theatre feted Stephen Sondheim, the greatest living composer/lyricist of American musical theatre, with both music and a new award established in the composer's name.

At a black-tie Gala Benefit on Monday night at the Embassy of Italy, Signature Theatre feted Stephen Sondheim, the greatest living composer/lyricist of American musical theatre, with both music and a new award established in the composer's name.

Since it?s inception in 1993, The NZ Fringe Festival has hosted 16 seasons and given countless artists the opportunity to take their art to a wider audience. This has propelled many into professional careers and some to amazing heights.