John Gardiner News

The Sierra Stages 2019 season opens with the hilariously twisted black comedy "Hand to God" by Robert Askins, playing for three weekends only from February 28 - March 16 at the historic Nevada Theatre in Nevada City.

No doubt about it, A Bronx Tale - the musical version of Chazz Palminteri's original 1989 one man show (he played some 18 characters in the original work) that ultimately led to a 1993 film directed by Robert DeNiro - is one engaging night of theater, telling an intriguing story of a boy who grows to manhood on the mean streets of The Bronx, in the shadow of local wiseguy/mob kingpin Sonny, played here by Joe Barbara with chilling authenticity and palpable, if oily, charm.

In 2019, Sierra Stages begins its second decade of presenting quality local theater in Grass Valley and Nevada City with three provocative shows: The legendary musical "Cabaret", the black comedy "Hand to God", and the intimate musical revue "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: A Stephen Sondheim Evening".

The North American Tour of A BRONX TALE, the new musical featuring a book by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, music by Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Alan Menken, and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Oscar and Tony Award nominee Glenn Slater, directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo is now on tour.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the North American Tour of A BRONX TALE, the new musical featuring a book by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, music by Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Alan Menken, and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Oscar and Tony Award nominee Glenn Slater, directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo. 

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (photo: Chris Christodolou for the BBC Proms) When the Berlioz Series 2018 - their transatlantic tour in anticipation of the composer's 150th anniversary - took Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique to London's BBC Proms last month, the critical response was euphoric. Their performance scored five-star reviews in The Times of London, the Arts Desk, and the Financial Times, which concluded: 'Berlioz has no idea what he missed.' Now the series sees the orchestra and Gardiner - the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist - return to the States for concerts in Chapel Hill, NC (Oct 10), Ann Arbor, MI (Oct 12), and at New York's Carnegie Hall (Oct 14 & 15).

Rehearsals began this week in New York for the upcoming North American Tour of A BRONX TALE. Get a look at the company in action below!

Full casting has been announced for the North American Tour of A BRONX TALE, the new musical featuring a book by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, music by Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Alan Menken, and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Oscar and Tony Award nominee Glenn Slater, directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo.

When you combine the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash into one recording session, you never know what you're going to get, but you know its going to be spectacular.

The hit Broadway musical A Bronx Tale will perform trackside at Belmont Stakes Day on Saturday, June 9 as part of the 2018 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri will join the cast of his new hit musical A Bronx Tale in the role of Sonny beginning May 24, marking the first time an actor has played the same part in a play, film and stage musical

Pilgrim Festival Chorus (PFC), the region's principal community chorus, presents its holiday season concert, A Hometown Christmas, on Saturday, December 2 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday December 3 at 4:00 pm, at St. Bonaventure Parish, 803 State Road, Plymouth. The chorus is conducted by Music Director William B. Richter and accompanied by Assistant Director Elizabeth Chapman Reilly.

A Bronx Tale welcomes Christiani Pitts ('Jane') and Will Coombs ('Young Calogero') to the cast.

A Bronx Tale welcomes Christiani Pitts ('Jane') and Will Coombs ('Young Calogero') to the cast.

On Wednesday, May 10, Sierra Stages and the Miners Foundry present a reading of "THE LARAMIE PROJECT" as part of "Theater By The Book," a series of informal play readings for the community. Written by Moises Kaufman and the Members of the Tectonic Theater Project and directed by Sharon Winegar, "THE LARAMIE PROJECT" is the deeply moving reaction to the 1998 murder of university student Matthew Shepard outside of Laramie, Wyoming.

Although Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) has long been recognized as the father of opera, only three of his contributions to the form survive. Next year marks the 450th anniversary of the Venetian master's birth, and to celebrate this musical milestone, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists have announced an ambitious international tour, with concert performances of all three operas – L'Orfeo, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and L'incoronazione di Poppea – in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA, between April and October of 2017. The tour will launch in Aix-en-Provence, where Gardiner – the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist – looks forward to leading Ulissefor the first time in his distinguished career. Additional European highlights include complete operatic trilogies in Paris and Bristol, as well as at the Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, and Venice's La Fenice, before the tour culminates with accounts of all three operas in multiple cities across America. In honor of the anniversary, Gardiner has been chosen to grace the cover of BBC Music early next year; as the magazine recently blogged: “It will be an exciting 2017, not just for music-lovers, but for Gardiner too, … who continues to stretch the boundaries of early music.”

Sierra Stages opens its 2016 season this week at the Nevada Theatre in Nevada City with the enchanting, dark comedy THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Martin McDonagh. THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN, which plays from March 3 through March 19, is directed by Sharon Winegar. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Sierra Stages opens its 2016 season this week at the Nevada Theatre in Nevada City with the enchanting, dark comedy THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Martin McDonagh. THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN, which plays from March 3 through March 19, is directed by Sharon Winegar. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

?Sierra Stages opens its 2016 season with the enchanting, dark comedy "THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN". Written by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, "THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN" plays at the historic Nevada Theatre in Nevada City from March 3-19. The play is directed by Sharon Winegar, with set design by Pamela Hodges, lighting design by Erin Beatie, and costume design by Paulette Gilbert. The cast includes local actors Alice Beloved, Chase Coney, Kim Ewing, Lois Ewing, John Gardiner, Ben Hedenland, Damiian Mario Lang, Ariana Rampy, and Robert Rossman.

Four critically-acclaimed plays and musicals - "The Cripple of Inishmaan" by Martin McDonagh, "The Last Five Years" by Jason Robert Brown, "Little Shop of Horrors" by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and "Dead Man's Cell Phone" by Sarah Ruhl - make up Sierra Stages' eighth season of presenting quality local theatre in western Nevada County.