As You Like It Photos - Broadway

Let’s face it, the world of theatre, at times, can be misogynistic. Even though we joke about the multitude of gay men that are involved in theatre, that does not mean it is exempt from the repercussions of “the patriarchy”. As a gay man myself, I understand this problem all too well, but here in Dayton, we have luckily had some incredibly impactful pieces that were not only led by women, but speak upon the experiences of womanhood.

What did our critic think of HOME, I'M DARLING at Jarrott Productions? Now onstage at Trinity Street Playhouse is Jarrott Productions latest offering to our theatre scene: HOME, I’M DARLING. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 2019, playwright Laura Wade’s HOME I’M DARLING raises questions about the authenticity of nostalgia, the pressures of conforming to traditional gender roles, and the ways in which individuals construct their own identities.

DREAMING OF LEAR is a brilliant, memorable piece of leading-edge experimental theater. Its director, Lucy Cashion, has, I think, the most refreshing brain in the St. Louis theater world.  It’s been a decade since she appeared on my horizon, and in that time she’s led a number of exciting productions.  She joined the SLU faculty and has recently become Director of the school’s Theatre & Dance Program—a position which is virtually (and was perhaps literally) “made for her”. 

Golden nuggets of wisdom, from Julio Monge: 'Work requires work. You don't need to speak English or a common language to connect to other people. Things should be protected and blessed. The best technology in theater is the simplest one. Nothing replaces the human spirit. People are attracted to creativity.'

"It doesn't matter what you look like, what your size is, what your color is. You can be anything you want to, but you do have to work at it," says Annie Easley's mother to her young daughter. In the 1950's and 60's the black women of NASA fought against racial and gender discrimination for a place on the leading edge of math, science and technology.

For those unenlightened, Jazz/Pop vocalist Nicolas King might seem like an overnight sensation. If you are new to the scene you've only recently discovered one of the most skillful and exciting male singers around. As they say in the trade, 'He's Hot'. Truth be told, Nicolas has been working and honing his amazing talent for 18 of his 27 years, and coincidently collecting many industry awards along the way. Last night at The Beach Cafe on New York's fashionable East Side, Nicolas thrilled an intimate group of sophisticated and musically astute New Yorkers who had gathered in a location that harks back to the golden age of New York City night life. Proprietor Dave Goodside has recreated the ambience of those fashionable Manhattan night spots that enticed you with good food, drink and entertainment. It may not be the 1950's El Morocco or La Martinique (and surely doesn't cost as much), but this special eventing at The Beach Cafe definitely left the Saturday late night audience feeling they were sharing that same nostalgic supper club experience listening to the romantic and Jazz infused vocals of Nicolas King.

Love Letters will have its premiere on 29.1. at the Tampere's theatre. I had the honor to meet the charismatic acting duo Seela Sella and Esko Roine! How was the theatre school of 1950-60s different from the theatre academy of nowadays, can anyone become a fairly good actor like Grotowski claims and have their lives gone the way they've planned out?

The musical is a send-up of the cult classic movie and other sci-fi films and TV shows of the 1950s, melded with plot elements from "The Tempest" along with dialogue bits from multiple Shakespeare plays. That was part of the fun for me, catching so many Shakespearean quotes perfectly placed in the dialogue of Bob Carlton's musical set on a spaceship sometime in the future, featuring a galaxy of 1950's and 1960's rock and roll classics including "Wipeout," "Good Vibrations," "Great Balls of Fire," "All Shook Up," "Monster Mash" and "We Gotta Get Out of this Place." And what an outrageously fabulous band under the musical direction of Trevor Wheetman and Omar D. Brancato, both of whom rocked the house on guitars while believably playing Ensign crew members onstage.

On Thursday, July 12th, Hollywood maven and powerhouse, Donelle Dadigan, (Co-Founder of the Jose Iturbi Foundation/President & Founder of The Hollywood Museum, Chairman of The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce) invited a select group of VIPs for an evening of dinner and a concert at The Hollywood Bowl as the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented an evening of Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.2 under the stars with Behzod Abduraimov on piano and conductor, Gustavo Dudamel.

Simon fans won't be disappointed, and if you're one of the few of us who aren't you'll enjoy this sweet production as well.

Have you and your partner ever thought how nice it would be to go back and have a conversation with your younger selves that might be able to change the course of your lives together? No doubt playwright Jerry Mayer, whose plays deal with the 'ups, downs and sideways' of male/female relationships, must have wondered the same thing and created the comedy A LOVE AFFAIR to address the idea of one couple, at two different stages of their marriage, meeting in the midst of relationship upheaval when selling their family home and sorting through years of marriage mementos. Witty sexual innuendos abound as the business of aging is handled with great humor and understanding from both the youthful and more mature viewpoints.

Gloucester Stage Company continues its 38th season of professional theater on Cape Ann with N. Richard Nash's moving American classic The Rainmaker from July 14 through August 5 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Set in the time of a paralyzing drought in Depression-era America, The Rainmaker tells the story of a pivotal hot summer day in the life of spinsterish Lizzie Curry, whose father and two brothers are worried as much about her marriage prospects as they are about their dying cattle. Enter Starbuck, the consummate con man, who promises to solve all their problems, for a fee. Directed by Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Robert Walsh, The Rainmaker cast features Brian Homer as Starbuck; Jessica Bates as Lizzie Curry; David DeBeck as H.C. Curry, the patriarch of the Curry family; Joe Short and Sean McCoy as the Curry brothers; Dave Rich as File and longtime Gordon College Professor of Theater Arts Norm Jones as Sheriff Thomas. N. Richard Nash's most celebrated play, The Rainmaker, appeared in all three mediums; on Broadway in 1954, as a motion picture starring Katharine Hepburn in 1956, and as a television production in 1982. A musical version of The Rainmaker, entitled 110 Degrees in the Shade, debuted on Broadway in 1963.

Women in business in the 1950's--not the easiest row to hoe.

As an event organizer, I always feel like it's important that I organize the types of events that I see myself going to. If I can't personally see myself attending or spending money to see my own performances then how can I expect other people who don't know me to do the same. What that means for me as a classically-based musician is that I always try to redefine not only how I present the music to audiences but also how I determine what constitutes meaningful and significant repertoire worthy of performance. That's why at many of Driftwood's performances you'll hear music by video game and film composers such as Nobuo Uematsu or Joe Hisaishi alongside works by Mahler or William Grant Still. It's very important to me that we always treat the music with the same due level of care and interpretation whether we're playing an arrangement of Fake Love by Drake or Handel's Water Music. We take the same approach with our collaborations as well. We've played soundtracks to live films, performed with jazz rhythm sections, and performed music that's paired with poetry and spoken word.

Attending this show is closer to sitting through a college philosophy lecture, taught by the campus' resident bat-shit insane tenured professor, than it is a night out at the theatre.

Philadelphia chanteuse Julie Charnet brings her blend of jazz and swing to the Ethical Society of Philadelphia and other venues.

FOR THE LAST TIME is a new jazz musical with music and lyrics by celebrated composer Nancy Harrow (This Side of Paradise), book by Will Pomerantz and Nancy Harrow, directed by Will Pomerantz(The Blue Flower), arrangements/ orchestrations by Dennis Mackrel (Conductor of the Count Basie Band), with music direction by Cody Owen Stine (Murder Ballad has received its world premiere at Theater Row's Clurman Theatre, and opened on May 28 and running through June 20, 2015. Tickets are $39-79 and can be purchased by visitingwww.Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. Check out a look back at opening night below!

Broadway fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate this year, with dozens of shows having opened since January, hundreds of actors having made their debuts, and many more having returned to the stage for critically acclaimed performances. Not all news was good though, as we also suffered a loss of an incredible amount of talent. Below, BroadwayWorld sends a fond farewell to those who passed away in 2014.

Todd Michael stars in his own THE ASPHALT CHRISTMAS- a hilarious holiday romp for a classic Christmas.

Monday, October 20 Day off. I had been hearing about "The Strip" ever since I arrived so Deanne Lorette aka Sarah Bernhardt and I trundled off to have lunch there. The surprise is that it's not some Vegas area as you might imagine from the name. It's a very down home neighborhood with a lot of local produce and outside markets. One set of stalls looked like something you might have found in Omaha in the 1950's. Surprising.

With its emphasis on improvisation, stock characters, and a genial carnival atmosphere, the Commedia dell' arte (dating back as early as the 16th century) has never had much appeal to me; I generally find the productions thumb-twiddling after a while. I certainly had my reservations about Playhouse on the Square's current production, ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, adapted by British playwright Richard Bean from a 1743 play by Venetian Carlo Goldoni. However, as much as I cringe at the thought of a play written in this tradition, at the opposite end I am very much a fan of British humor at its silliest - from the 1930's and 40's comedies of Will Hay (who, at least in a number of films, utilized his own kind of stock company) to the sketches of Benny Hill and Rowan Atkinson's delightful MR. BEAN (and wasn't there a group called MONTY PYTHON?) That said, Mr. Bean's sublimely silly little take on the Goldoni play, removed in time and place to early 1960's Brighton, has a plot that bounces from corner to corner of the proscenium like a ping pong ball on Ritalin.

Do you like close-harmonic singing? Are you harking back to experience the 'good' old days? Do you like to escape from the stressful world and just 'yak' at comedy shticks and revel in the ridiculous? Then the place for you to be is Beck Center where Cleveland's multi-award winning choreographer, Martin Cespedes, has added 'creative director' to his resume.

If you see only one Comedy Improv show during The Hollywood Fringe Festival, go to the source, The Spolin Players, touted by the LA Times as presenting 'Improv as pure and unpredictable as you will find it.'

Broadway's Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street), just celebrated its 100th Anniversary yesterday, December 20th. The theatre, which opened on December 20, 1912 with a Peg O'My Heart starring Laurette Taylor, is currently home to the Broadway Premiere of Grace, which will end its limited engagement on January 6, 2013. It will next be home to the World Premiere production of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, a new play written by Richard Greenberg, which starts performances on Monday, March 4 and opens on Wednesday, March 20. The Cort Theatre is owned and operated by The Shubert Organization. Check out photos from the celebration below!

A SOLD OUT audience greeted Mr. Curtis on Sunday, Jan 31st, 2010 as the next featured artist in the highly anticipated and popular LEGEND SERIES held at the Magic Castle. The series was developed to celebrate the life and careers of some of stage and screens greatest Icons. The response has been overwhelming with previous guest appearances including Phyllis Diller, Rose Marie and Tippi Hedren that were hosted by B. Harlan Boll.