On February 12, 1915, the Abrons Arts Center's Henry Street Settlement Playhouse opened its doors on the Lower East Side. Since that day, it has remained a vital cultural resource, providing audiences with artistically bold work while offering artists opportunities to dynamically grow. Since becoming Artistic Director in 2006, Jay Wegman has done much more than maintain "one of the last standing locations for avant-garde performance downtown" (The New York Times, 2009). He has created an arts venue that is unique to the city's cultural landscape, presenting an international mix of cutting-edge performing and visual artists, both established and emerging, from across the country and around the world, as well as from New York City. In a 2015 New York Times profile, Wegman says Abrons is "a place for people to succeed or fail or land somewhere in between."
Loosely based on the 1915 novel written by John Buchan, later made into the 1935 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and gradually turned into a staged comical farce in 2005 by Patrick Barlow, The 39 Steps is something quite wonderful to see when brought about by a gifted director and a very talented cast of four that could bring about such a myriad of wacky characters. Director Scott Hamilton, as he states in his curtain speech, was certain that he wanted to lead this show towards its absolute comedic potential, and now writing in hindsight, it is clear that he manages to do just that give quite an optimistic start to what will be a rather epic new season at the Chatham Drama Guild. In relation to that and just to mention, the Guild has been offering wonderful performances since the time Hitchcock's movie was made, so this show is sure not to disappoint anybody who enjoys an innocent and rather traditional form of visual, laugh-loud-comedy.
Squeals of delight and blood-curdling screams of fright will fill the Allen Theatre as Cleveland Play House's (CPH) Centennial Season continues with a humorous and heartfelt production of Little Shop of Horrors. Hearkening back to its very first productions in 1915 that featured sophisticated marionettes, CPH is bringing the cheeky and blood-thirsty plant Audrey II to life in a production that will be every vocal coach's dream - and every hemophobic's worst nightmare!
Squeals of delight and blood-curdling screams of fright will fill the Allen Theatre as Cleveland Play House's (CPH) Centennial Season continues with a humorous and heartfelt production of Little Shop of Horrors. Hearkening back to its very first productions in 1915 that featured sophisticated marionettes, CPH is bringing the cheeky and blood-thirsty plant Audrey II to life in a production that will be every vocal coach's dream - and every hemophobic's worst nightmare!
In 2013, the book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” was published under the genre, Crime. For his research, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning, Occupy Wall Street Journal newspaperman Chris Hedges walked the sacrifice zones of West Virginia. He chronicled the brutally honest, grassroots American reality of people versus capitalism in hard-bitten, fastidious prose while listening to multigenerational landowners and land defenders like Larry Gibson.
On February 12, 1915, the Abrons Arts Center's Henry Street Settlement Playhouse opened its doors on the Lower East Side. Since that day, it has remained a vital cultural resource, providing audiences with artistically bold work while offering artists opportunities to dynamically grow. Since becoming Abrons Director in 2006, Jay Wegman has done much more than maintain 'one of the last standing locations for avant-garde performance downtown' (The New York Times, 2009). He has created an arts venue that is unique on the city's cultural landscape, presenting an international mix of cutting-edge performing and visual artists, both established and emerging, from across the country and around the world, as well as from New York City.
Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.
Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.
Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announce the Orchestra's celebratory Centennial 2015-2016 season, its ninth season under the direction of Maestra Alsop. Through appearances by the world's most renowned artists, premieres of several new works, Baltimore homecomings from local artists or artists who got their start on the BSO stage, exciting signature projects and strengthening of longstanding community partnerships, the BSO marks this important milestone in grand fashion.
Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announce the Orchestra's celebratory Centennial 2015-2016 season, its ninth season under the direction of Maestra Alsop. Through appearances by the world's most renowned artists, premieres of several new works, Baltimore homecomings from local artists or artists who got their start on the BSO stage, exciting signature projects and strengthening of longstanding community partnerships, the BSO marks this important milestone in grand fashion.
Maestro Lockhart talks about the Holiday Pops concerts and the new work Flaherty and Ahrens have written for the Pops
If you are even a semi-regular reader of this column of reviews, you know that about every three or four months, I post a compilation of observations of shows from the previous quarter of the year. This cabaret critiquing mash up happens for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I admittedly see too many cabaret shows for the amount of time I have to promptly review them (and then, of course, the usual writer's procrastination sets in). So I have to prioritize the timeliness of the reviews based on the prestige of the performer, the length of a show run, the strength (or lack thereof) of the performance, etc. The quality of the shows in these compilations—which can range from a half dozen to a dozen reviews in one shot—are usually a mixed bag of outright raves, qualified positives, and constructive pans (I'm not a fan of the word “negative” in the reviewer lexicon). With that in mind here are a collection of cabaret show reviews going back to the start of a very harsh winter.
Now in its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between today, 6-25 October 2013
Now in its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between 6-25 October 2013
Cleveland Play House proudly presents a live summer production of Hershey Felder in Maestro: Leonard Bernstein, in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. Mr. Felder has previously awed Cleveland audiences with his creations of Beethoven As I Knew Him, Monsieur Chopin, George Gershwin Alone, and The Great American Songbook. Maestro: Leonard Bernstein, a play with music, will run in the Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare starting Wednesday July 17 through Sunday, August 4, 2013. Tickets are available by calling 216-241-6000 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
Musically, 'Carousel' is by far the most intelligently written and sophisticated of the entire Rodgers and Hammerstein canon. The story and some of the lyrics may betray just a hint of datedness, but not enough to undermine the brilliance of the work, even approaching seventy years after it was written.
Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie has set the 2012-2013 season at the CTG/Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In a season of contrasts - of surprising comedy and startling drama, the 2012-2013 season at the Kirk Douglas Theatre will include the magical and mystical hi-jinks of the CTG-commissioned "Elephant Room" by Trey Lyford, Geoff Sobelle and Steve Cuiffo; the acclaimed Gate Theatre Dublin production of the Beckett classic "Krapp's Last Tape" with one of Britain's greatest actors, John Hurt; the comic genius of The Second City with their unique, satirical twist on a Dickens's favorite - "A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!" written by Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort; the world premiere of the otherworldly drama "The Nether" by the 2012 Susan Blackburn Smith prize-winning playwright Jennifer Haley; and the world premiere of the powerful boxing drama "The Royale" by Los Angeles playwright Marco Ramirez.
Catalina Bar & Grill will present "A Birthday Tribute To Billie Holiday" starring Billie Holiday's pianist Corky Hale and singer Freda Payne, with Special Guest, singer Tricia Tahara for One Night Only!!! The performance will be presented on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 8:30 p.m. at Catalina Bar & Grill; 6725 West Sunset Boulevard (just east of North Highland Avenue); Los Angeles, CA 90028. There is $20 Cover Charge. Valet Parking is available.
Catalina Bar & Grill will present "A Birthday Tribute To Billie Holiday" starring Billie Holiday's pianist Corky Hale and singer Freda Payne, with Special Guest, singer Tricia Tahara for One Night Only!!! The performance will be presented on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 8:30 p.m. at Catalina Bar & Grill; 6725 West Sunset Boulevard (just east of North Highland Avenue); Los Angeles, CA 90028. There is $20 Cover Charge. Valet Parking is available.
BroadwayWorld.com is excited to share a weekly series developed by the Theatre Communications Group! This week actor and playwright Torange Yeghiazarian shares pivotal moments in her theatre career and why the arts matter to her!
Legacy of Light, a new play by Karen Zacarias, anchors the sixth annual FusionFest of new work and completes the Cleveland Play House's 84-year run at 8500 Euclid Avenue.
Legacy of Light, a new play by Karen Zacarias, anchors the sixth annual FusionFest of new work and completes the Cleveland Play House's 84-year run at 8500 Euclid Avenue.
Legacy of Light, a new play by Karen Zacarias, anchors the sixth annual FusionFest of new work and completes the Cleveland Play House's 84-year run at 8500 Euclid Avenue.
The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918 illuminates the dynamism of this fertile period, as artists hurtled toward abstraction and the ultimate 'great upheaval' of a catastrophic war, and also highlights the masterpieces of modern art that launched the museum's collection. The exhibition unites the Guggenheim Foundation's remarkable collections in New York and Venice in order to trace the origins of the museum and capture the spirit and dynamism of the European avant-garde.
The Consortium of Theatre Programs at Brown University is proud to announce the first ever Writing is Live, a festival of new work featuring eight plays by writers in Brown's graduate programs.
1915 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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