Celebration and The Room 2005 - Articles Page 19

Brian Dennehy, a leading figure in American theater, renowned for his roles in the plays of Eugene O'Neill, will highlight the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 10th Annual Eugene O'Neill Celebration, presented this year in collaboration with the Eugene O'Neill Society and Connecticut College and with the support of the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund. Mr. Dennehy is an active member of the Center's Board of Trustees.

Electric Pear Productions (Melanie Sylvan, Executive Producer and Ashlin Halfnight, Artistic Director) announces its 2009/2010 series and their grant from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. Electric Pear Productions is the recipient of a Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Grant in 2009.

Good theatre should be like good food, the more you know about where it came from and how it was made, the better it tastes.

The Tony Award® nominated hit musical IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, the stage reinvention of the beloved classic film, directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Randy Skinner, with music supervision by Rob Berman, is pleased to announce Broadway principal casting. James Clow, Melissa Errico, Tony Yazbeck and Mara Davi will star in the Broadway return production also starring Ruth Williamson, Peter Reardon, Remy Auberjonois, Cliff Bemis, Madeleine Yen and David Ogden Stiers, who will lead a cast of 33 in the limited holiday engagement at the Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway).

Broadway In Chicago is excited to announce Tony Award winners Roger Bart and Shuler Hensley will reprise the roles of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein and The Monster in the first national tour of The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. The Chicago engagement will play the Cadillac Palace Theatre for a limited six week engagement November 3 - December 13, 2009.

Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre will turn to the fertile landscape of dreams and the dark underworld of nightmares next year with a world premier musical, Shakespeare, a blow-out festival of the works of Harold Pinter, a holiday comedy, and the popular Storytellers Series. The 2010 season runs April-August, with a special family-friendly December production in time for the holidays. PICT begins its 'Dreams and Nightmares' season with a World Premier music drama by local star Martin Giles. Beautiful Dreamers features the songs of a local who became an international legend - Stephen Foster. The season continues with an intense, intimate production of Shakespeare's masterful Othello in the Henry Heymann Theatre; Hearing Noise in the Silence: A celebration of the life and theatre of Harold Pinter, featuring the hilariously dark comedy The Hothouse and the resonant, haunting No Man's Land, as well as The Room, Celebration, The Dumb Waiter and Betrayal; and wraps up with Harold Brighouse's Victorian comedy Hobson's Choice. The Storytellers Series continues this year with Pinteresque, featuring works by some of the top American and British playwrights who were inspired by the great Harold Pinter. Pinteresque will include directed readings of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, Jez Butterworth's The Night Heron, Sam Shepard's Geography of a Horse Dreamer, and Joe Orton's The Ruffian on the Stair.

OCTOBER AT THE METROPOLITAN ROOM- Come join us every Friday and Saturday from 11PM-2AM for our piano lounge. No cover, no minimum!

Electric Pear Productions (Melanie Sylvan, Executive Producer and Ashlin Halfnight, Artistic Director) announces its 2009/2010 series and their grant from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. Electric Pear Productions is the recipient of a Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Grant in 2009.

The 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award winning-Signature Theatre presents the world premiere theater event First You Dream': The Music of Kander & Ebb, September 10 through 27, 2009. A tribute to Broadway's most celebrated songwriting partnership - from Cabaret to Chicago to Curtains - Signature pulls out the stops with Broadway's Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Norm Lewis, Julia Murney, Matthew Scott, and Eleasha Gamble and a 19-piece orchestra, plus staging and set design by Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and choreography by Karma Camp.

The 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award winning-Signature Theatre presents the world premiere theater event First You Dream': The Music of Kander & Ebb, September 10 through 27, 2009. A tribute to Broadway's most celebrated songwriting partnership - from Cabaret to Chicago to Curtains - Signature pulls out the stops with Broadway's Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Norm Lewis, Julia Murney, Matthew Scott, and Eleasha Gamble and a 19-piece orchestra, plus staging and set design by Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and choreography by Karma Camp.

Meet gossip columnists MR. & MRS. FITCH. When the social circuit no longer provides any scandalous news, they find that great celebrity can appear out of thin air. Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane's wicked new comedy is a scathing look at who is in, who is out and who may not even exist at all.

The Castle on the Hudson is pleased to present a one night only performance of LET'S MISBEHAVE: A New York Cabaret starring The After Party's BRANDON CUTRELL with RAY FELLMAN at the piano. LET'S MISBEHAVE: A New York Cabaret is is a show Cutrell and Fellman present regularly in New York City and throughout the country.

The Castle on the Hudson is pleased to present a one night only performance of LET'S MISBEHAVE: A New York Cabaret starring The After Party's BRANDON CUTRELL with RAY FELLMAN at the piano. LET'S MISBEHAVE: A New York Cabaret is is a show Cutrell and Fellman present regularly in New York City and throughout the country.

Broadway In Chicago is excited to announce Tony Award winners Roger Bart and Shuler Hensley will reprise the roles of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein and The Monster in the first national tour of The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. The Chicago engagement will play the Cadillac Palace Theatre for a limited six week engagement November 3 - December 13, 2009.

Guthrie Director Joe Dowling today announced directors for the three productions slated to headline the theater's 2009 Tony Kushner celebration, in addition to three speaking events designed to expand and enhance the issues raised in the work of this Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

APRIL AT THE METROPOLITAN ROOM Join them every Friday and Saturday from 11PM-2AM for our nightly piano lounge. No cover, no minimum! 4/1 7PM Barbara Brussell 'Brilliance from on High...BORN IN THE BRONX' Accompanied by musical director Tex Arnold, this marks their first time venturing a new show together.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Fl?rez, who created a sensation last season in La Fille du R?giment, star in a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula opening March 2, directed by Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Evelino Pid?. Dessay takes the role of the sleepwalker Amina, with Fl?rez as her betrothed Elvino, and Michele Pertusi as the Count who almost ruins their wedding. Performances run through April 3, with Barry Banks singing Elvino at the final performance. Zimmerman returns with the creative team that collaborated on her hit production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened the 2007-08 season: Daniel Ostling, set designer; Mara Blumenfeld, costume designer; T.J. Gerckens, lighting designer; and Daniel Pelzig, choreographer.

West 43rd Street will become a little pinker, as will the Easter Parade (and all of New York City in general) when the actor Leslie Jordan arrives to bring his acclaimed solo show, My Trip Down The Pink Carpet, to the Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street) this Spring. Producer Bruce Robert Harris announced that performances will begin on Wednesday, April 15, with an official opening night set for Monday evening, April 20. David Galligan directs the 6-week limited engagement.

The Laurie Beechman Theatre, located within The West Bank Caf? (407 West 42nd St.), is pleased to continue our Friday night soiree, THE AFTER PARTY. Now going strong it's third, THE AFTER PARTY is billed as 'a weekly schmoozefest for the theatrically inclined.' Every Friday from 10:30 pm until the wee hours, pros from Broadway and aspiring stars alike belt it out on the stage of The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Join hosts BRANDON CUTRELL (Bistor, MAC and Nightlife Award winner) and ALYSHA UMPHRESS (Make Me A Song) with RAY FELLMAN (Bistro Award winner) at the piano for this weekly party in the theatre district. There is no cover charge for this event. Come and sing yourself as the mic is always open, or sit back and enjoy a cocktail with friends. Located just blocks from the Great White Way, you never know who might drop in.

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Fl?rez, who created a sensation last season in La Fille du R?giment, star in a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula opening March 2, directed by Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Evelino Pid?. Dessay takes the role of the sleepwalker Amina, with Fl?rez as her betrothed Elvino, and Michele Pertusi as the Count who almost ruins their wedding. Performances run through April 3, with Barry Banks singing Elvino at the final performance. Zimmerman returns with the creative team that collaborated on her hit production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened the 2007-08 season: Daniel Ostling, set designer; Mara Blumenfeld, costume designer; T.J. Gerckens, lighting designer; and Daniel Pelzig, choreographer.

The Laurie Beechman Theatre, located within The West Bank Caf? (407 West 42nd St.), is pleased to continue our Friday night soiree, THE AFTER PARTY. Now going strong it's third, THE AFTER PARTY is billed as 'a weekly schmoozefest for the theatrically inclined.' Every Friday from 10:30 pm until the wee hours, pros from Broadway and aspiring stars alike belt it out on the stage of The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Join hosts BRANDON CUTRELL (Bistor, MAC and Nightlife Award winner) and ALYSHA UMPHRESS (Make Me A Song) with RAY FELLMAN (Bistro Award winner) at the piano for this weekly party in the theatre district. There is no cover charge for this event. Come and sing yourself as the mic is always open, or sit back and enjoy a cocktail with friends. Located just blocks from the Great White Way, you never know who might drop in.

The Laurie Beechman Theatre, located within The West Bank Caf? (407 West 42nd St.), is pleased to continue our Friday night soiree, THE AFTER PARTY. Now going strong it's third, THE AFTER PARTY is billed as 'a weekly schmoozefest for the theatrically inclined.' Every Friday from 10:30 pm until the wee hours, pros from Broadway and aspiring stars alike belt it out on the stage of The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Join hosts BRANDON CUTRELL (Bistor, MAC and Nightlife Award winner) and ALYSHA UMPHRESS (Make Me A Song) with RAY FELLMAN (Bistro Award winner) at the piano for this weekly party in the theatre district. There is no cover charge for this event. Come and sing yourself as the mic is always open, or sit back and enjoy a cocktail with friends. Located just blocks from the Great White Way, you never know who might drop in.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2008-09 season with John Guare's Rich & Famous, directed by John Rando (Urinetown, The Musical and Wedding Singer on Broadway) in its first major revival since its 1976 New York debut. From the ingenious mind of John Guare, who brought Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves to the American stage, this delicious dark comedy springs to life with twisted humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and outrageous plot twists. The revival script includes significant rewrites to the original text, as well as hilarious songs freshly scribed by Guare himself. In Rich and Famous, playwright Bing Ringling yearns to savor the sweet taste of celebrity, and he's hoping play number 844 will be his lucky break. But on opening night, he slips into a nightmarish phantasmagoria that shows him just how wrong things can go.