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wallshipjournal · 7 years ago

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BSC Company 2017: Aaron Tveit Media Links & Review Excerpts

Last update: 25/8/2017 (Video+Review) - Will be updated if/when new links/reviews appear. Reviews excerpted under cut.

VIDEO Barrington Stage Company - Rehearsal Footage Broadway.com - Opening Night Backstage Interview Barrington Stage Company - Performance Footage Promo Video

AUDIO WAMC "The Roundtable" - Preview w/ some Full Songs & Interviews sarcasticstagemanager - “Being Alive” (full audio bootleg for trade/gift)

PHOTOS Barrington Stage Company - Official Production Photos on Flickr BroadwayWorld - Opening Night Bows & Afterparty Broadway.com - Backstage on Opening Night Playbill.com - Behind-the-Scenes Photos by Mara Davis (+ Snapchat video)

REVIEWS

News Sources & Magazine Blogs

Broadway World Boston: “Barrington Stage Company (recently voted Best of The Berkshires) set a new record at the opening night of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY last night. There appeared to be more selfie photos attempted of Aaron Tveit the show's star and the cast leaving the stage door of the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage than are taken by the ever present throngs in Broadway's Shubert Alley after a show. Aaron, who was Bobby in the extraordinary production directed by BSC's founder and artistic director JuliAnne Boyd, was mobbed by what seemed like the entire audience as Tveit and the cast tried to exit the stage door and continue on to the after party at the home of BSC Chair, Minky and Bruno Quinson. [...] You can't talk about Aaron Tveit, you have to hear and see him on the stage. One minute he's brilliantly acting and all of a sudden you realize you're hearing his glorious voice singing. One minute he's walking and all of a sudden you're watching a handsome guy moving like Fred Astaire. It's a Tony Award Winning performance, although in this case it will probably garner a Berky Award given by the Berkshire Critics Association.” (x)

Broadway.com: “Broadway.com was in on the action to capture Tveit taking his bow as "Bobby, baby...Bobby, bubi" after an incredible performance. [...] We'll be here, dreaming about Tveit's fantastic take on 'Being Alive.’” (x)

Albany Times Union: “Aaron Tveit brings a riveting magnetism to the leading role of Bobby in “Company,” the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical that is receiving a masterful revival at Barrington Stage Company. Tveit, returning to BSC after a decade during which he achieved significant success on Broadway, television and film, has the presence but not the remoteness of a star — he’s a standout, yet also fully part of a remarkable ensemble. It would be easy to overplay Bobby, a single man in 1970s New York City surrounded by five married couples all eager for him to join their wedded ranks. Tveit, as directed by Julianne Boyd, instead makes Bobby both the focus of the couples’ attention and a mirror reflecting their varied relationships. Bobby has to just be, neither too anguished about being single nor too carefree, and Tveit achieves this to perfection. [...] By the end, there’s only one thing left to do, and that’s Bobby singing “Being Alive.” It’s a song, Sondheim has said, that moves from complaint to prayer...As sung by Tveit, it’s neither cynical nor sappy. It’s bitter and angry, plaintive and hopeful, pleading and optimistic. It’s being alive.” (x)

The Daily Gazette: “The show’s glue is Aaron Tveit. Boyd rightly sets him down stage center on “Someone is Waiting,” “Marry Me a Little,” and “Being Alive” because he’s such a great communicator. Listen to the phrasing. Read his body language. In these songs and elsewhere, Tveit convincingly reveals why people like Bobby and why what they like may not be what he wants.” (x)

The Westfield News: “Aaron Tveit is a superb Robert, a difficult character to portray, since he’s primarily an observer with little outward emotion, until he breaks his barriers with the emotional Sondheim song “Being Alive”, which is the heart and soul of Company. Tveit is a fine singer, dancer, and actor, and he makes Robert an appealing leading man.” (x)

Boston Globe: “Bobby is a tricky character to play, largely because he’s a protagonist who is more reactive than active (perhaps only Hamlet is more paralyzed by indecision than this guy). Though he is the obsessive center of attention for his friends and his lovers, virtually the apple of their collective eye, Bobby’s posture is largely that of a detached observer...If anything, the Barrington Stage production further emphasizes Bobby’s apartness; while the rest of the cast are attired in garish ’70s clothes...Tveit wears a tastefully understated blue jacket that would not look out of place in 2017.That apartness means that an actor playing Bobby can seem remote or passive, and Tveit does not entirely avoid that trap. His Bobby is urbane, enigmatic, bemused, sometimes amused, sometimes amusing, but he does not come across as terribly conflicted. Except, crucially, in song. There, Tveit shines. He powerfully nails the yearning in Bobby’s solo “Someone is Waiting,’’ and he captures his character’s confusion and ambivalence in “Marry Me a Little,’’ in which Bobby insists he’s ready for marriage while stipulating rigid conditions that suggest he’s not at all ready.In the climactic “Being Alive,’’ Tveit passionately conveys the liberation achieved, paradoxically, when a gregarious loner like Bobby finally surrenders, unconditionally, to his need for another person. (x)

Berkshire Fine Arts: “This season Boyd has taken another crack at Company and critics appear to be unanimous that a sensational production is on the short list of her best work. Boyd is noted for loving musicals and this one is a corker.Much of that is owed to the serendipity of casting Aaron Tveit as a truly charismatic, charming, sexy and all around fabulous Bobby. He is the now 35-year-old swinging bachelor who just can’t take the plunge into marriage. The character charmngly (sic) hovers on the cusp of maturity...There were chills and goose bumps all over me when Bobby belted out that final solo ‘Being Alive.’” (x)

iBerkshires: “Hugh Jackman has it. The young Robert Redford had it – that preternatural ability to exude charisma and magnetic sexiness even when standing stone still. Aaron Tveit has it, too, in addition to his impressive singing, dancing and acting skills. Tveit is the star of Barrington Stage's "Company," one of Stephen Sondheim's biggest hits, and he is just the tip of the talent iceberg in this simply fantastic production. [...] Those of us in the audience who knew the show eagerly awaited "Being Alive," Bobby's final song that sets his inner realization to music. As we all suspected he would, Tveit knocked this iconic musical song out of the ballpark.” (x)

ZEALnyc: “Tveit, in particular, turns out to be an inspired choice for Bobby. Tveit has a chiseled everyman look, pretty but not ethically specific, which actually works well for Bobby, who’s meant to be a sort of cipher. Tveit has a powerful voice, great scene presence, and a terrific, focused way with interpreting a song.Tveit appears to have come a long way since his homogeneously bland take on Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Broadway’s Catch Me If You Can. Plus, he’s so damned good-looking, he can even make a ‘70s leisure suit look hot. Tveit wisely sings most of the songs pretty straight, although he couldn’t seem to help himself during “Being Alive,” during which he threw in a few vocal flourishes and Elphaba riffs.” (x)

Arts Fuse: “If you are a Sondheim enthusiast and can’t get enough of his music, lyrics, and sensibility, you will be pleased to know that Julianne Boyd has cast a strong production of Company, with an excellent Bobby (Aaron Tveit) and vibrant band and ensemble. [...] Slender and likeable Aaron Tveit delivers Bobby’s songs in a lyric tenor; the performer does his best to put some flesh on this stick figure as he ponders the passage of time and lack of human connection on his 35th birthday. Like [the rest of the cast], Tveit is a consummate performer, speaking, singing, and dancing with equal élan.” (x)

The Berkshire Eagle: “There is a stunning ah-ha moment late, very late, in Julianne Boyd's hugely accomplished production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company" at Barrington Stage Company. It occurs in Bobby's — and the musical's — final number, "Being Alive." Bobby (a smart, masterly performance by Aaron Tveit) spends the first half of the song cataloging the downside of relationships, marriage in particular — the entanglements, the choking obligations, the surrenders. The tone is unforgiving. There is not an upside anywhere until Bobby comes, for the first time, to the words "being alive," which he then, as interpreted by Tveit, repeats three more times, slowing down each time as he hears and begins to consider what he is saying. You can see a hint of something registering in Tveit's eyes. Music director Dan Pardo holds the orchestra in a vamp while Tveit's Bobby takes in what he is hearing; begins, finally, to put everything together and then goes back through the catalog he's just completed, this time with surging hope and welcome. It's a defining moment for Bobby. At 35, he has come of age, at last. The number would be triumphant enough on its own. The fact that it comes virtually on the heels of the memorable Ellen Harvey's perfectly calibrated delivery of "Ladies Who Lunch"...makes "Being Alive" an absolute coup de theatre. [...] Tveit wasn't even born when "Company" premiered on Broadway in 1970, but watching him go to work on Barrington Stage Company's Boyd-Quinson Mainstage feels as though he and Bobby were destined for one another. I say go to work, but in fact, Tveit's meticulously crafted performance looks so effortless. His singing voice is a marvel of control, breadth and expression and he dances with graceful assurance. His timing, his sense of Bobby's sense of purpose is clear and resonant, especially in his scenes with the girlfriends... [...] It's been 17 years since Boyd first tackled "Company." Barrington Stage was in Sheffield then. Tveit was 17. Just look how far they all have come.” (x)

WAMC Midday Magazine: "Company is one of those shows, however, that cannot succeed without the lead role of Robert being sensitively interpreted – including his two musical show-stoppers: “Someone is Waiting,” and “Being Alive.” The leading man must be charming, dashing, vulnerable, disarming, wistful. This production has such a star in Aaron Tveit, who proves up to the task from opening to closing curtain." (x)

Wall Street Journal: “Directed by Julianne Boyd, it stars Aaron Tveit as Robert, the commitment-phobic New York bachelor whose role was created by Dean Jones in the original 1970 production. I doubt there’s been a better Robert since Mr. Jones left the show. A true tenor with brilliantly gleaming high notes, Mr. Tveit is also a superior actor whose interpretation of the part is a volatile mix of charm, reserve and well-concealed fear. Not since Ben Platt opened in “Dear Evan Hansen” have I seen a musical performance as exciting as this one. In a way, though, what’s most surprising about Barrington Stage’s production is that Mr. Tveit doesn’t stand out nearly as much as you’d expect given the remarkable quality of his performance. Role for role, this is the best-sung “Company” I’ve ever heard—not just in regional theater, but anywhere.” (x)

Review Blogs

Boston Bright Focus: “Tveit is young, handsome, slender and charming, a decent dancer and a good singer, a comedic actor who keeps us serious in this funny show about funny people. There is a strange quality to his work at time when Bobby is hurt or mentally injured we see and feel his pain rather than just witness the incident or hear the remark. He reacts to everything in this role better than anyone else I've seen play Bobby. In its short, two year run on Broadway I saw the show four times with both its male stars, Dean Jones and then Larry Kert. I saw the revival with Raul Esparza. I saw the revival with Boyd Gaines. I saw George Chakiris in Los Angeles. None of them ever brought this quiet understanding, or struggle for understanding that Tveit conveys in the role.” (x)

CurtainUp: “All fourteen actors are multi-talented and each makes his/her role an integral part of the cast dynamics. However, it is Aaron Tveit's Bobby as he quietly glides about and absorbs the energy of those around him who drives the show to its rich and satisfying conclusion. His facial reactions are empathic and he truly becomes the human each of the others believes him to be. Yet he knows that this is not satisfying and is destructive to his own development. Tveit's "Being Alive summarizes the dichotomy of the human longing to connect while remaining free of responsibilities. When he sings In the final line "Someone to force you to care/ Someone to make you come through/Who'll always be there frightened as you /Of being alive," the electricity is palpable and breathtaking as he realizes '...The unlived life is not worth examining.'” (x)

Berkshire on Stage: “The acting, led by Tveit’s sensitive portrayal of Bobby’s confusion and understanding, is marvelous.” (x)

Critics At Large: "...it’s in the show’s revered pair of final numbers, “Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive,” that the production shifts into a different gear. What I find so impressive about Harvey and Tveit in their respective deliveries of these two songs is the sense that they aren’t just basking in their star moments in the spotlight. Instead, they’re using the numbers to take their characters somewhere. [...] As for Tveit, he doesn’t possess superhuman powers, so he can’t make “Being Alive” work in terms of Bobby's overall narrative, but he does convey a remarkable sense of progression throughout the number. It’s a moment of genuine revelation for Bobby. It also stands in stark contrast to the rest of Tveit’s performance, not because he’s bad in the role, but, paradoxically, because he’s perhaps cast almost too well. Since I’m hammering on about the weaknesses in Furth’s script, it’s always bothered me that he intentionally and explicitly makes Bobby such a cipher. The idea that he’s the likable, inoffensive guy whose refusal to wade too deeply into a relationship allows his friends to project their desires onto him, thereby making him their common best friend, makes sense, but it’s also hard to figure out how an actor ought to approach such a role, or how to get the audience to invest in him emotionally. Tveit manages to convey Bobby’s breezy but noncommittal charm, making it clear why his disparate groups of friends enjoy being around him – although, at 33 years old and with a record of playing younger than his age in his major roles, it’s hard to fully buy into this actor as someone who is hitting an age-related crisis. However, he’s smart enough to play up the contrast between that version of Bobby and the newly uncertain but more complex character who emerges at the very end of the play. There’s an open-endedness to such an interpretation, a suggestion that this is merely a beginning, rather than a cathartic ending, for this man." (x)

Rural Intelligence: Tveit faces the challenge of any actor who plays Bobby. While his friends continually profess their love for him, it’s not actually clear what’s so endearing about Bobby besides his being a reliable third wheel who helps keep his friends’ marriages intact; in return, these married couples keep Bobby company so he doesn’t have to settle down. In the finale, Tveit reveals that Bobby’s been paying attention to his friends, and he delivers “Being Alive” with the gusto of a pilgrim who has finally glimpsed the promised land. (x)

From the Desk of Jim R, Take 2: "As played by the enigmatic Aaron Tveit, Bobby's complicated plight and final resolution, is real, raw, honest, soulful, cheerful, passionate and very moving. There's also a vibrant charm, passion and natural dreaminess to the character that makes Tveit's interpretation of Bobby much more believable and grounded than that of his Broadway predecessors Dean Jones, Larry Kert, Boyd Gaines and Raul Esparza. Back then, all four were simply acting out a part and nothing more. Here, Tveit plays Bobby. But he also owns the part. Big difference. From the moment he appears on the Barrington stage, he is Bobby, front and center, backwards and forwards, etc. Moreover, there's real talent behind that boyish allure mixed with just the right amount of poise, presence, flair and personality. Sure, it's all rehearsed, but Tveit makes us believe we're seeing his Bobby for the very first time. There is nothing remotely calculated about his facial expressions, line delivery, body language or interaction with the other onstage actors. Though he wasn't born when "Company" was first conceived, you'd swear Sondheim and playwright George Furth wrote Bobby with Tveit in mind. It's the musical performance of 2017. And one, you'll want to see again and again. Vocally, Tveit's voice is beautiful, polished, strong, commanding and natural. He pays close attention to the beats, lyrics and different rhythms of every Sondheim song he sings. And when he takes center stage and joins the entire cast for a song or two, he avoids that annoying grandstanding you find in other Sondheim shows where the lead actor looks you right in the face with private thoughts that cry out, "Hey, look at me. I'm in a Sondheim show." With the emotional "Being Alive," Tveit passionately reveals the quiet longing and intimacy Bobby desires with another person. The stirring "Marry Me A Little" conveys his confusion and doubt over a real relationship while "Someone Is Waiting" poignantly portrays the character's quiet yearning for that special something collectively shared by his married friends." (x)

Mixed or Negative Reviews (Negativity Warning!)

The Saratogian: "We see all of them through the eyes of Bobby, a handsome, 35-year-old bachelor, portrayed by Aaron Tveit as an unobtrusive observer. George Furth’s book tells us little about Bobby, and Tviet [sic] is faithful to that failing. His main function in this interpretation is to provide an outsider’s view into the private lives of the couples. A problem with the Barrington Stage production results from Tveit playing Bobby as a passive character. We are uncertain as to why the others want him as a close friend and confidant. Tveit presents a handsome figure who is a genuinely nice guy, but for most of the play, he is rather anonymous. It’s not wrong to make Bobby a cipher, but it doesn’t add depth to the friendships. This same passivity extends to his relationships with the three girlfriends we meet. We might understand why they are attracted to Bobby, but his disinterest with the women makes his expressed interest to be married seem insincere. The only times Bobby reveals anything of himself is through the songs “Someone is Waiting,” “Marry Me a Little” and the iconic anthem, “Being Alive.” In these moments, Tveit is marvelous. The doubt he expresses in these songs is revealing, touching and real. If we could see more of this personality throughout the show, the production would have been much more genuine and sincere." (x)

The New York Times: “Company’...is in some ways the least ambitious of the three, and also the most successful. By least ambitious, I don’t mean the material itself...the original production in 1970 was a musical theater game-changer that remains, with its impenetrable main character and abstract action, a difficult piece to pull off. I mean that despite a skilled New York cast led by the glossy Aaron Tveit, Barrington’s “Company,” directed by Julianne Boyd, is neither a Broadway tryout nor an attempt to reinvent the wheel. From the ’70s satire inherent in its pungent costumes to the gorgeous singing of the entire cast, it has evidently been packaged as pure entertainment. How well that approach represents the ambivalence at the show’s core is another matter. Bobby (Mr. Tveit) is a 35-year-old singleton at the height of the sexual revolution; he insists he is enjoying his freedom but his “good and crazy” friends — five married couples — think he is just afraid of commitment. The action consists mostly of Bobby’s watching those couples bicker, and drawing what conclusions he can from the way they make up. Time has not made the plot less problematic. A 35-year-old in 1970 apparently was more middle-aged than he is today; as played by Mr. Tveit, who is 33, there is no sense that Bobby is late to the marriage gate. And later revisions made by Mr. Furth to foreclose on the possibility that Bobby is gay now seem counterproductive. His denial comes across as more of a devious dodge than his silence ever did. Could it be that, absent disruptive directorial interventions like those made by John Doyle in the 2006 Broadway revival, the book is becoming untenable? Instead of psychology, it gives most of the wives gimmicks: One’s a first-time marijuana smoker, another a karate enthusiast. The interchangeable husbands barely get that much. And even Mr. Tveit, though ideally cast, can’t find much to do besides taking his safari-style suit jacket on and off. His Bobby is not merely passive but disaffected to the point of depression. It’s a reasonable reaction to a plot that incessantly nudges him from point A to point A. The good news is that Mr. Sondheim’s score remains thrillingly incisive, dramatizing every issue in its path. Problems of interpretation tend to dissolve when the songs are sung and played as well as they are here, not only by Mr. Tveit but also by Nora Schell as an earthy Marta (“Another Hundred People”) and by Ellen Harvey as a furious Joanne (“The Ladies Who Lunch”). If the result feels like a highlights reel, there are far worse things a musical can be.” (x)

Post-Chronicle: “In the key role of Bobby, Mr. Tveit cuts a handsome figure but rarely projects a distinct personality here. This may be again due to the writing, but in recent revivals both Neil Patrick Harris and Raul Esparza did create a Bobby of both magnetism and depth. Tveit’s bland acting is gratefully overshadowed, though, by his magnificent tenor voice and he successfully rocks the theatre with such Sondheim standards as “Marry Me A little” and “Being Alive”. In a company of superior singers, he is an able leader and often capable of being a thrilling performer.” (x)

#aaron tveit #company #barrington stage company #info #review #company: info #i promised myself i wouldn't do this #and i can't even go *sob*

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newyorktheater · 4 years ago

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The Week in Theater Reviews. The Week in Theater News. The Week in Theater Videos.

#Stageworthy News of the Week. In the first Equity-approved professional musical production to open in America in the five months since the pandemic lockdown began, the Berkshire Theater Group’s literally sanitized and social distanced “Godspell” felt like a miracle, at least to the critics, who sound grateful to have attended.

Held in a tent in the parking lot with its 100 audience members required to wear masks and sit at least 14 feet apart, the show featured a cast of 10 who had quarantined together in a house for weeks. “For the artists, it’s a brave new world. (Full disclosure: My daughter is in the cast.),” writes Josh Getlin in the L.A. Times. “They perform six feet apart…flanked by plexiglass shields on wheels that protect them and the audience as they sing. For good measure, in their pockets they also have masks, which they put on periodically during the show.”

Lily Goldberg The Berkshire Eagle: Faith in each other and the importance of sharing live art is what drove these theater-makers to submit themselves to twice-weekly testing, what helped them adapt to plexiglass and temperature checks, what gave them the bravery to leave their friends and families to live with one another, and what allowed them the chance to share, with tears and triumph, their joyful noise with audiences once again. And that’s as sacred as anything.

Bob Verini, New York Stage Review: When Nicholas Edwards as Jesus sings hopefully (and beautifully) that “We will build / A beautiful city” you know he doesn’t mean one without face masks, but one without prejudice or injustice, one in which Black lives absolutely do matter and people can disagree without reviling each other. In 50 years I’ve yet to encounter a single Godspell, pro or am, that didn’t seek to address its historical moment. This one succeeds more than most..

Ben Brantley, New York Times: When the script calls for physical contact… action and reaction are delivered in separate, distanced places. As a metaphor for how so many of us have been living since March, this form of theatrical communication feels both heartbreaking and valiant. We adapt, we make do, even as we long to return to the age of the handshake and the hug” [After Nicholas Edwards as Jesus sings “Beautiful City”] “he looks both ravenously hopeful and devastated as he tries to envision a radiant future. I never thought I’d say this, but I know exactly how Jesus feels.”

(None of these critics were…uncritical, which is an answer to the panel discussion I talk about below entitled “Can Critics Criticize during a Pandemic.” Goldberg found such “COVID-conscious updates to the show” as “one-liners about stimulus checks, quarantine sourdough and mask acne” to “still feel too raw.” Verini: “I was eventually worn down (and worn out) by how much is lost on stage behind plexiglas.”)

Theater has reopened on other stages as well — such as Barrington Stage (outdoors), nearby in Massachusetts, for its production of the solo play “Harry Clarke,” and Tokyo’s Kabuki-za Theater, where the performers one-up those in the Berkshires by wearing not just mandatory masks but the occasional face-guard.

But onstage theater is many months away for New York City, so the consensus goes, even as the city continues to reopen in other ways, such as the Bronx Zoo. (That’s Abby, a resident giraffe, posing beside NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Gonzalo Casals.)

The Week in Reviews

Homebound Project 5: Homemade Benefit by Laurie Metcalf, plus Lena Dunham, Kelli O’Hara, Brian Cox, Austin Pendleton, The Homebound Project has raised more than $100,000 for No Kid Hungry, but it’s been more than just a worthy endeavor. There has been enough that’s been artful and entertaining in each of the five editions to make them worthwhile

Howard on Disney Plus: The Broadway talent who rejected Broadway

“The last great place to do Broadway musicals is in animation,” says Howard Ashman, in “Howard,” a new documentary on Disney+ that offers a simultaneously sad and inspiring look at Ashman’s life, his work, and his death from AIDS at the age of 40 in 1991. What it doesn’t offer is a very encouraging take on Broadway.

No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks,” was presented on a Chicago stage during the centennial of the birth of the noted poet, the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category. Now, three years later, it is being presented as an hour-long video for free online at Manual Cinema from August 10 to 17, as part of the company’s tenth anniversary “Retrospectacular,” presenting four of its most popular shows. What the video retains is the play’s delightful jazz and blues infused score, which helps bring forth the poet’s own jazzy rhythms…What the video of “No Blue Memories” doesn’t do well is show what Manual Cinema does at its best — or, indeed, what Manual Cinema does, period. The videos of their shows may look like animated features, but to call them animations is to miss the beauty and ingenuity of what the company creates.

Oscar Isaac as King Creon refusing the advice of Tiresias in @TheaterofWar‘s #AntigoneinFerguson, happening now! pic.twitter.com/uhEa6NHAl2

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 10, 2020

Community panel reacts to @TheaterofWar‘s Antigone. They are all mothers/relatives of people killed by police: Gwen Carr (Eric Garner’s mother), Valerie Bell (Sean Bell’s mother), Marion Gray-Hopkins (Gary Hopkins, Jr’s mother), and Uncle Bobby X (Oscar Grant’s uncle). pic.twitter.com/E9YEIWAqDp

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 10, 2020

Marion Gray-Hopkins: “Many people think that just the mother or the father is suffering, but it’s a domino effect. Many suffer, not just immediate family”

Critics Corner

Can Critics Criticise during a Pandemic? A 90-minute video

“As the work of artists evolve with the restrictions of COVID-19, do critics also need to reassess how they look at performance? Four critics, Loo Zihan, Teo Xiao Ting, Jocelyn Chng and Germaine Cheng discuss their responses as more and more performances go online, and whether it has led to a recalibration or softening of their critical eye. What really is the role of the critic during a crisis? Do we put criticality on pause, in favour of a more empathic, care-centred approach as other pressing issues loom large?”

It’s worth noting two things here — first, despite the apparent slant of the description, a poll of the audience watching the discussion revealed that 82 percent of them find criticism to be an essential act during the pandemic. Second, none of the four panelists, nor the moderator, consider themselves primarily critics – they are artists first, which arguably skews the discussion at hand — but also reflects the state of criticism these days.

The death of Theatre Criticism The great critics always began before they were forty. Who are their equivalents today?

The Week in Theater News

“Out Of Patience”: Actors’ Equity Joins Other Unions In Demanding HEROES Act Senate Passage

The #SaveOurStages bill would give $10 billion in grants to independent music, theater & comedy venues with 500 employees or less. The National Independent Venue Association estimates that 90 percent of its members will have to shutter their buildings for good in September without government funding.

For the first time in 87 years, Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes is canceled due to concerns over the Coronavirus pandemic.

SpotCo, a leading Broadway advertising and marketing agency, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court against producer Scott Rudin, claiming that he left the company on the hook for $6.3 million in unpaid fees for their work on eight shows, including West Side Story ($2.8 million), King Lear ($1 million) and The Waverly Gallery ($352,000)

Live-capture of @Newsies starring @JeremyMJordan free online August 21 Detailshttps://t.co/ZspyZQHEXJ pic.twitter.com/GZpkv2lLUd

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 7, 2020

TWO celebrations of women on August 26th now.@Playbill presents Women in Theater: A Centennial Celebration, a concert with hosts @heidibschreck & @Rebeccasernamehttps://t.co/keJb2AWMit pic.twitter.com/HiaidEc4q6

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 5, 2020

Teenagers are relentlessly mocking @Lin_Manuel on TikTok. Underneath it, argues @EjDickson in @RollingStone, is a growing critique of @HamiltonMusical https://t.co/8VGfVMVxXq pic.twitter.com/U6NDF5zJhI

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 5, 2020

Can A Robot Write A Theater Play? The Unusual Collaboration Between AI, Robotics and Theater the idea of a robot, including the word ‘robot’ itself, was invented by Karel Čapek and his brother Josef, who wrote the play “RUR” 100 years ago on January, 2021. Researchers hope by then to have produced a play with a script generated by “a pre-trained language model called GPT-2.”

After complaints by current & ex employees about racism at @artny72, its longtime leader @Ginnylouloudesv has been put on administration leave, and@The_Risa (pictured) named interim executive director. An account of accusations on @OnstageBlog: https://t.co/qMZz0y5QHP pic.twitter.com/amJqb86CcL

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 7, 2020

Rest in Peace

Eric Bentley, 103, “an influential theater critic — as well as a scholar, author and playwright — who was an early champion of modern European drama and an unsparing antagonist of Broadway.”

‘It’s all about the three big C’s… There’s confidence, which can always be fleeting, and then there’s courage and compassion.” RIP Brent Carver, 68, Tony winning actor for Kiss of the Spider-woman, Tony nominee for Parade, also in Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear on Broadway pic.twitter.com/w4HQL2KUNj

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 6, 2020

RIP Pete Hamill, 85, New Yorker, columnist, foreign correspondent, editor, novelist, screenwriter, man-about-town, , streetwise raconteur, savvy hob-nobber, former colleague…

newspaper guy. pic.twitter.com/J1jzxmQ7kf

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) August 5, 2020

The Week in Theater Videos

Broadway in Bryant Park videos, 2012 – 2019

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Ham4Change

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from Guthrie Theater

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Let the Sunshine In

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What onstage theater looks like, five months in. #Stageworthy News The Week in Theater Reviews. The Week in Theater News. The Week in Theater Videos…

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showbizchicago · 7 years ago

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Paramount Theatre is excited to tune up for its rollicking 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet, the wildly popular rock and roll musical that played more than 2,500 performances in Chicago.

Travel back in time to Memphis’s Sun Records recording studio on December 4, 1956, when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins played together their first and only time and created an explosive album that has yet to be matched. Million Dollar Quartet tells that story with all the raw energy and monumental talent everyone has come to expect from these music giants.

Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti, the man responsible for the past two Jeff Award-winning Best Musicals (Large), Les Misérables and West Side Story, will stage Paramount’s rockin’ opener.

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Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet features (from left) Adam Wesley Brown as Carl Perkins. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Chicago set designer Kevin Depinet has recreated Sam Phillips’s original Sun Records studio in Memphis – where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins played together their first and only time on December 4, 1956 – for Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet. Costume design is by Sally Dolembo and lighting design is by Jesse Klug. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Great Balls of Fire! Gavin Rohrer plays Jerry Lee Lewis in Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet, playing September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

(from left) Adam Wesley Brown plays Carl Perkins, Kavan Hashemian plays Elvis Presley and Bill Scott Sheets is Johnny Cash in Million Dollar Quartet, Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Kavan Hashemian plays Elvis Presley and Adam Wesley Brown (right) is Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet, Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet features (from left) Courtney Mack as Dyanne, Adam Wesley Brown as Carl Perkins, Kavan Hashemian as Elvis Presley and Bill Scott Sheets as Johnny Cash. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Nicholas Harazin plays “the father of rock and roll,” Sam Phillips, seen here under the classic image of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash shot at Phillips’s Sun Records studio on December 4, 1956, in Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Bill Scott Sheets plays Johnny Cash in Million Dollar Quartet, Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Chicago Set designer Kevin Depinet has recreated Sam Phillips’s original Sun Records studio in Memphis – where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins played together their first and only time on December 4, 1956 – for Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet. Costume design is by Sally Dolembo and lighting design is by Jesse Klug. Performances are September 13-October 29, 2017 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora, IL. Tickets and information: ParamountAurora.com or (630) 896-6666. Credit: Liz Lauren

Playing the Quartet are Adam Wesley Brown as Carl Perkins, Kavan Hashemian as Elvis Presley, Gavin Rohrer as Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Scott Sheets as Johnny Cash, with Nicholas Harazin as Sam Phillips, Zach Lentino as Brother Jay, Courtney Mack as Dyanne and Scott Simon as Fluke.

The production team is Kory Danielson, music director; Trent Stork, associate director; Ethan Deppe, associate music director; Kevin Depinet, scenic design; Sally Dolembo, costume design; Jesse Klug, lighting design; Adam Rosenthal, sound designer; Katie Cordts, wig, hair and makeup design; Amanda Relaford, properties design; Susan Gosdick, dialect coach; Maggie O’Donnell, stage manager; and Matthew McMullen, assistant stage manager.

Don’t miss Paramount’s high-spirited, nostalgic new take on the three-time Tony Award nominated musical, featuring some of the biggest and best songs of all time like “Peace in the Valley,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “Hound Dog” and “Great Balls of Fire.”

Previews start September 13. \Performances continue through October 29: Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.;Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Single tickets are $36 to $64. Million Dollar Quartet is rated PG.

But hold on, there’s still time to include Million Dollar Quartet in Paramount’s “Buy Two Shows, Get Two Shows Free” 2017-18 Broadway subscription offer. For less than the cost of a ticket to one show downtown, patrons can see three more Broadway-quality musicals: Elf The Musical (November 22–January 7), Cabaret (February 7–March 18) and Once (April 25-June 3). Four-play packages start as low as $72. The rewards are ample – four amazing, Broadway-quality musicals, at one of the most majestic theaters in the Midwest.

The Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora, is surrounded by affordable parking and a variety of restaurants for pre- or post-show dining. For subscriptions and single tickets, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount box office Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and two hours prior to evening performances.

Behind the scenes: Paramount’s Million Dollar Quartet

There was no plan for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins to record together on December 4, 1956. But as fate would have it, their impromptu jam session left behind a historic and mind-blowing album. The evening begins in the Sun Records recording studio in Memphis. Up and comer Jerry Lee Lewis is recording songs with rockabilly king Carl Perkins when the iconic Elvis Presley stops by with his girlfriend. The not-quite-yet-guitar-god Johnny Cash is there to pay a visit to music manager Sam Phillips. Throw them all together, and you have one of the most unexpected, unprecedented and unforgettable musical moments in history. It was the first and only time they played together and, through their musical genius, created an explosive album that has yet to be matched.

Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux wrote the book for Million Dollar Quartet based on Mutrux’s original concept and direction. The Chicago production ran from 2008 to 2016 and became the third longest-running show in Chicago theater history. Critics called it “the most exuberant theatrical event,” “dazzling from first beat to last” and “the best live rock ‘n’ roll show I have ever seen.”

Fast forward to the kick off of Chicago’s 2017-18 theater season, featuring Paramount’s talented lead cast for Million Dollar Quartet. Adam Wesley Brown (Jerry Lee Lewis) played Eamon in Once on Broadway, has numerous regional credits and has been seen on local stages including Lookingglass and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Kavan Hashemian (Elvis Presley) began performing his Elvis tribute at age three. Today he performs all over the world, including in London where he won the title of “The World’s #1 Rock N Roll Elvis” on BBC-TV. Gavin Rohrer (Jerry Lee Lewis) is fresh from playing the role at Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City, where Broadwayworld.com raved “his piano skills are unrivaled, and his brash certainty provides some of the funniest moments of the night.” Bill Scott Sheets (Johnny Cash) just played the “Man in Black” at Berkshire Theatre Group in Massachusetts. Berkshire Fine Arts wrote “particularly strong was Bill Sheets, whose voice and delivery were sublime.”

“Icons Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash were southern, rockabilly country boys before they were discovered by Sam Phillips, the young, upstart record producer and owner of Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Their purely by chance meeting for the first and only time on Dec. 4, 1956, is a seminal moment in the birth of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” said Paramount Artistic Director Jim Corti.

“The show, exploring the connections of these four to their music and each other, is full of intriguing surprises and is not only a fascinating, short history but a full scale, no holds barred, in-your-face jam session of the kind of music that grabbed hold of our youth culture back then and hasn’t let go ever since,” Corti added. “From our Chicago and national talent pool, we’ve assembled a dynamite cast; you won’t believe your eyes and ears! There’ll be a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on, all live, all on the Paramount stage, all made in Aurora!”

Jim Corti (director) was hired in 2011 to be the first-ever artistic director in the Paramount’s 80+ year history. He was instrumental in launching Paramount’s inaugural Broadway Series and directed and choreographed Paramount’s first self-produced Broadway Series show My Fair Lady, which played to rave reviews. Corti’s 2013 Paramount production of Fiddler on the Roof was a smash hit, and his Miss Saigonwas the only musical to make the Chicago Tribune’s Top Ten Shows of 2013. Rent in 2014 was a critical and box office success, followed by consecutive productions of The Who’s Tommy and Les Misérables, which collectively garnered five Jeff Awards for Paramount in its first year of eligibility, including Best Production – Musical – Large for Les Misérables and Best Director – Musical for Corti. He also staged Paramount’s 2015-16 opener Oklahoma! and closer West Side Story, Paramount’s second-consecutive Jeff Award winning Best Musical. Last season, Corti directed memorable productions of Mamma Mia! and Sweeney Todd. Before Paramount, Corti was a seasoned Broadway veteran, appearing in the New York casts of Ragtime, A Chorus Line and Candide and national tours of Urinetown, Cabaret and Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Career highlights over three decades include being the only director in Chicago to have two productions at the same time in theChicago Tribune’s list of 10 Best Shows in 2009 – Drury Lane’s Cabaret and Writers Theatre’s Oh, Coward!. He remains the sole honoree to have garnered a Jeff Award as an actor (in Marriott’s Grand Hotel), a choreographer (Drury Lane’s Singin’ in the Rain) and director (Paramount’s Les Misérables, Drury Lane’sSweet Charity and Northlight’s Blues in the Night).

Kory Danielson (music director) is coming back for his 11th consecutive musical at the Paramount, after serving as co-music director and associate conductor with Tom Vendafreddo on Jesus Christ Superstar, and assistant music director and associate conductor for Sweeney Todd-The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Mamma Mia!, West Side Story, Hairspray – The Broadway Musical, A Christmas Story – The Musical, Oklahoma!, Les Misérables and The Who’s Tommy. Other Chicago credits includeAssassins, The Full Monty, Loving Repeating, Heathers, Tomorrow Morning (Kokandy Productions); Passion(2014 Jeff Award for Outstanding Music Direction), Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Theo Ubique); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Porchlight Music Theatre); Hedwig, Wedding Singer (Haven Theatre); andZanna, Don’t!, Lucky Stiff, Triumph of Love (The Music Theatre Company). Danielson has also worked with Drury Lane, Broadway in Chicago, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Bailiwick and Hell in a Handbag.

Paramount’s 2017-18 Broadway Series is sponsored by BMO Harris Bank and The Dunham Fund. Broadway Series Orchestra Sponsor is Rush-Copley Medical Center. Broadway Series Lighting Sponsor is ComEd. Broadway Series Costume Sponsor is Gerald Kia. Million Dollar Quartet is also sponsored by Asbury Gardens.

More about Paramount Theatre’s 2017-18 Season

In addition to Paramount’s Broadway Series, Paramount’s 2017-18 season also includes Tim Allen (August 18), 60s music favorite The Happy Together Tour (August 25), Unforgettable: Falling in Love with Nat King Cole (November 5) featuring Evan Tyrone Martin (Jesus in Paramount’s 2017 smash hit Jesus Christ Superstar), comedian and impersonator Frank Caliendo (November 10), The Second City’s Non-Denominational Christmas Show (December 1-23 in the Copley Theatre), Las Vegas’s #1 ventriloquist Terry Fator (January 20), the incredible magic of Penn & Teller (March 23), Chicago’s own Jersey boys Under the Streetlamp (March 24), country star and American Idol winner Scotty McCreery (March 25), late night comedy legend Jay Leno (April 13), Judy Garland: Come Rain or Come Shine featuring Angela Ingersoll (June 10) and the world’s #1 Bee Gees tribute band Stayin’ Alive (June 15).

For subscriptions, single tickets or more information, go to ParamountAurora.com, call

(630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in Aurora.

About the Paramount Theatre

The Paramount Theatre (ParamountAurora.com) is the center for performing arts, entertainment and arts education in Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois. Named “One of Chicago’s Top 10 Attended Theatres” by the League of Chicago Theatres, the 1,888-seat Paramount, located in downtown Aurora at23 E. Galena Blvd., is nationally renowned for the quality and caliber of its presentations, superb acoustics and historic beauty.

The Paramount opened on September 3, 1931. Designed by renowned theater architects C.W. and George L. Rapp, the theater captures a unique Venetian setting with a 1930s art deco influence. The first air-conditioned building outside of Chicago, the Paramount offered a variety of entertainment, including “talking pictures,” vaudeville, concerts and circus performances for over 40 years. In 1976, the Aurora Civic Center Authority (ACCA) purchased the Paramount, closed the theater for restoration and returned the Paramount to its original grandeur. The Paramount Arts Centre reopened in 1978, offering a variety of theatrical, musical, comedy, dance and family programming. In 2006, a 12,000-square-foot, two-story Grand Gallery lobby was added, with a new, state-of-the-art box office, café and art gallery.

Today, the Paramount self-produces its own Broadway Series, presents an eclectic array of comedy, music, dance and family shows, and on most Mondays, screens a classic movie.

The Paramount Theatre is one of three live performance venues programmed and managed by the ACCA, which also oversees the Paramount’s “sister” stage, the intimate, 173-seat Copley Theatre located directly across the street from the Paramount at 8 E. Galena Blvd., as well as RiverEdge Park, downtown Aurora’s summer outdoor concert venue.

The Paramount Theatre continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Tim Rater, President and CEO, Aurora Civic Center Authority; Jim Corti, Artistic Director, Paramount Theatre; a dedicated Board of Trustees and a devoted staff of live theatre and music professionals. For tickets and information, go to ParamountAurora.com or call (630) 896-6666.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE 2017-18 BROADWAY OPENER MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Plays Through Oct 29 Paramount Theatre is excited to tune up for its rollicking 2017-18 Broadway Series opener Million Dollar Quartet, the wildly popular rock and roll musical that played more than 2,500 performances in Chicago.

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londontheatre · 7 years ago

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Dialogue Joe Orton wrote 50 years ago for his darkly comic masterpiece Loot is to be heard for the very first time on stage in the UK.

Material judged too scandalous or morally dubious in 1967 by the official censor, the Lord Chamberlain, is being reinstated for a production at London’s Park Theatre and Watermill Theatre in Berkshire.

Orton was murdered by his lover Kenneth Halliwell half a century ago this Wednesday on August 9, 1967.

The Joe Orton Estate, run by the playwright’s sister Leonie, agreed the original script could be used and has given permission for the sections of dialogue to be performed for the very first time.

These include a scene the Lord Chamberlain (a member of the Royal Household) believed alluded to homosexual acts and relationships – which were then still illegal – blasphemy and S & M. The censor also didn’t like references to “knock shop” and found a speech about a corpse’s body parts to be an outrage – and they were deleted with his famous blue pen.

Leonie said: “This is what Joe originally wrote, but it was censored at the time. It’s a sad anniversary, yet good that what Joe actually felt and wrote is to be staged for the first time.”

Orton wrote several letters to the censor and tried to get this dialogue back into Loot but was unsuccessful.

Themes considered taboo by the Lord Chamberlain, even in the anything-goes 1960s, included homosexuality, artificial insemination, and bad language. Criticisms of the Church and the Crown were also considered beyond the pale.

Loot ran in the West End from the end of 1966 to end of 1967. Stage censorship was abolished for by the Theatres Act 1968.

LOOT: Calvin Demba and Sam Frenchum – Photo Derren Bell

Director Michael Fentiman, who discovered the earlier script in the archives of Leicester University in the playwright’s home city, said: “50 years on from the death of Joe Orton, the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the fall of censorship in the British theatre – it has been a great honour to discover what a scandal Joe was causing in those pivotal moments towards the end of the 1960’s. While still writing very much about the time he is living in – what’s clear from these discoveries – is that Joe’s world view was incredibly modern. What’s also clear, from Joe’s letters and diaries, is that he didn’t fully believe the events in his play Loot, were that shocking at all. Homosexual relationships, corrupt policeman, the pomposity of secular society, the disregard for the significance of a lump of dead flesh were truths for Joe – plain to see in the world. What was hilarious to Orton, was that society – with all its inconsistent and hypocritical moral values – spent so much energy on venting their outrage and shock over them! It’s a real pleasure being allowed the opportunity to include passages in our production that caused such shock and outrage is 1966 that they were unable to be heard in Joe’s lifetime – and in doing so release a little more of the daring spirit of Joe Orton in the air.”

LOOT is from the same producers as the recent sell-out hit The Boys in the Band that starred Mark Gatiss. It will run at London’s Park Theatre from 17 August – 24 September. It will then transfer to the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, from 28 September – 21 October.

When it premiered five decades ago, LOOT shocked and delighted audiences in equal measure and it scooped the Best Play of the Year Award in the 1967 Evening Standard Awards. This production commemorates the momentous, transformative passing in July 1967 of The Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over the age of 21.

Cast includes: Calvin Demba (Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award nominee, The Red Lion, National Theatre) and Sam Frenchum (Private Peaceful, Grantchester) and the award-winning Sinéad Matthews (Mrs Elvsted in Ivo van Hove’s Hedda Gabler, National Theatre), are Christopher Fulford (Winston Churchill in Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, The Crucible, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Ian Redford (The Alchemist, Mad World My Master, Candide, all for the RSC) and Raphael Bar (national tour of Out of Order) with Anah Ruddin.

LISTINGS INFORMATION Tom O’Connell, James Seabright and The Watermill Theatre in association with King’s Head Theatre and Park Theatre present

LOOT by Joe Orton Thursday 17 August – Saturday 24 September

Park Theatre Clifton Terrace Finsbury Park London, N4 3JP

http://ift.tt/2vFFRXx LondonTheatre1.com

#IFTTT #LondonTheatre1.com

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larryland · 4 years ago

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Berkshire On Stage Critics Pick Their Favorites of the 2017 Season

The four critics who review for BerkshireOnStage.com – Gail M. Burns, Roseann Cane, Macey Levin, and Barbara Waldinger – have each listed their favorite regional theatre productions of the past calendar year. Because for the most part we all see and review different shows, there was no sense trying to come up with a list of the “Best of the Year.” Instead we are sharing our individual picks for…

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larryland · 5 years ago

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Shakespeare & Company Wins Six Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards

Top honors for Outstanding Play Production went to the Company’s production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is proud to have been honored with six Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards. At a ceremony held in Pittsfield last week, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association presented 23 Berkshire Theatre Awards. This was the fourth year the awards…

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larryland · 5 years ago

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Fourth Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards Presented

Mac-Haydn Theatre and Shakespeare & Company Take Top Honors

PITTSFIELD, MA (November 12, 2019) – At an SRO ceremony held at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (BTCA)presented the Berkshire Theatre Awards on the evening of Monday, November 11, 2019. This was the fourth year the awards have been presented to honor and celebrate the excellence…

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larryland · 5 years ago

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2019 Nominees Announced for the Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards

The fourth annual Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards, aka The Berkies, will be awarded on the evening of Monday, November 11, 2019 at Zion Lutheran Church, 74 First Street in Pittsfield, MA.

Outstanding Solo Performance

Tara Franklin – On The Exhale – Chester Theatre Company

Steven Patterson – Shylock – Bridge Street Theatre

Jayne Atkinson – Ann – WAM Theatre

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a…

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#Berkie Awards #Berkies #Berkshire Theatre Awards #Berkshire Theatre Critics Association #Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards #Pittsfield MA #The Berkies #Zion Lutheran Church

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larryland · 6 years ago

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Shakespeare & Company Honored with Four Berkshire Theatre Awards

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is proud to have been honored with four Berkshire Theatre Awards. At a ceremony held in Pittsfield last week, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association presented 21 Berkshire Theatre Awards. This was the third year the awards have been presented to honor and celebrate the excellence and diversity of theatre in the greater Berkshire region.

The…

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larryland · 6 years ago

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Williamstown Theatre Festival and Barrington Stage Company Take Top Honors

At an SRO ceremony held at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association presented the Berkshire Theatre Awards on the evening of Monday, November 12, 2018. This was the third year the awards have been presented to honor and celebrate the excellence and diversity of theatre in the greater Berkshire region.

The 2018 awards really display the commitment of regional theatres to presenting new and diverse work. Women and minorities were well represented among the nominees and the winners in all categories. Nominees represented theatres in Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and Connecticut.

Critics J. Peter Bergman and Macey Levin once again hosted the ceremony, which saw top honors for Outstanding Play Production go to the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s production of Theresa Rebeck’s Seared, and Barrington Stage Company’s production of West Side Story for take home the award for Outstanding Musical Production.

This year’s ceremony featured several performances from regional theatre groups, some of whom were nominated for awards. The Acting Class with Patrick White recreated scenes from their production of Men in Boats, nominated for Outstanding Ensemble Production. Director Christine Decker and actors Erika Floriani and Jana Lillie presented a scene from Chocolate by Frederick Stroppel, Brian Petti performed a monologue from the Bridge Street Theatre’s production of Mickie Maher’s There is a Happiness that Morning Is directed by John Sowle. And Joel Ripka and Paul Pontrelli, did a scene from the Chester Theatre Company’s production The Aliens by Annie Baker, directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer, which won the Outstanding Ensemble Production award for the cast, which also included James Barry.

Julianne Boyd was named Outstanding Director of a Musical for her work on West Side Story at Barrington Stage, and James Warwick was named Outstanding Director of a Play for Mothers and Sons at Shakespeare & Company.

Danielle Skraastad took home the award for Outstanding Solo Performance in Tony Kushner’s HOMEBODY, directed by Jeffrey Mousseau and presented at the Ancram Opera House.

The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater went to Shakespeare & Company for their Shakespeare in the Courts and Fall Festival of Shakespeare programs.

2018 Berkshire Theatre Awards (winners appear in Boldface)

Outstanding Supporting Actress Musical

Skyler Volpe as Anita – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Hayley Podschun as Gwen Cavendish – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Latoya Edwards as Dionne – Hair –Berkshire Theatre Group

Monica M. Wemett as Miss Hannigan – Annie –Mac-Haydn Theatre

Berkie award winners Skyler Volpe as Anita and Addie Morales as Maria in the Barrington Stage Company production of “West Side Story.” Photo: Daniel Rader.

Skyler Volpe

Outstanding Supporting Actor Musical

Chip Zien as Oscar Wolfe – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Sean Ewing as Bernardo – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

A.J. Shively as Perry – The Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Steven Rattazzi as Marinetti – Lempicka – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Sean Ewing

Sean Ewing (center) with Danny Bevins and Julio Catano-Yee. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Supporting Actress Play

Ella Loudon as LaBelle/Phoebe Dennis – As You Like It – Shakespeare and Co.

Victoria Frings as Viv – Well Intentioned White People – Barrington Stage

Nemuna Ceesay as Macy – The Cake – Barrington Stage

Mary Stout as Anne Marie – A Doll’s House, Part II – Barrington Stage

Nemuna Ceesay with Debra Jo Rupp and Virginia Vale in The Cake. Photo Carolyn Brown.

Nemuna Ceesay

Outstanding Supporting Actor Play

Brooks Ashmanskas as Ronnie Wilde – The Closet – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Phillip James Brannon as Marcel – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

John Hadden as Arnold – HIR – Shakespeare and Co.

Daniel K. Isaac as Atung – The Chinese Lady – Barrington Stage

John Hadden

John Hadden as Arnold in “HIR.” Photo: Eloy Garcia.

Outstanding Lead Actor Musical

Will Branner as Tony – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Will Swenson as Tony Cavendish – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

David Garrison as Irving Berlin – Coming Back Like a Song – Berkshire Theatre Group

George Dvorsky as “Daddy” Warbucks – Annie – Mac-Haydn Theatre

George Dvorsky

George Dvorsky as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks with Corinne Tork as Grace Farrell, and Annabel Feigen as Annie. Photo Credit: Sarah Kozma

Outstanding Lead Actress Musical

Addie Morales as Maria – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Harriet Harris as Fanny Cavendish – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Laura Michelle Kelly as Julie Cavendish –Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Andrea Prestinario as Alison Bechdel – Fun Home – Weston Playhouse

Addie Morales

Addie Morales and Will Branner. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Lead Actress Play

Annette Miller as Katherine – Mothers and Sons – Shakespeare and Co.

Debra Jo Rupp as Della – The Cake – Barrington Stage

Alfie Fuller as Noxolo – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Laila Robins as Nora – A Doll’s House, Part II – Barrington Stage

Annette Miller as Katherine in “Mothers and Sons.” Photo by Eloy Garcia.

Annette Miller

Outstanding Lead Actor Play

Jonathan Epstein as Gustav – Creditors – Shakespeare and Co

Christopher Innvarr as Torvald – A Doll’s House, Part II – Barrington Stage

David Adkins as Allen Squier – The Petrified Forest – Berkshire Theatre Group

Hoon Lee as Harry – Seared – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Hoon Lee

Hoon Lee as Harry in “Seared.” Photo Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Ensemble Production

HIR – Shakespeare and Co.

Three Sisters – Living Room Theatre

Men on Boats – Acting Class with Patrick White at Sand Lake Center for the Arts

The Aliens – Chester Theatre

Joel Ripka, James Barry, and Paul Pontrelli in “The Aliens” at Chester Theatre Company. Photo by Elizabeth Solaka

Outstanding Solo Play

Mona Golabek in The Children of Willisden Lane – Hartford Stage

Danielle Skraastad in HOMEBODY – Ancram Opera House

Sharon Washington in Feeding the Dragon – Hartford Stage

Danielle Skraastad as the Homebody. Photo: B. Docktor Photography

Danielle Skraastad

Outstanding Director Musical

Julianne Boyd – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

John Rando – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

John Saunders – Cabaret – Mac-Haydn Theatre

Rachel Chavkin – Lempicka – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Barrington Stage Company Artistic Director Julianne Boyd

“West Side Story” at Barrington Stage Company. Photo Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Director Play

Nicole Ricciardi – Creditors – Shakespeare and Co.

Saheem Ali – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Jennifer Chambers –The Cake – Barrington Stage

James Warwick – Mothers and Sons – Shakespeare and Co.

James Warwick

Annette Miller, Bill Mootos, David Gow and Hayden Hoffman in “Mothers and Sons.” Photo by Eloy Garcia.

Outstanding Scenic Design

Alexander Dodge – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Wilson Chen – The Petrified Forest – Berkshire Theatre Group

Dane Laffrey – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Kristen Robinson –West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Kristen Robinson

Set for “West Side Story” by Kristen Robinson – “Tony’s Death.”

Outstanding Costume Design

Alejo Vietti – The Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Hunter Kaszarowski – The Petrified Forest – Berkshire Theatre Group

Montana Levi Blanco – Lempicka – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Angela Carstensen – Cabaret – Mac-Haydn Theatre

Alejo Vietti

Arnie Burton, Laura Michelle Kelly, Hayley Podschun, Harriet Harris, Holly Ann Butler, Will Swenson & Kathryn Fitzgerald in costumes by Alejo Vietti for “The Royal Family of Broadway.”

Outstanding Lighting Design

Bradley King – Lempicka – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Andrew Gmoser – Damn Yankees – Mac-Haydn Theatre

Lap Chi Chu – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

David Lander – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Lap Chi Chu

Samira Wiley as Pretty Mbane in “Dangerous House.” Lighting design by Lap Chi Chu. Photo Carolyn Brown.

Outstanding Sound Design – TIE

Daniel Kluger – The Sound Inside – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Fabian Obispo – The Chinese Lady – Barrington Stage

Rider Q. Stanton – Ring of Fire – Capital Repertory Theatre

Palmer Hefferan – Dangerous House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Palmer Hefferan

Fabian Obispo

Outstanding Choreography

Robert La Fosse – West Side Story – Barrington Stage

Joshua Bergasse – Royal Family of Broadway – Barrington Stage

Sebastiani Romagnolo – Cabaret – Mac-Haydn Theatre

Lisa Shriver – Hair – Berkshire Theatre Group

Choreographer Robert La Fosse.

Sarah Crane, Magdalena Rodriguez, Skyler Volpe, Tamrin Goldberg, and Jerusha Cavazos in the Barrington Stage Company production of “West Side Story” choreographed by Robert La Fosse. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding NEW Play

The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp, directed by David Cromer – Williamstown Theatre Festival

The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh, directed by Ralph B. Pena – Barrington Stage

The Closet by Douglas Carter-Beane, directed by Mark Brokaw – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Dangerous House by Jen Silverman, directed by Saheem Ali – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Playwright Jen Silverman.

Alfie Fuller as Noxolo and Michael Braun as Gregory in Jen Silverman’s “Dangerous House.” Photo Sarah Sutton.

Outstanding NEW Musical

Lempicka – Book and Lyrics by Carson Kreitzer; Music by Matt Gould, directed by Rachel Chavkin – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Royal Family of Broadway – Book by Rachel Sheinkin; Music and Lyrics by William Finn, directed by Joshua Bergasse – Barrington Stage

Coming Back Like a Song – by Lee Kalcheim. Songs by Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen and their collaborators. Directed by Gregg Edelman – Berkshire Theatre Group

Playwright Lee Kalcheim

Philip Hoffman as Harold Arlen, David Rasche as Jimmy Van Heusen, and David Garrison as Irving Berlin in Lee Kalcheim’s “Coming Back Like A Song!” Photo by Emma K. Rothenberg-Ware

Outstanding Musical Production

West Side Story – directed by Julianne Boyd – Barrington Stage

Hair – directed by Daisy Walker – Berkshire Theatre Group

Ring of Fire – directed by Maggie Mancinelli -Cahill – Capital Repertory Theatre

Anything Goes – directed by Alan M-L Wager – Sharon Playhouse

Barrington Stage Company Artistic Director Julianne Boyd

Sean Ewing, Tyler Hanes, and the cast of Barrington Stage Company’s production of “West Side Story.” Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Play Production

Creditors by August Strindberg, adapted by David Greig. Directed by Nicole Ricciardi –Shakespeare and Co.

Mothers and Sons by Terence McNally. Directed by James Warwick – Shakespeare and Co.

Dangerous House by Jen Silverman, directed by Saheem Ali – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Seared by Theresa Rebeck. Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. Williamstown Theatre Festival

Playwright Theresa Rebeck.

Hoon Lee as Harry and W. Tré Davis as Rodney in Theresa Rebeck’s “Seared” at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Photo Daniel Rader.

The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater went to Shakespeare & Company for their Shakespeare in the Courts and Fall Festival of Shakespeare programs.

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Third Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards Winners Announced Williamstown Theatre Festival and Barrington Stage Company Take Top Honors At an SRO ceremony held at…

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larryland · 7 years ago

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Mac-Haydn Theatre Takes Home Three "Berkie" Awards

Mac-Haydn Theatre Takes Home Three “Berkie” Awards

Artistic Director John Saunders (left), Choreographer Sebastiani Romagnolo (center) and actress Emily Kron (right) proudly show off the trophies they won at the recent Berkshire Theatre Critics Association’s 2nd Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards event. Hello, Dolly!, the delightful comedy-romance classic directed by Mr. Saunders, shared the Best Musical top spot. The intricate and exciting…

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#Berkie Awards #Berkies #Berkshire Theatre Awards #Berkshire Theatre Critics Association #BTCA #Chatham #Emily Kron #Hello Dolly #John Saunders #Mac-Haydn #MHT #Sebastiani Romagnolo #Sweeney Todd #The Berkies #The Mac-Haydn #The Mac-Haydn Theatre

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larryland · 7 years ago

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Pittsfield, MA – At an SRO ceremony held on the stage of the St. Germain Theatre at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, the Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association presented the Berkshire Theatre Awards on the evening of Monday, November 6, 2017. This was the second year the awards have been presented to honor and celebrate the excellence and diversity of theatre in the greater Berkshire region.

Critics J. Peter Bergman and Macey Levin once again hosted the ceremony, which saw top honors for Best Play go to the Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of David Auburn’s Lost Lake, and a tie between Barrington Stage Company’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company and the Mac-Haydn Theatre’s production of Hello, Dolly! for Best Musical.

The Berkshire Theatre Group captured both of the Outstanding Direction awards, with Eric Hill winning for his production of Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, and James Barry for his direction of the musical Million Dollar Quartet.

Joel Ripka took home the award for Outstanding Solo Performance in Chester Theatre Company’s production of Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing, directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer. That production was also honored as Outstanding New Play of the season. The Oldcastle Theatre Company production of Shipwrecked!… directed by Eric Peterson, won for Oustanding Ensemble Performance for actors John Hadden, David Joseph, and Carla Woods.

The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater went to WAM Theatre and Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven for their innovative double philanthropic mission whereby they donate a portion of the box office proceeds of every major production to a non-profit organization that benefits women and girls. Since its founding in 2010, WAM Theatre has donated more than $41,500 to thirteen nonprofit organizations.

In addition to the awards, Charles Guiliano and Gail M. Burns gave a special tribute to the Berkshire Theatre Association founder, the late Larry Murray, who passed away in March of this year. Kristen van Ginhoven presented a monologue entitled The Last Activist Standing.

2017 Berkshire Theatre Awards (winners appear in Boldface)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play: Nominees: Jessica Hecht – The Clean House – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Ella Loudon – The Tempest – Shakespeare & Co; Medina Senghore – Intimate Apparel – Shakespeare & Co; Zoë Laiz – 4000 Miles – Shakespeare & Co.

Jessica Hecht in a scene from the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s production of “The Clean House” by Sarah Ruhl. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Jessica Hecht

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play: Nominees: Joey Collins – At Home At the Zoo – Berkshire Theatre Group; Mark H. Dold – This – Barrington Stage Company; Carson Elrod – Taking Steps – Barrington Stage Company; Rocco Sisto – The Birds – Barrington Stage Company

Joey Collins (left) and David Adkins both took home awards for their performances in Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo at the Berkshire Theatre Group. Photo by Emma K. Rothenberg-Ware.

Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play or Musical: Nominees: Riccardo Hernandez – The Clean House – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Randall Parsons – Arsenic and Old Lace – Berkshire Theatre Group; Brian Prather – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company; Kristen Robinson – Company – Barrington Stage Company

Brian Prather’s award-winning set for Barrington Stage Company’s production of Ragtime can be seen in all its glory in this scene featuring Frances Evans & J. Anthony Crane. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Choreography: Nominees: Jeffrey Page – Company – Barrington Stage Company; Freddy Ramirez – Mamma Mia – Capital Rep; Sebastiani Romagnolo – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Shea Sullivan – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company

The Waiters’ Gallop exemplifies Sebastiani Romagnolo’s award-winning choreography for Hello, Dolly! at the Mac-Haydn Theatre.

Outstanding Direction of a Muscial: Nominees: James Barry – Million Dollar Quartet – Berkshire Theatre Group; Joe Calaraco – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company; Trey Compton – Godspell 2012 – Theater Barn; John Saunders – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre

James Barry, director of Million Dollar Quartet” at the Berkshire Theatre Group.

The cast of Million Dollar Quartet. Photo by Emma K. Rothenberg-Ware.

Outstanding Costume Design of a Play or Musical: Nominees: Tyler Kinney – Cymbeline – Shakespeare & Co; Govane Lohbauer – Emilie… – WAM Theatre; Bethany Marx – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Sara Jean Tosetti – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company

Bella Merlin sports one of Tyler Kinney’s award-winning costumes for Shakespeare & Company’s production of Cymbeline. Photo by Stratton McCrady

Outstanding Solo Performance: Nominees: Kyle Branzel – Buyer & Cellar – Weston Playhouse; Ed Dixon – Georgie – Barrington Stage Company; Joel Ripka – Every Brilliant Thing – Chester Theatre; Oliver Wadsworth – The Tarnation of Russell Colvin – Dorset Theatre Festival

Joel Ripka, winner of the Outstanding Solo Performer award, interacts with an audience member in the Chester Theatre Company production of “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan Macmillan. Photo by Elizabeth Solaka.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical: Nominees: Ellen Harvey – Company – Barrington Stage Company; Rachel Rhodes-Devey – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Madison Stratton – Spamalot – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Zurin Villanueva – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company

Ellen Harvey as Joanne in Barrington Stage Company’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” Photo by Daniel Rader.

Ellen Harvey

Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play or Musical: Nominees: Mike Baldassari – Children of a Lesser God – Berkshire Theatre Group; Chris Lee – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company; David Weiner – Where Storms Are Born – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Robert Wierzel – A Legendary Romance – Williamstown Theatre Festival

David Weiner’s award-winning lighting illuminates Arnulfo Maldonado’s set for Where Storms Are Born at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical: Nominees: Gabe Belyeu – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Gil Brady – Mamma Mia – Capital Rep; Roe Harftrampf – A Legendary Romance – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Paul Urriola – Guys and Dolls – Theater Barn

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical winner Roe Harftrampf and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical nominee Lora Lee Gayer in A Legendary Romance at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding Direction of a Play: Nominees: Eric Hill – At Home At the Zoo – Berkshire Theatre Group; Kenny Leon – Children of a Lesser God – Berkshire Theatre Group; Regge Life – God of Carnage – Shakespeare & Company; Rebecca Taichman – The Clean House – Williamstown Theatre Festival

Scott Killian, winner of the Berkie award for Outstanding Sound Design for his work on the Berkshire Theatre Group production of David Auburn’s “Lost Lake.”

Eric Hill, winner of Outstanding Direction of a Play for Edward Albee’s “At Home at the Zoo” at the Berkshire Theatre Group.

Outstanding Sound Design of a Play or Musical: Nominees: Scott Killian – Lost Lake – Berkshire Theatre Group; Ryan Rumery – The Legend of Georgia McBride – Dorset Theatre Festival; Alex Sovronsky – The Last Wife – WAM Theatre; David Thomas – The Birds – Barrington Stage Company

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical: Nominee: Lora Lee Gayer – A Legendary Romance – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Emily Kron – Sweeney Todd – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Elizabeth Stanley – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company; Monica M. Wemitt – Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre

Emily Kron as Mrs. Lovett in the Mac-Haydn Theatre production of “Sweeney Todd.”

Emily Kron

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical: Nominees: Darnell Abraham – Ragtime – Barrington Stage Company; Mark Hardy – Sweeney Todd – Mac-Haydn Theatre; Jeff McCarthy – A Legendary Romance – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Aaron Tveit – Company – Barrington Stage Company

Darnell Abraham

Darnell Abraham and members of the cast of Barrington Stage Company’s production of “Ragtime.” Photo by Daniel Rader.

Outstanding New Play or Musical: Nominees: Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan, Daniel Elihu Kramer, director – Chester Theatre, producer; I and You by Lauren Gunderson, Kristen Van Ginhoven, director – Chester Theatre, producer; A Legendary Romance by Timothy Prager and Geoff Morrow, Lonny Price, director – Williamstown Theatre Festival, producer; Where Storms are Born by Harrison David Rivers, Shaheem Ali, director – Williamstown Theatre Festival, producer

Joel Ripka interacting with audience members in the Chester Theatre Company production of Duncan Macmillan’s “Every Brilliant Thing,” directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer. Photo by Elizabeth Solaka.

Daniel Elihu Kramer, Artistic Director of the Chester Theatre Company

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play: Nominees: Lynnette R. Freeman – Lost Lake – Berkshire Theatre Group; Diane Prusha – Wharton Comedies – Shakespeare & Co; Lauren Ridloff – Children of a Lesser God – Berkshire Theatre Group; Kim Stauffer – Emilie… – WAM Theatre

Lynnette R. Freeman, winner of the award for Outstanding Leading Actress in a play for her performance in David Auburn’s “Lost Lake” at the Berkshire Theatre Group

Lynnette R. Freeman and Quentin Maré in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of David Auburn’s “Lost Lake.” Photo by Emma K. Rothenberg-Ware.

Outstanding Ensemble Performance: Nominees: Baskerville – Dorset Theatre Festival; God of Carnage – Shakespeare & Company; Shipwrecked!. . . – Oldcastle Theatre; Skeleton Crew – Chester Theatre

Carla Woods, John Hadden, and David Jospeh, winners of Outstanding Ensemble Cast for their performances in Donald Marguilies’ “Shipwrecked!…” directed by Eric Peterson at the Oldcastle Theatre Company. Photo by Erika Floriani.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play: Nominees: David Adkins – At Home At the Zoo – Berkshire Theatre Group; Quentin Maré – Lost Lake – Berkshire Theatre Group; Nigel Gore – The Tempest – Shakespeare & Company; Oliver Wadsworth – Emilie… – WAM Theatre

The Larry Murray Award for Community Outreach and Support through Theater: Nominees: Julianne Boyd, Barrington Stage Company; Mandy Greenfield, Williamstown Theatre Festival; Kate Maguire, Berkshire Theatre Group; Kristen Van Ginhoven, WAM Theatre

Kristen van Ginhoven, co-founder and Artistic Director of WAM Theatre.

On November 5 WAM Theatre presented their thirteenth beneficiary, Soldier On Women’s Program, with $9,000 – a portion of the box office receipts from their production of “The Last Wife” by Kate Hennig. Photo by Emma K. Rothenberg-Ware.

Outstanding Production of a Musical: TIE VOTE! Nominees: Company – Barrington Stage Company; Hello, Dolly! – Mac-Haydn Theatre; A Legendary Romance – Williamstown Theatre Company; Sweeney Todd – Mac-Haydn Theatre

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Outstanding Production of a Play: Nominees: The Birds – Barrington Stage Company; Children of a Lesser God – Berkshire Theatre Group; The Clean House – Williamstown Theatre Festival; Lost Lake – Berkshire Theatre Group

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2017 Berkshire Theatre Award Winners Announced! Pittsfield, MA - At an SRO ceremony held on the stage of the St. Germain Theatre at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, the Board of the…

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larryland · 7 years ago

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Berkshire On Stage Critics Pick Their Favorites of the 2017 Season

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newyorktheater · 4 years ago

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Floating Theater on the Seine

#Stageworthy News.

If “Hamilton” on Disney+ having become the most-viewed streaming video is not evidence enough of the expanding definition of “theater,” I saw nine plays last week (reviewed below) – three live on Zoom, six recordings of previous productions on stage.

It’s been four months since physical theaters were shut down, and only now are we beginning to see the promise of theater on an unmediated stage: Actors Equity has allowed its member to perform in two shows in the Berkshires in August; there’s a small show in New York afternoon that’s live in person…but also online. There is little expectation of any major reopening of New York theaters until next Spring (and even then,”there may be more dark theaters when we open” — see The Week in Theater News below.)

Meanwhile, companies have been exploring and experimenting. There’s been a surge in radio drama; a new production of “The Tempest” is a live, scripted, participatory play that you attend, from home, using a virtual reality headset. There is now drive-in theater, and even, in Paris, the promise of a floating theater in the Seine, watched by people in their boats; that’s intended for movie screenings only, but what is “theater” these days but screenings?

Of course, there are holdouts: “Plenty of people, starved for theater, are gorging on it digitally. But to feel its full force, you have to be there — to absorb it physically,” writes New York Times critic Laura Collins-Hughes

Her colleagues discuss the last four months – including “Mad Forest” (my review), which I considered a next-generation innovation of Zoom as an artistic medium, and the Apple play on Zoom, “What Do We Need To Talk About” (my review)

The Week in Reviews The Week in News The Week in Videos

The Week in Theater Reviews

The Few

Expires July 16

Watching Gideon Glick’s expressive face in The Few– elated one moment, defeated the next, then adoring, angry, hurt, resigned — is one key to unlocking the mystery of how this Play-PerView no-frills Zoom reading of Samuel D. Hunter’s 2014 Off-Broadway play can be so entertaining and amusing, even though its story is grim, its pacing is slow, and its three characters are facing loneliness, fighting despair, and worried about the coming apocalypse. (My review)

Kristin Griffith as Mrs. Ollie Espenshade in The Fatal Weakness (1946)

Women Without M

Brenda Meaney as Betty in The New Morality (1911)

Summer Stock Streaming Festival

The Mint’s Summerstock Streaming Festival Expires July 19 There are three plays from The Mint’s archives, written between 1911 and 1946, each offering a kind of porto-feminist take on the women characters. If you only have patience for one, the most briskly directed is “The Fatal Weakness” by George Kelly. The plays are free but, apparently for contractural reasons, you need to request a password and enter your e-mail address. (My review)

The Deep Blue Sea Expires July 19 On the surface, The Deep Blue Sea might seem a love triangle, but Helen McCrory’s performance makes it a prism — multifaceted, disorienting, and brilliant – in the National Theatre’s 2016 production of Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play. (My review)

The Line Expires August 4 In this latest documentary play by the team that produced “The Exonerated” and “Coal Country,” a starry, spot-on cast portray seven real-life frontline medical workers in New York– two doctors, three nurses, an Emergency Medical Technician and a paramedic — who tell their wartime stories of dealing with COVID-19. The concrete details of their lives and the stories they tell are devastating. (My review)

Unveiled

Rohina Malik was inspired to write and perform “Unveiled,” her one-woman play about five different Muslim women — which is streaming online one because “I was concerned about the negative stereotyping of Muslims in our TV shows and movies,” she said via Zoom in the live talk-back after this afternoon’s streaming of the taped play. “ My community was always depicted as the bad guys. I rarely saw just regular people.” ….As distinct as they are, all the characters wear the hijab, head covering (as does Malik), and they all serve a different variety of tea (which, when Malike performs on stage, are offered to the theatergoers) The stories they tell are all traumatic…But then the character finds the strength to go on. (My review)

The Copper Children Expires July 15 $15 The Copper Children,” is a play by Karen Zacarias based on a horrifying true story of immigrant toddlers shipped from New York City to Arizona in 1904 that led to a custody case newspapers dubbed the trial of the century. If there are echoes in this historical drama of the current family separations at the border, the specific series of events depicted in this arresting play chronicles an almost surreal combustion of desperation and bigotry. (My review)

The Week in Theater News

The 65th annual Obie Awards, celebrating Off and Off-Off Broadway theater, will be presented online on Tuesday, July 14, with host Cole Escola, on the Wing’s YouTube channel. (Initially scheduled to stream on June 4, they were delayed in response to the Black Lives Matter moment.)

Broadway sheds over 3,000 Job as the theater industry stares into the abyss “It’s probably 98% unemployment,” said Randy Anderson, director of contract affairs for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a major Broadway union with 4,300 members nationally. “To say that this is an existential crisis is probably an understatement,” said Adam Krauthamer, president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. The local has around 1,300 members who work on Broadway. “I think it is possible, though we don’t know that yet, that there may be more dark theaters when we open,” said Charlotte St. Martin of The Broadway League, the trade association of theater owners and presenters.. “I think it would be unrealistic of us to assume we’d come back at the same pace that we’ve been at the last two years.”

.@TheKilroys13 new list of plays by women,trans & non-binary writers has a twist this year; it honors those works canceled/postponed due to COVID. The list is LONG & disheartening eg in NYC by @anwandu, @domorisseau @Csvich @MartynaMajok @SarahKSilvermanhttps://t.co/LiPptRAbL9

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 7, 2020

$10,000 CARES Act Grants for NYC Theaters

capitalizing on interst generated by #hamilfilm, @NuyoricanPoets is presenting a screening of @ireedpub‘s “rebuttal” to Hamilton, “the Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda” on July 14https://t.co/zvh0xzf7Tr pic.twitter.com/4CN4bSYW4j

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 8, 2020

#HomeboundProject goes out with a bang. Its 4th & final edition 7/15 will feature actors like @SantinoFontana, Cherry Jones, @JudithLight, playwrights like Jon Robin Baitz @HalleyFeiffer, @michiMigdalia, directors like @lenadunham, Leigh Silverman

Detailshttps://t.co/QdFlzyx2xC pic.twitter.com/6q5ublU1aZ

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 7, 2020

What Does the Public Want From Art in a Post-COVID World? Here Are 5 Takeaways From a Massive New Study

1. @RandyRainbow · 12h Just putting this out there, but if @PattiLuPone will narrate the audio version of Mary Trump’s book, I will lip sync the entire thing.

2. @PattiLuPone 1h I’m in! pic.twitter.com/NtHRwjz4CH

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) July 8, 2020

The Week in Videos

Interview with The Flea artistic director Niegel Smith

youtube

Broadway Up Close tours have gone virtual. Here’s the latest

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Four Months of Shutdown: What “theater” now means #Stageworthy News. If “Hamilton” on Disney+ having become the most-viewed streaming video is not evidence enough of the expanding definition of “theater,” I saw nine plays last week (reviewed below) – three live on Zoom, six recordings of previous productions on stage.

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larryland · 5 years ago

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by Barbara Waldinger

During the question and answer session that concludes his solo production, George Gershwin Alone, Hershey Felder was asked by an audience member at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Colonial Theatre why he did not choose to be a concert pianist. His response was that in performing his nine distinctive one-man shows he plays more concerts than any other pianist in the world: almost four hundred per year. To those who say that one cannot combine acting with piano-playing, Felder points to the shows he has created, each about a brilliant composer/pianist, using first person narration, accompanied by their music.

There have been other celebrated pianist/entertainers like Liberace and Victor Borge, but Felder’s plays with music are a unique blend of genres. Painstakingly researched, they are distinguishable from Michael Feinstein’s presentations because Felder is not only a singer/pianist but also an accomplished actor who knows how to bring a character to life and to interact with his audience. In addition to Gershwin, he has resuscitated such greats as Chopin, Beethoven, Bernstein, Liszt, Berlin, and Tchaikovsky and has several more in the works.

Previously staged on Broadway, George Gershwin Alone is directed by Tony Award-nominee Joel Zwick, who has also collaborated with Felder on Beethoven and Maestro (Leonard Bernstein). Zwick is an actor, drama professor, and a theatrical, television and film (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) director. This run of George Gershwin Alone, unfortunately only one week in duration, should be seen before it closes.

In the course of a packed ninety minutes we hear scratchy old recordings of George and Ira Gershwin’s music and songs, we learn about music theory (who knew that the same two repeating chords that introduce Summertime were given a totally different approach by John Williams in Jaws!) and study the critical and controversial influence of jazz. Projected upstage are large photographs of the people and historical places prominent in Gershwin’s life as Felder traces his career in America and later Paris. Beginning chronologically in 1898 with the composer’s birth in New York City to Russian immigrant parents, Felder regales us with personal stories revealing the ups and downs experienced by Gershwin, all the while playing his memorable music, including a complete rendition of Rhapsody in Blue.

Through Felder’s impersonations, we meet Gershwin’s family, friends, teachers, employers, and the many artists and musicians he knew. There was Al Jolson, for whom he wrote Swanee (he sounded as though he had “a megaphone in the middle of his throat”), and Ethel Merman (whose voice “sounded the same as Jolson”), Paul Whiteman, who commissioned Rhapsody in Blue, which imitated the sound of a train on which Gershwin traveled and the noise of the cities he passed, DuBose Heyward and his wife Dorothy, who helped Gershwin adapt Heyward’s novel into the opera Porgy and Bess, and Kitty Carlisle, who admitted to Felder in an interview for this show that her mother wanted her to marry Gershwin.

Though the performance is infused with humor, Felder also personalizes Gershwin’s physical pain, in the form of terrible headaches, which were eventually diagnosed to be the result of a brain tumor that killed him at the age of 38, as well as the emotional pain caused by some wretched reviews of An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess. In addition, he suffered the indignity of the anti-Semitic, racist attacks on his religion and music by Henry Ford in the Dearborn Independent.

The production is a pleasure for the eyes as well as the ears, thanks to the work of Lighting Designer Michael T. Gilliam, whose colorful palette not only matches the mood of each piece, but can also focus, laser-like, on Felder’s hands, when the rest of the stage fades to black. Sound Designer Erik Carstensen’s use of original recordings of well-known songs injects period authenticity into the production.

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After Felder’s performance was officially over, he asked the audience which songs they would like him to play (Gershwin wrote over one thousand of them). He then located the music for the requested selections in the oversize books he kept on a desk nearby (some of which were original scores), and supplied the words as willing patrons sang along, following which he answered questions. Felder talked of the great artists he has researched and impersonated in his shows, and how they put the human condition into their art in order to make the world more beautiful, more elegant, and finally, something we have lost today—more civil. As the evening drew to a close, Felder played Clair de Lune by Debussy, whose music had a great influence on Gershwin—a perfect example of beauty in the world.

GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE runs from August 24—31. Tickets may be purchased online at www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org or call 413-997-4444.

Berkshire Theatre Group and Hershey Felder present GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE by Hershey Felder. Music and Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. Directed by Joel Zwick; Associate Director Trevor Hay. Cast: Hershey Felder (George Gershwin). Lighting Designer: Michael T. Gilliam; Sound Designer/Production Manager: Erik Carstensen.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission. The Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, MA.; from August 24; closing August 31.

REVIEW: “George Gershwin Alone” at the Berkshire Theatre Group by Barbara Waldinger During the question and answer session that concludes his solo production, George Gershwin Alone, …

#Barbara Waldinger #Berkshire Theatre Group #BTG #Colonial Theatre #Erik Carstensen #George and Ira Gershwin #George Gershwin #George Gershwin Alone #Hershey Felder #Ira Gershwin #Joel Zwick #Michael T. Gilliam #Pittsfield MA #The Colonial Theatre #Trevor Hay

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