“Blithe Spirit” Opening Night

Last night theater-goers experienced the special treat of seeing the wonderful Angela Lansbury taking her place on stage in the official opening performance of Blithe Spirit. Appearing as an excentric medium, Lansbury, as can readily be expected, made the part truly her own as she performed the part of Madam Arcati. Most well-known for her TV role of Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote, Lansbury has also appeared in Mame, Sweeney Todd, and Deuce to name just a few. She has also appeared in films such as The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Machurian Candidate, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Her movie and television repertoire is even more extensive than her impressive list of wonderful theatrical performances.

In this fantastic new production, Rupert Everet plays a writer named Charles, who is doing some research for a new novel and decides to bring in a medium, Lansbury, in order to gain insight into the spirit world. Both the medium and the writer get more than they bargain for when his dead wife Elvira, played by Christine Ebersole, shows up, and becomes envious of Charles new wife, The new wife, Ruth, played by Jayne Atkinson, when Ruth returns the favour the poor writer is stuck in the middle of a domestic and otherworldly brawl. Get your Blithe Spirit tickets today, from StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 16, 2009 - Post a comment

The Little House Tour

Following a five-week engagement at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersye, the exciting new musical The Little House on the Prairie is now getting ready for the tour that will introduce it to the rest of the US. The show will be starring Melissa Gilbert, who originally played the part of Laura in the TV version of the story. In the musical, Gilbert will be playing the part of Ma Ingalls. The musical is already greatly anticipated, and tickets are currently available for the tour’s stop-over in Denver, Colorado, in December.

The story covers the “coming-of-age” period in the life of Laura Ingalls, as she finds love and purpose as a grown woman. As one of the only records of life on the frontier from someone who experienced that life first hand. The stories were written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is also the main character, and are fictionalized accounts following her life from childhood to early adulthood and the birth of her daughter, Rose. This musical is exciting becaused it is based on some of the most important pieces of American literature that we have alive today. Little House on the Prairie Denver tickets are only the first group available, more tickets will be coming in the future for places across the US and in Canada as well.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 13, 2009 - Post a comment

West Side Story on Letterman

Tonight the cast of West Side Story, one of the most well-loved musicals of Broadway history, will be performing “America” on the Late Show with David Letterman. The show will air at 11.35pm tonight, so get tuned into to your television. The song is one of the most loved from the show, and is a ironic and entertaining comparison of life in America and life in Puerto Rico, from the perspective of a group of Puerto Rican immigrants. For a hint of what you will hear, some of the lines from the song include “Everything free in America/For a small fee in America.”

This musical adaption of the the story of Romeo and Juliet is beautiful and touching, and is set in the heart of New York City in the mid 1950s, when there was a boom in immigration from Puerto Rico to New York. The story is about a Puerto Rican girl named Maria and a  young man named Tony, who is a former member of a street gang that is embroiled in a turf war with a Puerto Rican gang headed by Bernardo, Maria’s brother. These two “star-crossed lovers” are at the center of the conflict. West Side Story tickets are currently one of the biggest selling items on Broadway, second only to Wicked. You definitely want to see this incredible show, and tickets are available now at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 12, 2009 - Post a comment

Shrek the Musical Album Premiere

Shrek the Musical, teamed up with Broadwayworld over the weekend and this past Monday (March 9) fans were able to listen to the recording on the site. The album’s offical release date is on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. The musical is entirely new and is based on the story and characters from William Steig’s book, Shrek! The musical features book and lyrics by David Lindsy-Abair, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Rabbit Hole in 2007. Music is by Olivier Award-Winner Jeanine Tesori, and it is directed by Tony Award Nominee. Prior to opening on Broadway, the musical played its pre-Broadway engagement at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington from August 14th to September 21st.

Starring in Shrek is Brian d’Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona, Christophner Sieber as Lord Farquaad, Daniel Breaker as Donkey, and John Tartaglia as Pinocchio. The musical has been well-recieved, although the current econonmic downturn has led to lower ticket sales than expected. The award-winning cast and creative team is the perfect compilation to make this show one of the best-loved of Broadway. To get your Shrek tickets come to StubHub.com and enjoy the chance to see this incredible performance live on stage.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 11, 2009 - Post a comment

Happiness: A New Musical Off Broadway

Happiness is a new musical that is currently playing at the Lincoln Center at the Mitzi E. Newsome Theater. The musical centers on a diverse group of New Yorkers, who are stuck in the morning rush of a stalled subway car. As they wait till they can continue to their destination, they are required by a spectral trainman to recall and re-enact their happiest moments. Only then will they be able to continue with their lives, their trials and their travels. The musical is a celebration of the underpinning moments in our lives that make them all that much more worthwhile: it discovers the overlooked, the unanticipated, and the unexpected moments that drawn themselves together to become our fondest memories.

Happiness tickets are currently available for the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York. It is already proving to be a much-loved and enjoyed experience for theater-goers, so be sure to act fast and get your tickets while you still can. Susan Stroman is the choreographer for the musical, John Weidman wrote the book, Scott Frankel is the composer and the lyrics are by Michael Korie. The cast includes Fred Applegate, Sebastian Arcelus, Miguel Cervantes, Hunter Foster, Joanna Gleason, Ken Page, Robert Petkoff, Jenny Powers, Phyllis Somerville, and Pearl Sun.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 10, 2009 - Post a comment

Opening Night of 33 Variations

33 Variations is opening tonight at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in New York at 6.30pm. The cast is headed up by Jane Fonda, who plays musicologist Katherine Brandt, a woman who has set out to solve a mystery that has been around for centuries. As she races against time to unlock the mystery that confronts her, she is also consumed with her relationship with her daughter. She travels from present-day New York to 19th Century Austria, as the music that she pursues comes to life on stage. The play is written by Moises Kaufman and was, strangely enough, inspired by a salesperson who first directed the playwright to Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which the story isbased on.

Fonda was actually writing about Beethoven at the time that she was approached to take part in the play. Along with Beethoven she was writing about a number of artists that had created their greatest works later on in their lives, despite physical difficulties. The play, so far, has been well-received. In order to write the play, Kaufman proceeded to Bon, Germany, to research these fascinating pieces. To find out more, and enjoy a fantastic play, get your 33 Variations tickets today!

Permalink - Posted in General on March 9, 2009 - Post a comment

Xanadu to end Chicago Run this Month

Xanadu tickets are only going to be available for a little longer, as the show will soon be closing its Chicago run to make its premiere in Tokyo. The musical has won the respect of many critics, who were skeptical about bringing it to the stage, although their skepticism was well-founded. The musical originally premiered as a movie in 1980, starring Olivia Newton-John as the leading lady, Kira. Despite Ms. Newton-John’s well-respected talent as an actress and singer, the movie did little to exhibit her true talent. The only award that it won was the Razzie Award for Worst Director, it was nominated for seven other Razzie Award, including a 2005 nomination for “Worst” musical of Our First 25 Years.

However, despite this unpromising history, the stage musical has actually become a favorite on the stage, as proven by its up-coming Tokyo run. The musical made its Broadway premier on July 10, 2007 and ran through September 28, 2008 after having played previews from May 23, 2007. On Broadway the musical was nominated for several Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards, and won the Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical for Douglas Carter Beane. In Chicago it has held celebrated performances, so be sure to act fast if you want to get in on this great Chicago theatrical experience!

Permalink - Posted in General on March 6, 2009 - Post a comment

Horton Foote Passed Away at 92

Horton Foote was 92 years old when he passed away on Wednesday afternoon, he died in his sleep while taking an afternoon nap at his daughter’s house. He was a renowned actor, playwright and screenwriter, known for his scripts for To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, The Trip to Bountiful, and The Young Man from Atlanta. During his lifetime he won  several Oscar Awards and nominations. He also received a Pulitzer Prize for the play The Young Man from Atlanta. Horton recently attended a January 19 preview performance of To Kill A Mockingbird, where he met with actors and signed autographs.

Horton was most recently represented on Broadway with Dividing the Estate tickets, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Other plays by Horton include The Traveling Lady, Two’s Company, The Chase, Six O’Clock Theatre, and Only the Heart. At the time of his death Horton was looking forward to a reading of his nine-play The Orphan’s Home Cycle on March 16, in Hartford, Connecticut, where he died. Had he lived to see it he would have been 93. This man’s long profession has resulted in an incredible legacy for the world of theater and film, and he will not be forgotten soon.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 5, 2009 - Post a comment

Bono Talks Spider-Man

U2 have had a busy month so far, after having finished up the month of February with a unannounced concert on top of the BBC building in London. A concert that drew a huge crowd in a matter of minutes as people poured out of surrounding pubs to witness the show. Then, yesterday, U2 issued their latest album, No Line on the Horizon, a full five years after their last studio album. It has been a full four decades since the group started, and they have proved to have a solid raport with their fans, and staying-together power, that far outclasses many of their peers.

Bono and the Edge are also currently working on a project with Academy Award-nominated direct Julie Taymor. The two are working on writing songs for Taymor’s next project, the much-talked about and anticipated muisical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. The musical is said to be bringing deeper insight into the life of the mysterious and popular webslinger. In an interview with RollingStone, Bono also expressed hopes that the music from the  musical would be able to be released in the form of a new U2 album. With such a fantastic team headlining it, Spider-Man tickets promise to be one of the biggest hits of the year when it comes to the Broadway stage next  year.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 4, 2009 - Post a comment

Exit the King to Begin Performances

There are two Academy Award winners that are getting ready to star in a new run of an old favorite on Broadway, titled Exit the King. Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon are both going to be appearing on Saturday in thist fantastic play that will definitely be entertaining for all who see it. The play also marks Rush’s Broadway debut, and none too soon for this amazing actor whose roles on the screen have included: Captain Barbosa in The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, David Helfgott in Shine (a role that won him an Oscar Award), and Sir Francis Walsingham in  Elizabeth…to name just a few. Among Sarandon’s extensive and renowned film credits are: Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Men Walking, Regina “Reggie” Love in The Client, and Jackie Harrison in Stepmom.

In the play Sarandon plays Queen Marguerite opposite Rush’s megalomaniac and incompotent King Berenger. Darkly histerical the play followes Berenger in the 90 minutes of his life, as he desperately tries to avoid the Grim Reaper, who is deterimined that his time has come. It does hardly seem sensible for the king to resist his demise so passionately, as he has lived for somewhere around 400 years, but apparently thsi is not enough for him. All the while Sarandon’s Marguerite cannot have her husband “Go softly into that goodnight…” soon enough. The only person who really encourages the king to stick around is his younger wife, Queen Marie, played by Lauren Ambrose. To get your Exit The King tickets to see this darkly amusing comedy, act fast before the show is all sold out.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 3, 2009 - Post a comment


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