Tom Williams Considered to be Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most beloved musical, The King and I is set in Siam in the 1860’s. It tells the story of Anna, a widowed Englishwomen, who becomes a tutor to the King’s children as part of the ‘westernization’ of Siam by the King. The King, played with a tortured nature by Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte is torn between clinging to his ancient customs and embracing modern ways.
Playwright Abbie Spallen has a bit of McPherson’s wacky characters, some of Friel’s monologues with a dose of McDonagh’s dark humor in her plays. Strandline is a funny yet searing work that deals with the mourning for Mairin’s (Kirsten Fitzgerald) dead husband who drowns in sight of Mairin and town’s folk during a wedding celebration in a seaside town on the Northern Ireland border. It seems that Mairin’s husband drowned trying to save some French tourists.
Chicago, under the innovative leadership of William Massolia, director Scott Weinstein and music director Elizabneth Doran, is the first theatre to experience this newly reworked of the voyage of the Titanic from the crew’s,the passengers – first, second and third class’ point of view. The brilliance of Maury Yeston’s score and the efficiency of Peter Stone’s book comes to life in the intimate Theater Wit stage.
On Wednesday, October 22, 2014, I was luck enough to experience on the finest chamber music orchestra, Sphinix Virtuois with Catalyst Quartet as they Tour in their Americana program. The young dynamic troupe is a professional chamber orchestra and theonly all-Black and Latino string orchestra in America. This 18 person is a a one month tour is an homage to The Star Spangled Banner as member and composer-in-residence premieres a new work titled Banner as an ode to our beloved anthem.
In a world premiere pre-Broadway production, Amazing Grace has some merit as an historical bio-musical. As far as it goes, Amazing Grace chronicles the early adventures of John Newton (1725 – 1807) who composed the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace” in 1772. This world premiere pre-Broadway production is a massive epic musical complete with a clipper ship set and a quasi-operatic score filled with stirring anthems and power ballads
After 90 minutes of action that often confuses many middle schoolers and high schoolers, I heard several students constantly asking their parents “I don’t understand what is happening?” The lesson of how democratic values can be corrupted by the quest for power. The youngsters learn that in life, sometimes the bad guy wins that unless we stand guard, evil can win the day. They learn that change is good but it must be tempered with compassion and be aimed at the common good of all.
Set over a 15 year span, Whatever We Want deals with a 10 year old (Bug) and a 12 year old (Della) as they are have a tight sister bond with Della leading the way. Bug is a precocious child who loves to invent ridiculous quotes to spout. These two yearn for adventure but they become separated by their parent’s divorce. Over the years, they struggle to retain a relationship.
The 46th Annual Jeff Awards Celebrates Excellence in Chicago Theatre October 13, 2014 – Chicago, IL. At the gala 46th Annual Equity Jeff Awards held at Drury Lane Oakbrook on Monday, October 13, awards were spread among numerous theatres honoring a season of outstanding productions. From Writers Theatre, “The Dance of Death”, a battle of wits … Read more
we meet the wealthy Farrelly family headed by matriarch Fanny Farrelly (the terrific Kathy Scambiatterra), who appears as a flighty woman who seeks control of all aspects of life in her country estate. She fights with her housekeeper Anise (Lorraine Freund) and her butler Joseph (Brandon Boler) in a mutual love-hate relationship. Her son, David (John Stokvis) is an unmarried lawyer who Fanny sees as just like her late husband Jushua.
Porchlight Theatre, under the leadership and direction from Michael Weber, have mounted, on a low budget, an intense, well sung and well performed production of Sweeney Todd. It rivals the terrific production recently at Drury Lane Oakbrook in quality not scope. This production is intimate, slick and darkly scarey proving that the source material can work on different scales. This Sweeney plays very much like the 1979 original and the 1982 national tour.