It seems at first glance to have come from sort of jukebox musical auto-generator — Sir Philip Sidney’s epic poem of good governance and inappropriate desire, the Arcadia, with the music of chart-topping New Wave girl group The Go-Go’s? What kind of half-baked post-Mamma Mia cash-in is that? Read more »
Dapper countertenor Ray Chenez is temporarily putting aside the turbans of his operatic career for, well, the turbans of a Broadway diva as he appeals via Indiegogo for funding to record a CD of show tunes. Read more »
This riotous opera transports the Oedipus tale to an apocalyptic 1980s London, plagued by police violence, racism, and socioeconomic decay. Intrepid composer Mark-Anthony Turnage’s (Anna Nicole) 1988 breakthrough brilliantly combines cockney-accented profanity and irreverent drama with an audacious score and outstanding four-person cast. Eddy (tenor Alex Otterburn), our modern-day Oedipus, dreams of a better life. After hearing a fortune teller’s disturbing prediction, he resolves at all costs to avoid shagging his own mum (soprano Susan Bullock) and inadvertently killing his father (tenor Andrew Shore). But he is unable to outrun fate, landing in the prophetically maternal arms of an East End café manager (mezzo soprano Allison Cook). Thirty years later, Greek still resonates, offering an incisive, brash contemporary statement on accountability and family. Read more »
Rambunctious Renée Fleming will take a two-month hiatus from her pie-juggling duties in Broadway’s Carousel starting September 4. While America’s Diva is off singing gala concerts from Mobile to East Lansing, who will take over the role of Nettie Fowler? Read more »
Many lessons surface in Tony Kushner’s epic Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.
Carousel is receiving a Broadway revival in a simple, cautious production that still manages to pack an emotional wallop.
On this day in 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel opened at the Majestic Theatre, to run 890 performances.
While Farinelli and the King isn’t the only Broadway play to have explored castration (Sweet Bird of Youth, anyone?) it’s likely the first to concern a legendary 18th century opera star.
I never made it through more than a few chapters of any Tolstoy work. And I never made it through Chapter One, Volume One of War and Peace. Yeah, I know. I suck. Turns out I was just not using the left side of my brain, because War and Peace can actually be a fun, entertaining, lighthearted musical.
Cher Public