For all its historical trappings, 1776 isn't a pageant, and it doesn't behave like one. It's a talky, funny, occasionally cranky chamber piece about a group of men stuck in a room, led by the stubborn, relentless John Adams, arguing their way toward independence.
Wagner's reputation can be both a headache and an irresistible challenge to opera directors. Though opera usually demands strict fidelity to the music as it was written, there is traditionally more leeway in staging decisions.
The piece is steeped in Schopenhauer's meditations on the futility of worldly striving and the necessity of accepting oblivion. It is also infused with Wagner's paganistic worship of desire and his matchless ability to translate longing into perpetually unresolved musical phrases.
The opening night of the Metropolitan Opera's new Tristan und Isolde was one of those great nights at the opera, the kind that will have people arguing what shone most: the confident complexity of Yuval Sharon's staging, Lise Davidsen's indelible Isolde, her chemistry with tenor Michael Spyres, or the sensuous discipline of the orchestra. The answer, of course, is all of the above.
People all saw that there is something new is being attempted here that you've just got to see. I think that is its own reward. In an era where New York's storied Met Opera has faced layoffs, pay cuts, postponed productions, and a controversial financial agreement with Saudi Arabia, forward-thinking artistic direction becomes essential for survival.
"It has been a bucket-list dream of mine to perform on a New York stage, and I couldn't think of a better way to do that than becoming a part of the 11 to Midnight family," Morris said in a statement.
While Miranda was hailed as a genius for creating the show, the actual breakout star was Leslie Odom Jr, who played Hamilton's nemesis Aaron Burr. Hugely praised for his magnetic, devilish performance, he pipped Miranda to the best actor in a musical gong at the 2016 Tony Awards.
Set during the Roaring Twenties, the show takes place at the Manhattan apartment of Queenie (Jasmine Amy Rogers), a vaudeville bombshell, and her man of the moment, the comedian Burrs (Jordan Donica). Guests include a former prizefighter, a pair of piano-playing twins, an "ambisextrous" playboy, a stage diva past her prime, and someone's kid sister from Poughkeepsie.
Forty years ago, Webber was absurdly popular, Britain's number one cultural export of the '80s. It was an Ed Sheeran-ish popularity: an insanely prolific hitmaker, yes, but he never commanded a fraction of the critical adulation of, say, Stephen Sondheim or Kander & Ebb.
We began in the world that was-in the humid atmosphere of fin-de-siècle Vienna, from which Zemlinsky, Schreker, and Schoenberg emerged. In a program note, Blier wrote that the "Fugitives" concept was inspired by Zemlinsky's "Meeraugen," or "Sea Eyes," which tells of a "person staring into the roiling abyss of the ocean." You had the feeling, as the evening went on, that the crushing realities of twentieth-century history-war, revolution, inflation, the Depression, Fascism-made such refined aestheticism untenable and forced composers onto other paths.
As Broadway heads into the busy spring theater season, a wave of new productions and high-profile revivals is arriving across Midtown. This year's lineup leans heavily on recognizable titles including revivals of classics and stage adaptations of familiar screen properties as well as star casting.
Broadway Bound Kids, the nonprofit that provides performing arts education to New York City students K-12, will be hosting their fourth annual benefit concert, Empower State of Mind, on Feb. 2 at City Winery in Manhattan at 7:30 pm. The evening will include show-stopping performances by theater legends who have starred on the Broadway stage. The participating performers include Kate Baldwin (Chicago), Kelsee Kimmel (Hell's Kitchen), Storm Lever (Six), Olivia Donalson (Six), Daniel Quadrino (Wicked) and Jacob Keith Watson (Ragtime), among others.
So another word about tickets. They did finally announce single-game tickets were going on sale, but only for games though June. It's not enough to keep season plans limited to those requiring fans to buy more tickets than they can use, feeding the secondary markets which the Mets also get a cut of, but "make-your-own-plan" fans like me who've reliably occupied seats for decades,
In one of classical ballet's most celebrated, multifaceted, and difficult roles, Aurora matures over the course of the ballet, growing froman effervescent teenager sizing up suitors at her 16th birthday party, to an ethereal vision conjured to draw the prince to her bedside, and finally, to a bride, regal and self-assured. It's a fiercely demanding role set to Tschaikovsky's soaring score that requires persuasive acting skills and formidable technique.
Beginning April 21, Jeremy Jordan will step into the role of Bobby Darin in Just in Time, the immersive nightclub musical that quietly became one of last season's surprise hits at Circle in the Square Theatre. Jordan succeeds Jonathan Groff, who plays Darin through March 29, in a production that has turned Circle in the Square into a swinging supper clubcomplete with floor seating, banquettes, and a live band that puts audiences inches from the action.
As seen in viral Instagram videos, the interviewer asked about the Wicked sequel's ambiguous ending, and Grande was ready to make her case, warning, "Oh, I'm gonna ruin that for you." She confirmed that Glinda doesn't know Elphaba is alive, even though it seems like they reconnect through magic in the final scene of the film. "She can't. Well, they don't see each other," she said. "You see us, but we don't see each other. She's far as hell."
Less than two weeks after Wicked: For Good got entirely shut out from the Oscars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande won a Grammy ... for a song from the first Wicked movie. During the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony prior to the televised awards show, Erivo and Grande won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Defying Gravity," which is from the first Wicked film.
