Wednesday, March 12

Tag: Theater

Rachel Bloom turns pandemic trauma into art and even laughs in her new off-Broadway show
27Sep By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Rachel Bloom turns pandemic trauma into art and even laughs in her new off-Broadway show

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel Bloom was fiddling around with songs and sketches for a new musical stand-up special she was hoping to take on the road when the pandemic hit in 2020 and, as she describes it, “the world exploded.” The actor and writer, best known for creating and starring in “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” had recently brought her newborn home after time in the neonatal intensive care unit and was feeling grateful that her daughter was OK. At home during quarantine with her new family, she got the devastating news that her close friend and musical collaborator, Adam Schlesinger, had died after being hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.The singer-songwriter known for founding the band Fountains of Wayne and writing and composing many songs for TV and film was only 52. As she g...
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Eno Ichikawa, Japanese Kabuki theater actor and innovator, dies at 83
16Sep By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Eno Ichikawa, Japanese Kabuki theater actor and innovator, dies at 83

TOKYO -- Eno Ichikawa, who revived the spectacular in Japanese Kabuki theater to woo younger and global audiences, has died. He was 83.Ichikawa died after suffering heart problems on Wednesday in Tokyo, the entertainment company Shochiku Co., a major Kabuki producer, said Saturday.Ichikawa, or Masahiko Kinoshi, became known for “Super Kabuki,” incorporating modern music and storytelling as well as the circus-like elements of the tradition — such as “flying” supported by ropes — that had been discarded over the years. He focused on what he called the three S’s: “Speed, story and spectacle.” Kabuki, which features live music and dance on a revolving stage, originated in the 17th Century Edo era and is traditionally performed only by men. So, Ichikawa played beautiful damsels, as well as wit...
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Laura Bell Bundy Back On Broadway In Delightfully ‘Horny’ Show
6Sep By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Laura Bell Bundy Back On Broadway In Delightfully ‘Horny’ Show

In Broadway’s “The Cottage,” Laura Bell Bundy plays a 1920s British woman who — through a series of saucy, sexy and deliberately melodramatic events — comes to realize that happiness can be found on her own and without the companionship of a man.Much like her character, Bundy is relishing the excitement of kicking off a new chapter. “The Cottage” marks the Tony-nominated actor’s return to Broadway after 15 years and her first time on the New York stage in a straight play rather than a musical.In 2021, Bundy moved back to the East Coast after a collective 13 years in Nashville and Los Angeles in hopes of making her pursuit of such theatrical stints less taxing on her husband, television producer Thom Hinkle, and their 4-year-old son, Huck.And when she took her bow alongside “The Cottage” c...
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After a Vermont playhouse flooded, the show went on
24Aug By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

After a Vermont playhouse flooded, the show went on

WESTON, Vt. -- Members of a beloved Vermont acting company were sleeping in theater housing when torrential rains and flooding forced them to flee, with water inundating the playhouse’s vast basement of dressing rooms, costumes and props and reaching into the first floor.The July storms left the large, column-fronted white Greek Revival building with layers of mud and debris, and as volunteers and others dug out of the mess, the Weston Theater Company eventually kept performing — on higher ground. The shortened season came to end last week on a smaller stage on higher ground, and the actors are now figuring out how to make up for some of the losses and rebuild their leased playhouse to be more flood resistant in the tiny riverside town.The prominent playhouse sits in the center of the 620...
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Tom Jones, creator of the longest-running musical ‘The Fantasticks,’ dies at 95
13Aug By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Tom Jones, creator of the longest-running musical ‘The Fantasticks,’ dies at 95

NEW YORK -- Tom Jones, the lyricist, director and writer of “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running musical in history, has died. He was 95.Jones died Friday at his home in Sharon, Connecticut, according to Dan Shaheen, a co-producer of “The Fantasticks,” who worked with Jones since the 1980s. The cause was cancer.Jones, who teamed up with composer Harvey Schmidt on “The Fantasticks” and the Broadway shows “110 in the Shade” and “I Do! I Do!,” was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1998.“The Fantasticks,” based on an obscure play by Edmond Rostand, doesn't necessarily have the makings of a hit. The set is just a platform with poles, a curtain and a wooden box.The tale, a mock version of "Romeo and Juliet," concerns a young girl and boy, secretly brought together by their fa...
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