Christina Mancuso - Page 21

Few dancers reach the elite level of ballet; of that already small number only a fraction are black women. Misty Copeland shattered those barriers in 2015, making history as the first African American principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre (ABT).

Alison Cook Beatty Dance performs on March 25th and 26th at 8pm at Theater of the 14th Street Y with works including TINTINNABULI, HEROIC DEPARTURE, and MURMURATION. 

North Carolina Theatre, the region's premiere nonprofit professional regional theatre producing Broadway musical revivals, is ready to electrify audiences this February with the world's favorite musical, Grease! Directed by Broadway veteran Hunter Foster, choreographed by his wife, Jennifer Cody, leading the cast of this upcoming production is Raleigh native John Arthur Greene as Danny Zuko and Emily Behny as Sandy Dumbrowski.  Check out the video below of the stars sharing thoughts on 'My Carolina Today.'

In a video published on Big Think, Comedian John Cleese said, 'I'm offended every day. For example, the British newspapers every day offend me with their laziness, their nastiness, and their inaccuracy, but I'm not going to expect someone to stop that happening; I just simply speak out about it.'  He goes on to say, 'And the whole point about humor, the whole point about comedy, and believe you me I thought about this, is that all comedy is critical. Even if you make a very inclusive joke like how would you make God laugh? Answer: Tell him your plans. Now that's about the human condition; it's not excluding anyone.'

Donizetti's MARIA STUARDA opened at the Metropolitan Opera on January 29th. The second chapter of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky's quest to sing all three Donizetti Tudor queen operas in the same season has her playing the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir David McVicar's stunning production turns on the dramatic confrontation between Mary and her arch nemesis, Queen Elizabeth-compellingly portrayed by soprano Elza van den Heever. Riccardo Frizza conducts.

BODY WORLDS VITAL is an all-new, unique exhibition celebrating the wonder, resilience and fragility of the human body. Visitors will get a detailed look at the human body and its keenly intelligent design, explore how it functions and see what happens when disease strikes.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play by Jack Thorne will receive its world premiere in London's West End at the Palace Theatre in the summer of 2016.  Check out a behind the scenes video that was posted on their official Twitter account here.

To prove how wrong leftists are about guns, Comedian Steven Crowder took a hidden camera to gun shows and gun dealers. He tried weaseling through the “gun show loophole” and even tried getting automatic weapons without background checks. It went as well as anyone who's ever purchased a gun legally would expect it to go.  Check out the hilarious video below!

The pre-Broadway engagement of EMPIRE opened at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, with book, music & lyrics by Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull, musical direction by Sariva Goetz, and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime). EMPIRE runs through Sunday, February 14, 2016.

There's something truly divine about THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which has become a pillar of musical theatre for over 56 years. A brand new touring production of this beloved musical waltzed into The Ohio Theatre on Tuesday night starring Kerstin Anderson as Maria, Ben Davis as Captain Von Trapp, and Ashley Brown as The Mother Abbess. Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien, this spirited and romantic story of Maria and the Von Trapp Family has survived generations of modern day musicals, capturing the hearts of audiences with its nostalgia and charm.

The Australian Ballet's contemporary triple bill Vitesse is ballet at full voltage. Three stripped-back abstract works by three of the world's leading choreographers show the men and women of the Company at their strongest and fastest, shaking the artform to its foundations. Vitesse runs at Arts Centre Melbourne from11-21 March, and Sydney Opera House from 26 April-16 May.

The national tour of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, launched in Des Moines, IA at the Des Moines Performing Arts Civic Center with an official opening on Tuesday, December 1st.

Seen by over 48 million people worldwide and with a turnover of more than US $ 3.9 billion, WICKED currently has five productions around the world (New York, London, Australia, a tour in the UK and US tour). In Brazil, the original assembly, with lyrics in Portuguese, first for the general public on March 4, 2016 at the Teatro Renault in Sao Paulo. The cast is headed by Myra Ruiz (Elphaba), Fabi Bang (Glinda), Sergio Rufino (Wizard of Oz), Adriana Frames (Madame Morrible), Jonatas Faro and Andrew Loddi (Fiyero), Giovanna Moreira (Nessarose), Bruno Fraga ( Boq) and Cesar Mello (Doctor Dillamond).  Check out the videos below of the cast announcement, interviews, and a sneak peek at 'One Short Day.'

Award winning star of TV and theatre, Catherine Tate (Assassins, The Catherine Tate Show, The Vote, Doctor Who) and Dean John-Wilson (Aladdin, Here Lies Love), who takes lead role in Disney's Aladdin this summer, will lead the cast in the new musical comedy Miss Atomic Bomb, alongside musical theatre stars Florence Andrews (A Little Night Music, Annie Get Your Gun), Simon Lipkin (The Lorax, Assassins, Rock of Ages, Avenue Q) and Daniel Boys (Any Dream Will Do, Avenue Q, Spamalot) as it explodes into the UK for its World Premiere at the St James Theatre, Victoria, in Spring 2016. The production will be running from 7 March for a strictly limited five week season, with press night on 14 March 2016.

The West End transfer of GUYS & DOLLS opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 6, for a limited run through March 12. Sophie Thompson and Jamie Parker reprise their roles as Miss Adelaide and Sky Masterson, with David Haig as Nathan Detroit and Siubhan Harrison as Sarah Brown. Let's see what the critics had to say:

The Australian production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, starring Anthony Warlow, has just unveiled footage of the musical's iconic number 'If I Were A Rich Man.'  Below, watch Warlow bring the song to life onstage!

BalletBoyz have announced they will tour their brand new production Life, which will receive its world premiere at London's Sadler's Wells in April 2016.  The show features new commissions by Javier de Frutos and Pontus Lidberg. After opening at Sadler's Wells where BalletBoyz are Associate Artists, the production will embark on a UK tour, followed by a tour of the USA in 2017. The piece is co-produced by Sadler's Wells in association with artsdepot.   Check out a first look at the trailer below!

Ferris & Milnes, the musical theatre comedy cabaret performed by Dominic Ferris and Martin Milnes, present the 2016 residency at the St. James Studio, London. BroadwayWorld gives you a first look at an exclusive new video of Ferris and Milnes' '33 Sondheim Numbers in 5 Minutes' has been released, giving theatre-lovers the chance to see the medley which was performed live to great acclaim, at Sondheim's 85th Birthday Gala at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Check it out below!

Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957 focuses on how, despite its brief existence, BMC became a seminal meeting place for many of the artists, musicians, poets, and thinkers who would become the principal practitioners in their fields of the postwar period. Figures such as Anni and Josef Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Ruth Asawa, Robert Motherwell, Gwendolyn and Jacob Knight Lawrence, Charles Olson, and Robert Creeley, among many others, taught and studied at BMC. Teaching at the college combined the craft principles of Germany's revolutionary Bauhaus school with interdisciplinary inquiry, discussion, and experimentation, forming the template for American art schools. While physically rooted in the rural South, BMC formed an unlikely cosmopolitan meeting place for American, European, Asian, and Latin American art, ideas, and individuals. The exhibition argues that BMC was as an important historical precedent for thinking about relationships between art, democracy, and globalism. It examines the college's critical role in shaping many major concepts, movements, and forms in postwar art and education, including assemblage, modern dance and music, and the American studio craft movement—influence that can still be seen and felt today.

New York City Premiere, Dog Days is a work of contemporary opera-theatre that investigates the psychology of a working class American family pitted against a not-so-distant-future wartime scenario. Exploring the ultimate struggle of humanity—stuck between nature's indifference and society's barely restrained brutality—Dog Days asks: is it madness, delusion, or sheer animal instinct that guides us through severely trying times? Where is the line between animal and human? At what point must we give into our animal instincts merely to survive?