Don Grigware - Page 78

When it first premiered on the West End in 1989 and then on Broadway in 1991, Miss Saigon won over critics and public alike with its bold operatic score and absorbing story of the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Almost twenty years later it is as relevant as ever and Moonlight's stunning production could not be better.

Actress/singer Stephanie J. Block who recently starred on Broadway in The Boy From Oz, The Pirate Queen and 9 to 5: The Musical, as well as winning a Helen Hayes Award for playing Elphaba in the National Tour of Wicked, is about to open the new season on September 28 of Reprise Theatre Company co-starring with Jason Alexander in They're Playing Our Song. In our chat she talks about Song, Sondheim and other theatrical passions.

Provocative, imaginative material about sexual abuse, despite its uneasy and controversial nature, can fascinate, and this world premiere Mysterious Skin @ East West Players begs to be seen.

(Johnson with musical partner Wayland Pickard in one of their Legendary Duets collaborations.) Prolific musician Deborah Johnson has composed the music for an exciting new musical Stiltz! set to open Friday, September 24 at the Actors Forum Theatre in NoHo. On Stiltz!, Johnson also serves as musical director. Her partner Wayland Pickard (in photo above), another virtuoso, is co-directing the musical with Doug Engalla.

Fans of John Steinbeck will not want to miss this delightful parody of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Lenny becomes an unwanted member of the Joad family, boss Curly is a lady and the Joads are as determined a family as ever to beat poverty in Oklahoma and find their little patch of green earth in sunny California. SeaGlass proves once again that they are a top-notch theatre company to be reckoned with, making the West coast premiere of Of Grapes and Nuts a wicked classic all by itself.

Merrily We Roll Along may just very well be Stephen Sondheim's greatest lesser known musical.

With our world's current preoccupation with war, its shadowy aftermaths and so much being written in the press about it, a war play could very well be an unwelcome addition to the fall lineup. So what about Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined about Africa's World War in the Congo? It is far superior to others of its kind because it takes a very personal approach and relays joy as well as sorrow, making it a real unexpected surprise. Now at the Geffen, the play which originated at the Goodman in Chicago and the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, has a marvelous cast, is splendidly directed and relates a truly optimistic perspective on

For many, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie remains his finest play. Semi-autobiographical, the play takes place in St. Louis during the Depression and depicts the relationships between a restless alcoholic factory worker, wannabe writer, his overbearing mother and his psychologically deficient sister - all of which stems from Williams' actual background.

When it first premiered on the West End in 1989 and then on Broadway in 1991, Miss Saigon won over critics and public alike with its bold operatic score and absorbing story of the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Almost twenty years later it is as relevant as ever and Moonlight's stunning production could not be better.

Actor James Denton from Desperate Housewives is immensely popular and every woman's dream man. When I met him at a charity event for SeaGlass Theatre recently, he struck me as a really nice guy, warm, friendly and very easy going. We talked about SeaGlass, their fall project,opening at the Victory Theatre on September 18, his music - and of course, Desperate Housewives.

Legendary Mitzi Gaynor is currently on a limited tour of the latest incarnation of her Mitzi Gaynor Razzle Dazzle and now in her 70s, Gaynor continues to spread love, warmth and happpiness wherever she appears. Such was the case in Escondido Labor Day weekend, where she gave five sold out performances at the Lawrence Welk Resort Theater.

Actor/singer Blake McIver Ewing, well known for his big screen remake of The Little Rascals, his amazing 1992 Junior Vocalist Champion status on TV's Star Search and his stint on TV's Full House, among many others, has undeniably left his mark as an immensely talented child star. With his stage appearances in Light in the Piazza, and most recently in the critically-acclaimed Chess, he is showing just how phenomenal a talent he has become: a mature, fully blossomed musical comedy performer. On Sunday, September 5, Ewing added yet another remarkable dimension to his career with his cabaret debut @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's: Musical Confessions of a Child Co-Star.

Christopher M. Allport's Cabaret Collective played Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's Sunday evening August 29. Collective most likely referring to the collection of Broadway pop tunes presented and also to the fact that Chris was joined by friends soprano Sarah Block and fellow 'Disney kid' Donny B. Lord.

Beth_Malone_Readies_So_Far_for_New_York_Showing_20010101 On Saturday August 28 actress/singer Beth Malone returned to Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to try out a newer installment of her cabaret show 'in progress' So Far to an enthusiastic SRO audience. Malone is a lesbian and is totally open about it. In fact, the show is not about her fabulous theatrical career, but about her personal life: recognizing a first crush on Barbara Mandrell, as she watched her weekly TV show - 'I wanted to kiss her', and the subsequent journey that brought her to the comfortable place she is in today. She is happily married to another woman.

On Sunday August 22, petite dynamo Katherine Malak performed her cabaret Wishlist @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to thundering ovations. Malak, who gives new meaning to the word dynamic, belted out a bevy of show tunes and quaint songs about the pangs of auditioning and being an actress.

A Wither's Tale based on Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale with the music of Bill Withers conceived & produced by the Troubadour Theater Company directed by Matt Walker Falcon Theatre through September 26

The true story of John Newton Templeton, the fourth African American to earn a college degree in the US, is beautifully and engagingly told in Charles Smith's play Free Man of Color, now onstage at the Colony Theatre. This is thought-provoking material at its finest with three outstanding performances, under Dan Bonnell's caring direction.

On Sunday August 15 funny girl Nicole Ligerman presented her cabaret show The Bitch with the Dog Ruined My Life: Memoirs of a Non-genue to a packed house at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's. Ligerman is most assuredly not an ingenue, but a character lady, and like her idol Barbra Streisand, she struggles and suffers to show the world that she's the greatest star. Her patter was delightful, especially the opening where she sang to a photo on top of the piano, a la Judy Garland on film to Clark Gable: 'You Made Me Love You'. When she turned the photograph around to face the audience, it was of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Ligerman proceeded to explain that she isn't crazy about the film, but indeed loves Hamilton, after which she sang a song she claimed was cut from Oz 'I'm a Bitch'. It was a very funny moment, and, of course, afterwards she pointed out that she had been kidding, that the song was never associated with Oz.