Elliot Lanes - Page 15

Last week, we started a four part vBlog series on the making of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts' upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.The production runs July 19th to 21st for four performances as part of Theatre Lab's Summer Musical Theatre Institute for Teens.

It's no secret that I think the Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts offers the best educational theater experience in our area. Their offerings this summer, as part of the Summer Musical Institute for teens, is no exception - and it's a big one. They're presenting the DC premiere of the Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz musical adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The company only has three and a half weeks before it's four performance run beginning on July 19th.

For all the bad in this country right now, there are still things that bring us happiness and joy. The musical You're a Good Man Charlie Brown is a prime example of how innocent children and their pets can make you remember that not everything is bad in the world. How many times have we thought that Snoopy would catch the Red Baron or that Charlie Brown would win that baseball game? Yes, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown is the type of show we need to see right now to give us something to root for in this country.

Tony Award-nominated actress Eva Noblezada has had a kind of meteoric rise to stardom over the last few years. She was discovered at age seventeen by a New York casting agent at the Jimmy Awards and won the role of Kim on the West End in the Cameron Mackintosh revival of Miss Saigon. She went on to reprise the role on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance.

You most likely know today's subject Matthew Gardiner as the Associate Artistic Director of Signature Theatre – one of the area's go-to place for musicals

Today's subject, Eva Noblezada, made a huge splash in the West End a few years back in the revival of Miss Saigon, playing the coveted role of Kim. This was after being discovered at the Jimmy Awards, which recognizes excellence in high school theatre across the United States. Eva then went into Les Miserables on the West End before reprising Kim in Miss Saigon on Broadway. That performance garnered her a well-deserved Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

Today's subject, Alexandra Silber, is known on both sides of the pond as a versatile, killer performer. This international dynamo is currently living her theatre life onstage at Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) as Guenevere in Camelot. The production has been extended and now runs through July 8th in STC's Sydney Harman Hall space.

Today's subject Naomi Jacobson is currently living her theatre life onstage at Studio Theatre in their superb world premiere production of The Remains. The show runs through June 24th in the company's Mead Theatre space.

Throughout theatrical history there have been many cases where the acting and physical elements of a show have hidden the woes of a bland script. Playwright Laura Schellhardt needs to thank Northwestern University's Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts profusely for taking Ever in The Glades and giving it a killer world premiere production to hide her script's inequities.

Nowadays, when you go a musical on Broadway or elsewhere, chances are the orchestra isn't in full view. Gone are the days when you were able to look in the orchestra pit and see the musicians. For all you know, they could be playing in a totally different room.

Today's subject Eleanor Todd is currently living her theater life as the understudy for all of the female roles in Shakespeare Theatre Company's (STC) production of Camelot. It runs through July 8th at STC's Sydney Harman Hall space.

The topics of the distinguished Broadway writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb's musicals have never been light and frothy. Their first musical Flora the Red Menace deals with the red scare. Cabaret uses Nazi Germany as a backdrop. The Rink deals with family dysfunction in a dilapidated roller rink and, of course, there's Chicago with the shadiness of 1920s Chicago murderesses and the media that fueled them.

Last week, I introduced you to ten performers in Signature Theatre's current production of Kander and Ebb's final, complete collaboration, The Scottsboro Boys, which runs through July 1st. This included eight of the nine gentlemen who play the African American men who were falsely accused of raping two Caucasian women, as well as two others who play the minstrel characters known as Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo.

I always say the best kind of theater educates as well as entertains. If you walk out of the theater a little uncomfortable about what you just saw then a piece like The Scottsboro Boys has done its job in full. The final complete collaboration of Broadway's legendary writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb tells the story of nine young African American men falsely accused of raping two young Caucasian women in the 1930s. Signature Theatre is currently presenting this groundbreaking musical now through July 1st.

The older I get, the more ornery and unforgiving I become. When the American Pops Orchestra (APO), under the direction of Luke S. Frazier, played the opening bars of their Let's Misbehave: Cole Porter after Dark concert in the Fichandler at Arena Stage this past Saturday evening I was concerned.

Today's subjects Bob Banghart and Georgia Stitt are currently living their theatre lives as the composers (Banghert and Stitt) and lyricist (Stitt) of what I consider to be one of the best new musicals I've seen in a good long while. I am referring to the Alaska-based world premiere musical Snow Child, now running through May 20th at Arena Stage.

Today's subject Euan Morton has been seen in the DC area in a variety of plays and musicals. You might remember him portrayal of Anatoly in Chess at Signature Theatre or his Helen Hayes Award winning performance as Leo Frank in Parade at Ford's Theatre or Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Today's subject Judy Kuhn has been living her theatre life as a working actress/singer/recording artist for over thirty years. On May 5th you will be able to see this incredible Tony-nominated talent live in concert at Dumbarton Church in Georgetown as part of the Dumbarton Concerts series. The program is entitled Judy Kuhn: A Broadway Cabaret.

Adventure Theatre's visionary Artistic Director Michael J. Bobbitt has, for many years, pushed the boundaries of Theater for Young Audiences (TYA).  For example, out of its location at Glen Echo Park, Adventure Theatre has created original productions of the popular comic strip Garfield, Big the Musical and a two character The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Those are only a few examples of the company's vast repertoire.

As many of you know, Arena Stage's Artistic Director Molly Smith has been very active on a number of national social issues, including LGBT rights and gun control in addition to her exemplary artistic work. In this way, perhaps it's only natural that the headliner at this year's Arena Stage Gala on May 10th is not only a great singer/songwriter, but also an accomplished speaker and humanitarian.