Elliot Lanes - Page 15

This is our final installment of our four part V Blog series on The Making of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts' production of the DC premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The show features a score by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz and a book by Peter Parnell. The production is part of Theatre Lab's Summer Musical Institute. The show runs through July 21st.

Today's subject Rob Berman is currently living his Theatre Life as the Musical Director for the world premiere of Dave at Arena Stage. The production, based on the 1993 film and directed by Tina Landau, runs through August 19th in Arena Stage's Kreeger Theatre space.

So far, in our four part Vblog series on the making of The Theatre Lab School of  the Dramatic Arts' upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, we've seen much happen in a short time. The production is part of Theatre Lab's Summer Musical Institute.

We all know how hard the life of a performer can be. You inevitably have to take gigs you don't want to take in order to make some income. So, what happens then when you are a classically trained actress and the only jobs you can get are on crime reenactment shows? The good folks at Guillotine Theatre show you with their entry into this year's Capital Fringe Festival, Deadlie Affairs: Arden of Faversham.

You might know today's subject Joshua Morgan from his many performances in and around the DC area. He has worked at such prestigious local theatres as Arena Stage, Theater J, Folger Theatre, and Rep Stage. He also ran a wonderful theatre company called No Rules Theatre Company for years.

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.