Larisa Mount - Page 2

Once, the 2012 Tony-winning Best Musical, is headed to the Durham Performing Arts Center this month. The musical is based on a 2006 film with the same name which earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Once, taking place largely in a Dublin pub, tells the story of the fortuitous meeting of a down-and-out Irish musician-slash-vacuum-repairman and a persuasive Czech woman who encourages him to continue making music. Including the prize of Best Musical, Once took home eight Tony Awards.

The theater has always been home to many long-lasting traditions. One of those traditions in the Triangle is Raleigh Little Theatre's annual Christmastime production of Cinderella. The production itself, which is the Prince Street Players version with some RLT flair, rather than the more familiar Rodgers and Hammerstein version, takes place at Christmas. The story is still the same one that has been loved for generations, complete with a fancy carriage, royal ball, and quest for the owner of the iconic glass slipper.

We Will Rock You, a musical featuring the songs of Queen, has been one of the most successful shows in London's West End for quite some time. Now, it is touring America, bringing familiar songs and a fun story around the country. It's spending the week in Raleigh, in the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, brought to you by North Carolina Theatre and Broadway Series South. The show is a true rock musical, complete with loud music, lasers, and sweet guitar riffs.

It's time to get into the Christmas spirit in the Triangle! Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical has landed at the Durham Performing Arts Center this week, bringing with it heaps of the holiday spirit.

Common Wealth Endeavors' production of Many Moons is the United States Premiere of British playwright Alice Birch's 2011 play. It is always exciting when Triangle theater plays host to such premieres and is able to expose local audiences to new work. Common Wealth Endeavors seeks to produce work written in English from countries other than the United States, namely those in the Commonwealth of Nations.

An iconic film has been brought to life, given a pop-rock score, exciting visual effects, and has made its way South. Ghost the Musical is playing the Durham Performing Arts Center this week.

Continuing their annual tradition of offering two plays in rotating repertory, PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill is offering Shakespeare's The Tempest and Zimmerman's Metamorphoses. Even better, the audience gets to sit poolside.

Get your tissues handy, Triangle - Ghost the Musical is coming to town next week. Based on the iconic 1990 film of the same name, Ghost tells the story of Sam, a murdered man whose ghost makes contact with an otherwise fraudulent medium in hopes of reconnecting with the love of his life, Molly. In anticipation of Ghost's arrival at the Durham Performing Arts Center, I chatted with Robby Haltiwanger, who plays Carl.

Perfectly timed in October, North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre's Carrie is sure to get you in the Halloween mood. First attempted on Broadway over 25 years ago, it was initially a flop. It garnered a kind of cult following in the subsequent years among a niche group of musical theater fans, and was recently resurrected Off-Broadway, dusted off and re-worked for today's audiences. It's now a Carrie for the masses, finally making its way from the New York stage into theaters of all sorts around the country.

Cats, the popular show which was a hallmark of the Broadway landscape for almost two decades, is the current show being staged by North Carolina Theatre in downtown Raleigh, in the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts.

The much-loved story of Beauty and the Beast has made its way to Durham this week. The national touring company has taken up residence at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Get out your ball gowns and dust off your princess crowns, and settle in for a memorable evening of theater.

Raleigh Little Theatre is proving that it's not afraid to take a risk, and it's paying off in a big way. Their current production is the 2007 Tony Winner Spring Awakening, and RLT is out to prove that it can rock with the best of them.

Spring Awakening opens this weekend at Raleigh Little Theater. I recently sat down with the director, Glen Matthews, and cast members Kate Brittain (Thea), Adam Keller (Melchior), Nicholas Polonio (Moritz), and Brishelle Miller (Wendla), to talk about the show. They shared with me about how the cast bonded, their favorite moments in the show, and the message they hope audiences take away from the performance.

Beauty and the Beast may have first appeared on Broadway almost 20 years ago, in 1994, but the show is alive and well. Newly re-imagined, the current US national touring company will be making its way to Durham for an engagement from October 8 - 13. In preparation for the show's arrival in the triangle, I had the honor of speaking with Matt West, the show's Tony-nominated choreographer, about the show's beginnings, its new life, and the message at its heart.

Hall mixes historical reality with playful conjecture to create a piece which is heartwarming and thought-provokingA rainy Saturday evening in Chapel Hill was fitting for the opening night of PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of The Mountaintop, produced in partnership with Greensboro's Triad Stage. The play, written by Katori Hall, also takes place on a rainy evening - a fateful one: April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the night before Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, and it follows the man through his final evening, which was spent in his hotel room. Hall mixes historical reality with playful conjecture to create a piece which is heartwarming and thought-provoking.

Currently playing at Raleigh Little Theatre, Art, by Yasmina Reza, is making audiences laugh while asking important philosophical questions about the very nature of art.

The Blue Man Group has come to Durham! The group, which features three literally blue men on stage, backed up by a percussion-oriented rock band, includes everything from zany percussion instruments to hilarious sketches in their jam-packed evening of entertainment. Their style of performance is audience-inclusive and constantly moving.

Durham is about to get Blue! The Blue Man Group comes to town this Thursday. In anticipation of their arrival, I chatted with Blue Man Mike Brown about exactly what Blue Men do, what it takes to be a Blue Man, and what audiences can expect when they see a Blue Man Group show.

This weekend, dinosaurs were spotted in Chapel Hill. Wagon Wheel Arts' production of Triassic Parq played the Kenan Theatre from Thursday through Sunday. The show follows the same dinosaurs made famous by the film Jurassic Park, but explores the lives of those dinosaurs in a whole new way. These dinosaurs deal with religion, hormones, and the very notion of freedom itself - through song and dance, naturally.

This weekend, dinosaurs are taking over Chapel Hill. Presented by Wagon Wheel Arts, catch Triassic Parq at the Kenan Theatre at the Center for Dramatic Art in Chapel Hill. I had the chance to peek in on a rehearsal and talk to a few cast members to get a glimpse of what audiences will see this coming weekend.