Video: First Look at 1776 at Marriott Theatre
Get a first look at 1776, winner of multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical, at Marriot Theatre. The production opens on Wednesday, August 28 at 7:30pm and runs through October 13, 2024 at Marriott Theatre.
Review: BEEHIVE: THE 60'S MUSICAL at Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire IL
Beehive: The 60's Musical, the current production at Marriott Theatre, brings the decade of the 1960’s and the female musical artists to eye popping, foot stamping, hand clapping and colorful life! This 90 minute (no intermission) trip back in time is simply enjoyable. Interspersed with dialogue reflecting on what was happening during the years of the decade, along with great costume changes, evokes lots of memories.
Review: A.R.T. Has a Hit with World Premiere Of REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES: THE MUSICAL
What did our critic think of REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES: THE MUSICAL at Loeb Drama Center? The American Repertory Theater’s world-premiere production of “Real Women Have Curves: The Musical” – at Cambridge’s Loeb Drama Center through January 21 – proves that a serious story about the very real challenges facing undocumented immigrants can also be a funny, spirited, and joyous celebration of the power of family and community.
Review: SOMETHING ROTTEN at Fulton
While the plot and jokes of Something Rotten will be appreciated by most audience members, if will be especially welcomed by musical theater nerds who will recognize the beginnings riffs of Pippin’s Magic to Do and brief homages to a certain Technicolor Dreamcoat. The more you know, the more you will laugh.
Interview: A Fun Game of Tennis: SOMETHING ROTTEN! Cast Discusses MSMT Production
“As an actor, I have a huge sense of play, and this show is very much that. It’s really like a fun game of tennis with lots of back and forth. We don’t always know what is going to happen until we are in the moment, declares Tyler Hanes, who portrays Shakespeare in SOMETHING ROTTEN!, the musical which closes out MSMT’s 2023 season.
Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark concurs, “SOMETHING ROTTEN! is like a game I love to play; it teases you verbally, vocally, and instrumentally to name those Broadway musicals. It is so much fun!”
“It is everything I love about musical theatre all in one show,” agrees Lucy Godinez, who plays Bea Bottom. “It’s joyful; it’s fun; there is love. The sense of play in this show gives you the license to fill in the blanks.”
Bryant Martin, who plays Nick Bottom, adds that not only is the show great fun with lots of great musical numbers, but it also “speaks to the struggle all artists have dealing with validation. Nick asks why his peers are having success and he isn’t. It’s a situation with which we as actors can easily resonate.”
The foursome are serving on a panel moderated by BWW World Maine Editor, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, at MSMT’s final Peek Behind the Curtain on August 16 at Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library to discuss MSMT’s hilarious production of SOMETHING ROTTEN! And judging by the laughter in the room, the large audience agrees that the musical by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick is not only clever and hugely funny, but a crowd-pleasing hit.
Review: Smart, Silly, Spectacular, SOMETHING ROTTEN! Proves a Dazzling MSMT Main Stage Finale
Dancing omelettes, a zany soothsayer, THE Bard of English theatre, and a ragtag troupe of Renaissance actors struggling to survive all share the Maine State Music Theatre stage in dizzying profusion in the final main stage production of the season: SOMETHING ROTTEN! - an outrageously funny, simultaneously urbane and plebeian send up and homage to classical theatre and that unique genre the MUSICAL.
The stylish and brilliant co-production with Lancaster’s Fulton Theatre, directed by Marc Robin, creates an entirely new imaginary universe, a world at the intersection of Elizabethan England and modern American musical theatre – part Renaissance Faire (on steroids), part Monty Python at their most hilarious. The evening, which is filled with endearing characters, showstopping song and dance numbers, comedy fueled by allusions, puns, slapstick, scatological jokes, and occasionally even poetry, is pure entertainment. No one will need to “brush up his Shakespeare” or be able to “name that tune” in order to come away from SOMETHING ROTTEN! thoroughly exhilarated and brimming with joy.
BWW Review: Wacky, Wickedly Funny, and Wonderful, MSMT's All-Star Cast Romps in 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL
Maine State Music Theatre’s new production of 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL with Dolly Parton’s pulsating score is a high energy, hilarious madcap misadventure that somehow also manages to ring uncannily true. Both a period piece and a contemporary one, this tale of women in the workplace is propelled by zany humor, but also fueled by the empathetic characters at its core. The trio of women embattled with their narcissistic boss are - as Parton, herself, phrased it “just a step on the boss man's ladder” - and yet they sing and dance their way into our hearts in an evening filled with laughter and warmth.
Video: First Look at SCHOOL OF ROCK at Paramount Theatre
Get a first look at Paramount Theatre's School of Rock, the Chicago professional regional premiere of the good-time musical based on the hit Jack Black movie, featuring new music from the genius mind of Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Trent Stork.