Category Archives: Theatre Announcements

MANUAL CINEMA RETURNS TO BOSTON WITH THE END OF TV

Theatre Announcements

COMPANY BRINGS ITS INNOVATIVE AND CINEMATIC STORYTELLING BACK TO ARTSEMERSON
JANUARY 16 – 27, 2019
EMERSON PARAMOUNT CENTER
ROBERT J. ORCHARD STAGE 

(Photo Credit: Judy Sirota Rosenthal)

ArtsEmerson, Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, is excited to announce the return of Manual Cinema with their production, The End of TV.After thrilling Boston audiences with Ada/Ava in 2018, the ingenious artists of Manual Cinema cast a theatrical spell through live-action silhouettes, video feeds, overhead projection and a five-piece band performing an original score with their new creation. 

Set in a post-industrial Rust Belt city in the 1990s and told through a collection of original 70’s R&B-inspired art pop songs, The End of TV explores the quest to find meaning amongst the increasingly constant barrage of commercial images and advertising white-noise. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create this immersive experience for audiences. Chicago Tribune calls it “the very retro-coolest and most creatively compulsive show.” 

“I love the imagination of artists, and the artists of Manual Cinema specifically,” says ArtsEmerson artistic director David Dower. “They’ve invented a form out of the simplest of tools, animated it with the pure joy and abandon found in child’s play, and the result is fresh, fun, and surprisingly moving. The techniques here will be familiar to fans of their earlier work, but they continued to evolve their style with The End of TV, introducing new elements to the mix. And they’ve harnessed it to a timely story that sweeps over us and carries us away. I’m so happy they were able to come back so soon after their debut at ArtsEmerson last season.” 

The End of TV depicts the promise and decline of the American rust belt, through the stories of Flo and Louise, both residents of a fictional Midwestern city. Flo is an elderly white woman who was once a supervisor at the thriving local auto plant. Now succumbing to dementia, the memories of her life are tangled with television commercials and the “call now” demands of QVC. Louise, a young black woman laid off from her job when the same local auto plant closes, meets Flo when she takes a job as a Meals-on-Wheels driver. An unlikely relationship grows as Flo approaches the end of her life and Louise prepares for the invention of a new one. Their story is intercut with commercials and TV programs, the constant background of their environment. 

The End of TVruns just two weeks at the Emerson Paramount Center’s Robert J. Orchard Stage located at 559 Washington Street in downtown Boston. For more information go to www.ArtsEmerson.org, by phone at 617.824.8400, or in person at the box office.

“The Wolves” Opens At The Lyric Stage January 11

Theatre Announcements

An all-girls soccer team . . . fierce in competition and in life.

The Wolves

by Sarah DeLappe

Directed by A. Nora Long

At The Lyric Stage January 11 Through February 3

Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls’ indoor soccer team warms up. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigates big questions and wages tiny battles with all the vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors. As the author says, “I wanted to see a portrait of teenage girls as human beings – as complicated, nuanced, very idiosyncratic people, athletes and daughters and students and scholars and people who are trying actively to figure out who they are in this changing world around them.”

The Wolves runs at the Lyric Stage, Copley Square, Boston from January 11 through February 3. 

www.lyricstage.com  617.585.5678

Box Office: 617-585-5678

ox Office: 617-585-5678

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” Opens At Huntington Theatre

Theatre Announcements

Huntington Theatre Company Presents The Hit Broadway Comedy 

A Doll’s House, Part 2

The 2017 Tony Award nominee for Best Play and the most-produced play of the 2018-2019 season, A Doll’s House, Part 2 makes its Boston debut at the Huntington Theatre Company at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston) in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Written by Tony Award nominee Lucas Hnath and directed by Obie Award winner Les Waters, performances will run January 4 through February 3.

Nora famously slammed the door on her marriage, leaving her husband and children behind in Ibsen’s groundbreaking classic, but what happened to the iconic heroine next? Named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 10 of 2017, A Doll’s House, Part 2 imagines her 15 years later as a successful writer and independent woman. Nora is urgently seeking to finalize her divorce, but first her estranged family has grievances to air.

This smart and sophisticated new comedy raises fascinating questions about marriage and the ways the roles of women have – and haven’t – changed. Audiences will enjoy this “smart, funny, and utterly engrossing play” (The New York Times) regardless of their familiarity with Ibsen’s play and the undeniable legacy Nora’s exit left behind.

Thanks to his “audacious Broadway debut” (The Hollywood Reporter) with A Doll’s House, Part 2, Lucas Hnath has become the most produced playwright in the country this season. Next for Hnath is his highly anticipated return to Broadway with Hillary and Clinton which opens this spring.

“We are thrilled to bring this hilariously eloquent play to Boston – a playful debate on marriage, gender roles, and what makes up the modern mating dance,” says Peter DuBois, Huntington Artistic Director. “Somehow Lucas Hnath has made it possible to take one of the most familiar pieces of dramatic literature in history and breathe new and exciting life into its iconic characters. Under the skillful direction of Les Waters, this company brilliantly highlights the relevance of this play in our society today with a stealth balance of humor and empathy.”

Hailed as a “classic for our time and for the ages” by The San Francisco Chronicle, this production of A Doll’s House, Part 2  features frequent Huntington favorite Nancy E. Carroll (Ripcord, Present Laughter at the Huntington) as Anne Marie, Mary Beth Fisher as Nora (How Shakespeare Won the West and The Birthday Party at the Huntington), John Judd as Torvald (Shining City at the Huntington), and Nikki Massoud (Huntington debut) as Emmy.

huntingtontheatre.org     617 266 0800

Small Mouth Sounds

Theatre Announcements

                                           

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

Opens At SpeakEasy January 4

            From January 4 through February 2, 2019, SpeakEasy Stage will proudly present the Boston Premiere of the hit Off-Broadway comedy SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS by Bess Wohl. 

Heralded as one of the Top Ten Plays of 2015 by The New York Times, SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS follows six strangers on a spiritual retreat for what they hope will be a life-changing week.  In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, they struggle to abandon technology and embrace silence under the tutelage of an unseen guru, who is having her own challenges with inner peace.  Though it employs very little dialogue, there is definitely nothing quiet about SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS, a luminous and compassionate new play that asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us. 

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS is the work of playwright Bess Wohl, a graduate of Harvard and the Yale School Drama whose roster of plays includes American Hero; Barcelona;  Touched; In; Cats Talk Back; and the original musical Pretty Filthy (in collaboration with Michael Friedman and The Civilians). Her work has been produced or developed at Second Stage, Ars Nova, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Geffen Playhouse, and others.  Bess also writes for film and television and has developed projects for HBO, ABC, USA, Disney, Paramount, and others.  

M. Bevin O’Gara will return to Boston to direct the Boston Premiere of SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS. A former Associate Producer for the Huntington Theatre, Ms. O’Gara is currently the Producing Artistic Director of the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY. Her many directing credits include: The Bridges of Madison County, appropriate, A Future Perfect, Tribes (Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for Best Production), and Clybourne Park (SpeakEasy Stage);  Girlfriend, Ironbound, the world premiere of Brawler, and Brahman/i  (Kitchen Theatre); The Who and The What, Milk Like Sugar (Elliot Norton Award nomination for Best Production), and Becoming Cuba (Huntington Theatre); You for Me for You, Love Person, and The Pain and the Itch (Company One).  

Norton Award-winners Barlow Adamson, Marianna Bassham, and Nael Nacer headline an all-star Boston cast that also includes Kerry A. Dowling, Celeste Oliva, Sam Simahk, and Gigi Watson.  

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS will run for five weeks, from January 4th through February 2, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.

For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call the box office at 617.933.8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com .                 

A Wassail Festival

Theatre Announcements

Seaglass Performing Arts 25th Anniversary Season Winter Concerts 

Saturday, December 1, 2018
South Congregational Church, Kennebunkport, Maine 7:00 pm 

Sunday, December 2, 2108 Holy Parish Church, Sanford, Maine 3:00 pm 

Seaglass Chorale’s 25th anniversary concert season will begin with its first of two performances of “A Wassail Festival” on Saturday, December 1, 2018 at South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport at 7:00 pm. The concert is a musical feast celebrating twenty-five years of Seaglass. A second performance will take place on Sunday, December 3rd, at Holy Parish Church in Sanford at 3:00 pm. 

Tickets may be purchased on line at seaglassperformingarts.org (go to “Concerts and Events” and use your credit card), at Morse Hardware on Post Road in Wells (see Sally Morse), or from any Seaglass Chorale member. 

“Elf The Musical” Opens At The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH

Theatre Announcements

The Ogunquit Playhouse Announces the Cast and Creative Team for the Holiday Production of Elf The Musical at The Music Hall

The Music Hall and the Ogunquit Playhouse are thrilled to announce the cast and creative team of Elf The Musical, on stage November 28 – December 16 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Based on the beloved film, Elf The Musical is the hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole and raised as one of Santa’s elves. Eventually Buddy’s enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to embark on a journey to New York City to find his birth father, discover his true identity, and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

The Ogunquit Playhouse production is helmed by Broadway director/choreographer Connor Gallagher and features an all-new set designed exclusively for the Ogunquit production at The Music Hall by acclaimed scenic designer Jason Sherwood. Leading the professional cast are New York and Broadway veterans Steven Booth as Buddy the Elf, Diana Huey as Jovie, Jen Cody as Deb, Lothair Eaton as the Macy’s Manager, Annie Edgerton as Emily Hobbs, Blake Hammond as Santa, Philip Paul Kelly as Mr. Greenway, and Christopher Russo as Walter Hobbs. The role of Michael will be played by Calvin Middleton. 

Steven Booth (Buddy)

Steven Booth stars as Buddy. Mr. Booth recently starred as Charlie in the first National Tour of Kinky Boots, and as Richie in the first National Tour of Happy Days. On Broadway he has performed in School of Rock, Glory Days, and Avenue Q, and for regional theatres has performed in the Signature Theatre’s production of Glory Days, Avenue Q at the Wynn Las Vegas Theatre, Capitol Repertory’s Edges, North Shore Music Theatre’s Three Musketeers, and Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s Pippin.

Diana Huey co-stars as Jovie. Ms. Huey most recently starred in the first National Tour of The Little Mermaid as Ariel. She has performed in numerous New York and

Diana Huey (Jovie)

Regional productions including Girlstar, Jasper in Deadland, James and the Giant Peach, Spring Awakening, Avenue Q, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, Rent, Mame, and Signature Theatre’s Miss Saigon for which she won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. 

Portraying Deb is Jen Cody. Ms. Cody has starred in numerous Broadway productions including A Christmas Story, Shrek, Pajama Game, Taboo, Urinetown the Musical, Seussical the Musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Grease, and CATS. Off-Broadway her credits include Cleopatra, The Wild Party, Judith of Bethulia, and Henry and Mudge. In film her voice can be heard in many animated films, including her Annie Award-winning role as Charlotte La Bouff in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.  On television she has performed in CBS’s Instinct, Bull, Unforgettable, and Blue Bloods, and provided voiceover work for Shrek Live, American Dad, Phineas and Ferb, and Mickey and the Roadster Racers among many others. Ms. Cody was last seen on the Ogunquit Playhouse stage in 2012’s Damn Yankees, 2009’s All Shook Up, 2006’s Cinderella, and was the Choreographer for the 2016 and 2015 smash-hit Million Dollar Quartet. 

Lothair Eaton joins the cast as the Macy’s Manager. Off-Broadway Mr. Eaton starred in the original company of Nunsense A-Men, and in the UK Tour of 5 Guys Named Moe. In Regional theatres he has starred in Trav’lin 1930’s Harlem Musical, When Pigs Fly, Sunday In The Park With George, and Show Boat. Additionally, he starred as Papa the Old Steam Train in the Germany, Las Vegas, New Zealand and UK Tour of Starlight Express. 

Portraying Emily Hobbs is Annie Edgerton. Ms. Edgerton has starred as Rosie in Mamma Mia! on Broadway as well as in the first two National Tours. She has also performed on Broadway in Kinky Boots, and in numerous Regional and Off-Broadway productions including Fly Me to the Moon, Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde, Babes in Toyland, Showboat, and Betrayal, among others.

Blake Hammond joins the cast of Elf The Musical as Santa. On Broadway he has performed in numerous productions including Sister Act, Elf The Musical, Billy Elliot, Disney’s The Lion King, Hairspray, The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, and On the Town, and Off-Broadway in When Pigs Fly, Carnival, and Do Re Mi. Mr. Hammond has also starred in the National Tours of Something Rotten, Cinderella, The Addams Family, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Mr. Hammond was most recently seen on the Ogunquit Playhouse stage as Harry in 2018’s Grumpy Old Men the Musical. Additionally he has performed at the Playhouse in 2015’s Sister Act and 2009’s Guys and Dolls.

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus—one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, designated an American Treasure for the Arts by the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures Program, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named “best performing arts venue” by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. 

For tickets visit http://www.themusichall.org or call The Music Hall Box Office 603-436-2400.

NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE PRESENTS

Theatre Announcements

THE 28TH ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A MUSICAL GHOST STORY

14 PERFORMANCES ONLY!

December 7 – 23, 2018 

David Coffee as Scrooge
Photo Credit: Paul Lyden

Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) will once again present the area’s most beloved production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL sponsored by MarketStreet Lynnfield. This award-winning, original musical adaptation was created solely for North Shore Music Theatre and cannot be seen anywhere else. Two cast members, David Coffee (Ebenezer Scrooge) and Cheryl McMahon (Mrs. Dilber), will be both be celebrating their 25th appearance in the holiday show. A CHRISTMAS CAROL will play 14 performances from Friday, December 7 thru Sunday, December 23, 2018. 

“This year’s production of A Christmas Carol will be even more festive than ever before. This year we will celebrate two beloved cast members, David Coffee and Cheryl McMahon, who are both marking their twenty-fifth appearance in the show,” said NSMT’s owner and producer Bill Hanney. “With each passing year, we look forward to watching them perform together on stage. We are never disappointed with the new ways they find to make us laugh, and cry, and fill us with the spirit of the holidays!”

Based on the Charles Dickens classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL is an original adaptation by former NSMT Artistic Director Jon Kimbell and members of the NSMT staff, following Ebenezer Scrooge through a series of strange and magical ghostly encounters, where he ultimately discovers the true spirit of the holiday season. With dazzling special effects that have grown even more exciting over time, traditional and original songs, and colorful costumes, A CHRISTMAS CAROL has become a holiday favorite throughout New England having been seen by more than one million people since 1989.

Cheryl McMahon as Mrs. Dilber
Photo Credit: Paul Lyden

NSMT audience favorite, David Coffee, returns for his twenty-fifth year playing Ebenezer Scrooge. A CHRISTMAS CAROL also features Leigh Barrett (The Ghost of Christmas Past, Mrs. Cratchit), Peter S. Adams (The Ghost of Christmas Present, Gentleman 1), Ryan Mardesich (The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, Young Scrooge), Freddie Kimmel (Jacob Marley), Tommy Labanaris (Narrator), Russell Garrett (Bob Cratchit), Cameron Hobbs (Pearlie), Parker Krug (Pearlie), Joy Clark (Belle), Andy Tighe (Fred), Cheryl McMahon (Mrs. Dilber/ Mrs. Fezziwig), J.T. Turner (Mr. Fezziwig/Gentleman 2), Bobby Conte (Old Joe, Ensemble), Lianne Gennaco (Meg, Ensemble), Allsun O’Malley (Ensemble), Ian Shain (Dick Wilkins, Ensemble), and Janelle Yull (Ensemble).

The cast of 27 actors will also feature many local young performers including Isabella Carroll (Belinda Cratchit), Jake Ryan Flynn (London Boy), Jospeh Flynn (London Boy), Asher Navisky (Peter Cratchit), Grace Olah (Fan), Cam Perrin (Ensemble), AJ Scott (Tiny Tim), and Nicole Talbot (Martha Cratchit), and Wade Gleeson Turner (Boy Scrooge).

Throughout the run of A CHRISTMAS CAROL NSMT will be collecting toys in the lobby for Tiny Tim’s Toy Drive.  NSMT will be accepting unopened, unwrapped toys for boys and girls ages 2 – 12.  All toys will be donated to Toys for Tots.

Performances are December 7 – December 23, 2018 (Evening shows December 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, and 22 at 7:30pm; Matinees December 8, 9, 15, 16, and 22 at 2pm). Tickets can be purchased by calling the North Shore Music Theatre Box Office at (978) 232-7200, via the website at www.nsmt.org or in person at 62 Dunham Road (Route 128, exit 19), Beverly, MA.  

 

“Breath & Imagination: The Story Of Roland Hayes” Opens At The Lyric Stage on November 30

Theatre Announcements,

Breath & Imagination

The Story Of Roland Hayes

A musical by Daniel Beaty

Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent

Music Director, Doug Gerber

 Featuring Davron S. Monroe, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Doug Gerber,

 Nile Hawver

Breath & Imagination: The Story Of Roland Hayes opens at the Lyric Stage on November 30 and runs through December 23. 

Breath & Imagination chronicles Roland Hayes’s inspirational journey from a Georgia plantation to a singing career that included command performances for kings and queens. Despite his international acclaim, Roland never left behind his complex and loving relationship with his mother, his Angel Mo’. With spirituals and classical music, Breath & Imagination is a compelling musical about one man’s determination to become an artist despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE, home to Roland Hayes, will host a FREE welcoming event for Breath & Imagination, with the actors presenting scenes from the play, plus a talk by the play’s director.  Sponsored by Brookline’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Community Relations, local grants will provide a diverse audience of attendees with a range of discounted tickets to the play.  Sunday, Nov. 18, 6pm @ United Parish, 210 Harvard St.

The Lyric Stage, 100 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston

617.585.5678

www.lyricstage.com

“A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage” In Boston

Theatre Announcements,

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The Peanuts Gang Comes to the Boch Center Shubert Theatre for A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage

New Production is a Fresh Take on the Timeless Classic

Just in time for the holiday season, the Peanuts gang will be coming to the Boch Center Shubert Theatre from November 29 – December 2, 2018 for A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage. A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage is a fresh take on the timeless classic that gives the audience a completely new way of experiencing the storyline as portrayed by real actors who maintain the integrity and spirit of each Peanuts character.

This Emmy and Peabody award-winning story by Charles M. Schulz has been a longstanding tradition, warming the hearts of millions of fans since it first aired on television over 50 years ago. Now, the live on stage adaptation of the classic animated television special brings all your favorite characters to life – all set to the unforgettable sounds of the Vince Guaraldi musical score. 

A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage encompasses each of your favorite scenes from the original animated television show.  It even expands the storyline into greater detail with more fun, more music, more finding the true Christmas spirit.  This Peanuts Experience also includes an intermission and, after the final bow, the show crescendos into a celebration of song as the audience is invited to join the Peanuts gang in singing Christmas favorites.

So, join Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the Peanuts gang in their journey to uncover the true meaning of Christmas.

Tickets are on sale and can purchased at the Boch Center Box Office, online at www.bochcenter.org, or by phone: 866.348.9738.

NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE PRESENTS THE BIG, FAT, HIT MUSICAL  ‘HAIRSPRAY’

Theatre Announcements,

October 30 – November 11, 2018 

Bill Hanney’s award-winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) concludes the 2018 Subscription Season with Broadway’s big, fat, hit musical, HAIRSPRAY, playing for two-weeks only from Tuesday, October 30 thru Sunday, November 11, 2018.

 “I cannot think of more satisfying way to end this record-breaking season than with a bubbly, eye-popping, and powerful production of Hairspray,” said Bill Hanney, NSMT owner and producer. “The final show of the subscription season has to be like a fantastic dessert. It needs to be memorable, put a smile on your face, fill you up, and make you want to come back for more. This hysterical and heartwarming show is a favorite of mine, and with Blake Hammond, Brooke Shapiro and this amazing cast under the direction of Jeff Whiting, I know we have the recipe for success!”

HAIRSPRAY, winner of the 2003 Tony Award for ‘Best Musical,’ is piled bouffant-high with laughter, romance, and infectious musical numbers. Set in Baltimore, 1962, Tracy Turnblad is a big girl with big hair and an even bigger dream: to dance her way onto TV, and into the heart of teen idol Link Larkin. Tracy’s audition makes her a local star and soon she is using her new-found fame to fight for something bigger than her hair – racial integration. HAIRSPRAY is an irresistible, feel-good show with a Tony Award-winning book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan and a Tony Award-winning score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman featuring the hit songs “Welcome To The ‘60s,” “You Can’t Stop The Beat,” “Mamma, I’m A Big Girl Now,” “I Know Where I’ve Boon,” and many more.

The cast of HAIRSPRAY will be led by Blake Hammond as Edna Turnblad and Brooke Shapiro as Tracy Turnblad. Blake Hammond is stepping into the role of Edna Turnblad once more having played her in the Broadway company of Hairspray. He has also appeared on Broadway in Living on Love, First Date, Sister Act, Elf, Billy Elliot, The Lion King, The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, and On The Town. His Off-Broadway credits include When Pigs Fly, Carnival and Do Re Mi at Encores. Other credits include National Tours of Something Rotten, Cinderella, The Addams Family, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Brooke Shapiro returns to North Shore Music Theatre where she was last seen as Jan in the 2014 production of Grease. She has performed off-Broadway in My Big Gay Italian Midlife Crisis, The Calico Buffalo, and did the first NYC reading of Love in Hate Nation (a new musical by Joe Iconis). Brooke has also performed in regional theaters across the country including Goodspeed Opera House, Cape Playhouse, Zach Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, and Gateway Playhouse.

Performances are October 30 thru November 11, Tue – Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri & Sat at 8 pm, matinees Wed, Sat and Sun at 2 pm. For tickets and information call (978) 232-7200, visit nsmt.org, or visit the box office at 62 Dunham Rd., Beverly, MA.