Jersey Boys star sings national anthem on tonight’s GOP debates in DC
November 22, 2011 By 2 Comments
Jersey Boys
November 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
Rock of Ages
July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Chicago’s Charlotte d’Amboise
April 4, 2009 By 5 Comments
He’s seen her twist and slither across the stage as Roxie Hart five times in NYC, and now Joel Markowitz interviews his favorite Roxie – Charlotte d’Amboise, who is playing the publicity-seeking murderess in Chicago, now on The National Theatre stage. [Read more...]
Chicago
April 3, 2009 By 1 Comment
Perhaps you remember the wonderful scene in the 1979 Bob Fosse film All That Jazz in which Ann Reinking and Erzsebet Foldi-playing the Fosse stand-in Joe Gideon’s girlfriend and teenage daughter, respectively-perform a little living-room jazz-dance number for Roy Scheider, who plays Gideon. The performance is a lovely, homey respite from Gideon’s hectic speed-and-booze-fueled preparation for a Lenny-like biopic and a Chicago-like Broadway show. [Read more...]
A Chorus Line
March 18, 2009 By 3 Comments
National Theatre’s A Chorus Line sizzles and sparks with dance and song and touches the heart with stories of dancers’ lives. This production boasts an extraordinary cast and production values that shatter all expectations and satisfy as much as did the Broadway revival production on which it’s based. A Chorus Line set the standard for integration of book and music (the original Broadway production winning 9 Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and this cast raises the barre for outstanding performance. [Read more...]
Karen Olivo
January 21, 2009 By 5 Comments
An Interview with actress Karen Olivo, who plays Anita in West Side Storyby Joel Markowitz
When I saw Karen Olivo playing Faith in the musical Brooklyn, I knew, by the power and beauty of her voice, that a star had been born. When I saw Karen as Vanessa in the 37 Arts Off-Broadway production of In The Heights, I told everyone I knew to run to NYC and catch her performance. After the show transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre, Broadway audiences were treated to Karen’s feisty Vanessa in last year’s Tony Award Winning Best Musical.
More than 50 years after it opened at the National Theatre, the new production West Side Story , under the direction of the legendary Arthur Laurents, returned to the National in preparation for its Broadway opening. DC audiences and critics alike cheered Karen Olivo’s scorching portrayal of Anita. Before she left Washington, Karen did this interview for us. [Read more...]
West Side Story
January 9, 2009 By 5 Comments
West Side StoryBook by Arthur Laurents
Music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim|
Directed by Arthur Laurents
Reviewed by Gary McMillan
The National Theatre is home to a good-as-gold Golden Anniversary production of the Laurents-Bernstein-Sondheim-Robbins classic musical West Side Story. For those who missed the 1980s revival or were too young for the 1957 original, it’s hard to imagine a more visually stunning production. [Read more...]
Mamma Mia
July 1, 2008 By Leave a Comment
- Mamma Mia!
- Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and some songs with Stig Anderson
- Book by Catherine Johnson
- Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
- Produced by Judy Craymer, Richard East and Björn Ulvaeus for Littlestar, Universal at the National Theatre
- Reviewed by Gary McMillan
If we could harvest the energy on stage at the National Theatre, the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels would be a thing of the past. [Read more...]
High School Musical, Take 2
February 9, 2008 By 2 Comments
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Disney High School Musical on Tour! -
Book by David Simpatico (based on the Disney Channel movie by Peter Barsocchini)
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Directed by Jeff Calhoun
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Choreographed by Lisa Stevens
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Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions at the National Theatre
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Reviewed by Gary McMillan
Ah, high school … illicit drug use … teenage pregnancy … functional illiteracy, and a culture of brutish violence running the gamut from bullying to mass murder.
Not on your life! at East High in Disney’s High School Musical, [Read more...]
