The Four Singers

It’s easy to understand why Neal Goren, founder and artistic director of Catapult Opera, was immediately taken with LA VILLE MORTE. (His program notes say, “Upon receiving the piano-vocal score, I found myself sighing in ecstasy…”) First, the name Nadia Boulanger is magic in 20th century music—in music history in general, for that matter—though not for her own compositions.

Million Dollar Quartet, the show inspired by a legendary Sun Records jam session in 1956, was an unlikely hit when it made its Broadway debut in 2010. Although it was based on an actual event, the musical takes liberties with what actually went on during that memorable day in order to create a more appealing show. If you take that into account, you can ignore the show’s numerous exaggerations, anachronisms, and falsehoods, because it is simply enormously entertaining. The show opens this Friday for a two-weekend run at the Fred Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks.

It is as visually rich as it is aurally.

South Coast Repertory presents the Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet at the Mission San Juan Capistrano under the stars as part of its new Outside SCR program, and the quality production recalls the good, old days of Summer Stock. SCR has collected a talented cast and put on an enchanting evening.

THE GREAT GATSBY is one of my absolute favourite books – the characters, the landscape, the era are all so beautifully described by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This stage adaptation by Stephan Fourie and directed by Neil Leachman did not disappoint. It is a joyous spectacle up on stage that stayed beautifully true to the characters and the story.

What fun it is to take a stroll down memory lane and revisit the locations (and experiences) of our youth. Such journeys often include stops at familiar haunts, laughs at the fashions we thought were so hip at the time, and listening to the songs that served as the soundtrack to our formative years. Imagine, then, if you could roll all of those things into a musical, and you might get THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES: DREAM ON – the current mainstage production at the Winter Park Playhouse. This fun, fabulous and fantastic time-machine of a show featuring four wonderfully talented women illustrates perfectly the kind of intimate, inviting and thoroughly entertaining production that The Winter Park Playhouse so often has to offer.

One ethos of MM Creative Productions is to make live performances accessible and exciting. Whilst Disney is a sure-fire crowd pleaser, there was plenty added in to DISNEY IN CONCERT: A DREAM IS A WISH to make it a dazzling and captivating show, and proved just why Disney had entrusted MM Creative with their classics.

Hanne Krogh is one of Norway's living treasures, and whatever your opinion of her music may be you can't help but become happy when she enters the stage with that big beautiful smile of hers. That smile is contagious!

This exquisite cabaret delves deep into the catalogue of African American Musical Theatre and not only poses the titular question of WHY WE TELL THE STORY but also leaves audiences wondering why theatres haven’t been telling these stories nearly enough.

With nary a “Ho-yo-to-ho” to be heard, the Met’s “Met Stars Live in Concert” series brought four eminent Wagnerians--sopranos Christine Goerke and Elza van den Heever, tenor Andreas Schager and baritone Michael Volle--together from the dazzlingly Baroque Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, Germany, live on May 8. This “Wagnerians in Concert” will be available from the Met’s website until just before the witching hour on May 21.

Broadcasted mere hours after the change in Christmas COVID restrictions in the UK, the RSC’s Festive Tales brings some much-needed escapism. We are met with an empty theatre dotted with candles in lanterns and a lone voice singing a carol. It really magnifies the emptiness of our performance spaces at the moment.

Madison Opera's Opera in the Park isn't in a park this year, but it will be available for people to enjoy for free in their backyards, in their living rooms, in their kayaks, or anywhere else with an internet connection. The digital concert will be released on Saturday, July 25 at 8pm Central, and can be watched on Madison Opera's website.

Featuring beloved hits like a?oeSherry,a?? a?oeBig Girls Don't Cry,a?? a?oeWalk Like A Man,a?? a?oeCan't Take My Eyes Off Youa?? and a?oeDecember 1963 (Oh What A Night),a?? Jersey Boys tells the story of the trials and tribulations of the quartet. The audience will learn how they went from being The Four Seasons to being a solo artist of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

On Friday, January 31, 2020, I had the pleasure of seeing SMORGASBORD! at the Ridgefield Theater Barn in Ridgefield, CT.  This musical revue has music and lyrics by Bradford Blake who is also directs the show.  Under the excellent accompaniment of musical director Charles Smith on keyboard, Charles Casimiro on stand-up bass, and Robert Kogut on percussion, the talented singing cast of Anya Caravella, Robert Geils, Tracey Marble, and Zachery Theis provide a highly entertaining show comprised of song after song, each conveying its own story, without a central storyline, the songs linked only by the consistent pattern of comical food-themed lyrics.

5 of cabarets luminaries gather together to celebrate the holidays with wit, style, music and friendship at The Beach Café in 4 FOR THE HOLIDAYS. Here, Stephen Mosher talks with Misters Rybeck, Axelrod and Dozier and Misses Berk and Oberlin.

In the spirit of celebrating and honoring diversity, the Gracie Theatre at Husson University proudly presents the vocal ensemble, Women of the World on Sunday, October 13, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $22.30 - $30.00.

A Cappella Live! will play Jacksonville's Times-Union Center February 27, 2020 for one performance only.

In 2020, the world will celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday. In anticipation of his sestercentennial, this coming June 26 & 28, 2019, singers Deborah Carmichael, Kinga Cserjési, Berry Jones, and Peter Ludwig, joined by instrumentalists Nikita Morozov (violin), Valeriya Sholokhova (cello), and Doug Martin (piano), will perform some of Beethoven's little-known vocal works, as well as familiar favorites.

Mezzo Joyce DiDonato knows quite a bit about being Cinderella--after all, she's played the title characters in Rossini's CENERENTOLA and Massenet's CENDRILLON at the Met and other major opera houses. But it also appears she's a first-rate “fairy godmother,” as she proved with a group of emerging artists in a series of Master Classes in Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Room of the Resnick Education Wing last week.

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a jukebox musical that does exactly what it says on the tin - the four singers vocally splendid in front of a fine band.