Now in its first national tour, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations opened a six-day run at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday, Feb 13. Certainly, the 2019 Broadway musical has one of the richest R&B songbooks a musical could hope for. It was also directed by Des McAnuff, who struck gold in 2004 directing Jersey Boys — a similar biographical musical about a 1960-born men’s vocal harmony group.
Signature Theatre’s latest offering is a stellar production of Ragtime, a musicalization of E. L. Doctorow’s sprawling 1975 novel, in which a variety of real and fictional characters from the turn of the 20th century are woven into an epic American tapestry. Presenting a panoramic view of the dawning of the twentieth century, Ragtime addresses such issues as immigration, racism, socialism, women’s rights, industrialization, and the labor movement. Seeking to identify the forces that have shaped America over the past century,
“When going to see The Murder at Haversham Manor at the Kennedy Center, presented by the Cornley University Drama Society (as made possible by the British-American Cultural Exchange Program), I was expecting an elevated evening of mystery with fine acting and a dazzling script. I confess that I loved what I saw, though what I saw was perhaps not what the playwright had intended. To say that there was a misfortunate moment or two in the production would be putting it mildly,
King Arthur: “Have you heard of this Broadway?”
Sir Robin: “Yes Sire, and we don’t stand a chance there.”
Actually, Spamalot, the musical version of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a bona-fide smash, first lighting up the 2004-05 Broadway season, and now expertly mounted at the Kennedy Center through May 21st, as a part of their ‘Broadway Center Stage’ programming. Honestly, this production of Spamalot is dizzying,
Les Misérables is the second longest-running production in London and the sixth longest ever on Broadway. Indeed, the bar is high for the Tony-award-winning revival from acclaimed producer Cameron Mackintosh of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon. In 1986, The Kennedy Center hosted the pre-Broadway run of “Les Miz” and the audience at the Kennedy Center tonight seemed beyond enthusiastic to see its return. The energy level was on the level of seeing a favorite rock star in concert!
“…it is every bit as emotionally wringing as earlier versions, with vocals that shake the walls and echo with the audience long after.”
The 25th Anniversary tour of Riverdance (which began touring in 2020) is at The Kennedy Center for a very short run, March 15-27, in the Opera House. In Riverdance, Bill Whelan, Moya Doherty and John McColgan have created a show that has revolutionized ethnic dance, rendering it wildly appealing to general audiences. The production is well worth a visit for anyone who loves energetic dance, visual spectacle, toe-tapping rhythms, and absurdly talented performers.
Fresh off a hit run in London, the 50th Anniversary production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s groundbreaking musical Jesus Christ Superstar is electrifying audiences at the Kennedy Center through March 13th.
Featuring the well-known hits “Superstar” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera retelling of how Jesus Christ spent the last week of his life as seen through the eyes of Judas,
“Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description.” – D.H. Lawrence
We need myth, as we need food and water, and this particular myth is deeply resonant at this time. This myth is a tale of love and mistrust; music and dance; and light and dark. It’s a tale of power and exploitation.
Constellation
Theatre does amazing work. However, The 39 Steps, while delivering
vibrant performances and a reasonable proportion of laughs, does not quite rise
to the level of theatre we expect from this company, largely due to an
inconsistent vision for this adaptation of a classic film to the stage.
Patrick
Barlow’s play — a long running success in both London and New York–adapts the
1935 Alfred Hitchcock adventure film, The 39 Steps,
Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom
“Just think,” says our heroine to the
playwright John Dryden. “You can write about real women, real emotion, real
feminine feelings and they will all be played by a real woman!!” The men glance
at one another in quizzical, wide-eyed shock: who on earth would want to see
that?
Well, our Nellie knows. We all do. After all, wink, it’s the year
of the woman: 1665.