Post #48. A shameless commercial for NMI’s 2021-22 Core Curriculum which starts September 25 and 26.
Enjoy!
AUDIO ONLY:
=============================================================
The box office at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre 242 West 45th reopens for business today at 1200 PM for the highly anticipated return ofMarianne Elliotts revolutionary staging ofStephen Sondheimand George Furths seminal musical masterpiece,Company.
Today’s top stories watch new clips from the Dear Evan Hansen film, Pretty Woman tour casting, and more
Disney Theatrical Productions’ Frozen officially opens at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane September 8 following previews that began August 27. The show was postponed twice, most recently in January 2021.
The production stars Samantha Barks as Elsa, Stephanie McKeon as Anna, Obioma Ugoala as Kristoff, Craig Gallivan as Olaf, Oliver Ormson as Hans, Richard Frame as Weselton, along with Mikayla Jade and Ashley Birchall alternating in the role of Sven.
The ensemble features Jeremy Batt, Cameron Burt, Lauren Chia, Laura Emmitt, Emily-Mae, Hannah Fairclough, Danielle Fiamanya, Chris Fung, Matt Gillett, Joe Griffiths-Brown, Emily Lane, Justin-Lee Jones, Jason Leigh Winter, Jacob Maynard, Leisha Mollyneaux, Gabriel Mokake, Sarah O’Connor, Jemma Revell, Joshua St. Clair, Jacqui Sanchez, Jak Skelly, Jake Small, Kerry Spark, Isabel Snaas, Monica Swayne, and Anna Woodside.
Sharing the part of Young Elsa are Minaii.K, Sasha Watson-Lobo, Freya Scott, and Tilly-Raye Bayer. Young Annas are Kanon Narumi, Asanda Masike, Ellie Shenker, and Summer Betson.
Based on the 2013 animated Disney film, Frozen features music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and a book by Jennifer Lee. The musical opened on Broadway in March 2018, earning Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The Broadway production announced in May 2020 that it would not reopen post-pandemic. A U.S. national tour will kick off September 10 in Buffalo, New York.
Frozen is directed by Michael Grandage, with choreography by Rob Ashford, set and costume design by Christopher Oram, lighting design by Neil Austin, sound design by Peter Hylenski, video design by Finn Ross, puppet design by Michael Curry, and musical supervision and arrangements by Stephen Oremus.
Tickets for the London production are now on sale through April 3, 2022. Check out photos below.
(Updated September 8, 2021)
Two lucky readers will win two tickets to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince In Concert, under the direction of Justin Freer at the Hollywood Bowl on September 17. The contest closes on Friday, September 10at 1159pm ET. Winners will be notified the following day.
From little shops around the corner to skyscraper corporations, places of business have long served as the settings for Broadway musicals. But “the man who only lives for making money, lives a life that isn’t necessarily sunny” as George Gershwin wrote in “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” Maybe that’s why all these musicals are really more about workplace romances than all the “ways to make a livin’.”
In honor of the hardest working characters in musical theatre, if you can identify the musical from its place of business.
Most of Broadway has been shut down for the last 18 months, but the Broadway Advocacy Coalition has been hard at work.
Created by Jacquelyn Bell, Amber Iman, Cameron J. Ross, Britton Smith, Adrienne Warren, and Christian Dante White in 2016, BAC began as a response to racism and police brutality following the murder of Philando Castile in 2016. Spurred by a Facebook post by Iman, the artists—many of whom were starring in Shuffle Along… together at the time—mobilized the Broadway community into action with their first event, Broadway for Black Lives Matter, at Columbia University.
For the collective, that first event sparked something even larger: an understanding of how Broadway voices could influence change. “We saw that we were creatives beyond the stage,” BAC President Britton Smith reflects. “We were able to create community for the people who felt anger and rage like us. And then we were able to create a sense of healing out of that rage.”
In the time since, while working in partnership with Columbia Law School, BAC has lent its voice to fight for change—with causes including educational equality, immigration, criminal justice reform, and more—by uniting artists with policy makers and community leaders. But in June 2020, while the country faced an unprecedented reckoning about racism after the murder of George Floyd, the organization found itself looking inward at its own community. As Black theatremakers were surfacing their own experiences of racial harm in the industry, BAC used the tools it had developed to create a safe space for the community to process, programming a three-day digital forum guiding attendees through healing, education, and empowerment. The event was a watershed moment for the non-profit, cementing it as a leader in the movement to make theatres safe and equitable for all.
In the year following, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition has held additional forums, launched a scholarship program with Broadway stage manager Cody Renard Richard, created the Reimagining Equitable Productions Workshop to help productions and companies create safe theatre spaces, and more, all shaping the theatre industry for the better—and earning a Special Tony Award in the process.
Still, the work continues. As theatre returns, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition is focused on enabling theatremakers to advocate for a more equitable industry from the ground-up while also educating those at the top of the commercial theatre ecosystem.
“We believe everybody is a change agent. You may be a disruptor, or you may be a healer, or you may be a weaver and connect things, but we want everybody to leave [our events] with the capacity built to do better,” adds Smith. “I think BAC is a symbol of hope that everybody does have a role, and BAC is a symbol of what is possible when everyone participates.”
After she recently revealed she was diagnosed with an illness affecting her ear, singer Jessie J returned to performing with a video on Instagram of her singing ‘Defying Gravity’ from Wicked