Live entertainment marketing agency Situation Interactive and The Mayor’s Office of Media Entertainment will present another ‘Becoming Broadway: An Introduction to a Career in Theatre” open house December 6.
The free virtual event, designed for college students, recent graduates, and aspiring young professionals, will begin streaming at 11 AM. The numerous panels will include producers, stage managers, technical directors, sound designers, physical therapists, makeup artists, merchandise managers, lawyers, accountants, playwrights, choreographers, talent agents, and more.
Many panelists and speakers previously took part in the October 28 edition of the event, including Alex Lacamoire, Sammi Cannold, and Jill Abramovitz. The December lineup also features Charl Brown, Tom Viola, Eva Price, and many more.
Elie Landau serves as the executive producer for the event, which is supported by the City University of New York and the State University of New York. Click here to register; see below for the full list of speakers.
Tis the season for great theater BroadwayHD, the premiere streaming service for theater fans, is welcoming an exciting new lineup of classic movie musicals this month that every theater fan will love.
1895 Birthday of legendary film choreographer Busby Berkeley, whose career is launched with a 12-show burst of creativity on Broadway between the end of 1926 and the beginning of 1930 (including A Connecticut Yankee and Good Boy) before being whisked off to Hollywood to do films like 42nd Street. His Broadway swan song is 1971’s No, No, Nanette.
1932 Cole Porter’s Gay Divorce opens at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre with Fred Astaire making his final Broadway appearance in the cast. Best remembered for introducing Porter’s “Night and Day,” the work will go on to be adapted for the big screen as The Gay Divorcee in 1934 starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers, their second screen pairing.
1956 Judy Holliday, playing an employee of an answering service, is in love with a man plaza-O-double-four-double-three as Bells Are Ringing opens at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre. Written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne, the musical wins Holliday a 1957 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. She will re-create the performance for the 1960 film adaptation.
1992 Tyne Daly leads a star-filled cast—including Danny Burstein, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney, Maryann Plunkett, Tony Roberts, and Jon Voight—in a revival of Chekhov’s The Seagull at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre.
1997 Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the world premiere of Amistad, by composer Anthony Davis. Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe directs a cast that includes Mark S. Doss and Thomas Young. The opera, based on an 1839 slave uprising aboard a Cuban chartered ship, precedes Steven Spielberg’s film version of the same story (also titled Amistad), which opens December 10.
2001Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt‘s musical Roadside opens at York Theatre Company. They briefly have two musicals on New York stages: Both Roadside and their long-running phenomenon The Fantasticks close within weeks of each other in early 2002.
2006 Director John Doyle brings his trademark actor-musician spin to Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company, opening today at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Raúl Esparza stars as the perpetually single Bobby in a production that will go on to win Best Revival of a Musical at the 2007 Tony Awards and be filmed for commercial release.
2017 Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti, and Jeremy Shamos star in Meteor Shower, playwright and comedian Steve Martin’s debut work on Broadway. The absurdist look at love and marriage opens at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.
Earliertoday, cast members of Broadway showsand some very special guestsjoined together in Duffy Square’siconic red steps to honor Stephen Sondheim’s life. Watch below as organizer Erich Bergenis joined by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban, Brian Stokes Mitchell anddozens more for a very special performance of’Sunday’fromSunday in the Park with George.
Check out our mega-playlist of holiday songs from Broadway shows like White Christmas, Elf, Rent, She Loves Me and more, as well as classics sung by some of Broadway’s biggest stars, such as Billy Porter, Julie Andrews, Kristin Chenoweth, Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Leslie Odom, Jr., Norm Lewis, Idina Menzel, Angela Lansbury, Linda Eder, Matthew Morrison and many more.
By nature, theatre is ephemeral, but thanks to the small screen, some of Stephen Sondheim’s genius has been captured for all time. There have been TV broadcasts of Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Passion, and more; Tony wins and Tony Award tributes; birthday concert celebrations; profiles from 60 Minutes and other news programs; a Kennedy Center Honors evening; and even a duet with fellow musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Watch some of these memorable, magical Sondheim moments below. (Read the complete obituary for Mr. Sondheim, who passed away November 26 at the age of 91 here.)
Betty Buckley and the Harlem Boys Choir Perform “Children Will Listen” at 1992’s Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall
Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, and More Salute Sondheim at the 1993 Kennedy Center Honors
Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber Honor Producer Cameron Mackintosh With New Lyrics for “Send in the Clowns” and “Music of the Night” at1998’s Hey, Mr. Producer!
As we welcome the most wonderful time of the year, Broadway fans will have much to be joyful about as dozens of Broadway stars appear in holiday films throughout the season. From Annie Live to Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, see where Broadway stars will be appearing this holiday season. Check out our complete guide on where and when to watch your favorite Broadway stars in a hoiday film this season
Sarah Brightman is back on American soil at last, embarking on A Christmas Symphony, a new holiday concert tour, beginning November 26 at the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As the Phantom of the Opera star prepared for her U.S. return and first in-person concert performance since COVID-19, we got to catch up via phone about the prospects of her returning to the stage, plans to visit outer space, and more.
And should we be on the look-out for a triumphant return to the musical theatre?
“Never say never. I think if I took on a role, the 8-show-a-week thing would probably throw me a little. I haven’t done it in many years. I would have to be very careful about what role I took and sort of edge myself back into it to get used to it again. It’s a very particular way of working.”
As for that perfect role, the Cats and Phantom veteran surprised us with a Sondheim classic.
“The obvious one would be [Desiree in] A Little Night Music. I know I could do that role very well now that I’ve gotten to this stage in my life, and you know it’s a beautiful song in there. It’s perfection.”
We also asked about previously-announced (but later abandoned) plans to visit the International Space Station, a notion that has become more realistic now that a handful of civilians have successfully traveled to space—and, most importantly, back. Despite this, Brightman has her reservations.
“I have really mixed feelings about the whole humans going to space thing. While there’s wonderful things and it’s very joyous for people, it costs a lot of money. I think there’s a huge amount of things that space is very useful for on earth. I’m not sure that sending human beings out there—especially to deep space, which is very harsh. I learned a huge amount of it when I was in space training. I’m not sure that we’re really that ready for it. We could send robots. It’s less expensive, and it’s less dangerous. And robots, satellites, can do all of the things we need from space. [But I feel] the emotional viewpoint and feeling that people get about humans going into space—we are explorers! It’s dangerous, and we’re kind of meant to be here. There’s a reason why we’re here.”
Less dangerous is Brightman’s holiday tour, which was announced earlier this year. A Christmas Symphony may be Brightman’s first time back in front of a live audience, but the concert tour was born out of a 2020 streaming concert produced in quarantine.
“We were in the middle of [quarantine] last Christmas, and I thought, ‘This is going to be horrible for everybody. What can I do for myself and all my musician friends and anybody that cares to listen to it?’ I had done a Christmas album before, so I had a big repertoire.”
That concert became Sarah Brightman: A Christmas Symphony, which streamed worldwide in 2020 and aired on PBS earlier this year. The concert is now available to stream for PBS Passport members.
A year later with many live performances resuming around the world, Brightman is bringing a version of that concert to 16 U.S. cities, including Newark, New Jersey; Staten Island, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and more. Fans can expect Brightman to cover holiday favorites, both religious and secular.
“I’ve got some beautiful Christmas pieces that are very well known, like ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Holy Night.’ There are also some surprising ones, like ‘Arrival,’ which is an ABBA piece that they wrote many years ago for New Year’s. Not many people know about it, so there are a few surprises in there.”
Brightman also shared that she won’t leave her Broadway fans hanging.
“Of course I’ve got a few bits from Phantom, because they have the fancy ball and all of that, so I thought that would fit in perfectly for our celebratory section.”
Brightman will be backed during the concert by a full orchestra and choir, a true achievement while COVID-19 protocols are still somewhat in place.
“We’ve managed to find a special seating situation for the choir where they’re not suffocating. They can sing and be heard, and yet it protects everybody. I thought it through very, very carefully so that everybody feels comfortable and everybody gets what they want, which is having a good time and feeling the spirit of Christmas.”
For a full itinerary and tickets to A Christmas Symphony, visit SarahBrightman.com.
