Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: November 7, 2021
By: Laura Deni
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BLUE VALIANT STARRING KATHLEEN CHALFANT AND GEORGE BARTENIEFF IS CAPTIVATINGLY INTRIGUING

If one has survived a truly horrific childhood (or adult trauma), the way you survive is to make yourself forget.

Those who delight in pouring salt on old wounds, forcing the victim to remember and relieve horrors are nothing short of evil.

Some victims have taken to writing about their experiences as a way of exorcism.

Blue Valient is a life tale of three - the author, star Chalfant and a photo created horse. The basic story line has been told a million times over - person reaching old age reflects on their terrible childhood and basically unhappy life. What makes Blue Valient special is the unique way the oft told whine is made captivatingly intriguing with the inclusion of current events and the association of humans and animals.

Written by Karen Malpede especially for her husband George Bartenieff and good friend Kathleen Chalfant. Malpede rode and trained horses in her youth. She wrote Blue Valiant for Chalfant after discovering her love of horses.

Malpede is an American playwright and director whose work reflects an ongoing interest in social justice issues. She is a co-founder of the Theater Three Collaborative in New York City, and teaches Communications Theater Arts and Sustainability and Environmental Justice program at John Jay College of Criminal justice She has also taught at NYU and Smith College.

She is an ecofeminist, pacifist playwright and is the author, and frequently the director, of 18 full-length plays plus shorter drama, and short fiction and essays.in 1995 she co-founded with Bartenieff and the late Lee Nagrin Theater Three Collaborative to create, develop and produce socially conscious, character-driven, poetic plays.

Blue Valiant, stars two of America’s most respected, multiple-award-winning actors, Kathleen Chalfant, and George Bartenieff and introduces Millie Ortiz. Written and directed by Karen Malpede and filmed on location at Farm Arts Collective, with a powerful score by Arthur Rosen and exceptional horse projections by photographer Ellen Lynch.

Lighting and space design by Tony Giovannetti. Costume design by Sally Ann Parsons.

An untamable blue roan horse becomes the catalyst for an emotional journey for three disparate characters.

Magnificently and sensitively acted, including the dynamic music which gives emotions to a horse.

Press agent Hannah Doyle, the play’s central character, struggles to tame the untamable horse. She has also lost her own daughter to the opioid epidemic and her husband to a bitter divorce after he, a television executive, was outed by the "Me Too" movement. Idly driving around Long Island on a summer weekend, she is struck by the sight of a magnificent blue roan running free in a pasture outside a barn. Doyle stops her car and gets out. Whereupon the horse charges the fence. She gets back into her car, attempting to find the owner she spots Sam Brown and stops, introduces herself and inquires about the owner of the magnificent horse running "as fast as lightening.".

“No one owns that horse, Mrs.,” says the wily stable owner, Sam Brown (George Bartenieff). The Horse has "fallen into my care."

She offers to buy the horse but Brown is reluctant. "A horse who can't be broke - nothing more useless" and, according to him, its fate is a feed lot where "he'll bring a few hundred dollars per pound" and be turned into dog food.

Persistant, Doyle bargains and buys the horse.

"You bought a horse that can't be rode because you've been broke inside," analyzes Brown who muses; "One of them has met their match. I can't tell which."

Doyle’s struggle to tame Blue forces her to confront her past and come to terms with her own insecurities and guilt.

She has blamed herself for the transgressions of others.

A horse riding accident finds Doyle in the hospital where, high on painkillers, she relives her daughter’s opioid addiction and death. Then she researches Blue and learns that he was beaten half to death. Like Doyle, Blue has blamed himself.

As Brown put it: "A horse gone wrong like the men in her life . . . A horse understands that people are unsettled inside while a horse has deep roots."

Brown sees Blue as "a horse that hurts others and himself" while she maintains that he was asking for help. Brown counters that he was "asking for a bullet through the head."

Blue in a field pawing the ground, as if digging his own grave.

In that horse Doyle sees herself.

At the end of the play, a young undocumented immigrant girl appears. She’s from Honduras and separated from her father at the border, spent time in ICE detention, and has run away from her foster family to take refuge in the horse’s stall.

Two bereaved and lonely old people, from different classes and backgrounds, and a horse that also bears his own grief, then, a young girl. Each has lost what they loved the most and must find the way to heal - they - tentatively create a new family for themselves.

Malpede has explained in the theater website that she wrote "this play for older actors: one in her seventies, as I am, the other, Bartenieff, in his late eighties." She charges that "ageism is among the least addressed and most persuasive of all the “isms”, perhaps because old people have been well excluded from most fields."
,br> She insisted that "this is not a play about dying; it’s not about Alzheimer’s, either, as too many plays and films for older actors are. Instead, it is a play about trauma, loss and healing. Hence, Blue Valiant has become more resonant during a pandemic that has left so many people grieving around the world."

She also wrote this play for a horse. But how does a horse become a character on stage? Malpede elaborated that she never wanted a puppet, a copycat of War Horse, or Equus."

She looked to horse photographer Elle Lynch to create an "an essential, feelingful character on the stage."

Composer, Arthur Rosen, approached Chalfant and Malpede with an idea: He would create a piano score for Blue giving the horse a musical voice.

Malprere also drew from her own dysfunctional background. Violence, mental illness and drunkenness. To survive she made herself forget.

Beautifully nuanced Blue Valient draws upon Palestinian writer Edward Said, who died in 2003. Although Said was principally Columbia Professor of Literature and a much-honored intellectual, he was also an accomplished pianist and a knowledgeable music-lover. For some time he was music critic of The Nation, and a music conservatory in Palestine is named after him. His final book Late Style is a collection of essays exploring the idea that late artistic works are not always serene and transcendent, but on the contrary sometimes unresolved and contradictory.

“Lateness,” Said wrote, “is being fully at the end, fully conscious, full of memory, and also very (even preternaturally) aware of the present.”

Said pointed out that the final works of artists who have been working at their craft for a long time often achieve something less formal and conclusive than their earlier work, something more open-ended, perplexing and perhaps, sublime. Lateness, in Said’s view, is neither about death, nor about fulfillment, but about going on into an unknown after one has been remade in the crucible of loss. Late Style has been called "tenuous, bold, vital and inconclusive. Not a resolution, it is both recognition and dismissal of an end. Lateness supposes rebirth of a consciousness that accepts irresolution, an awareness cruel and difficult. Late Style is what happens when the writer’s mind/heart is full of significant memories that are at once distant yet feel revitalized by reflection at the end of a long life."

The same could be said for Blue Valiant.

Blue Valiant may be viewed on line through the end of November.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

THROUGH VINCENT'S EYES: VAN GOGH AND HIS SOURCES highlights celebrated works by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) alongside the paintings and prints that inspired him. Assembling 17 of the painter’s signature works – including “Tarascon Stagecoach” (1888), the still-life “Roses” (1890) and landscape “Les Vessenots in Auvers” (1890) – and more than 100 works of art by the artists who influenced Van Gogh, the exhibition affords museumgoers rare insight into what spurred the Dutch artist’s own visionary work.

The exhibition gathers works from more than 40 national and international public and private lenders, including the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Columbus venue will also feature 61 works from the collection of Steven Naifeh and his late husband and co-author of “Van Gogh: The Life” Gregory White Smith, as well as paintings from three sister institutions in Ohio: the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art and Toledo Museum of Art.

Through Vincent’s Eyes presents masterworks by Van Gogh and his acclaimed 19th-century contemporaries, including French Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Eugène Delacroix, Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Édouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The installation also incorporates early editions of beloved novels by Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allan Poe to remind viewers of the fictional worlds that impacted Van Gogh’s vision.

Organizers: Through Vincent’s Eyes is organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art.

Curators: Co-curated in Columbus by Steven Naifeh, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and Van Gogh specialist, and David Stark, CMA’s chief curator emeritus. In California, the exhibition was curated by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Assistant Director and Chief Curator Eik Kahng.

Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio: November 12, 2021-February 6, 2022. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California: February 27-May 22, 2022.

PRINCE PHILIP EXHIBITION a special display commemorating the remarkable life and legacy of Prince Philip. More than 60 objects explore the Prince’s early life and naval career, his wedding to HRH The Princess Elizabeth in 1947, his wide-ranging patronages and his close links with Scotland and Edinburgh.

On display until November 28, 2021 at the Palace of Holyroodhouse is Edinburgh, Scotland.

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SWEET CHARITY

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER AND MALALA YOUSAFZAF have teamed up to co-host a gala performance of Cinderella.

All proceeds from the November 22 performance will go directly to the Malala Fund, which focuses on providing access to a free, safe, and quality education. The gala event will also feature the work of contemporary Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani and the stories of female Afghan musicians.

“Since age 10, I've been fighting for a world where every girl can learn and lead,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yousafza. “But in the past two years, girls in many countries have faced enormous setbacks to their education—from COVID to economic pressures to conflict and displacement. I am grateful to my friend Andrew for all his support, and I want to thank the cast and crew of Cinderella for arranging this special performance.”

“We wanted to do this gala performance of Cinderella because our heroine is a strong-willed and mischievous young woman whose lesson is: don’t change to please others,” said Lloyd Webber.

Cinderella has performances at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London.

REMEMBERING THE VETERANS

The seldom aired final episode of M*A*S*H will be shown November 11 on METV.

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen is a television film that served as the series finale of the American television series M*A*S*H. Closing out the series' 11th season, the 2 1/2-hour episode first aired on CBS on February 28, 1983, ending the series' original run. The episode was written by eight collaborators, including series star Alan Alda, who also directed.

The episode's plot chronicles the final days of the Korean War at the 4077th M*A*S*H; it features several storylines intended to show the war's effects on the individual personnel of the unit and to bring closure to the series. After the ceasefire goes into effect, the members of the 4077th throw a party before taking down the camp for the last time. After tear-filled goodbyes, the main characters go their separate ways, leading to the final scene of the series.

Two of the most powerful and chilling segements are those featuring Alan Alda (Hawkeye) and David Ogden Stiers (Charles Winchester III).

Hawkeye is in a mental hospital, finally driven over the edge by a bus ride gone terribly wrong. The bus passengers, who were refugees, were in danger of being discovered and executed by a North Korean patrol. Hawkeye scolds the refugees to be quiet but a baby begins to whimper and its mother responds by smothering the child. Hawkeye repressed this by replacing the memory of the baby with that of a chicken.

Meanwhile, Dr. Winchester befriends a rag-tag bunch of Chinese musicians and teaches them to play Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581. However, he later sees all the musicians killed and as a result classical music, his number one solace during the war, becomes unpalatable to him.

The camp is being shelled by mortar attacks due to an abandoned tank which was driven into the compound by a wounded soldier. During one such attack, Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) rescues some South Korean refugees detained at the compound by opening the pen where they are detained and allowing them to seek cover. However, Mulcahy is knocked unconscious and suffers permanent hearing damage. He confides in BJ not to tell Col. Potter so that he will be able to continue his service in the local orphanage and not be medically discharged.

B.J. Honeycutt (Mike Farrell) receives orders to be shipped back home early, just in time for his daughter’s 2nd birthday. Though Col Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan) suspects the orders were issued in error, he agrees to honor them if B.J. can secure a replacement surgeon, which he does. The orders are officially rescinded just as BJ is leaving, but Potter lets him go, anyway. B.J. makes it to the U.S. military base on Guam before he is confronted by Military Police who order him to return to the 4077th.

Klinger (Jamie Farr), known for constantly seeking a Section 8 discharge, ironically decides to stay in Korea to be with his new wife, Soon Lee, and assist her in her search for her missing parents—even though he, like most of the soldiers, finally has his release papers.

Hawkeye returns from the psychiatric hospital and admonishes BJ for his inability to say “goodbye”. Both men lament that they will be on opposite sides of the country after they go home but BJ is optimistic that they will see each other again, while Hawkeye feels certain that the end of the war will mean the end of their friendship. They tearfully embrace for the last time and Hawkeye boards a helicopter and lifts off. Hunnicutt rides off on a motorcycle and as the helicopter ascends Hawkeye sees a final message from his longtime friend spelled out with stones: "Goodbye."

A powerful episode. Don't miss it.

The World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO will commemorate Veterans Day with special activities, free public ceremonies and free general admission for veterans and active duty military on Thursday, November 11 – Sunday, November 14, 2021. In addition, general admission is half price for the public.

It's been 100 years since the Site Dedication that took place in November 1921. 100 Years Ago…Bringing the Memorial Dedication to Life is on display through Tuesday, November 30.

100 years ago, more than 100,000 people gathered to see the supreme Allied commanders dedicate the site of what is now the National WWI Museum and Memorial. This was the first time in history these five leaders were together in one place.

See for yourself what the day looked like by touring the grounds of the Museum and Memorial, and scanning 10 QR codes located on signs scattered across the North Lawn (and two at Union Station!). Each QR code will show the viewer a photo or video taken from that exact location 100 years ago.

War Words is a fully produced Staged Reading In honor of Veterans' Day taking place November 10, 2021 at City Theatre in Miami, Florida.

War Words tells the truly heroic, funny, poignant and heartbreaking stories of men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan during the "Long War." Based on interviews with veterans and their families,?the play aims to bridge the divide between those who serve in the military and the rest of us who say, “Thank you for your service” without really understanding what that means.

Michelle Kholos Brooks peoples her play with 17 characters who have returned from war to their homes, families and communities, which is neither simple nor easy. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, City Theatre’s fully staged professional play reading of war Words is more timely than ever. The event is free for veterans.

SPREADING THE WORD

CAMILLA, THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL would like to be "a body dragged from the sea." Last week she visited the set of ITV's adaptation of the Roy Grace crime book series and watched a scene being filmed. An avid reader, the wife of Prince Charles was greeted by John Simm, who plays the troubled policeman Roy Grace, and Peter James, writer of the detective books now turned into a TV series. She told the author: “I love your books. I’ve read them all, cover to cover. So I will know what vaguely is going on.”

Then she divulged that she'd like a part in one of the shows, suggesting that she could appear as "a body being dragged from the sea." James replied that they'd have to bring her back as an extra.

The TV series is one of Camilla's recommendations of her popular online book club, the Reading Room.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE AND TWO TIME EMMY AWARD WINNER GREG KINNEAR will make his Broadway debut January 5, 2022, when he takes over the lead role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Jeff Daniels’ final performance will be on Sunday, January 2, 2022.

To Kill a Mockingbird will launch its coast-to-coast National Tour on March 27, 2022, at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, followed by the official tour opening on April 5, 2022 at the Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston, MA, starring Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch; and will begin performances in London’s West End at the Gielgud Theatre on March 10, 2022, starring Rafe Spall.

Set in Alabama in 1934, Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence centers on one of the most venerated characters in American literature, the small-town lawyer Atticus Finch. The cast of characters includes Atticus’s daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker, Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, and a mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley.

PAUL ANKA performs Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at the Ridgefield playhouse in Ridgefield, CT.

Join patrons in the lobby before the show for a complimentary wine tasting of Freixenet Ice Cuvée and Ice Rosé. Anka always puts on a Blue Ribbon Shoe which includes Anka favorites “Diana,” “Puppy Love,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” plus some of his favorite Sinatra classics such as “My Way,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “New York, New York” and more!

BARRY MANILOW entertaining November 11-13, 2021 at the Westgate in Las Vegas.

LAKE OF DREAMS SHOW a multimedia experience that blends colorful puppetry, an immersive soundtrack and state-of-the-art sound and lighting to create an unforgettable spectacle on Wynn’s signature water attraction. Sparkling with 5,500 LED lights, the 3-acre Lake of Dreams is framed by a 90-foot performance waterfall and 1,500 pine trees, the backdrop for sensational visuals. At Wuynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

LATINO THEATER COMPANY of Los Angeles presents RE:Encuentro 2021, a virtual, national Latinx theater festival featuring 16 companies and performers from across the U.S. in digital residence at The Los Angeles Theatre Center from Thursday, November 12 through Sunday, November 21, 2021. Streaming performances and panels can be experienced for free via Latino Theater Company’s online platform.

"Encuentro" is the Spanish word for "meeting." In addition to performances and panel discussions that will be open to the public, participating artists will work together during the residency to share creative methodologies in private workshops. RE:Encuentro 2021 follows on the heels of previous Latino Theater Company festivals, including a national Encuentro in 2014 and an international Encuentro de las Americas in 2017.

The final day of the festival, Sunday, November 21, will offer opportunities for participating companies and artists to meet with one another and wrap up virtually.

Each of the public events will remain available to view on demand for ten days following the initial festival streaming date. Admission to all public events is free.

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE perform at the Venetian in Las Vegas November 10-20, 2021.

DAY N VEGAS a rap, R&B, and hip hop festival is staged November 12-14 in Las Vegas at the Festival Grounds. Headliners include Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Tyler, and The Creator.

SAMMY HAGGAR has shows November 12 and 13th at The Strat Hotel in Las Vegas.

PETER CINCOTTI celebrates his first headlining week at Birdland in New York City with shows November 9th - 13th.

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AMERICAN COMPANY COMMISSIONED TO PRESENT SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT IN YIDDISH The Congress for Jewish Culture has been commissioned to present director Moshe Yassur’s critically acclaimed 2013 Off-Broadway Yiddish language staging of Waiting for Godot at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden on November 11 th and 14th.

This marks the first ever Yiddish language production to appear at Sweden’s premiere dramatic venue. Shane Baker is credited with the landmark Yiddish translation of Samuel Beckett’s existential masterpiece.

Waiting for Godot will star Michael Wex as Estragon and Shane Baker as Vladimir, along with Allen Lewis Rickman, Luzer Twersky and Nicholas Jenkins. The play will be performed in Yiddish with Swedish supertitles.

Sweden is home to a number of Jewish and Yiddish cultural organizations, including the Sveriges Jiddishförbund (League for Yiddish) and Judisk kultur i Sverige (Jewish Culture in Sweden), who are the Swedish producers of this production in partnership with the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

In 1999, Yiddish was proclaimed one of five official minority languages in Sweden. Today, Sweden has the distinction of supporting a lively Yiddish publishing and literary scene, in large part due to government support and official recognition of the language.

Founded in 1948, the Congress for Jewish Culture is a secular organization based in New York City dedicated to its longstanding commitment to enriching Yiddish culture worldwide. This spring, the Congress will present the Off-Broadway premiere of the long-running comedy smash The Essence, which has been playing to sellout crowds for over a decade throughout the Northeast and Europe.

HEAD OVER HEELS with music of the Go-Gos. Conceived by and features an original book by Jeff Whitty, and adapted by James Magruder. Based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney,

Directed, choreographed, and conceived by Jenny Koons and Sam Pinkleton.

Music direction by Kris Kukul.

Head Over Heels is a musical comedy, set to the music of the iconic LA-based female rock band The Go-Go’s, that follows a royal family in search of a purpose, lovers in search of each other, and a whole kingdom in search of a beat. Featuring the hit songs Our Lips Are Sealed, Vacation, Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Mad About You, among others, "the audience will be whisked away through a world of exuberance and wit from the first notes of We Got the Beat to the final celebratory curtain call."

Head Over Heels has been reimagined for the Playhouse by Director/Choreographer Jenny Koons and Director/Choreographer Sam Pinkleton in an all new experiential production. Originally produced for a traditional proscenium stage on Broadway in 2018, the Playhouse’s 90-minute, intermission-free production puts the audience in the middle of a non-stop, dance-filled joyride through magic, merriment, and mischief. With the actors performing all over the converted theater, every seat, or spot on the dance floor, will have a unique vantage point and an experience to remember.

Starring Alaska 5000, Lea DeLaria, Yurel Echezarreta, Tiffany Mann , George Salazar, Emily Skeggs, and Shanice Williams.

The creative team includes:scenic design by David Meyer; costume design by Hahnji Jang; lighting design by Stacey Derosier; sound design by Danny Erdberg and Ursula Kwong Brown; casting by Ryan Tymensky of The Telsey Office, and stage management by Sara Sahin.

Performances are scheduled at the Pasadena Playhouse which is the State Theater of California from November 9 through December 12; the press opening weekend is November 13 and 14.

LITTLE WOMEN based on Louisa May Alcott’s nineteenth-century novel of the same name, Little Women follows the four March sisters: Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy in Civil War America. The Little Women musical features a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein.

Directed by Bronagh Logan.

The four sisters will be played by Lydia White as Jo, Hana Ichijo as Meg, Anastasia Martin as Beth and Mary Moore as Amy. Ryan Bennett will play Professor Bhaer, with Sev Keoshgerian as Laurie, Bernadine Pritchett as Aunt March, Brian Protheroe as Mr Lawrence, Lejaun Sheppard as John Brooke and Savannah Stevenson as Marmee. Liv Andrusier completes the company.

The creatives are: scenic and costume design by Nik Corrall, choreography by Sarah Golding, lighting design by Ben M Rogers and sound design by Paul Gavin.

Little Women was first produced on Broadway in 2005, starring Sutton Foster as Jo. The musical then received its UK premiere in 2017 at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Little Women begins previews at the Park Theatre on November, 11 with an opening night on November 17 and performances to 19 December 19, 2021.

PARADISE BLUE written by Tony Award-nominated Dominique Morisseau.

Directed by Stori Ayers.

The cast includes Tyla Abercrumbie as Silver, Wendell B. Franklin as Blue, Alani iLongwe as P-Sam, Tony Award nominee John Earl Jelks as Corn, and Shayna Small as Pumpkin.

Welcome to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club. It’s 1949 in Detroit, and trumpet-playing club owner Blue has a tough decision to make. Should he sell his jazz joint as gentrification is banging on the door? The house band is desperate to stay, Blue’s demons are tempting him to leave, and the arrival of a seductive stranger turns everything upside down. In Tony Award-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau’s (Ain’t Too Proud, Skeleton Crew) powerful noir-inspired drama, a makeshift family and their troubled bandleader find themselves fighting for the future of Paradise.

The creatives include: Scenic Designer Edward E. Haynes, Jr. Costume Designer Wendell C. Carmichael. Lighting Designer Alan C. Edwards. Sound Designer Jeff Gardner. Composer David “Preach” Balfour. Fight Director Steve Rankin. Intimacy Choreographer Nedra Constance Gallegos. Production Stage Manager Shawna Voragen. Assistant Stage Manager Liv Scott. Casting Director Phyllis Schuringa, CSA.

Previews for Paradise Blue begin Tuesday, November 9 in the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles. Opening night is Thursday, November 18, 2021.

Review for Williamstown Festival production See Broadway To Vegas column of March 28, 2021

SCENE AND HEART: LIVE! IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A RADIO PLAY In 1943 Philip Van Doren sent 200 friends a short story titled The Greatest Gift as a Christmas Card. Little did anyone suspect that this one mailing would turn into the Holiday favorite film It’s a Wonderful Life. Now, at Hartford Stage they are in rehearsals for a new production of this story: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play. This show is an in-person, live theatrical production of the screenplay, imagining it as a radio broadcast in the 40’s, set in Hartford, CT.

According to Hartford Stage: "The themes behind this story have always spoken to me: that we never know how our individual actions impact the world around us, and that we need community when we are in trouble."

On Thursday, November 11 at 7pm, join Scene and Heard: LIVE! "and a deep dive into this production, featuring the creative voices that are collaborating on the telling of this story."

CLYDE’S written by Lynn Nottage.

Directed by Kate Whoriskey.

Featuring Uzo Aduba, Ron Cephas Jones, Edmund Donovan, Reza Salazar, and Kara Young.

In Clyde's, a stirring and funny new play from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and her frequent collaborator, director Kate Whoriskey, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner, Clyde (played by Aduba), tries to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and permission to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.

Currently in previews at the Hayes THeatre in New York City, officially opening on Tuesday, November 23 running through January 16, 2022.

ESPRESSO NUTCRACKER presented by Dallas Black Dance Academy (DBD Academy) with a new twist on a holiday tradition. The performance is jazz-influenced by the music of Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite.

DBD Academy Director Katricia Eaglin, assisted by the academy ballet instructors of the Pre-Professional Division levels 1-4 students who will perform in the production, choreographed Espresso Nutcracker. Eaglin was inspired to use the traditional Tchaikovsky music along with tracks from Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, selecting Ellington tracks that were still recognizable to the original work. She added narration to the performance to unlock the mystery and magic of the storyline. Eaglin also added an African dance to the Land of Sweets Act that includes Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Russian dances in the original.

The original Nutcracker Ballet, choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is one of the most famous ballets in the world. It tells the story of young Clara’s magical journey on Christmas Eve. Many dance academies bring in professionals to dance key Nutcracker roles, but Dallas Black Dance Academy students will dance all the key parts, such as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Snow Queen. DBDT professional dancers will dance the adult characters of the Mother, Father, and Drosselmeyer.

The single performance is scheduled for Saturday, December 11, 2021, at 7 pm in the Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX. The performance is also available via live streaming and on-demand.

E-Book

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

FINAL OVATION

MARILIA MENDONCA one of Brazil's biggest singers and a Latin Grammy winner, was been killed in a plane crash November 6, 2021, on her way to a concert. She was 26,

The pop star died alongside her producer, her uncle – who worked as her adviser – and both the pilot and co-pilot of the plane.

Her press office said their plane crashed between Mendonça’s home town of Goiânia and Caratinga, a small city 220 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft was around seven miles from Caratinga, her destination for that evening’s gig.

She performed country music, in Brazil called sertanejo. She was known for tackling feminist issues in her songs, such as denouncing men who control their partners, and calling for female empowerment.

Mendonça was the most listened to artist in Brazil on Spotify last year, and set a record during the pandemic as she moved her concerts online. One performance was the most-watched live stream in the world, peaking at 3.3 million viewers on YouTube.

Manuel Abud CEO, The Latin Recording Academy stated: "Marília Mendonça was a promising young singer/songwriter and the voice of a new generation of Sertaneja music in Brazil. Mendonça was first nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2017 in the Best Sertaneja Music Album category and went on to win in 2019 for Em Todos Os Cantos, which featured a series of recorded concerts in all of the Brazilian capitals. She is also a nominee this year for the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in the same category.

"Marília Mendonça will be greatly missed, but her legacy will live on through her music. Our hearts go out to her family during this difficult time."

She is survived by her son, who will turn 2 years old next month.

Next Column: November 14 2021
Copyright: November 7, 2021 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary, Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, utilized as leads, or used in any manner without permission, compensation and/or credit.
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Laura Deni

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