Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: October 20, 2019
By: Laura Deni
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ROYAL OPERA HOUSE OPENS WITH DON PASQUALE STARRING BRIAN TERFEL

The famed Royal Opera House in London has opened its season with the popular Don Pasquale. Royal Opera favorite Bryn Terfel heads the cast for this new production of Donizetti’s comedy of domestic drama across two generations. The witty story of a middle-aged man whose supposed young wife runs rings around him – with her own ulterior romantic purpose in mind – has long delighted and surprised audiences, not least as presented with the sparkle of its music and the virtuoso skill of its performers. Damiano Michieletto’s exhilarating production shows how contemporary the characters still are and how immediate and touching the story remains.

Taking something old and making it new again is a hallmark of opera. Explaining it all in a class called Inside Opera: Why Does It Matter? presented by Kings College in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Opera House featuring experts explaining how it's accomplished.

As taken from class notes, highlights from a few of their lectures:

DR.BETTINA VARWIG, SENIOR LECTURER AT KING'S COLLEGE LONDON AND DR. FLORA WILLSON MUSIC LECTURER AT KINGS COLLEGE DISCUSS THE CHANGING EXPECTATIONS OF WOMEN'S BEHAVIOR AND THEIR ROLES ON THE OPERATIC STAGE.

Dr. Flora Willson music lecturer at Kings College

They have felt that: "there's something slightly funny going on with the role of women in opera," referring to the fact that in 19th-century operas almost always end with a heroine dying. "There is something particularly strange about that, that opera is this art form that somehow has a need to kill off its women, at least in that particular era. I wonder - is that something that happens in early opera as well?

Women's role on stage has always been problematic. They used Claudio Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea as an example. "This is a striking and unusual case. There are two main female leads. There's Ottavia, who is the wife of the famously mad and power-crazed emperor Nero, and there's Poppea, who's Nero's mistress, and she eventually manages to drive Ottavia into exile and be crowned empress herself.

"What's interesting about their roles is that Ottavia very much typifies the stereotypical role that women are meant to take in society ie decorous, chaste, private and preferably silent. So she sings very little, very limited range of expression, no lyrical melody to speak of. That is all reserved for Poppea, whose rampant sexuality and predatory nature is mirrored in her lyrical outbursts. This culminates in the final love duet at the end with the emperor at the end of the opera. And so in this opera, it is striking that a socially transgressive, sexually predatory female character wins the day and certainly doesn't die.

There seems to be a sort of unusual message of a morality of female transgression here. On the other hand, it's very clear that the two women encapsulate the kind of stereotypes of what women should and shouldn't do. That's so interesting. I mean, these women keep dying. But on the other hand, the singers like Patti, (Adelina Patti, one of the most popular prima donnas of the late 19th century) for instance, who are actually playing those roles - they were immensely powerful at a time when women in society more generally just didn't have much social status at all.

Dr. Bettina Varwig received her PhD from Harvard and is an Official Fellow and University Lecturer in Early Modern Music att Kings College.

"For most of the 19th century in Italy, women had no legal status at all, full stop, unless they were married. They couldn't own anything. So it's really interesting the way that, actually, opera has these two sides to it, I think, when we're thinking about gender and opera. That on the one hand, being on the operatic stage allowed women to have a career at a time when most women didn't have careers. It allowed them to be successful, to be celebrities, even, at a time when that would otherwise be impossible. But on the other hand, it was this transgression, actually, and that women who were opera singers were associated with all kinds of negative things.

"They were associated with prostitution, perhaps most obviously. And that's obviously very difficult for us to imagine today. What's most problematic for me in all this is the role of the music, though. Because in a way, the dazzling, virtuosic vocal display that women bring to opera is one of the main attractions that draws people to the opera house. On the other hand, there's a slight feeling that the music, through its enchanting, beautiful qualities, covers up some of the ways in which opera perpetuates rampant violence against women, against its female characters."

Both scholars agree that: "the fact that we can even be having this conversation just goes to show it's a really hefty punch-back against any claim that opera is somehow irrelevant politically, because all these issues to do with the gender roles, to do with this the status of women in the world - they're all being played out in opera on stage and off it throughout opera's 400-year history, and that's a really important message to take away. Absolutely."

MARK DAKIN, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AT ROYAL OPERA HOUSE.

I'm the technical director. I'm trying to make sure that I'm looking after all the people in the technical department who put on all the shows, create all the shows. Backstage, in all this space, what's actually happening during a performance and what happens during the day is also two different things. During a performance, there might be singers or dancers getting changed. There might be scenery being prepared for a scene change. But during the day, what we're doing is we're running a really big machine which houses up to six, seven different shows at once.

And that will involve the scenery being moved around, and the equipment being moved around, so that we can have rehearsals in the morning of one show and then a performance of a different show in the evening. The rehearsal period is almost like the culmination of the production process. The production process is from the start when an idea of what a show should be in the program right through until we start performing a show on stage. So the rehearsal process - by that time, we know what the set is, we have an idea of what all the costumes are, and what we're trying to do is we're trying to put it all together.

There are hundreds of people across the technical production department who are working really in the service of the production, making sure that it all fits together in the rehearsal room, so that when we come on stage and do the technical rehearsal everyone knows what they're doing. Staff from technical production work across many shows simultaneously. If you split them out separately, I suppose the numbers might be into the 200, 300 by the time you've taken on board production managers, stage managers, people who are making the costumes, the wigs, the makeup, the people who are drafting the shows.

I think technical theatre now, in the 21st century is many, many things across many, many environments, whether that's an opening ceremony in Olympics, or your big rock and roll tours, or dance, opera or drama. I think the challenge for opera in terms of the technical challenges is specific. That's an awful lot about interworking internationally with partners in other opera houses around the world, but it's also about the fact that opera is a very particular form, and therefore, applying all this amazing technology to a historical art form is, if you like it, the heart of what the exciting technical challenge is for us in technical production.

The technology in this opera house, which was rebuilt in 2000, had state-of-the-art, automated flying systems, had systems that work across the main stage and storage areas, which have waggons in, which are all motorized and computerized, and if you like, that's the baseline of technology which we continue to work from. The technology which we're now dealing with, of course, which is more innovative is lighting technology, sound technology, moving lights. What's coming in the future is the integration of all those technologies and the challenges that gives us as technicians to keep learning new skills.

When I was at school, the only thing I could really do was technical drawing and carpentry, and I discovered that you could actually make a living by putting on shows doing this, and so I went to college to train as a theatre designer. I had in my mind that I was going to be a carpenter or a draughtsman. In fact, I've ended up doing every single technical job apart from wigs and makeup.

AMY LANE HEAD STAFF DIRECTOR AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE.

As a Head Staff Director at the Royal Opera House, I have a department of directors who are resident at the Royal Opera House, which means we work here all year round, and we work as assistant directors and revival directors.

When productions come back and the original director is not available, we would then step up and look after the production and see it onto the stage. We do a lot of operas per year - we do between 20 and occasionally up to 26 productions per year - so we need a lot of staff who can come in and assist directors, and then move on to revive productions for us. Assistant directors, assistant choreographers, fight directors, movement directors, all kind of fall under our arena. So we're quite a fun and varied department.

We will be next to the director taking notes: so what the director sees, we will note. We might be working with the chorus, we might be working with actors and we're making the book, as well. The book is incredibly important for reviving future productions. In this book, we write down blocking. Blocking is who does what, when and where, and in some ways, it has to be geographical. For example, on the set here, maybe you're coming in mid-stage left.

But most important, when you're blocking: why. Why am I coming in? Where have I just been? Who am I coming to see? So all the emotional landscape of the production - that is what we are recording. That's all going on at the same time. Scheduling is a massive part of what we do here. Big building, lots of productions going on at the same time - we need to make sure everyone's in the right place at the right time. Are they in music halls? Are they on stage? Are they in the rehearsal room? Are they in a wig fitting or wardrobe fitting? All of these things have to come together. So it's looking after people's time.

It's an energetic process to be an opera singer. We ask an awful lot of the artists, so we want to make sure their time is used as well as it possibly can be used. In this week, of course, we are really giving people a sense of how many people are involved backstage at an opera house to make opera, to get opera onto the stage for that first night.

Rebecca Chan working in the prop department at the Royal Opera House.Photo: ROH

We have lighting departments; props departments, who have to make all the props or source all the props; the sets - the sets are built in our production park at Thurrock and built here, as well; armoury - there's a lot of sword fighting, there are knives, there are daggers - we have an armoury department who furnish everybody with everything that they need.

There's an incredible learning and participation department, who look after inviting people into the building and also about taking our work out of the building.

We have a huge digital media department - cinema: that's a huge part of our audience and getting opera out and inviting people in. And outreach - going into schools and people coming to visit us.

She indicated that a new production required "between four to five weeks in the rehearsal room, and then two weeks on stage."

Our Director of Music is Sir Antonio Pappano. He is a huge driving force in what we're doing, in line with the Director of Opera - that is now Oliver Mears - and also the Head of Casting, Peter Katona. So that is a power three. That is where the information starts bubbling away, they put it all into the cauldron to work out what might make a balanced season. A season for the Royal Opera is a year. We want new productions. We want familiar productions. We want productions that have been running for years. We want something that's going to be new, enticing, and spicy.

And that's what makes an interesting opera house: when you continue the tradition that we're all familiar with and then you feed in the new and exciting elements. That is a perfect combination, I believe.Because we produce a lot of work, it can go very fast. You want everybody to be on the same team. That's what makes exciting, kind of fizzy work, and it's keeping that energy, driving what you're doing going forwards. And even if you're getting tired, not showing it. You just need to keep pushing and keep other people's energy up, and that's kind of a big thing. A really interesting thing to be part of: The way opera moves on with time. It's not stuck 200 years ago - far from it.

CONDUCTOR SIR ANTONION PAPPANO.

Opera is theatre with music, and for me, the fact that people are singing is because talking just isn't enough. That's how I explain it to myself - that the emotions are so extreme, so past that point, where you just have to sing about it. This is what we're all aiming for: that the singers are expressing, are singing, so that they make the situations they find themselves in believable; and this is crucial, at least as far as I'm concerned. The process of rehearsing an opera is something that's often very quick, so you need everybody's attention. Everybody has to be focused. Everybody has to be on board for what we're trying to express. Huge respect for the music and what the composer wrote, but also trying to find reality, trying to make it all seem just so real. So that's what you're trying to bring from the rehearsal room, where you rehearse with piano, until you go to the stage where the orchestra comes in.

If you're conducting a contemporary piece of music, something that's never been performed, and you have the fortune of having the composer with you in the room, there is no experience like it. You'd be surprised at how creative and how spontaneous composers can be when they're rehearsing something, that what they've written is not a bible - it's something that can be tweaked, can be changed. Things can be cut, things can be added, and when you realize that, it's a tremendous feeling of - yeah, I say the word again - creativity, and spontaneity.

When you get that right and you have all the singers on board-- often, the music is very difficult to learn, but when you have a group of singers who are really into it, and the composer being there, oh, it's just fantastic.

THEATRE DIRECTOR KATIE MITCHELL.

You've got a lot of components to organise: so you've got the set design, the costumes, the furniture, the props, the lighting; and then you've got all the characters, their movement, choreography, if you're using that. So, you've got a lot of elements, and as the director, you're responsible for cohering them all into a simple and clear narrative for the audience. As a director, you're completely responsible for the look of the production, and you work hand-in-glove with the designer to come up with a visual landscape that the audience can understand very clearly.

When you are approaching rep pieces - that is, very, very famous operas that are on in a lot of opera houses, like Lucia di Lammermoor or La Traviata - when you're approaching them, you're having to deal with a lot of very tricky, old-fashioned, often 19th-century conventions, which by modern-day audience standards are a bit sort of flaky. So, when I'm making one of these operas, I often think, what would my daughter or her friends think of what I'm about to do? I try to come up with a solution which honors the original material, but makes it accessible for a modern-day, younger audience. The main difference between spoken drama and opera is time. So basically, in an opera, everything takes more time.

In a play, you can have a lot of very fast spoken lines. But in opera, mostly it goes slower than in life or in spoken drama, and so trying to fill the additional time that opera brings to life-like actions is a real art form. Obviously, the form is quite artificial, so it's very hard if you are a director like me who's interested in naturalism. But, I think the expectations on the form is that it should be life-like and that we should look at a character in an opera as if we would look at a character on stage in a theatre piece.

I love music, so when I'm not doing spoken drama work, I'm often listening to music, and I think that's how I fell into opera - because someone came along and said, 'Would you like to do some drama with music and opera?' And I said, 'OK, I'll try it.' When I first entered the landscape of it, I hated it - I hated the rehearsal room, I hated to the culture of it - but the thing that always kept me going was the beautiful music. You can't imagine what it's like to be someone directing opera.

You wake up in the morning, you get dressed, you go to work and people sing exquisite music or play the piano exquisitely every single minute of your working day. It's a really, really beautiful thing. When opera really works, it's an exceptional combination of two.

It's really, really hard to make it work beautifully, but I think when you see pieces of opera where those two ideas are working hand-in-glove, where the drama and the music, the conductor and the director and the performers are all together, cohered with one shared purpose - it's a life-changing art form.

JO HOLMES, ONE OF THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE'S STAGE MANAGERS.

I had a tremendous interest in theatre generally, so I started off working as an assistant stage manager in a touring theatre, and quite quickly, as a freelance stage manager, was looking for the next most interesting job that I could find and came across a position at the Welsh National Opera.

An opera stage manager takes the music as the starting point for everything, and we have to work very, very closely with the orchestra, the conductor - of course, the singers - and it's that that drives everything that we're doing. If there are any variations in the tempi that are being conducted, and that is happening through the conductor's reading of what the singers are doing, it directly affects technical aspects on stage - the amount of time available for scene changes, that kind of thing. And an opera stage manager works by notating everything to do with the production in a musical score.

We write down all lighting cues, scene change cues, cues for artists and singers to enter the stage, anything to do with props in the score. An opera stage manager needs to be able to understand musical notation and know the difference between different voice types, for example. They don't have to be brilliant musicians, but it helps to know your way around the notes.

I think that the tremendous variety both in the production challenges that are thrown your way plus the fantastic stories that one is required to help the director stage are very much part of why I enjoy it so much. When we start preparing for production, there's obviously some amount of pre-preparation required, but the most important role we play is at the outset in the rehearsal room.

We will take all the information that's been decided by the director and their design team and realize that for them in the rehearsal room now. On a very day-to-day level, I am making sure that all the performers are ready on stage before we say that we're ready to start. I then ask the orchestra to tune and ask the conductor to enter the pit to start. Very often, we're then following the conductor. We take his lead from the start of the music, and on we go, the journey begins. So in the 21st century, some opera productions are really complicated.

I think the most unusual (technical challenge) was being asked to ensure that a singer who was going to be required to look as if he had drowned at the end of a production could get into a tank of water and still breathe.

Fortunately, he didn't have to sing at the same time, but the effect was that he needed to remain in the tank of water for quite a length of time - well over 10 minutes - and we had to devise a way that he could breathe through a snorkel arrangement and float in the tank as if he had drowned himself. There's a lot of work put in at the outset with unusual effects, and then we can write down the details of how to do it and we know how to repeat it in the future. Sometimes it doesn't always go according to plan. I overlooked when we worked with the horse in our production of Falstaff.

The fact that the entire chorus were standing by ready to come on stage wearing hats that had stag horns on them - and the horse, unfortunately, got sight of these in the wing as it was looking across stage and did slightly take fright at the fact that it thought it was being pursued by a herd of stag."

Broadcasting has become an important aspect of opera.

1918 - Premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The opera was part of a triple-bill of new one-act operas by Puccini marketed as Il trittico (the triptych). It was the first opera premiere in the world following the signing of the Armistice that ended the First World War.

1931 - The first complete, live, nationwide radio broadcast of opera. A matinee performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel was broadcast from New York’s Metropolitan Opera as family entertainment on Christmas Day. It was the first broadcast in a series still running today.

2006 - The first live broadcast of an operatic performance to cinemas. The Metropolitan Opera’s “The Met: Live in HD” series began with Mozart’s The Magic Flute, transmitted live to cinemas in north America and internationally. Since then the Met’s own series has expanded hugely – and similar series have been established both by other opera houses and by theatres and dance companies.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 this performance will be broadcast live to cinemas. Conducted by Evelino Pidò, in addition to Terfel the production stars CastIoan Hotea and Markus Werba.

Set designer Paolo Fantin. Video designer 3 rocafilm. Director Damiano Michieletto. Lighting designer Alessandro Carletti. Libretto 2 Gaetano Donizetti. Libretto 1 Giovanni Ruffini. Composer Gaetano Donizetti. Costume designer Agostino Cavalca.

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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

SWEET: A TASTY JOURNEY Explore the social and cultural aspects of the candy industry through interactive displays and activities designed to stimulate all five senses. Learn about the nuts and sprinkles of the candy and chocolate-making process, meet the real life Willy Wonkas, challenge your friends to a game of BeanBoozled, and more.

Sweet takes candy from a “farm to fork” perspective, peeling back the label of our favorite sugary confections. Visitors can engage with the stories from famous candy-makers and chocolatiers and get into the nuts and sprinkles of chocolate making, getting up-close and personal with real factory equipment. They will engage with both the history of candy and its current role within popular culture while exploring this fun and colorful environment.

“The Wood Museum of Springfield History is an ideal place for this celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Kay Simpson, President and CEO of the Springfield Museums. “This exhibit tells the stories of the people behind the candies we know so well—and the science behind the cooking that gives us the rich and colorful variety of candies and sweets we love so much.”

A giant version of Candyland, a Milton Bradley game, is one of many interactive stations that lead visitors on an adventure not unlike the game of Candyland itself. Plus, the exhibit stations ignite the senses—taste, smell, sound, and sight as well as touch.

The centerpiece of this exhibition is the Rock Candy Mountain, which offers visitors an exciting experience sprinkled with interactive displays, Instagrammable moments, and photo opportunities.

Join the exhibit's opening celebration while trick or treating in the galleries dressed in your costume. Meet the Grinch and a few creepy critters, too.

An exhibit to be savored by all generations. Saturday, October 26, 2019 to April 26, 2020, in the Wood Museum of the Springfield Museums in Springfield, MA.

The Springfield Museums are located on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in the heart of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. The nationally accredited and Smithsonian-affiliated consortium of museums includes the Springfield Science Museum, the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, and the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, the first and only museum dedicated to the beloved children’s book author and Springfield native.

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SWEET CHARITY

CAST MEMBERS OF BROADWAY MUSICAL BEETLEJUICE last Friday performed for pediatric cancer patients and families from Ronald McDonald House NY. Prior to the performance, children battling cancer got into the spooky, Halloween spirit as cast members served lunch for the patients and their families. The special event aimed to help families experience a sense of normalcy while fighting cancer and also provided an opportunity for the children to be kids first, and not just kids with cancer.

Ronald McDonald House New York provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families in a strong, supportive and caring environment that encourages and nurtures the development of child-to-child and parent-to-parent support systems. Located on East 73rd Street in Manhattan and in close proximity to 8 major hospital systems, Ronald McDonald House New York welcomes children and families from across the world. The House can accommodate 95 families including 6 post-transplant suites. They offer additional support through wellness programs, tutors, music, art, transportation, activities for siblings, holiday and birthday parties, and camaraderie.

RED BULL THEATER has announced that their new 2019-’20 season will kick off with an all-star benefit performance of the Olivier Award-winning Best Musical Return to the Forbidden Planet,Monday October 21st at the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City.

This musical of Shakespearean proportions by Bob Carlton, exploding with over thirty cosmic hits of classic rock-n-roll, and playfully based on The Tempest and the cinematic sci-fi classic, this fun-filled musical rockets Shakespeare’s beloved characters from stage to space as Captain Tempest crash lands on the planet D’Illyria, inhabited only by the mad scientist Doctor Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and their trusty robot Ariel. With songs including Great Balls of Fire; Shake Rattle and Roll; The Monster Mash, and Good Vibrations along with some of Shakespeare’s most iconic phraseology catapulted through hyperspace into a campy concoction, this is a rare opportunity for today’s New York audiences to experience this Olivier Award-winning musical.

Gabriel Barre, who starred in the original New York production, will direct a cast featuring Steven Boyer, Robert Cuccioli, Kim Exum, Kevin R. Free, Mary Testa, Jo Lampert, Patrick Page and Amy Spanger with cameo appearances by Bryan Batt, Emily Bergl, Arnie Burton, Veanne Cox, Paige Davis, Keith Hamilton Cobb, Ann Harada, Dana Ivey, Chad Kimball, Crista Moore, Sarah Rice, Derek Smith, Emily Swallow, Marc Vietor, as well as Jeffrey Eugene Johnson, Ben Jones, Charlotte Maltby, and Salisha Thomas. Making special video appearances will be Dana Ivey, celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson (affectionately known as the man who killed Pluto) and Michael Urie.

SPREADING THE WORD

THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE at Royal Albert Hall in London takes place Monday, October 21, 2019. One of the greatest and most anticipated unseen treasures in musical history will finally be revealed for one night only when the feature-length film The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Royal Albert Hall, screens at the very venue it was filmed.

This has long been considered the holy grail of ‘lost’ films. It has never before been released on any format nor commercially screened anywhere in the world. It has remained unseen and been the subject of death, litigation and intrigue since its creation fifty years ago.

It presents an extraordinary performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and chronicles the hours leading up to 24 February 1969 concert, with the crew granted unprecedented backstage access to Hendrix and his team throughout the day.

To prepare the film for this unique anniversary screening, producer Jerry Goldstein and Glenn Stone of The Last Experience, together with Janie Hendrix and John McDermott from Experience Hendrix, have painstakingly restored all of the original 16mm color film elements and prepared this feature length presentation.

HAMILTON has announced that for the second year in a row, on Thursday, October 31 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, all tickets for the 7:00pm performance will be sold for $10. All tickets will be sold via the Hamilton Digital Lottery. Patrons can enter the lottery through October 25 8:00am EST via the officialHamilton app. Only one entry per person. Repeat entries and disposable email addresses will be discarded.

Austin Scott as Alexander Hamilton leads the Broadway HAMILTON company which includes Daniel Breaker as Aaron Burr; Nicholas Christopher as George Washington; Joanna A. Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds; Mandy Gonzalez as Angelica Schuyler; James Monroe Iglehart as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Denée Benton as Eliza Hamilton; Anthony Lee Medina as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton; Euan Morton as King George III; and Wallace Smith as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison. The Broadway company includes, Giuseppe Bausilio, Raymond Baynard, Lauren Boyd, Amanda Braun, Andrew Chappelle, Marc delaCruz, Karla Puno Garcia, Christina Glur, Deon’te Goodman, David Guzman, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Thayne Jasperson, Jimmie "JJ" Jeter, Roddy Kennedy, Eddy Lee, Justice Moore, Elizabeth Racanelli, Antuan Magic Raimone, Willie Smith III, Gabriella Sorrentino, Terrance Spencer, Kim Taylor, Raven Thomas, Gregory Treco, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Robert Walters and Kyle Weiler.

OOT'S GALAWEEN that would be Opera on Tap's Annual Halloween Gala takes place Wednesday, October 30 at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn, NY.

Special Guest Host Sylvia McNair.

GALAween performances by Joanie Brittingham, David Gordon, Eric McKeever and Krista Wozniak with Christopher Berg tinkling the piano keys.

There wil be drinks, snacks, a New Brew Haunted Old Stone House performance, a costume contest, raffle, and more.

SHERLOCK HOLMES' ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , in the style of a radio broadcast, Craig Wichman, founder and producer of the nationally acclaimed Quicksilver Radio Theater adapted the script, complete with live sound effects and commercials, just like the Sherlock Holmes' radio series on NBC that premiered in 1930 - takes place October 25 – 26 and November 1 – 2, at the East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May, New Jersey..

Tom Byrn is portraying Holmes, and Fred Velde returns as Dr. Watson. Portraying several roles are Veronique Hurley, Mat Labotka, Gayle Stahlhuth and Robert LeMaire who also operates the sound effects.

CAROL BURNETT in An Evening Of Laughter and Reflection. The award-winning actress and best-selling author, is widely recognized by the public and her peers for her work on stage and screen, most notably The Carol Burnett Show. During An Evening of Laughter and Reflection, Burnett will show video clips from her shows and take questions from the audience in a format that harkens back to the legendary openings of The Carol Burnett Show where her studio audience had an unfiltered opportunity to engage Carol with questions and receive spontaneous answers. Friday, October 25 at the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, NJ.

THE MUSIC GOES ROUND AND ROUND

MICHAEL LONGORIA LIKE THEY DO IN THE MOVIES has been released by Broadway Records.

Longoria is best known for his star turn on Broadway as Frankie Valli in the Tony Award Winning Musical Jersey Boys, and is currently starring in The Midtown Men concert tour and Meet The Midtown Men - a live concert/documentary for PBS.

When you attempt to perform standards made famous by superstars a less talented singer could have been entering treacherous waters. There is no arrangement reconstruction and all of the songs are easily recognizable. Longoria known his fan base and uses his preferred vocal range of falsetto, projecting a sexual ambiguity. He opens the CD with an original song which he explains as: "I wrote a song for the album about longing to find that kind of movie romance in a kiss called, Kiss Me (Like They Do In The Movies). It’s about wanting your love to be the kind you see in the movies. Sometimes, when words aren’t enough, you can say everything you need to with a kiss.”

Wind Beneath My Wings is pure. Don’t You (Forget About Me from The Breakfast Club is hypnotic and interesting. Returning to his falsetto he perform the Olivia Newton John standard Hopelessly Devoted To You from Grease. Tempo changes with That Thing You Do from That Thing You Do! He holds his own with I Will Always Love You - the Whitney Houston standard. The Righetous Brothers' Unchained Melody and Bette Midler's The Rose are particularly strong and effective. Excellent placement of songs to offer a variety of tempos and styles. With the exception of the Righteous Brothers who sang in falsettos all of the sections were made hits by female singers. The CD ends with the hard beat, positive reinforcement Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now from Mannequin.

The Band:
Piano: Rona Siddiqui. Bass: Rob Jost. Guitar: Brian Koonin. Saxophone: Kristy Norter. Trombone: Randy Andos. Trumpet: Jeremy Miloszewicz. Violin and Viola: Entcho Todorov. Cello: Summer Boggess. Drums: Michael Croiter. Musical direction and arrangements: Rona Siddiqui. The title song arrangment by James Dobinson.

Recorded and mixed by Matthias Winter. Mastered by Michael Fosssenkemper. Recorded and mixed at Yellow Sound Lab. Mastered at Turtle one Studios. Produced by Grammy nominee and 12-time Emmy Award winner Michael Croiter.

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HANG IN THERE . . .

LADY GAGA who took a nasty fall off a Las Vegas stage alongside a fan while performing her Enigma show Thursday, October 17, reports that she is in "a lot of pain" and had nearly her "entire body X-rayed."

“When they have to X-Ray almost your entire body,” the singer, 33, captioned an Instagram post on Friday, October 18. “Just Dance. Gonna be ok.” Gaga shared her post-show routine on Instagram on Friday. “Ice bath for 5-10 min, hot bath for 20, then compression suit packed with ice packs for 20,” she wrote.

The singer took time off from performing in 2013 after having surgery for a broken hip and disclosed in October 2018 that she has fibromyalgia and suffers from chronic pain.



MOLLY SWEENEY by Brian Friel.

Directed by Jonathan Silverstein.

Starring Paul O’Brien, Pamela Sabaugh, and Tommy Schrider.

Having lost her sight at infancy, Molly Sweeney (played by Pamela Sabaugh) knows the world through touch, sound, taste, and smell. When her hopeful husband (Tommy Schrider) and ambitious doctor (Paul O’Brien) propose an operation to restore her sight, Molly and those around her begin to understand that things may not all be as they appear. Brian Friel, Ireland’s master storyteller creates a riveting contemporary drama about the unexpected consequences of a medical miracle.

Limited Off-Broadway Engagement Opens Wednesday October 23rd at Theatre Row in NYC.

MACBETH by Shakespeare.

Directed by John Doyle.

Featuring real-life spouses Corey Stoll and Nadia Bowers as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

The production also features Barzin Akhavan as Macduff, Raffi Barsoumian as Malcolm, N'Jameh Camara as Lady Macduff, Erik Lochtefeld as Banquo, Tony Award nominee Mary Beth Peil as Duncan, Antonio Michael Woodard as Fleance and Young Macduff, and Jade Wu as Ross.

Shakespeare’s terrifying tale of revenge, murder, and madness, Macbeth traces the fallout when the darkest side of humanity cheats its way into a position of power. Its protagonists’ violent ambition is famously aroused by a prophecy delivered by a group of witches, and the play has proven historically prophetic: Shakespeare’s portrait of the psychology of tyranny has found itself in unsettling dialogue with societies around the world time and again. The foreboding environment of “The Scottish Play” is particularly familiar to director John Doyle, who attended school in the shadow of the play’s setting, the real-life Cawdor Castle, in Inverness, Scotland.

The creative team includes John Doyle (Production Scenic Design), Ann Hould-Ward (Costume Design), Solomon Weisbard (Lighting Design), Matt Stine (Sound Design), Telsey + Company (Casting), Bernita Robinson (Production Stage Manager), and Stephanie Macchia (Assistant Stage Manager).

The production opens officially on the night of Sunday, October 27 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater at Classic Stage Company in New York City.

THE NEW ONE by Mike Birbiglia with additional writing by Jennifer Hope Stein.

Directed by Seth Barrish.

Starring Mike Birbiglia.

The New One tells the hilarious story of Birbiglia’s reluctance to become a father and the revelations he experienced on the other side of parenthood. Full of heart and humor.

Set design by Beowulf Boritt, lighting design by Aaron Copp and sound design by Leon Rothenberg.

At the Ahmanson in Los Angeles October 23 - November 24, 2019.

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WHO'S WHERE

REBA McENTIRE stars at the Xcite Center in Bensalem, PA on Saturday, October 26, 2019.

CELINE DION performs October 24, 2019 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, OH. On October 26 she stars at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO.

WILLIE NELSON singing his hits October 22, 23, 25 and 26th at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.

THE WHO AND LIAM GALLAGHER star at the Hollywood Bowl Thursday, October 24.

THE JONAS BROTHERS headline the Hollywood Bowl on Monday, October 21, 2019.

VINCE GILL performs Thursday, October 24 in Louisville, KY at the Louisville Palace Theatre. Friday's stop is in Toledo, OH at the Stranahan Theater & Great Hall. Saturday's gig is in Erie, PA at the Warner Theatre. Next Sunday, October 27, he can be enjoyed in Rochester, NY at the Kodak Center.

FINAL OVATION

ADELAIDE GRACE CERVANTES daughter of Kelly and Miguel Cervantes died in her mother's arms after entering hospice care on Saturday, October 12, 2019, a few days before her 4th birthday. She suffered from epilepsy.

Her father stars in the Chicago mounting of Hamilton. He will briefly take a break from his leading role in the production.

In addition to her parents, Adelaide is survived by her big brother Jackson.

RAY SANTOS an American Grammy Award-winning Latin saxophonist, composer, arranger, orchestra leader and educator who became widely known in the 1990s for arranging the Oscar-nominated theme song for the movie The Mambo Kings, died October 17, 2019. He was 90.

He attended Juilliard School of Music where he studied saxophone.

He won a Grammy award with Linda Ronstadt for her 1992 album Frenesí.

Santos is survived by his five children, Virna L. Santos, Cynthia Santos DeCure, Carmen Myriam Santos, Rhynna M. Santos and Raymond Santos, his eight grandchildren, Colin, Aidan, and Ethan DeCure; Enrique Little, Patryck and Sabina Santos Robso and Raymond Edward and Massimo Santos.

Gabriel Abaroa Jr. President/CEO of The Latin Recording Academy issued the following statement: "Ray Santos, known as "El Maestro" by his fans and fellow musicians, was a leading authority on Afro-Caribbean music. His Juilliard School training allowed him to cross borders with success, integrity and class. Over his 90 years, Santos became a legend in the world of Latin music and left an indelible mark with his artistry. The Latin Recording Academy honored him with 2011 Board of Trustees' Award.

"Known for the layered complexity of his arrangements, for more than 50 years, Santos performed, composed, and arranged for premiere Latin music orchestras, including the legendary ensembles of Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Mario Bauzá, and Machito. He was also essential in albums recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Eddie Palmieri and Paquito D'Rivera, to name a few. In addition, he was an esteemed professor of music at the City College of New York, where he taught for nearly 30 years and directed the college's Latin band.

"We are forever thankful to the amazing gentleman Mr. Ray Santos, who was also committed to music education, fostering the next generation of music makers. His legacy lives on in his music and the hearts of our music community, forever inspired by his commitment and remarkable craft. Our hearts go to his family during this difficult time."

Next Column: October 27, 2019
Copyright: October 20, 2019 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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