When my New Jersey travels took me to Plays in the Park in Edison for Nunsense, I was overwhelmed by the power-packed performance of Susan Speidel – and told the director afterward.“Oh, yes,” she said. “Susie’s our Ethel ...
Her name was Stella. She was a heavy-set girl who was a techie in the high school drama club for which I was an advisor. Between scenes of every show, you could see, if you looked carefully through the dimmed lights, Stella’s unmistakably large ...
If you do Passion correctly – meaning the way that Stephen Sondheim envisioned it – your audience will applaud only once the entire night.That will happen at the end of the show, after the lights have dimmed and the performers have emerged to ...
Cast of Children of Eden at Wellesley PlayersIt’s never been produced on Broadway and its London production was short-lived. But these facts haven’t kept one theater after another from doing CHILDREN OF EDEN.Here in Watertown, ...
"Every moment in life is an audition," writes Tim Federle in Better Nate Than Ever. If that’s true, Federle’s audition as a writer gets him the part as The Country’s Most Promising Young Adult Novelist. This is the finest book for teens that ...
There’ll be a grand finale on the final day of the Junior Theater Festival ’13 in Atlanta. But before the big display of entertainment, the teachers repair to classrooms to learn a little more about theater crafts. Ken Billington, the ...
While Alan Menken and I were having dinner the night before Junior Theater Festival ’13 was to begin, he said to me, “You know, when I was a kid, what I really wanted to be was a rock star.”“You’ll feel like a rock start tomorrow ...
Live! From Atlanta! It’s Saturday afternoon!At Junior Theater Festival ’13, Saturday morning saw 4,200 students head to 11 pods where they performed 15-minute excerpts from their musicals. And now that the teachers have congratulated their ...
Atlanta lost a big NFL football game this past weekend, but it certainly emerged victorious in musical theater.The eighth annual Junior Theater Festival once again took over the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Vinings, Georgia. Last year, around 3,000 ...
What’s the best aspect of this new Encores! production of Fiorello! that’s coming up at the end of the month?It will remind those who have forgotten what a fine show this Bock and Harnick musical is.We shouldn’t need reminding. After all, ...
