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IceDragon

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Interesting that sometimes, the cover of an original cast cd will go through

ch-ch-ch-changes before it's actually released. Holiday Inn, which has

since closed on Broadway, isn't coming out with their cast cd till mid-June.

 

But it's already gone through two cover changes, making it three covers...so far.

The first had balloons all over it. Which was the original main show poster.

 

Here they are...

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What the cd company is now showing.

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The second of the covers.

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The original cd cover...with all those balloons!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just back from seeing Finding Neverland at the Dr. Phillips Center here in Orlando. Finding Neverland tells the story of the creation of Peter Pan By J.M. Barrie. This was my first time seeing the show and I didn't know much about it going in. The production design is fantastic and it really shows in the numbers near the end of the first act. I did find the latter half of the first act to be the strongest part of the show with some very memorable songs and set pieces.

 

Finding Neverland is a show that is a strong mix of light hearted comedy and drama and cast nailed it wonderfully. The show benefits a lot from it's ensemble cast. In fact some of the most memorable moments came from minor characters you wouldn't expect.

 

I enjoyed the show quite a bit and would definitely recommend seeing it if you can. It's a great looking show with memorable songs and moments. Finding Neverland runs through June 11th in Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center in downtown Orlando.

 

On to some pictures:

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One of the best places to see a show!

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Got our playbills!

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Was so impressed with this part of the show!

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^ I wish a production of "Finding Neverland" would come by our way, sometime soon. Could happen next season. That, and "Waitress" would be great to see a tour of. But in the meantime...

 

Broadway Across Canada just sent a "teaser announcement" for the 2018-19 Season, and it looks like we're getting Come From Away as our first musical to see! Which is fantastic, considering it will be just over a year or so, before we get to see it, since it's opening on Broadway (and the TONY noms, etc.). This is significant, as we usually get touring shows up to five years after the Broadway Opening. But that's how it goes, up here.

 

And I love the cast recording of it so much! Incredible cast it sounds like. And of course, the amazing story of The 2001 Event and Afterwards.

 

Awesome!

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This will also be our first "intermission~less" musical in a long, long time, too. It runs just over 90 minutes, I read.

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^That was bizarrely funny to us, actually. And she did Out-Thank the entire orchestra's "exit music." LOL

 

A first for the TONYs I betcha. Gawd Love Bette! She earned that 'time period', IMhO.

 

(I was slightly miffed, and others were too, that the show didn't do a full-out production number, from HD! I "heard" that they

couldn't {or wouldn't} do any number, without their "walkway around the orchestra". What - ever. It was a disappointment.)

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  • 4 weeks later...

We're seeing the touring production of Phantom of The Opera tonight. From what I've seen in the commercials, the giant chandelier doesn't

"come down" like it did in the original Brdwy production and previous tours. Or does it? Looking forward to finding out...

 

EDIT/Thursday: Show was fantastic! The chandelier did not disappoint. In fact, I thought it was better this way (the way it "fell") than the original way! And the set, the set, the set! What an amazing design, and the lighting as well. Leads were excellent, all through the show. I think I really liked this version better than The Original, but seeing that was many many years ago for us. Whatever. I was surprised, and so glad we saw this production. A deserved Standing O that started, the second the dancers took to the stage for their bows.

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Awesome set design. Really unique.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Barbara Cook R.I.P.

 

The marquees of Broadway theaters in New York will be dimmed on August 9 at 7:45pm for one minute in memory of Tony-winning actress Barbara Cook, who died at age 89 on August 8.

 

“Barbara Cook was an unforgettable talent with a voice that dazzled audiences and kept them coming back over her fifty-year career. With charisma, determination and perseverance she made a remarkable contribution to theater and inspired fans around the world,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League. “She will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues.”

 

On Broadway, Cook is known for originating the roles of Marian Paroo in The Music Man, Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, among many others. She also appeared in Broadway revues, concerts and specials including Sondheim on Sondheim, Barbara Cook's Broadway!, Mostly Sondheim and Barbara Cook: A Concert for the Theatre. Her additional credits on Broadway include The Grass Harp, The Gay Life, Carousel, Oklahoma! and Flahooley.

 

In 1958 Cook won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for The Music Man. She received a second Tony Award nomination in 2010 for Sondheim on Sondheim and was the recipient of many honors including the Theatre World Award and the Grammy Award.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The new cast for Broadway's FROZEN, opening March 22nd...

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John Riddle, Caissie Levy, Patti Murin & Jelani Alladin ~ Hans, Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff.

(Photo: Andrew Eccles)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Was absolutely blown away, by an American touring production of....wait for it....."The Sound of Music".....

Admittedly, I am not one for the "older musicals" of the decades. Like Carousel, My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, etc. But this. OMG!

(This was one of the 4 productions, in this season's Broadway Across Canada Subscription series.)

 

The actress playing the Mother Superior blew the roof off the end of Act 1 with "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". And that made the

whole production for myself. If "CEM" couldn't be carried, like she absotutely did, then it was lost on me.

And the production was smart, didn't shy away from the Nazi presence, and the kids were awesome! All 7 of them!

 

Definitely a see-if-you-can, if it's coming to you soon. And now I can die, knowing I have see an (mostly) original

"SoM" onstage - live - magnificently sung by all.

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And FYI - Jack O'Brien is the genius director behind HAIRSPRAY!

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This just in...

 

Jake Gyllenhaal-Led Sunday in the Park with George

Cast Recording Gets Release Date

 

It's to be in November.

 

The previously announced Sunday in the Park with George cast album hits earbuds on September 22 via Warner Music Group; a CD will be available in November. The 2016 Broadway revival, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as George and Annaleigh Ashford as Dot, concluded its acclaimed limited run on April 23 at the Hudson Theatre. As previously reported, the production recouped its investment.

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Jake as George.

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Holey Mother of F!

 

This was just released today on Amazon, and was immediately sold out!!!

 

So I've put my order in now. And will wait. Somewhat patiently.

 

It's a double disc set. With "current commentary" from Patti, between numbers, HA!

 

Can't wait for that! (Oh yeah, and the numbers too.)

 

EDIT: The cd is available now at Amazon.

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With everything from Bakers Wife to Gypsy!

Edited by Nrthwnd
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...and then I found THIS!

 

Follies - National Theatre Live

(On The Big Screen!)

November 16, 2017 | 3h 30m

Find Showtimes

 

Director

Dominic Cooke

 

Cast

Imelda Staunton, Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee...

 

Synopsis

 

Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre and broadcast live to cinemas. New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, it’s directed by Dominic Cooke (The Comedy of Errors). Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

 

Anybody with new info. on this broadcast production, I would LOVE to hear from you!

I am an all-time bonafied FOLLIES FREEK. And I know of what I speek. Big TIme.

 

Thanks in advance!

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In Vancouver Canada, it's at 7 pm PST on that date.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love this thread! Theater is the one thing that comes close, sometimes more, amazing than roller coasters!

On Broadway I've seen: Curtains, Beauty and the Beast, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (revival cast), and Matilda (AMAZING show)

West End: Drowsy Chaperone

Filmed shows (not movies,but filmed on stage): Newsies, Phantom of the Opera

And of course those cast albums that we all hold close to out hearts. Favorites include: Bandstand,Anastasia, Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen, Newsies, Matilda, Come From Away, Tuck Everlasting (a shame it closed so early), Les Misearable, Something Rotten and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Productions I've been in (amateur acting ): Music Man (twice!), Bye Bye Birdie, Wizard of Oz, and Beauty and the Beast

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Tonight we got to see the second show of the 2017/2018 Broadway In Orlando series - "On Your Feet!" at the beautiful Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando. This show was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Choreography" in 2016... and you can see why! This was only the second stop on its national tour after finishing a very strong run on Broadway over the past few seasons.

 

From the official website: "ON YOUR FEET! is the inspiring true story about heart, heritage and two people who believed in their talent—and each other—to become an international sensation: Gloria and Emilio Estefan.

Directed by two-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots), with choreography by Olivier Award winner Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys) and a book by Academy Award® winner Alexander Dinelaris (Birdman), ON YOUR FEET! features some of the most iconic songs of the past quarter-century, including “Rhythm is Gonna Get You,” “Conga,” “Get On Your Feet,” “Don’t Want To Lose You Now,” “1-2-3” and “Coming Out of the Dark.” Prepare to be on your feet from start to finish!."

 

This is one of these shows that I had originally thought of as "another jukebox musical" and it is really so much more than that! This show has a TON of heart, an amazing cast and some of the best choreography I have seen in years. Growing up in South Florida I already knew some parts of the story of the Estefan's, but I didn't realize the struggles that they went through to break into the mega-stardom level that they ended up achieving. This is a story of hard work, love and the immigrants that help to make our country great. With that description, it sounds pretty serious... right? Mix all that with a TON of songs that you know every word to, some amazing vocals and a great live band and you have a party of a musical that you don't want to end! Speaking of the live band, the band director (along with some of the musicians) are from The Miami Sound Machine... so you know the vibe is authentic! Christie Prades is amazing as Gloria, her vocals are top notch and incredibly true to the music.

 

"On Your Feet!" is part of the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Broadway series which you can find more info about here: www.drphillipscenter.org/ Tickets are available in Orlando through October 22nd.

 

And if you're interested in seeing the show while on tour in another part of the country, you can visit their website at https://onyourfeetmusical.com/tour/ . It is on tour through October 2018!

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I really love our hometown theater! Really world-class and very "audience friendly" with amazing acoustics.

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AMAZING cast. Some had transferred from the Broadway production, some also did other award winning shows like "In the Heights".

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Time for the show to start! Love that Dr. Phillips does authentic Playbills unlike some other theaters in Florida.

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You know right from the beginning that the choreography is top notch. You can't keep your eyes off the stage for a second!

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Even the supporting cast have phenomenal voices that drive the storyline and keep you singing!

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I love the way they integrate the band during the concert scenes. They go seamlessly from a broadway show to a concert.. it really works!

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Curtain call time! I really can't get over how awesome the leads were. You never would have known that this was a touring show and you weren't seeing it on Broadway.

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Love the "This is what an american looks like" merchandise. It was a VERY powerful line in the show that got a huge round of applause.

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^ I love the cast CD, and I was always a fan of Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine,

so I am hoping that this eventually makes it's way to Vancouver, possibly in next year's season of tours.

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Just got back from seeing a community theater version of Newsies: The Musical at the Orlando Rep Theater. Now, the only other experience I have with community theater versions of Broadway musicals is Les Mis and Heathers. Both of those productions put on here in Orlando were FANTASTIC! The sets, the live music, the talent (both singing and acting) in those two shows were GREAT. Maybe not quite "Broadway caliber" but close enough to be very impressed by the entire production..

 

This version of Newsies was... well... "not that." Maybe I just don't have enough experience with community theater or maybe this production was just not on the same level as the other two (it wasn't), I'm not sure.

 

I don't want be too down on it because it was nice to see a production of this show put on for local theater, but the quality of certain aspects of the show really was not there. There were a few things that certainly stood out to me that were glaringly bad, for example the music. I didn't realize that this wouldn't have a live band like the other two shows I saw and it was most certainly noticeable. Also noticeable to me was the tempo of the music was ever so slightly off (slower) and I'm assuming that was due to having recorded audio and not a live band. It was like taking the original cast recording and playing it back 2% slower. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed, but it bothered me the entire show.

 

There were positives. Some of the sets looked nice and exceeded expectations. The leads were "decent" and for the most part pulled off the highlight songs fairly well. The ensemble songs were most certainly passable (although it did sound like there was a backing track during some of those songs which may have helped?) and the acting talent of the older actors were at least "OK." That being said, I do think this show could have really benefited with more professional dancers and Equity (assume this cast was non-Equity) talent for the leads.

 

I tried as much as I could not to compare it to the Broadway or touring version of the show because I knew going in that it wouldn't be that at all and it would be an unfair comparison. But comparing to other Broadway turned community theater shows I've seen, it didn't come close. And for a show that prides itself so much on dancing, I felt there was a lot more "gymnastics" in this version than actual dancing and that was sort of a bummer. But do I assume there are more people who can do a double back handspring than can pull of a decent tap dance number? I'm not sure. But most of the dance numbers left a lot to be desired.

 

I came away from both Heathers and Les Mis being super impressed thinking "WOW! That didn't disappoint at all!" but this show I'm fighting to think of good things to say. *sigh* I don't know if it was the production company that put it on, the talent chosen was just not quite up to par, or that it's just a really difficult show to pull off in community theater. Overall, I felt this production seemed more like what I would expect from a "high school" production rather than "community theater" but maybe the bar was just set super high with those other two shows I've seen.

 

Having said that though, the audience seemed to have a really good time and they enjoyed it, which is really what is most important. I do look forward to other regional versions of this show, I just hope next time a group in Orlando produces it they could learn from this version and fix those issues.

 

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We are there at the Orlando Rep seeing a community version of Newsies!

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The set DID look nice and was very functional. One of the towers moved like in the Broadway version (not automated but by hand) and it worked quite well!

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Yeah, my playbill had printing issues! lol Sort of set the tone for the quality of the rest of the production! :)

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The set looked good and the show had decent lighting.

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Some of the costumes looked good, some of them not so much. Snyder was wearing what looked like a Zoro hat! lol And most of the "turn of the century New York" accents were, um.... not great!

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The costumes really clashed I felt. In the Broadway version of the show, the Newsies wardrobe at least all felt like it was cut from the same cloth. This felt more like "If you have a Dapper Days costume at home, WEAR IT!!!"

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Was interesting to see the same merchandise from the Broadway version of the show on sale at the community theater. With tie-ins like using the real Broadway merch and logos selling itself as an extension of the Broadway version, I would have thought the production would have needed to be better, no?

 

I should also point out that I have seen other community theater here in Orlando that were original productions (not Broadway shows) and like the two I pointed out above, they were all excellent! The cast, staging, musical aspects, etc, were all many steps above this production of Newsies. Again, just not sure if my expectations were set too high based on my other experiences with community theater, or that I just haven't seen enough to it to fully appreciate what I saw. I don't want to be totally down on it because I know there was a lot of hard work and talent put into it, but I left feeling a bit bummed about what I saw...

 

EDIT: So this show reminded me to go back and look at My Review of the community version of Les Mis and yes, my comments were as a I remembered, blown away and exceeded expectations. And I'll be honest, I didn't go into Newsies with super high expectations.

Edited by robbalvey
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It's good to see local theaters trying to do some big productions, but it's unfortunate when they aren't able to pull it of that well. Although, we've never gotten Newsies in Reno so even community theater would be better than nothing for me.

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^^ Love the program oops! We've had pages missing from ours, "for some reason."

Local productions of musicals are usually a hit or miss thing.Thankfully, from personal experience,

our local productions have been pretty good. I have the feeling our

Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) will tackle "Newsies", eventually.

 

Sorry to read things didn't 'gel' too well, costume wise. The set looks interesting, though.

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Great production of "The Drowsy Chaperone" last summer at TUTS.

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So in a stark contrast from last nights regional production of Newsies (scroll up), I went to go see the Valencia College version of Evita tonight. So here are some thoughts...

 

This was a "ten dollar show" and my expectations were set as such. That being said, I was probably more impressed with this college version of Evita than the regional production of Newsies and here's why...

 

The performers, from what I understand, are all students with very little, if any, professional experience acting outside of school, community theater, and maybe some theme park work. They are not being paid and this is part of their education curriculum.

 

Evita is NOT an easy show to put on. The *entire* show is sung (think Les Mis) and it requires a lot from the cast, the leads especially.

 

The girl playing Eva was impressive and so was the guy playing Che. Both had their characters down very well, and it would at least appear they had done their research watching some Broadway bootlegs or at very least the Madonna film. This was the entire Broadway Revival score including the song Madonna wrote for the film. The ENTIRE show, nothing abbreviated. That's a lot of lines to be sung! And while their singing talent may not have been that of a professional (just being honest), they nailed every line perfectly. And that says a lot for a production from a college IMO.

 

Like yesterday's Newsies production, I do miss the live band and I felt the talent kept having to wait for the audio tracks to change which felt a bit amateur but again, this is a college production unlike Newsies which billed itself as a regional extension of the Broadway show.

 

I'm not sure it's fair to really criticize what I saw that much. There were a few things like the bad wig Eva wears in Act II and probably a bit too much confetti during Money Kept Rolling in, but aside from that I don't have many issues with the show. I went to see it tonight because I like Evita and wanted to see it live again, and that requirement was most certainly fulfilled!

 

Actually, Evita is my favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber show and while it's not his best work and there are many awkward things about the show in general that I have learned to accept over the years, I really like it and I did not come away disappointed from this.

 

Overall, my expectations were perfectly met which is not a negative and the more I think about it probably even slightly exceeded knowing how difficult of a show it is and how good the leads were.

 

On a side note, the last time I saw this show on Broadway it was 2012 and it didn't hit quite as close to home since we weren't having so many screwed up issues with our own country and you sort of just thought of this story as something well in the past and how could history ever repeat itself? Oh, wait...

 

(And oddly enough the word "trump" actually does appear in the show!)

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Edited by robbalvey
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