Nyack’s Neil Berg is readying his show “Broadway and Berg: Broadway Show Stoppers and the Theater Songs of Neil Berg,” which opens next week. If you want to get a taste of what to expect, set your DVR and check out Berg on Fox 5’s “Good Day NY” this Friday… Read More →
Olivier, Branagh, Gibson, Fiennes, Law. On Saturday, the fraternity of actors to play Hamlet grows, as Matthew Amendt takes on the melancholy Dane at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival under a tent at the Boscobel Restoration in Garrison. No pressure.
Last week’s torrential downpour created a tsunami of sorts, a six-foot wall of water than raged down the Main Street hill in Nyack and right into Riverspace in Nyack, causing extensive damage that might take months to fix. Producer Danielle Rudess of the Helen Hayes Youth Theater tells me she… Read More →
Rockland Theatre Company holds auditions tonight for kids 11 to 15 to join the company of “13,” the production for this summer’s camp, which runs the month of July. Camp runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, July 6 to 27. Camp culminates with performances of “13,” July… Read More →
I invited playwright Barry Malawer to share his thoughts on the opening of “dEAD dOG pARK’ at Shades Rep in Haverstraw. Here’s his guest blog: Last night my play opened. To say I was nervous is an understatement. The play moved so fast from finished script (February) to a fully… Read More →
Phileas Fogg can’t tarry. He has just 1,920 hours, and his pocket watch is tick, tick, ticking. “Around the World in 80 Days” — the second production of Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s 25th anniversary season — opens Saturday and will play in repertory with “The Comedy of Errors,” which opened… Read More →
This is a big weekend for Yorktown playwright Barry Malawer (a real-estate broker by day) whose newest work, ‘dEAD dOG pARK,’ gets its first staging, at Haverstraw Youth Theatre/Shades Repertory on June 23, 24 and 25, directed by Shades’ artistic director Samuel Harps. It’s the story of a white NYPD… Read More →
The Brewster Theater Company’s summer is set to the strains of Richard Rodgers and the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, as “The Sound of Music” comes to the Brewster High School Performing Arts Center Aug. 4, 5 and 6. Directed and choreographed by Christopher Gladysz, the production’s musical director is… Read More →
You can’t say the folks at Fort Hill Players don’t think ahead. Director Frank Rakas has set auditions for Douglas Carter Beane’s “As Bees in Honey Drown,” a satirical comedy about about an impossibly ambitious would-be writer’s life in New York. Auditions are at 7:30 p.m., July 11 and 12… Read More →
Last summer, it was a high-flying boy who wouldn’t grow up. This year, it’s a Who-hearing pachyderm who’s faithful, 100 percent. Westchester Broadway Theatre presents the second Family Theatre Company production, Stephen Flaherty’s and Lynn Ahrens’ “Seussical: The Musical,” an eye-poppingly colorful production directed by John Fanelli, through July 31. It’s… Read More →
It has one of the bounciest, liveliest scores — by New Rochelle native and northern Westchester resident Alan Menken — and a wicked sense of humor. What’s not to love about “Little Shop of Horrors,” which plays Yorktown Stage July 23 through 31. Directed by Pia Haas, choreographed by Dorina… Read More →
If people tell you you’re funny, you might consider where you’ll be on Thursdays in July. That’s when the search for the Lower Hudson Valley’s Funniest will be held, at Slattery’s of Piermont Landing in Piermont. Beginning July 14 and running through the Aug. 4 finale, local comedy producers will… Read More →
“Tommy can you hear me?” The New Generation Theatre—the brainchild of Justin Boccitto and Sol Bloch—put out feelers for a home for its inaugural season and production of “The Who’s Tommy.” Would it be at Fieldstone, where Bloch teaches? Or at Clarkstown South, where Boccitto leads the musicals and where… Read More →
Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” — which opens the 25th anniversary season at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison on Saturday — is far-fetched. OK, it’s downright loopy. Twin boys (both named Antipholus) have twin servants (both named Dromio). Oh, please. A shipwreck splits them: One Antipholus and his… Read More →
Welcome, Isabella Marion DiBuono, daughter of Christine DiTota and Keith DiBuono, two theater folks who have worked across Westchester, including with the Armonk Players. Isabella arrived yesterday at 3:30 p.m., weighing 8 lbs, 1 ounce. Last year at this time, Isabella’s mom was declaring she didn’t want to grow up,... Read More →
I’ve been writing a lot about “George’s Turn,” Monday’s benefit for George Puello, for a couple of reasons. It’s about someone who has been selfless in celebrating the arts. And it’s about his friends—the community he has built—coming together to help him. Gotta love that and celebrate that when you… Read More →
For a decade, George Puello’s Cab Calloway Awards at Westchester Broadway Theatre have shone a spotlight on achievement in the arts in Westchester. Puello and his committee annually pick worthy local recipients from the world of theater, dance, opera and music — each of whom is honored from the stage… Read More →
Adam Chanler-Berat, a New City kid who has made it big in “Next to Normal” and the much-talked-about Off-Broadway run of “Peter and the Starcatcher,” will play Mark in Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” this summer.
There’s a new theater group in Westchester, one committed to serving as an incubator for new works and developing artists. Alan Lutwin’s Westchester Collaborative Theater — a consortium of playwrights, directors and actors — will hold a staged reading of six new works by local writers at the Ossining Public… Read More →
World’s End Theater is extending its first production, an indoors-outdoors version of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” through June 19. (For an earlier story on the production, click here.) It’s still rain or shine on the landing just near the Depot Theater in Garrison’s Landing. “The Seagull,” Garrison Landing, Philipstown. Through June… Read More →
If you were one of the lucky thousand who got to be in that loud proud hall last night, what was your favorite moment of the show? What memory do you take away?
The winners of the 2011 Metropolitan High School Theater Awards, announced Monday night at the Paramount Center for the Arts: Artistic (Performance) Categories Overall Production: Northern Highlands, “Seussical” Actress in a Leading Role: Stepinac, “Beauty and the Beast,” Emily Schlotman (Belle). Actor in a Leading Role: Northern Highlands, “Seussical,” Alex… Read More →
Now we know who’s Who. Northern Highlands High School’s production of “Seussical: The Musical” was named outstanding overall production, and its Horton the Elephant was named outstanding leading actor, at the 13th annual Metropolitan High School Theater Awards at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts last night. The Metros —... Read More →
Outstanding Overall Production: Northern Highlands – “Seussical” Nice to see the kids from Pleasantville standing up to applaud as the Highlands kids stormed the stage. The director praised his staff, talented students, parents and a wonderfully supportive admininistration, a quadruple threat.
Outstanding Direction By Teacher: Pleasantville H.S. – The Wizard of Oz – Kathleen Donovan-Warren Donovan-Warren’s kids leapt to their feet as their director’s name was displayed on the screen. She shushed the crowd, thanks Danielle Rudess, her parents and her cast. We are the lucky ones. We all have theater… Read More →
Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role: Archbishop Stepinac H.S. – Beauty and the Beast – Emily Schlotman (Belle) Schlotman made her way down the side aisle, mouth agape, fanning herself. “This was not planned. OK. First of all I’d like to thank the Metros. I loved coming here three years… Read More →
Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role: Northern Highlands H.S. – Seussical – Alex Perrin (Horton the Elephant) Yes, Horton! Perrin was beaming as he took to the stage. I have no idea what to say at all, he said.
Outstanding Musical Direction: Pleasantville H.S. – The Wizard of Oz – Thomas Heintzelman Heintzelman said “this is really cool.” He gave a shout out to anyone who ever played in a high school pit. He thanked the parents for never saying “my kid needs to play this song in a… Read More →
The Hotbox Girls come out for “A Bushel and a Peck,” with an appropriately squeaky Miss Adelaide. Then it’s on to “Sue Me” with Adelaide and Nathan. Then “If I Were A Bell” with a looped Sarah Brown and a patient Sky. Then “Luck Be a Lady” with 10 crap-shooting… Read More →
Outstanding Costuming Achievement: Bergen County Academies – 42nd Street – Stephanie Alexander
