Broadway
What To Watch June 30th To Take Away The Blues
2pm: Live from Carnegie Hall Daniil Trifonov Few artists’ careers are as closely intertwined with their history at Carnegie Hall as that of pianist Daniil Trifonov. Two months after winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, he was on the Hall’s main stage in a concerto performance with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. The following season he returned for his recital debut, subsequently released as his first recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label. By 2017, he became the Hall’s youngest Perspectives artist, curating a seven-concert series. Join Trifonov as he discusses his meteoric rise over the past decade with the equally legendary Emanuel Ax and special guest Sergei Babayan.
3pm: Rapping With The Artists: From the New Federal Theater, André DeShields and Chuck Smith rap about creating theater centered around historical figures.Must register.
4pm: CyberTank Variety Show: Black Phoenix Nest – Black Excellence: Welcome to CyberTank: an e-home for e-merging artists. CyberTank hosts a weekly, remote, multidisciplinary, variety arts gathering open to all as well as other programming throughout the week. Help The Tank keep on Tankin’. Hosted by Phoenix Dey, the lineup includes Beleza Negra, Nita B Yellowcakes, Bentley Rebel, Utter Beauty, YungPoleMaster, Queenly Femmetastic, Jazz the Poler, and Sassy.
4:30pm: Playbill’s Stream Stealers: Merle Dandridge The stage and screen star has played Kala in Tarzanand Papa Ge in the 2018 revival of Once On This Island, and the title role in Aida. Dandridge will star in the upcoming HBO Max series The Flight Attendant.
5- 5:45pm: Music and Mind Live with Renée Fleming launched in 2016 under Fleming’s leadership with Dr. Francis Collins. The program is a partnership between the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tonight Deepak Chopra.
4pm–9:30pm: Marie’s Crisis Virtual Piano Bar Tonight’s scheduled pianists are James Merillat (@James-Merillat-2) and Franca Vercelloni (@Franca-Vercelloni).
5pm: LAO at Home: Learn at Home (Grown-Up Edition) Join Music Director James Conlon for a podcast introduction to Wagner’s Ring cycle, the perfect way to prepare for the audio stream of LA Opera’s 2010 Ring, coming in July to LAO At Home’s “From the Vault” series.
5pm:Virtual Musical Theater Workshop for ages 7-12. (each week includes 3 classes: drama, dance & voice) Stage Right now offers a weekly VIRTUAL musical theater workshop for students. Students will participate in three classes during the week, where they will work on Broadway material to develop their performing skills. Each week consists of:
- 1 Drama Class (Tuesday 30 min.)
- 1 Choreography Class (Thursday, 30 min.)
- 1 Vocal Class (*Friday, 45 min.)
Each week is different and customized for the students in the class. The class size is limited. $45
5:30: Jenna & the Whale Reading Benefit By North Star Projects. A powerful new play written by Vanessa Garcia and Jake Cline. Please join us on Tuesday, June 30 at 5:30 p.m. for a virtual reading and benefit for North Star Projects and The Sol Project. Following the presentation, there will be a post-show conversation with playwrights Vanessa Garcia and Jake Cline, and director Conor Bagley moderated by North Star Projects producing artistic director and Sol Project artistic producer Adriana Gaviria.
6:15: Dickinson with Emily herself—Hailee Steinfeld. Join the Twitter livestream event to watch the first episode of Dickinson along with star and Executive Producer Hailee Steinfeld. Stay tuned for a special musical surprise afterwards featuring the cast.
6pm: Eva Luna sabel Allende’s novel is re-imagined for the stage by OBIE-winning playwright Caridad Svich. This play tells the coming-of-age story of, a woman born into poverty who rises up through the world to find her voice as a storyteller and a reflector of history. Enchanting, comical, and sly, Eva Luna follows the character’s journey from childhood to adulthood, and along the way allows us to meet an array of characters that will change the course of Eva’s life forever. The reading will be performed in Spanish.
7pm: Eva Price Tony Award-winning Broadway producer of Oklahoma!, Jagged Little Pill, who was just announced on the inaugural list of Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Leaders & Executives, will launch a new podcast called “My First Show” exclusively on Broadway Podcast Network. The first episode, featuring Emmy nominated TV & Broadway star Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family,”...Spelling Bee, Fully Committed), launches tonight.
7:15pm: Piano Bar Live! Scott Barbarino’s Piano Bar Live! Michael McAssey hosts a lineup that includes Sal Viviano, Liz Larsen, Phyllis Pastore, Mark Hartman, Becky Menzie, Yvette Monique Clark and a mystery guest.
7:30: Noche Unidos: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Estefan, Rita Moreno, and More By Ballet Hispánico. Seven virtual world premiere performances featuring new works created remotely in the past weeks by world renowned choreographers. Celebrity appearances including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Estefan, Rita Moreno, Norman Lear, Pacquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, and other Latinx artists. A highlight of the evening will be performances by Ballet Hispánico School of Dance students Julienne Buenaventura and Ruby Castillo, Nuestro Futuro scholarship recipients in BH’s La Academia program.
7:30: Acting for a Cause’s Live Reading of “Up in the Air” Acting for a Cause presents a live reading of Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, starring Zazie Beetz, Corbin Bleu, and more. Joining are Michael Zegen, Pom Klementieff, Zoey Burger, Benjamin Barrett, Jessica Parker Kennedy, and Mason Alexander Park.
7:30pm: Wagner’s Die Walküre The second installment of Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle, Die Walküre is the most popular and most self-contained episode in the epic tetralogy. It combines the mythical machinations of gods and demigods with the deeply human love story of the brave hero Siegmund and the dignified Sieglinde, whose passion is undiminished even when they discover that they are long-lost brother and sister, separated at birth. It also features one of opera’s most touching father-daughter relationships—that between Wotan, king of the gods, and his warrior-maiden daughter Brünnhilde, leader of the Valkyries. Wagner’s score requires singers as superhuman as the characters they portray and features some of the most glorious orchestral music ever written, making for an unforgettable operatic experience.
7:15: Piano Bar Live! continues guests will be John Bronston, Kathy “Babe” Robinson, Ruby Rims, Katie Dunne McGrath, Rick Jensen, Michael Kirk Lane, Riley Yates, Collin Yates, Scott Barbarino, Tony Javed and our weekly mystery guest .PBL! is the 2020 MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) Award winner for “Show of the Year for excellence in getting the word out about Cabaret and Piano Bar” through live-streams from The Duplex Cabaret and Piano Bar and Brandy’s Piano Bar in 2019.Join us this TUESDAY, June 30 at www.facebook.com/PianoBarLive or on PBL!
8pm: Stars in the House: Ballet Hispánico Gala with Artistic Director and CEO Eduardo Vilaro and guests Rebecca Luker and Gay Willis.
8pm: The Producers Prospective with Paul Tazewell.
2o days to go! Every year people panic to find the perfect gift. We at T2C have been collecting idea’s all year long to bring you the perfect gift guide at all price levels. When you’re at the end of your rope trying to find the perfect Christmas present this year, come to this guide for some great suggestions.
Chita & Patrick Pacheco at Drama Book Shop event May 15, 2023 Photo by Merle Frimark
There are a lot of books out there this year but we highly recommend Chita: A Memoir , the critically-acclaimed book is written by the legendary Broadway icon Chita Rivera with arts journalist Patrick Pacheco. Chita takes fans behind-the-scenes of all her shows and cabaret acts, she shares candid stories of her many colleagues, friends, and lovers. She speaks with empathy and hindsight of her deep associations with complicated geniuses like Fosse and Robbins, as well as with the mega-talent Liza Minnelli, with whom she co-starred in The Rink. She openly discusses her affair with Sammy Davis, Jr. as well as her marriage to Tony Mordente and her subsequent off-the-radar relationships. Chita revisits the terrible car accident that threatened to end her career as a dancer forever. Center stage to Chita’s story are John Kander and Fred Ebb, the songwriters and dear friends indelibly tied to her career through some of her most enduring work: Chicago, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Visit.
Chita’s love of performing began as a child in Washington, D.C., when her mother enrolled her in a local ballet school to channel her boundless energy. Still a teenager, she moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet after an audition for George Balanchine himself and winning a scholarship. But Broadway beckoned, and by twenty she was appearing in the choruses of Golden Age shows like Guys and Dolls and Can-Can. In the latter, she received special encouragement from its star Gwen Verdon, forging a personal and professional friendship that would help shape her career. The groundbreaking West Side Story brought her into the orbit of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Hal Prince, and Stephen Sondheim. After Bye Bye Birdie further burnished her rising star, she reunited with Verdon and her then-husband Bob Fosse to work on the film version of Sweet Charity and the celebrated original Broadway production of Chicago.
Chita: A Memoir was published in English and Spanish and the English audio version of the Memoir was recorded by Chita. A Spanish audio version is also available.
“Chita Rivera blazed a trail where none existed so the rest of us could see a path forward. She has been part of some of the greatest musicals in the history of the form, from Anita in the trailblazing West Side Story through Claire Zachanassian in the underrated masterpiece The Visit, over 60 years later. She is a Puerto Rican Broadway icon and the original ‘triple threat.’ We’re so lucky to be alive in the same timeline as Chita Rivera.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“A frank and fascinating memoir from one of the truly great artists of the American Theater. Lots of stories … Lots of insight … and quite a few caustic statements from Chita’s alter ego, Dolores. An illuminating history and a guaranteed pleasure!” — John Kander
Broadway legend and national treasure Chita Rivera, multi-Tony Award winner, Kennedy Center honoree, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom – has taken no prisoners on stage or screen for seven decades. From her trailblazing performance as the original Anita in West Side Story—for which she tapped her own Puerto Rican roots—to her haunting 2015 star turn in The Visit. Chita has proven to be much more than just a captivating dancer, singer, and actress beloved by audiences and casts alike. In her equally captivating and one-of-a-kind memoir, Written with Patrick Pacheco, the woman born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero shares an incomparable life, both on stage and behind the curtain.
By the way this Memoir has won a Gold Medal for “Best Autobiography – English” at the 2023 International Latino Book Awards. https://www.latinobookawards.org/
Click here to buy your copy.
Here is the amazing cast of Spamalot. Christopher Fitzgerald as Patsy, James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as The Lady of the Lake, Ethan Slater as The Historian/Prince Herbert, Jimmy Smagula as Sir Bedevere, Michael Urie as Sir Robin, Nik Walker as Sir Galahad andTaran Killam as Lancelot.
I was so inspired I drew the whole cast.
To read T2C’s review click here.
Art
Ahead of the Broadway Opening of Lempicka The Longacre Theatre Is Showcasing Art Work By Tamara de Lempicka
The Longacre Theatre (220 W 48th St.), soon-to-be home of the sweeping new musical, Lempicka, is showcasing a curated selection of renowned artist Tamara de Lempicka’s most famous works. Eschewing traditional theatrical front-of-house advertising, the Longacre’s façade now boasts prints, creating a museum-quality exhibition right in the heart of Times Square. The musical opens on Broadway on April 14, 2024 at the same venue.
The Longacre’s outdoor exhibition includes works of Self Portrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti) (1929), Young Girl in Green (1927), Nu Adossé I (1925), The Red Tunic (1927), The Blue Scarf (1930), The Green Turban (1930), Portrait of Marjorie Ferry (1932), Portrait of Ira P. (1930), Portrait of Romana de la Salle (1928), and Adam and Eve (1932).
Starring Eden Espinosa and directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, Lempicka features book, lyrics, and original concept by Carson Kreitzer, book and music by Matt Gould, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Spanning decades of political and personal turmoil and told through a thrilling, pop-infused score, Lempicka boldly explores the contradictions of a world in crisis, a woman ahead of her era, and an artist whose time has finally come.
Young Girl in Green painted by Tamara de Lempicka (1927). Oil on plywood.