by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 23, 2012
It isn’t easy to tell an entire story without one word of spoken dialogue, let alone give proper attention to two concurrent plots that run simultaneously but never intertwine, except emotionally. Yet SEASONS does just that, and with such deep resonance that sold-out houses were sobbing as they watched the four central characters of Elaine Pechacek and Katie Hammond’s original musical live through one very specific year that, for them, was filled with love, joy, regret, confusion, despair, birth, and death. Continue Reading…
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by The Happiest Medium on January 17, 2012
Legacy of the Tiger Mother
Book and Lyrics: Angela Chan & Michael Manley
Music: Angela Chan
Director: Lysander Abadia
Got Mommy Issues? Join us on a musical journey of old school parenting in a new country.
Show Times:
- Mon 1/16 @ 8:00pm
- Wed 1/18 @ 6:30pm
- Thu 1/19 @ 6:30pm
Answers by Angela Chan – Producer/Co-writer/Lyricist/Composer
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Angela Chan: East meets west in our show about a first generation Chinese immigrant, Lily, and her daughter Mei as they endure the trials and tribulations of old school parenting in a new country. We hope to show NYC audiences a taste of tough love, Asian style!
Continue Reading…
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on December 13, 2011
Younger minds may find entertainment and diversion at 3 Ghosts, this stage musical adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ story, A Christmas Carol by Pipe Dream Theatre Productions. Everything about it resonates with an enthusiastic note of, well, glee. The attractive and animated cast strut and stand about stage looking very pleased with themselves, and the energy level is up; positive; high. They know enough to drop the smiles when the mood switches to somber – as the tale of a haunted, miserly materialist may necessitate – but you know it won’t be long before the scene is lit once more with those megawatt smiles, so de rigueur for the current generation of spotlight-hungry performers. And with an ensemble cast of forty plus, that’s a lot of light, a lot of energy. There are almost twenty musical performances, several involving choreographed dancers, and all on the modest sized stage at the Beckett Theatre. Just imagine the stage direction logistics alone!
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 21, 2011
There was so much to be excited about before heading into Gleeam – the Glee / Scream Mash-up Musical written by Andrew Lloyd Baughman with lyrics by Phil Close and directed by Emily Jablonski. First of all, the advanced artwork was fun and clever. The iconic loser “L” now holds a menacing knife! How cunning! Secondly, the idea was how-can-you-miss?-perfect: two well-recognized, well-received high school memes thrown together to create one fantastic pot of crazy zaniness. Hilarious! Thirdly, the venue (Le Poisson Rouge) is sexy and spooky all at the same time, glowing red against oceans of black. “This is gonna be good,” I thought to myself as I took my seat and waited – I’ll say it – gleefully … while taking in the gorgeous backdrop done by talented artist Jared Davis.
It didn’t take long, however, to realize that Gleeam was actually not going to live up to its advanced hype.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 18, 2011
Here’s the story … of The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady.
It’s 1974 and two families, one Brady, one Partridge are at war. Their battlefield exists in cancelled sit-com land and their weapons consist of killer dance moves, cut throat ballads and production numbers meant to slay you in the aisles. Their story is a mash up of well-known Partridge and Brady references retrofitted into such Shakespearean plays as Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, among others.
The result is everything Fringe has come to be celebrated for: an innovative, enjoyable, hilarious night of theatre written by Stephen Garvey and directed by Jay Stern that isn’t afraid to push the envelope.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 21, 2010
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake
William Blake belongs on Off-Off-Broadway. Or at least he would have appreciated it, because of his belief that Art should be about Imagination rather than style and fashion of what people expect a work to be like just so that it can become more commercially acceptable. He said in response to his contemporaries, “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s.” He had strong beliefs in trying to touch the mind of God through soaring visions of what he believed beauty really was. By doing this, he was fundamental in the creation of Romanticism – which was the genesis of many other more modern movements in philosophy and the arts . . . either directly or by inspiration.
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It isn’t easy to tell an entire story without one word of spoken dialogue, let alone give proper attention to two concurrent plots that run simultaneously but never intertwine, except emotionally. Yet SEASONS does just that, and with such deep resonance that sold-out houses were sobbing as they watched the four central characters of Elaine Pechacek and Katie Hammond’s original musical live through one very specific year that, for them, was filled with love, joy, regret, confusion, despair, birth, and death. Continue Reading…
