Jason Robert Brown is a name that is maybe unfamiliar to the casual theatregoer, but you wouldn’t think that was the case sat in the packed London Palladium for his BBC Radio 2 concert. It is a treat in itself to have Brown in the UK, but the extra appeal of this occasion was that […]
Soulpepper, a company of Toronto-based Canadian theatre artists, is doing a residency at the Signature Theatre complex for the month of July. If the concert they served up in honor of Canada Day (July 1st and 2nd) is any indication, New York City is having a wonderful month. From the opening speech by Artistic Director […]
This month we were treated to two pieces that weren’t really musical theatre, nor were they strictly concerts. They were cabarets, I guess, but they were really stage-bound musical explorations of people and place by musicians who make theatre and theatre people who make music. Ryan G. Hinds’ Say Grace Sidelined for 6 months […]
Facing the garlanded stage with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra warming up, looked down on by the Etobicoke School of the Arts Holiday Chorus, I can’t help but feel the buzz of holiday cheer. I have not had the privilege to attend the symphony since I was a child, and am enjoying the energy of Roy […]
I recently had the extreme pleasure of seeing The Lone Bellow at Boston’s House of Blues, and I can’t have asked for a better way to spend a Wednesday night. The first opener of the show was Hugh Masterson, a singer-songwriter out of my very own Nashville, TN. He said at the beginning of his […]
Two nights in October, I did something I haven’t done in far too long- I went to the symphony. But these were not regular nights at the symphony. There was no Peter Oundjian, an uncharacteristic smell filled Roy Thomson Hall, the average age of the patrons was at least 20 years below expected and, when […]
Performing with a symphony orchestra is a tricky thing, especially for a musical theatre performer. On a stage that likely has better acoustics than your usual proscenium, in a space traditionally occupied by concert cellists and world-class operatic sopranos, without the help of your costume or your co-stars, the story or the special effects, you […]
Broadway’s golden boy will be taking the Roy Thompson Hall stage tomorrow night to sing Stephen Schwartz songs alongside the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Fresh off his pre-Broadway run in the new Finding Neverland musical and a movie star turn as Jamie in the Last Five Years film adaptation, Tony-nominated (and My Theatre Award-winning!) Newsies star/Smash saviour […]