Theatermania.com has put up the livestream videos of the Drama desk Awards for the last several years for rewatch, so hopefully this concert will show up, too. There is a page for it already.
Continue reading “Bright Star Reunion Concert Starts Soon! [Has Ended]”
As we reported last week, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell will host a Bright Star concert tonight (Monday, 12/12) at the Town Hall venue featuring Carmen Cusack, Paul Alexander Nolan, and many others from the original cast. The concert is sold out, but you can still watch it! Theatermania.com is livestreaming the concert at 7:30 PM ET. There still aren’t any more details on the livestream, but I will update with a link and any other info I find it before the concert tonight.
More from the Bright Star Facebook page:
Join us online for a live stream of Monday night’s sold-out Bright Star reunion concert at Town Hall in NYC, exclusively on TheaterMania.com. Co-creators Steve Martin and Edie Brickell will join as both hosts and guest-performers for the evening. Immediately following the concert, the legendary Peter Asher will moderate a Q&A with Martin, Brickell, and other members of the creative team.
The livestream will begin at 7:30pm EST and can be viewed by visiting TheaterMania.com.
Since its release this past spring, the original cast recording of Bright Star has enjoyed the rare distinction of having charted on five different Billboard lists. The cast album hit #1 on the Top Current Blue Grass Albums chart, #2 on the Top Broadway chart, and #5 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart. It also made the Top 100 on the Billboard Top Albums chart and Top 200 on the Overall Digital Albums chart. The album is produced by the legendary, multi-Grammy Award-winning producer, manager, and musician Peter Asher. It is one of the top selling cast recordings of the year, and is now nominated for a 2017 Grammy Award. For more info & to buy it: https://www.sh-k-boom.com/bright-star-original-broadway-cast-recording
These were my initial thoughts after seeing Euan and Hannah the first time, with some minor edits to make it a little more coherent. (I was very excited and fangirling all over the place.) My main impression was: HANNAH. My review of the evening show is below my review of the matinee.
As soon as she came out on stage I was taken with her. She looks a LOT like Lena, more than Shannon does, and she has a catlike quality that I haven’t seen in a Yitzhak before. The way she carries herself is captivating. When she made her announcement just before the show, I loved the way she spoke. She sounded a little like she was singing even then, particularly in one little part where she almost did a little trill, of sorts. Then she started SINGING. Her voice is beautiful. It’s very clear and pleasantly high-pitched but full and husky, and the way she uses it is effortlessly smooth. The little riffs and trills she does are amazing. She tends to slide down at the ends of notes (called a glissando, I’m a huge fan). Her voice reminds me of a stream, the smooth transitions she makes from note to note.
No other Hedwig can pull off a high kick like this man. I mean, WOW. Y’all probably know I’m a Darren Criss fan, and I find it hard to resist anything Andrew Rannells or John Cameron Mitchell turn up in. But Euan has the best legs. (I’ll concede to JCM fans if anyone wants to argue with me.) Hedwig also has tattoos in this incarnation, a partial sleeve on her left arm that runs up over her pec, and several smaller ones on her right arm. (Including a zia, the sun symbol of the Zia people and New Mexico, the metawitches home state.)
But, on to more important things. Euan’s Hedwig is closer to a combination of NPH and John Cameron Mitchell in manner than any of the others. Great with the physical comedy. She’s more sad than angry, and both graceful and clumsy at the same time. She’s loose and flexible, rolling around on the stage more than any other Hedwig, I think. She rolls down the car windshield and right onto the floor at the beginning of Angy Inch. Euan’s Hedwig puts on a good face and keeps soldiering on until she. just. can’t. do. it. any. more. Then, SHE’S DONE. And she breaks down completely during Long Grift/Exquisite Corpse. She’s broken, and can’t even hold her head up.
Allegiance was developed by George Takei (Star Trek) with Marc Acito, Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, inspired by Takei’s own experiences during World War 2, and those of his family. It stars Lea Salonga, George Takei, Telly Leung, Katie Rose Clarke, Greg Watanabe, Michael K Lee, and Christopheren Nomura.
More Details from the Fathom Events page for Allegiance:
Date: Tuesday, December 13
Time: 7:30 p.m. (local time)
Run Time: 2 hours 30 minutes (approximate)
Ticketing: Tickets are available by clicking on the orange “Buy Tickets” button on the More Details page. If online ticketing is not available for your location, you can purchase your tickets by visiting the box office at your local participating cinema.
The original Broadway cast of the musical Bright Star is giving a concert at Town Hall in NYC this Monday, December 12, 2016. The concert will be livestreamed by the website Theatermania. There’s no information on how the livestreaming will work available yet. I’ll update this post if Theatermania updates before Monday night.
The musical Bright Star began previews on Broadway on February 25, 2016, running for 30 previews and 109 regular performances beforce closing on June 26, 2016. The show was nominated for five Tonys, including Best Musical, but if your name wasn’t Hamilton, your musical probably didn’t win many (or any) or Tonys this year. It’s now nominated for a 2017 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
This show is a sweet, quiet, romantic show that was never going to be able to keep up with the splashiness of Hamilton. With Waitress and Bright Star being similar shows, and both having their Broadway debuts this past spring, only one was going to survive. Sara Bareilles and Jessie Mueller are currently more popular than Steve Martin and Carmen Cusack, so Waitress won, but both are great shows*. If you like Waitress or Once, there’s a good chance you’d like Bright Star. The show has a gorgeous bluegrass score and a story that spans 3 generations. It takes place in North Carolina in the first half of the 20th century. The story involves love, trust, betrayal, secrets, family, identity, discovery and reconciliation. It reminds me of Tennessee Williams’ stories like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long Hot Summer, though without as much of an edge.
BroadwayWorld.com is reporting that NBC will reshow Hairspray Live! on Monday, December 26th, at 8:00 PM ET. If you missed the original, live airing on December 7th, this is your chance to watch it on the big screen. In the meantime, you can still watch the full musical and the preshow, Countdown to Hairspray Live!, on Youtube and on NBC’s website.
Disclaimer: BroadwayWorld is currently the only site with this story. Even NBC isn’t saying yet when they’re repeating Hairspray Live! They’ve repeated every one of the previous musicals at some point in December, so I’ve been watching for it to be scheduled. I’ll keep an eye out to see if the date changes. 12/11/16: Other sites, including NBC, are now showing the reprise date of 12/26 at 8:00PM ET.
The Hedwig on Broadway Facebook page has posted a new video featuring Euan Morton, the current Hedwig on the Hedwig and the Angry Inch National Tour, singing Wicked Little Town, a song from the show. Hannah Corneau, the current Yitzhak on the tour, sings backup, and Justin Craig, music director and Skszp, plays acoustic guitar. The video was recorded in Denver at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The cast is not in costume or make up. They were likely singing as part of a press event for the tour stop, which just started on Tuesday. I’m loving Euan and Hannah’s voices on the video, but I’ll let you know more when I write my review after I see them live tomorrow! (Writing this from a hotel in Denver.) 😉
Overall, I really loved the show. To be fair, it’s kind of a can’t miss show for me anyway, and with this cast, that would be hard to do. There were some things I didn’t like, which I’ll get to later, but I found it to be a well done production in general.
The opening was great, though I don’t think anyone will ever top last winter’s Grease Live! opening with the beach fake out and the run across the studio lot while Jessie J sang. Good Morning Baltimore opened the show with the same sort of excitement and movement though, and the momentum kept up throughout most of the show. It did drag a bit at times, mostly because they added enough commercials to turn a 2 hour show into a 3 hour broadcast.
In the current political climate, it was incredible to see a show centered around so many women of different sizes, ages, and ethnicities, celebrating them all, asking for them all to be respected. The show has an important message of acceptance for everyone and encouragement to keep fighting the good fight while working together.
Continue reading “Hairspray Live! Review: Welcome to the 60s!”
The full Countdown show is up on Youtube! My local station opted to show the news instead of the preshow, so I’m seeing this for the first time now, too, except for the parts that were on Facebook. Here it is, for everyone who missed it.
Metawitches 
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