(212) 749-4618

Blog

Children’s Theatre Brings a Little ‘Grace’ to a Rough Political Season

screen-shot-2016-10-13-at-10-16-15-pm
Grace (Talia Robinson) decides she’d like to represent her third-grade class in “Grace for President” at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

Despite the fuss made over Hillary Clinton, Grace Campbell was the first female to declare an interest in being president in 2016. We’ll find out how she does well before November.

She’s the third-grade heroine of “Grace for President,” the musical Children’s Theatre of Charlotte commissioned and will open next week. (School performances precede the Oct. 21 opening to the public.) It’s a world premiere, though CTC allowed Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Ga. to do two public performances last weekend.

Back when Clinton’s candidacy was still a rumor – a likely rumor, but not confirmed – CTC artistic director Adam Burke hired Joan Cushing to write book, music and lyrics for this show. She’d done “Ella’s Big Chance” for CTC and happily dug into the story of Grace, which started life as a picture book by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrator LeUyen Pham.

It depicts the race between practical, down-to-Earth Grace and Thomas Cobb, who attains popularity by making inflated promises he can’t keep. Any similarity to the current “adult” race remains accidental, as Burke and Cushing were discussing this idea in 2014.

“We thought it would be a perfect fit for the election season of 2016,” says Burke. “Joan had a career for years as a political satirist in Washington – she played the piano (in revues) as Mrs. Foggybottom – so who better to write a musical that explains the electoral system?” Michelle Long, CTC’s director of education, will helm the show.

The kids in Ms. Barrington’s class all represent a state in the election. Not to give the ending away, but it comes down to the three electoral votes of Wyoming – which elected the first female governor in U.S. history, Nellie Tayloe Ross, in 1924.

Grace’s African-American heritage also seems timely to Burke, not just because we have a black president now but because “what’s happened in Charlotte recently has made this story relevant. It’s important for us to provide offerings that represent the whole community.”

Yet the message, he says, is less that girls can serve capably or even that African-Americans should have a hand in running the country. It’s more that “you should vote for the person most qualified to serve, whoever it may be. Vote not for what they are – Republican, Democrat, man, woman – but what they stand for.”

Read the full story by Lawrence Toppman for the Charlotte Observer here.

Interview with Tammy Ryan: Her Life as a PLONY (Playwright Living Outside of New York)

Tammy Ryan born and raised in Astoria, Queens, left to go to college, and, despite having New York roots, officially became a #PLONY when she wrote her first play as a theater major at the University at Buffalo (UB) and had it produced in the back room of Nietzsche’s bar…

If you were in school for theater, what made you write a play?

I wasn’t being cast in the plays they were doing, which were restoration comedies and I had a thick New York accent and a lisp and something of an attitude. Plus, I’d never even seen a play before I went to college. I came from this big dysfunctional Irish American family and my uncle was an actor, and it seemed like an exotic life so I kind of latched onto that. I lived in New York City; you’d think we would have gone to plays. My mother was a Girl Scout leader, and we went to the Statue of Liberty and Central Park, but not plays.

Read the full interview from Donna Hoke’s blog here.

Sure, ‘Hamilton’ Is a Game-Changer, But Whose Game?

hamilton2-1940x1293

Lamentably, however, much of the acclaim that has and will accrue to Hamilton brands it as one of the first pieces of theatre to successfully incorporate hip-hop elements and sensibilities. That’s like someone thinking they’ve discovered rap music after hearing Eminem’s song “Stan” (coincidentally, and arguably, another white narrative). This is unfortunate; it not only ignores the 20-plus year legacy of hip-hop theatre in the U.S.—Idris Goodwin, Eisa Davis, Psalmayne 24, Hip-Hop Theatre Junction, Teo Castellanos, Will Power, Universes, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, etc. It also, more disturbingly, ignores LMM’s own In The Heights, a hip-hop-infused musical with a contemporary story about Latinos in a changing neighborhood that ran on Broadway for 3 years, won 4 Tonys and recouped its money after just 10 months. Yet we’re still in a cultural landscape where In The Heights and other hip-hop generation stories will never be celebrated to the extent that Hamilton will be, simply by virtue of who the show is about.

-April 23, 2015 – Excerpt from a piece by Danny Hoch for American Theatre.  Read it all here.

The Lineup for Prospect Theater’s EVERGREEN Holiday Concert is Set!

22597531574_39143b40c3Prospect Theater Company, under the leadership of Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director and Melissa Huber, Managing Director, will present a concert staging of Evergreen, a family friendly musical for the holidays at The TimesCenter (242 W 41st Street), with performances Friday, December 18 at 7pm and Saturday, December 19 at 2pm and 6pm.

The concert will feature the Obie Award-winning Gretchen Cryer (I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road), Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award winnerMelissa Errico (Amour), and Orville Mendoza (Peter and the Starcatcher), alongside Pace University students Hillary Fisherand Joe Ottavi-Perez in the leading roles of Maya and Joshi.

Recommended for ages six and up, Evergreen is an original (one act, 75-minute) holiday musical by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel, that follows Maya, a headstrong girl on a fantastic adventure to find the Earth’s last living evergreens.

Read more from BroadwayWorld.com here.

Children’s Theatre Lays Down a Jazz Beat with ‘Ella’

Ella and her father (Margaret Dalton and Mark Sutton) ponder the future in “Ella’s Big Chance: A Jazz Age Cinderella.” Donna Bise

Charlotte has made theater history with the world premiere of “Ella’s Big Chance: A Jazz Age Cinderella.” Composer-lyricist-author Joan Cushing adapted this musical from British-born Shirley Hughes’ 2004 book. This adaptation is part of Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s Dreamer Series (ages 6 to 8) and Adventurer Series (9 to 14).

Everyone from tots to adults knows the classic story of a weary daughter whose widowed father remarries. She acquires a brassy stepmother and two hoggish stepsisters, who use her as their maidservant. The setting has been moved to London during the Roaring ’20s, with flapper dresses, finger-waved hair and propulsive dance cadences all the rage.

Ladies wrapped in satin low-waist, shin-length dresses and cloche hats flit across the stage, tuxedoed men in tow. Designer Bob Croghan’s costumes made me wish I could travel back in time to slip into one of his ornate creations, with their mounds of shiny material, sparkling fringe and iridescent beads. Ron Chisholm’s choreography hits big, with the entire cast vigorously stepping the Charleston to musical director Drina Keen’s syncopated rhythms.

…

Director Adam Burke brings this tale to life while keeping details of the time, place, and culture intact. The minimal graphics are a welcome touch in this mesmeric production, and scenic designer Ryan Wineinger allows the book’s pages to leap onto the stage via sliding backdrops that resemble illustrations.

Read more here.