Saturday, August 30, 2008

Vanities at Pasadena Playhouse



For tickets click here.

Saw the show on Thursday night. I have always enjoyed the play - I very much remember the HBO version in the early 80s with Annette O'Toole and was even considering remounting a version of it last year before I heard they were doing a musical version of it.

From a development standpoint, since the play has been so successful and settled, the challenge is to see where (or if) you can insert musical numbers that do not interrupt the flow of the story. They are still feeling their way with this version but are definitely on the right track. By the end of this run, they will have a very good idea as to what works really well and what adjustments need to be made.

It is definitely worth seeing even at this stage of the process. The performances of the three ladies, Lauren Kennedy as Mary, Sarah Stiles as Joanne and Anneliese van der Pol as Kathy are all very good, especially Sarah Stiles in a very comedic turn.

I look forward to seeing how the show does in its next step and will be rooting for it to make it to Broadway!

Dreampeddler

Monday, August 25, 2008

Olympics - Closing Ceremony and Educating Rita at The Colony

A busy weekend for sure.

Steph and I made the drive out to The Colony Theater to see Educating Rita. Once again, Cameron Watson did a fantastic job directly the play and the performances of Bjørn Johnson and Rebecca Mozo are terrific. Cameron and Rebecca return to The Colony with this show after the huge success of Trying last year and their reprise of the show a couple of months ago. Educating Rita runs through Sept. 21st so head on out to go see it. A very enjoyable night in the theater.

The Olympics

I have to say that the opening and closing night ceremonies were absolutely mesmerizing. The massive amount of performers and the unity and precision in which they worked was just a joy to behold. I could not help but think that we could never accomplish that in the U.S. In a culture that seems to stem from being a cog in the wheel of a larger whole vs. our culture of thinking it is all about us and immediate gratification - it just makes you wonder how long it will be before China takes over the world. If we don't get some discipline back into our lives and culture, it will be much sooner than later.

At least now I can get some sleep!

Dreampeddler

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

GrooveLily Launches New Website

So one of my absolute FAVORITE bands and amazing writers/performers/maestros have launched their new site...

http://www.groovelily.com

Lots of new interactivity (blog spots and more) and the ability to order all of their music directly from them. It is a great new site and will reside on the right side here so you will always be able to find them!

For those of you who don't know GrooveLily they wrote STRIKING 12 and SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES and are launching their newest musical LONG STORY SHORT, which opens this fall at City Theatre of Pittsburgh and TheatreWorks Palo Alto. They will release new songs every Wednesday from August 20 until opening night in Pittsburgh on October 29.

Enjoy,
Dreampeddler

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Busy July - Lot's Going On - WHODUNIT?


It has been one busy July. Ed is busy at work on his WHODUNIT and we will be doing a reading of it here on the west coast. Stay tuned for the time and place.
Will be launching a new DREAMPEDDLER PRODUCTIONS website soon as well. I am currently raising money for a unique Theater Fund which will invest in 4 Broadway shows and 4 Developmental shows. More to come soon.
I attended Of Equal Measure at the Kirk Douglas Theater. It was very thought provoking in the sense that I walked out of the theater thinking about more than just the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, but of all our presidents. Theater is supposed to make us think and reflect, and Of Equal Measure did do that.
I also left the theater thinking how Center Theater Group would be a great place to work. Nothing like having a guaranteed budget to support new works. There are so many folks out there that are willing to give 5 or 10 thousand dollars to have their name in the program or on the wall and be able to say they support the arts... I'm hoping to many more that actually want to INVEST in the arts.