The Hairy Ape

Matteo Scammell and Ensemble

EgoPo Classic Theater is wowing audiences with its final production of the season, Eugene O’Neill’s here-to-fore little known The Hairy Ape. It can be experienced at The Latvian Society, 531 North 7^th Street through April 26. O’Neill was considered to be one of the first playwrights to create characters that are trapped on the fringe of society and Matteo Scammell, as Yank, offers us a profoundly moving picture of such a character. “You don’t belong but I do,” he fumes to anyone who will listen; the upper-class daughter of a steel magnate, an older member of the firemen crew, a union rep for the working class, animals in the zoo. "You don't belong but I do," and yet, as he begrudgingly discovers, he doesn’t.  This production is a very physical and challenging one not only for Yank, but for the entire ensemble as well.   From climbing up poles to acrobatics on stage, everyone displays clear talent. Members of the audience are also fiercely tested, as they become engrossed in the hushed whispers and quiet singing of the ensemble, only to be forced to shift gears when presented with drunken comradery and raucous squabbling below the bowels of the ship. Through it all, the one remaining constant is Yank’s abysmal solitude and his inability to change society’s views of him. Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape has rarely been seen. Don’t miss your opportunity to see the gem that EgoPo has produced.  For more information or tickets, call 267-273-1414 or visit online at www.egopo.org. 

Jazz Appeciation Month at the Kimmel

Amir Elsaffar

Cultures Collide with Iraqi-American

 Jazz Innovator

 Amir ElSaffar  & The Two Rivers Ensemble

Performance in Perelman Theater, April 18

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts welcomes the Middle Eastern jazz sextet, Amir ElSaffar  & The Two Rivers Ensemble to SEI Innovation Studio on Wednesday, April 18, at 8 p.m. As part of the center’s jazz appreciation month, this program is a fusion  of improvisation, exploring traditional Middle Eastern influences featuring the oud, buzuqand and santur instruments. ElSaffar’s performance will feature work from the newest work, Crisis, scheduled to be released in the summer of 2015. The music is unique and explores  jazz forms from  Iraq, Turkey and Prussia. ElSaffar’s Two Rivers personifies his personal struggles as well as his feelings as an Iraqi American watching his father’s homeland in turmoil. ElSaffar is a Music Director at Alwan for the Arts, New York’s hub for Arab and Middle Eastern culture. He is also director of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble of Columbia University where he likewise teaches jazz ensembles. Tickets for this performance are $23 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1899, visiting online at kimmelcenter.org. and at the Kimmel Center box office at Broad & Spruce Streets (open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

PNC Grow Up Great

Kimmel Center Celebrates Childhood

With Special Family Programming

April 11 & 12

PNC GROW UP GREAT & THE ADVENTURE OF HAROLD & THE PURPLE CRAYON Bring the Arts to Life For Philadelphia Children

The Kimmel Center For the Performing Arts is excited to offer two family options the weekend of April 11. PNC Grow Up Great celebrates its third interactive session in its spring musical theatre experience on Saturday, April 11  with a focus on Broadway Dancing in Commonwealth Plaza from 11 a.m.to noon. April’s PNC Grow Up Great is a free session which will teach children how to use their bodies to tell stories through dance.  Children will start off the morning with a fun warm-up and then build their confidence as they learn dances from Footloose, A Chorus Line and Hairspray. On Sunday, April 12, the kid-friendly theatre adventure continues when Philadelphia’s own Enchantment Theatre Company brings The Adventures of Harold & The Purple Crayon to the Merriam Theatre at 2 p.m. This is a state-of-the-art production based on the seven picture books by Crockett Johnson that track the madcap adventures of a young boy. The visually dazzling production  follows Harold as he jets to Mars, joins a circus and meets a princess in an enchanted garden. Tickets are $23-$36. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org. 

Ragtime

Derrick Cobey & ensemble members

Bristol Riverside Theatre, located at 120 Radcliffe Street, Bristol, Pa,  is presenting RAGTIME THE MUSICAL through April 12.  This Tony Award-winning musical with book by Terrance McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens has a stellar cast. Three disparate groups of people meet and interact at the turn of the 20^th Century and RAGTIME  is their story.  The music is so powerful that it almost takes your breath away. There are moments in the production when many members of the cast are singing a song at such great speed and volume that some of the lyrics are lost.  The result is inconsequential.  The meaning is illustrated and the actors move on to the next scene.  Derrick Cobey portrays Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician representing the African-Americans .When he belts out a song, his voice transcends the stage. Ciji Prosser, as Sarah, the mother of his baby, has a warm, rich, melodious voice.  Leslie Becker interprets Mother, aptly given no other name as her sense of motherhood is more essential to her identity than her membership in a white-upper middle-class family. David Edwards, as Father,  presents us with a more stereotypical picture of the mores of the day in the upper-middle class life-style.  Michael Thomas Holmes rounds out the picture as Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.  The three families’ lives become intertwined in song, anguish, and hope.  Historical figures, such as Booker T. Washington (Tamar Greene) are interspersed throughout to provide an enlightening time line to the tale. There is not a moment to relax during the performance. This show demands your undivided attention but it is worth every second of it.  For more information or tickets, call 215-785-0100 or visit online at brtstage.org.

Taming of the Shrew

Joanna Liao & J Hernandez

The Lantern Theater Company, located in St. Stephen’s Church, 10^th and Ludlow Sts. is presenting a unique version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Due to popular demand, the production has been extended two weeks past its initial run and will close on Sunday May 3.  Shakespeare uses a technique that is less common in contemporary playwriting; the play within the play. J Hernandez begins the play as a drunkard  staggering onto the stage, only to be fooled into thinking he is a nobleman who has been dreaming. He then thinks he is seated in the second floor of a castle where he can gaze down onto the courtyard to watch a play, wherein he quickly fades out and becomes Petruchio, a man traveling to Padua, determined to marry a rich bride at all costs. K.O DelMarcelle portrays Bianca, the beautiful, demure younger daughter of Baptista, ( portrayed by Nathan Foley). She has no trouble fighting off her many suitors because she knows she cannot marry until her older sister Kate does. And who would want to marry such a churlish, headstrong, boorish young woman as Kate?”  Petruchio volunteers, sight unseen. Described as “possibly mad”, J Hernandez plays the part to perfection. After his marriage to Kate, he tortures her into submission by depriving her of food, sleep, and new clothes, but interspersed with his harshness, he leads her into little dance steps and the tango becomes symbolic of the growth in their relationship. There are many twists and turns, not only for Kate and Petruchio, but for Bianca and the many men with whom she comes in contact. Thanks to set designer Lance Kniskern, actors enter and exit the stage from balconies, steps and multiple doorways as if they were in a typical street in a small town in Italy. You needn’t  look hard to find a laugh in this dark comedy… just sit back and enjoy the dance. For more information or tickets, call 215-829-0395 or visit online at www.lanterntheater.org. 

Dirty Dancing- The Classic Story on Stage

Samuel Pergande &
Gillian Abbott

Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage is appearing at the Academy of Music through April 5 as part of Broadway Philadelphia, presented collaboratively by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Shubert Organization. Eleanor Bergstein, screenwriter of the film DIrty Dancing wrote the book for the stage version. There is less dialogue in this interpretation, but the dropped verbal exchanges aren't missed due to the addition of songs and dance routines. With the beginning of Spring, this Philadelphia premiere has hit a homerun! The dancing is superb. Classically trained Samuel Pergande portrays Johnny, dance instructor at a summer resort in 1963.  Jenny Winton, who portrays Penny,  the female dance instructor, has had several years of experience with ballet companies as well.  Gillian Abbott began her career with a Cirque du Soliel troupe. Her transformation from  Baby, awkward teen, to Johnny’s lithe dance partner is amazing to watch. The ensemble is composed of an extraordinarily talented group of young dancers. They give meaning to the title Dirty Dancing as they dance secretly in a "staff only" room at the resort. The music is marvelous. There is no pit orchestra; rather a small instrumental group is on a second story stage and they appear and disappear behind a vertically dropped panel as the occasion demands. Over forty beloved songs ring through the rafters. The additional songs are  added as Ms. Bergstein was able to obtain the rights for some songs that were not available for the movie, such as The Drifters’ “Save The Last Dance For Me.”  Soloists Jennlee Shallow and John Anthony are phenomenal. The sets are incredible. Set Designer Stephen Brimson Lewis, Lighting Designer Tim Mitchell and Video and Project Design Jon Driscoll have created a complex world that is constantly changing. Screens move both horizontally and drop down vertically to create the perception of different depths on the stage.  Projections not only change scenery behind the actors but allow the actors to move through grass, woods and water in a matter of seconds. The total effect is mind-boggling. Run, don’t walk to purchase tickets to see this phenomenon if you have not already done so. Tickets are available by calling 215-731-3333, visiting online at kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad & Spruce Sts (open daily 10 am to 6 pm) or at the Academy of Music box office, Broad and Locust Sts. (open during performances only).

Broadway Philadelphia 2015-2016 Season

Academy of Music

Tickets on Sale Now

For

The 2015-2106 Season of

Broadway Philadelphia

Presented by The Kimmel Center For Performing Arts

                              and The Shubert Organization

Broadway Philadelphia’s upcoming 2015-2016 season brings the best of touring Broadway to Philadelphia with something   for everyone to enjoy. Opening  the season is Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, appearing at the Academy of Music October 27 - Nov 1, 2015. Matilda The Musical, based on the novel by Roald Dahl, continues to delight audiences of all ages on Broadway and in London. It will appear at the Academy of  Music from November 17 - 29, 2015.  Pippin, winner of four 2013 Tony Awards, is filled with acrobatics, magical feats and enchanting songs. It will be appearing at The Academy of Music from February 23 - 28, 2016.   A  brand new production of The Sound of Music will be appearing at The Academy of Music from March 15 - 20, 2016.   Beautiful: The Carole King Musical  tells the Tony and Grammy Award-winning  inspiring true story of Carol King’s incredible  rise to stardom. The production will appear at the Academy of Music from March 22 - April 3, 2016.  If/Then is a contemporary Broadway musical about living in New York today, simultaneously following one woman’s two possible life paths, painting a portrait of the lives we lead as well as the lives we might have led. This musical will appear at The Academy of Music from June 21 - 26, 2016. Additionally, there will be  several Season Add-On shows. The Book of Morman is returning by popular demand with an appearance at the Forrest Theatre November 24 - December 27, 2015.  Winner of 9 Tony Awards, this production played in Philadelphia to sold-out audiences for seven weeks in 2014.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical teaches us that which makes us different  makes us special.  It will appear at the Merriam Theater December 15  - 20, 2015.  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a reimagining of the Biblical story of Joseph, his brothers and the coat of many colors, will be at the Merriam Theater from December 29, 2015 - January 3, 2016.  NETworks Presents Disney’s Beauty and The Beast will be at the Academy of Music  from February 16 -21, 2016.  The international dance phenomenon is back by popular demand in Riverdance- The 20^th Anniversary World Tour .  It will appear at the Merriam Theater June 14 - 19, 2016.

 Broadway Philadelphia subscribers save up to 25% off single ticket prices and are offered a variety of exclusive privileges, including the first opportunity to select the best seats in the house and the option to renew their seats every year.  Subscribers also enjoy many other benefits, including free exchanges, priority ticket access and payment plan options. Subscription packages are available online at kimmelcenter.org/bwy1516 or by calling 215-893-1955. For tickets for groups of 20 or more, call 215-790-5883-or 866-267-2947, or visit online at kimmelcenter.org/groupsales or telecharge.com/groups. Single tickets for individual productions will go on  sale at a later date.