CINDERELLA

Dancing at the Ball

Thanksgiving Holiday Treat - Tix On Sale Friday!

Rogers + Hammerstein’s Tony Award-winning musical CINDERELLA will play at the Academy of Music for a limited engagement over the Thanksgiving holidays from Nov 25-30 as part of Broadway Philadelphia, presented collaboratively by The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Shubert Organization. This production has some surprises for fans of the CINDERELLA that was debuted on television in 1957. Roger + Hammerstein’s contemporary Cinderella is not only a pretty face with a one-of-a kind shoe size.  She is a feisty young woman, who, despite her rags and her ill lot in life, follows her quest for kindness, compassion and forgiveness, imagining herself making the world a better place. She not only fights for her dreams but helps the prince to realize his dreams as well.  Tickets for CINDERELLA will go on sale beginning Friday, September 12 at 10:00 am and may be purchased by calling 215-731-3333, visiting online at kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad & Spruce Streets (10am to 6pm) or at the Academy of Music box office, Broad and Locust Sts. which is open during performances only. Special phone lines of 215-790-5883 and 866-276-2947 have been made available to place orders for groups of 10 or more. 

Intimate Exchanges

Jennifer Childs and Anthony Lawton

A wildly innovative show is being produced by 1812 Productions on the Arcadia Stage of the Arden Theatre, 40 N 2^nd Street, through September 21. Alan Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges, with comic geniuses Jennifer Childs and Anthony Lawton, is a sure-fire hit. Opening on an English estate, one of the characters is soon faced with a choice.  A member of the audience is called upon to make the choice and the play continues on a prescribed path until the next choice must be made.  Mr. Lawton and Ms. Childs will play a total of 7 characters during the run and have mastered 16 scenes, which in different combinations, create eight possible plays with eight possible endings. The play is delightful and witty beyond measure. No one can tell a story with facial expressions better than Jennifer Childs.  She doesn’t have to utter a word to have the audience roaring.  Childs seamlessly changes roles in the blink of an eye, and does a costume change almost as quickly. In the opening night piece, she was a headmaster’s wife one minute and her young house maid barely a few seconds later. Anthony Lawton, too, embodies two polar opposites .to perfection. He scarcely has time to leave the stage as one character than he is returning as another, costume set and mind-set reversed. For more information or tickets  to this superb opening of 1812 Production's 2014-2015 season, call 215-592-9560 or visit online at www.1812productions.org. 

Yo Philly!

VEREKAI

Does this look familiar?  Some Varekai characters landed in Philly recently to visit some of our city's most popular landmarks and historic sites (Liberty Bell, Independence Mall, South Street, Love Park and the Rocky Steps) before their September engagement at the Wells Fargo Center.  Be sure to come check them out when Cirque du Soleil's Varekai invades Philadelphia on September 10-14 @WellsFargoCenter!

http://youtu.be/K7LdynZv0CY?list=PL759CF6306E48FB7A

EgoPo's American Giants Festival

Following its tradition of year-long themed theater productions, EgoPo has announced its 2014-15 season as the American Giants Festival in which the company will present theatrical giants and their examination of the American dream. The season begins with celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Arthur Miller by producing his iconic Death of a Salesman, and continues with Tennessee Williams’ Stairs to the Roof and Eugene O’Neil’s The Hairy Ape.  EgoPo will examine what the American dream is today and whether class barriers deny the dream for some or for all.  The first production, Death of a Salesman, is set in 1940 in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn where audience members will find themselves attending Willy Loman’s Shiva. Willy Loman, portrayed by Ed Swidley, can readily be recognized by last year’s audiences of Gint and Lady from the Sea.  Stairs to the Roof is a rarely seen early play written by Tennessee Williams.  It examines the inner life of an office clerk who dreams of a higher purpose in life. Eugene O’Neil was one of the first writers to focus on characters who live on the fringe of society.  The Hairy Ape takes the audience into the lower regions of a luxury ship where a coal stoker has a chance encounter with a rich heiress and sees himself through her eyes, subsequently destroying his sense of self. All three shows can be seen at The Latvian Society, 531 North 7^th Street.  Death of a Salesman will run from October 24-November 9. Stairs to the Roof will run from February 13-March 1 and The Hairy Ape will run from April 10-26. 

NEWSIES

Carpe Diem! Seize an opportunity to see Philadelphia’s one-week limited engagement of Disney’s NEWSIES at the Academy of Music from Tuesday, October 28 through Sunday, November 2. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and The Shubert Organization are collaboratively presenting this Broadway Philadelphia’s Tony Award winning production.  NEWSIES broke all sales records and was the highest grossing show of the 2011-2012 Broadway season.  It not only won Tony Awards but Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography as well, and the original creative team is reuniting for this inception. Inspired by the real-life “Newsboy strike of 1899,” NEWSIES tells the tale of a band of teenaged newspaper boys who strike against Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst after they raise distribution prices at the boys’ expense. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 5 at 10:A.M. and can be obtained by calling 215-731-3333, visiting online at kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center Box Office, Broad and Spruce Streets,  or the Academy of Music Box Office, Broad and Locust Streets.  Don’t wait until this smash hit is sold out!

Philly Pops

Rajaton- singing with the Philly Pops

. The Philly Pops is launching its 2014-2015 season with the ERA of ABBA, conducted by Music Director Michael Krajewski and featuring the internationally renowned vocal ensemble Rajaton from Finland.  Playing the sounds of the ‘70’s and highlighting the music of ABBA which gained fame through the Broadway musical, Mama Mia! the Philly Pops will also feature the disco hits of Carole King, Paul Simon and John Denver.   Performances will be held  on Friday October 17 at 8 PM, Saturday October 18 at 3 PM and Sunday October 19 at 3 PM.  You can be part of what should be a delightful season debut not only of the 36^th season of The Philly Pops but also of Finland’s Rajaton in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad Street. For more information about the Philly Pops and its 2014-2015 season schedule, please visit www.phillypops.org. 

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Varekai-Cirque du Soleil

Guess who has been visiting some of Philadelphia’s most popular sites!

Some characters from Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai have been enjoying well-known attractions in the city before their September engagement at the Wells Fargo Center. Be sure to come check them out when Varekai conquers Philadelphia on Sept. 10-14@WellsFargoCenter!  

Grab a sneak peek of Cirque du Soleil’s most dazzling show to date!

http://youtu.be/K7LdynZv0CY?list=PL759CF6306E48FB7A