The Twist and Shout Sock Hop is half way through its run and going strong. With a little more support this fundraising show may reach its financial goals and keep the theatre alive.
The highlight of the show has to be the dueling Elvii. Young Elvis and old Elvis battle it out through a series of great Elvish classics.
The show continues the next two Friday and Saturdays at the Chico Cabaret; don’t miss it!
Princess Bride the musical:
Composer Adam Guettel and screenwriter William Goldman will collaborate on a musical version or the hit fairy tale film “The Princess Bride,” the New York Post reported.
The 1987 Rob Reiner-directed, Goldman-penned movie fits the teasing description Guettel gave for his next project, while speaking backstage at the 2005 Tony Awards. While hesitant to specifically name his next musical due to “legal reasons,” he did say it would have a “fairy tale” nature and would involve “a lot of swordfighting.”
This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Certainly not the first attempt at a movie-stage conversion: Evil Dead, Silence of the Lambs, and of course Spamalot.
Anybody want a peanut?
The Buzz previewed Chico Cabaret’s Twist and Shout Sock Hop today:
Chico Cabaret’s newest production is not so much a play as it is a choreographed sock hop with dancing to a live four-piece band.The production, which opens Friday, is a fundraiser for the Cabaret.
“Twist and Shout Sock Hop,” which opens Friday, features some 15 planned-out dances. This will be augmented not only by show biz impersonators, but the audience is encouraged to join in on the dance floor fun.
Audience members are also invited to come dressed as their favorite ’70s entertainer. Already on tap (some of these clearly venture outside the 1970s), are dueling Elvis Presleys as well as Sonny and Cher, Marilyn Monroe, Donny and Marie Osmond, Judy Garland and more.
Chico Cabaret is holding a fundraiser, and its do or die time for this community theatre, so get out there are show some support. The Twist and Shout Sock Hop is full of music from the 50’s through the 70’s including dueling Elvis’s. There will be a live band and a full bar. There will also be a number of contests including a twist off, costume contest ($3 off at the door if you are in costume), a panCake walk, a kissing booth, and a dance auction. Hot dogs and root beer floats will be served.
Come on out and support Chico Cabaret’s newest fundraising event and have a great night out with the whole family!
Show Times: Fri/Sat Nights at 7:30pm October 7 - 29th. Advanced Tickets are $15. For tickets call 895-0245, buy online at chicocabaret.com, or go to Creative Apple (almond orchand shopping center).
On Sunday evening, September 25 at 8:30 PM, the New York theatrical community will join forces in one of the most important evenings of the season. In an incredible demonstration of support and camaraderie, scores of Broadway performers will take the stage at the Gershwin Theatre (222 W. 51st St.) for Broadway’s Celebrity Benefit for Hurricane Relief. 100% of the profits from this spectacular event will go directly to America’s Second Harvest and Quilts for Kids, two charitable organizations working directly with the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Produced by company members of Wicked and made possible through the generosity of the Nederlander Organization, the event will star Ben Vereen & Liza Minnelli and feature Bryan Batt, Shoshana Bean, Victoria Clark, Charlotte D’Amboise, Jill Eikenberry, Raul Esparza, Shuler Hensley, Megan Hilty, Bill Irwin, Brian d’Arcy James, Isabelle Keating, Adriane Lenox, Terrence Mann, Rue McClanahan, Michael McElroy, Julia Murney, Bebe Neuwirth, Kelli O’Hara, Denis O’Hare, David Hyde Pierce, Carole Shelley, Christopher Sieber, Michael Tucker, Frederick Weller and The Broadway Inspirational Voices, plus the casts of The Light in the Piazza, Hairspray, Mamma Mia!, All Shook Up, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Wicked.
“The Foreigner,” written by Larry Shue, takes place in a back-road fishing lodge in Tilghman County, Ga. The show opens with pals Froggy LeSueur (M. Conan Duch) and Charlie Baker (Phil Ruttenburg), who are stopping by for a visit to Betty Meeks’ (Sue Ruttenburg) rustic establishment. Charlie has a troubled marriage and Froggy insists that a vacation is just the ticket. The only trouble is Charlie’s complete lack of personality and fear of conversation.
Chico Cabaret
2201 Pillsbury Rd Ste C-1.
Chico, CA 95926
530-895-0245
ChicoCabaret.com
Chico Theatre Company’s production of Pippin premierees tonight, the show starts at 7:30.
Once upon a time, the young prince Pippin longed to discover the secret of true happiness and fulfillment. He sought it in the glories of the battlefield, the temptations of the flesh and the intrigues of political power (after disposing of his father King Charlemagne the Great). In the end, he found it in the simple pleasures of home and family. This hip, tongue-in-cheek, anachronistic fairy tale is captivating. The energetic pop-influenced score by three-time Oscar-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Children of Eden” and the animated films “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback Of Notre Dame” and “The Prince Of Egypt”) bursts with one showstopping number after another, from soaring ballads to infectious dance numbers.
The show runs thru June 25th every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Child and senior discounts are available. The Buzz visited rehearsals to get the early story:
“Pippin” is a “character-driven show with great music, dance and theater,” said Hernandez. “I am so lucky and so honored to work with such a talented cast. I was able to get a wide variety of performers to come together for this production.”
Chico Theater Company
166 Eaton Rd
Chico, Ca 95973
530-894-3282
The opening Sunday-evening performance of The Crippling Thoughts of Victor Bonesteel, Chico Cabaret’s new comedy night, was relaxed and informal. Without a program or a stage set, the actors (and writers) presented the collection of skits, parodies, commentaries and songs using nothing more than a few costume changes and a handful of props (fishing pole, birth control pills, armbands with swastikas–the essentials).
The show opened with a musical intro by Doug Anderson, from whom we learn the show will be “canceled” if an actor doesn’t show up to fill an empty spot. When actor and co-writer Brian Finnigan appears to save the show, we learn that the premise of Finnigan, Brian Miner and Tony Varicelli’s comic production is that it will take place at a struggling community theater. The next few scenes riff off this central concept, explaining at first how reality TV is replacing theater before admitting that “shitty theater is replacing theater.”
Some of the more amusing and varied skits were those of the assorted actors or extras in this faux theater who were allowed their “extras scenes.” In one of these skits, actors Jill Miller, Allison Rich and Sean Green mock and make fun of the show’s writers, one for being short and another for having a receding hair line.
Dance is an awfully limiting word when applied to a performance by Milwaukee Dance Theatre.
The company’s Thursday evening premiere of “The Initial Urge to Suck,” a piece by Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson, is a captivating, entertaining and sometimes moving tapestry of spoken word, music, video, automatics and dance with its roots in an early-1990s monologue by Anderson.
Its topic is life at its most mundane and most profound.
Playing at the Off-Broadway Theatre, “Initial Urge” is performed by Kralj, Anderson, Janet Lilly and Hardy Gregory, with original music and automatics (fascinating music-box creations) by Frank Pahl and taped monologue by Josie Monahan.
Additional life stories and musings are added through excerpts of videotaped interviews of a dozen people whose ages span eight decades.
For the third year in a row, the League of American Theatres and Producers’ Touring Broadway Awards — formerly known as the National Broadway Theatre Awards — have declined to present any honors for performance. The awards, given annually to road shows, were to be distributed May 10 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City.
In the awards’ first two years, 2001 and 2002, the league presented prizes in 12 categories, including best actor and best actress in a musical and a play. Actors’ Equity Association, however, opposed the awards on the grounds that union and nonunion tours would contend equally. The union refused to change its position even after the league publicly agreed that only union tours would compete, and performance awards have been absent ever since.
The two shows – one silly, one serious – each won four trophies Sunday from the Outer Critics Circle, a group of writers and critics covering the New York theatre scene for out-of-town publications and media.
The 55th annual Outer Critics Circle Awards will be presented at a ceremony in New York on May 26.
Spamalot, based on the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, was named best Broadway musical and also won honours for Mike Nichols (best direction - musical), Sara Ramirez (featured actress - musical) and Tim Hatley (costume design - musical).
Doubt, the John Patrick Shanley drama about a nun who has suspicions about her parish priest, was named best Broadway play and also won awards for Doug Hughes (best direction - play), Cherry Jones (best actress - play) and Brian F. O’Byrne (best actor - play).