Broadway Video

Symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death" The horrific disease, “Red Death”, is highlighted and running through the story, The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe. It also brings out the memories of the Black Death of Europe during the Middle Ages. The protagonist was the Prince Prospero. When his dominions were depopulated, he brought one thousand people went into hiding in a castellated abbey in order to avoid the fatal disease. He decorated and provided all the appliances of pleasure…

West Side Story book turned musical was written in 1957 by Arthur Laurents. West Side Story is a musical interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, giving it a modern spin and a change from the original class to race rivalry. The setting of this play is based in the 1950s in the Upper West Side of New York City. The rivalry is between two gangs called the Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang. Comparable to Romeo and Juliet the main plot to this story is based on the…

Premiering in 1997, the musical Ragtime, written by the trio of Terrence McNally (Book/Script), Stephen Flaherty (Music), and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics) was something along the lines of a smash hit. Featuring a star studded cast, with such luminaries as Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, and Audra McDonald, the musical won four Tony Awards and was nominated for 14, including Best Musical. The musical is based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1974 novel Ragtime, a work of historical fiction that has various…

“Of Mice and Men” was also adapted to theater in both The States (2014) and Spain (2012). The Broadway version is something which caused a ripple of fame for director, Anna D. Shapiro. Spanish director Miguel del Arco presented his version of the novel as a play in Madrid in 2012, where it was also surrounded by amazing reviews. One might wonder how such a short novel could have inspired a chain of successful interpretations all over the world, but the answer lies in the simplicity and…

of starring in a Broadway show has become a reality. This past week I had the privilege to go to New York and see the Broadway revival of Gigi. Gigi is originally based on the novella titled Gigi by Collete. The novella then turned into a major motion picture before hitting the Broadway stage in 1951 starring Audrey Hepburn as the title role. Fredrick Lowe wrote the original music for the play. With great success from the original movie and the first run of the show on Broadway, Heidi Thomas…

-- two teen-age mobs as the conflicting groups, one of them newly-arrived Puerto Ricans, the other self-styled "Americans." In November, 1955 Stephen Sondheim joined the project as lyricist. A year and a half later, rehearsals began for the Broadway premiere of West Side Story. West Side Story (as it is now known) transforms the famous work of Shakespeare called…

There is a line in the musical Spamalot where Sir Robin sings to King Arthur; “In any great adventure, if you don 't want to lose ... you won 't succeed on Broadway if you don 't have any Jews!" (PBS, Broadway Musicals). If you can look past the sweeping generalization, Sir Robin’s surprising lyric turns out to be very true about musicals. Historians have recognized that Jewish immigrant culture heavily influenced the content of musical theatre when it was popularized in America during the early…

of lighting. Throughout my years as a student I have seen a plethora of plays ranging from high school productions to off-off Broadway. Walking into this production I expected the same level of performance as in my local community college (with a slightly bigger budget). However, after the first song I knew that I was going to be proven wrong. Featuring a myriad of Broadway hits, the soundtrack of this performance is what you would expect on a show-tunes playlist. Instead of making it difficult…

I just won a competition for “The Ear,” an organization that seeks to create modern, tonal classical material, and I just finished a three-song cycle of Sara Teasdale Poems. My vocalist is Siri Howard, the swing character in Les Miserable’s on Broadway. Perhaps my most controversial and/or flattering credit (depending on your point of view) is my appearance on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice with the Brett Michael’s team in 2012. We wrote jingles together and actually won the…

follows seven artists working for their dreams of stardom without becoming sellouts. Originating in 1996, Rent was composed by an almost unknown composer at the time, Jonathan Larson. From small beginnings in the Off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop, Rent made its way to Broadway, and became an American hit. This hit musical was written and composed by Jonathan Larson. Living from 1960-1996, dying the morning Rent was to be performed in its first preview performance. Larson was born in…