World Broadway

Hedda Gabler Comes to Broadway

Ulinn — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:35:14 +0000

My favorite Weeds star (If you’re not familiar with the show, you can give it a look here) is returning to broadway in January, and I can’t wait! If you’re not familiar with Hedda Gabler (I know I wasn’t), it was actually a play that was first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

The musical itself takes place in a villa with the main character, Hedda Gabler, being the daughter of an aristocratic General. Hedda returns from her honeymoon realizing that she does not, in fact, love her husband, and the appearance of another love interest of hers sets the stage for the story (I won’t spoil the details further!).

This latest production of the piece will take place at the American Airlines Theatre in New York beginning in January 2009. The production is actually a new adaptation of the original play by Christopher Shinn, while being directed by Ian Rickson.

Unquestionably the most appealing part of the production will be the all-star cast. Tony and Golden Globe award winner Mary-Louise Parker will be playing the part of Hedda Gabler, Tony award winner Michael Cerveris will be playing Jorgen Tsman along with Paul Sparks (Ejlert Lovborg) and Peter Stormare (Judge Brack). With such a rock solid cast I hope that I get a chance to get up to New York to see it!

Shrek Stomps Into Broadway

Ulinn — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:07:31 +0000

I’ve really enjoyed all three of the Shrek movies and I was delighted when I first heard about the musical iteration of the series being brought Broadway back in January. The show actually recently debuted on September 10th into Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. The show has attracted some big Broadway names, including Brian D’Arcy James, Sutton Foster, and Chester Gregory II.

The musical itself follows the same plot as the first movie, although the musical version tends to delve a bit deeper into each character’s life and give us a more comprehensive picture of the characters’ lives and give us more background as to what motivates and drives them. I’m pretty excited to go see the show on Broadway myself, but I’ll have to wait for now. The Shrek Musical will have it’s opening night in Broadway on December 14, 2008, so I’d get your tickets now, as they’ll be selling individual tickets through May 31, 2009.

Reviews for the show have been by and large quite positive. It’s been reported that Fiona (Sutton Foster) and Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber) did a fantastic job and really stole the spot light in the scenes they were in. Sieber actually spends most of the show stomping around on his knees, as the character is quite short, and provides a great display of Athleticism. His performance may even get him nominated for a Tony for his work in Shrek once it makes it’s Broadway debut come December of this year.

Katie Holmes Gets a Mixed Broadway Reaction

Ulinn — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:31:23 +0000

There’s been an awful lot of buzz lately relating to Katie Holmes’ debut on Broadway recently, with critics arguing over whether her debut was warmly accepted or coldly discarded. Her performance in All My Sons which starts her, John Lithgow, Dianne West, and Patrick Wilson recently opened on Thursday night at the Schoenfeld Theatre.

Despite protesters outside the performance by anti-Scientology groups (what place do they have at a Broadway production? I have no idea), the actress’ performance was met with mixed reviews by critics in the industry. Some were wowed, while some said her abilities in the production produced only yawns.

The New York Daily News’ Joe Dziemianowicz, for example, thought that Holmes made a “fine Broadway debut” and utilized a “rather grand speech pattern that takes getting used to, but she seems comfortable and adds a glint of glamour.” On the other side of the coin, New York Times’ critic Ben Brantley claimed that “The neophyte Ms. Holmes” is a “sad casualty” of director Simon McBurney’s approach to the play, going further to state that “Ms. Holmes delivers most of her lines with meaningful asperity, italicising every word.”

Whether or not her performance was the stuff of legend or poor acting, there’s no question that it has drawn more attention to the Broadway scene.

9-5 Heads to Broadway in April, Excited?

Ulinn — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:22:14 +0000

If you’re not familiar with the movie “9 to 5″ starring Dolly Parton, it’s likely that you’re not alone. The movie itself was well before my time, but apparently there were a lot of fans of the film. This isn’t all that surprising given the popularity of many such films in which the characters challenge the status quo, rising above the 9-5 doldrums to do something better, or at the very least, different (Office Space and the success of The Office are both testament to this thinking as well). The musical itself has been subject to great reviews, and it will be heading to broadway in March 2009. to much fanfare.

The former starts of the film like Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda have been replaced by talented actors Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty. Interestingly when the show debuted in Los Angeles the production was mired down by technical problems and Dolly Parton herself actually came out of the audience to perform impromptu to pass the time. Apparently the problem must have been serious, because the sound of power drills and saws at work during the performance. It took about 20 minutes for the crew to reassemble the set and get the show back underway.

Yet despite these problems, most viewers leaving the theater were quite pleased with their viewing experience and remained in a great mood. The show itself earned positive reviews and a lot of critics and viewers alike are excited for the show opening on Broadway. I’m sure that crew members and show producers will make the necessary tweaks before now and April to ensure such technical problems don’t happen again, and I fully expect the show to be a success upon release on Broadway.

Discounted Theatre Tickets: Part II (Domestic)

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:38:56 +0000

In Part I of this article, I discussed about how you can save some big bucks on theatre tickets, outside of the United States. But lets face it, two of the top broadway cities are in the United States, Chicago and New York, so everyone would like to save some money purchasing those tickets as well. You will learn two major tips and tricks to getting discounted Broadway theatre tickets around the United States in this second part of the article.

When purchasing theatre tickets, TicketMaster.com is where I would normally suggest you go primarily to look for tickets just because of their reliability level and good reputation. And on major sites like TicketMaster.com, you can actually save a lot of money when purchasing tickets. TicketMaster.com will always give you a chance to enter a coupon code whenever purchasing tickets. It is very easy to get a coupon code that can save you tons. Just search “TicketMaster Coupon Codes” on google, and go to any website that looks related. It will contain codes that can give you different types of discounts such as 10% off your tickets.

That is the best way to save tons of money when purchasing Broadway tickets in the United States. So don’t just skip right over that chance to enter that coupon code. Take the 5 minutes to find a code on Google, and save loads of green.

Discounted Theatre Tickets: Part I (International)

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:16:21 +0000

Everyone is looking to get discounted theatre tickets all over the web. And I will be giving you the best tips and tricks to getting your discounted tickets easily, and as time and cost effective as possible. For Part I of this article, I will be sharing how you can save on International theatre tickets (outside of the United States). This will help you save some money while still getting great seats!

When I went to London over Spring Break, I bought all of my tickets for a few different Broadway shows in advanced. The tickets were beyond expensive when buying them off the internet, but I figured that I wanted to guarantee myself and my family great seats to the shows we would be seeing, and it would be worth it to just take the good seats while they were available.

Once we actually arrived in London, we checked into our hotel, dropped off our luggage, and roamed around London. I saw a bunch of different stands for discounted theatre tickets all around London. I walked right past every last one of them assuming they weren’t really 50% off, but were marked up then marked down 50%, just making them look like a huge discount. Then, later in the day, I did grow some curiousity as to how good these prices really were compared to the prices I got my tickets at. So I waited in a 20-30 minute line, and then finally I was up at the front. So I started talking to the guy behind the counter about what seats he had for Wicked (even though I already had seats that I had bought offline). And as it turns out, I could have spent a quarter on my Wicked tickets and gotten close-to-as-good seats! I couldn’t believe myself.

I did a little research afterwards, and found out that they have these little stands where you can get tickets at extremely discounted tickets in not only London, but major countries such as Paris and China as well. So if you are planning to leave the United States and are going to see any Broadway shows, be sure to see if the area you will be traveling to has these discount booths that will save you loads of green!

39 Steps: The Biggest Disappointment on Broadway

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 06:13:17 +0000

While in New York City, after getting the chance to see In the Heights, I bought a couple of tickets to see 39 Steps after hearing nothing but raving reviews from the critics. I hadn’t seen one bad comment about the show, so I was very excited to see what the whole craze about 39 Steps really was.

As I walked through the theatre’s main hallway to get my seat, I looked around and it looked like the average sort of setting you would see at any theatre. There were some concession stands, restrooms, and people roaming all around. I would say the theatre setting was very average, and there truly wasn’t anything significant about it.

I was sitting in the front row of the Mezzanine section, right in the center. They were really great seats, and I was really happy with them, even being so used to sitting in the orchestra up close to the stage. As I watched the show I realized that I was extremely mislead by the description of the show. I was expecting to see a very thrilling, Alfred Hitchcock murder mystery. But they turned it into a comedy, that truthfully, I didn’t find to be funny whatsoever. Now, I will say that as I looked through the audience, a lot of them were just laughing like there’s no tomorrow, while others had the exact same, disappointed expression as me. So I wasn’t the only one mislead about 39 Steps.

39 Steps was by far, the absolute worst Broadway show out there. I don’t know how the show even made it to Broadway, but I wouldn’t suggest seeing the show to anyone. WorldBroadway.com gives it out of 5 stars. I would put this on the way bottom of your priority list to go see, if you even want to go see it. This misleading Broadway show was the worst show I have ever seen, on and even off Broadway.

In the Heights: The 2008 Musical of the Year

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:01:22 +0000

Recently, I traveled out to New York City and got the chance to see the Broadway musical, In the Heights, playing at Richard Rodgers Theatre. Winner of the 2008 Tony Awards for the Best Musical of the Year, In the Heights shows three days in the life of a very close community, in the top of Manhatten, Washington Heights.

In the Heights was one of the best musicals I have seen in a while. I have heard a lot of adults and seniors saying that they wouldn’t want to go to see it because it consists fully of rap rhythms and melodies. Even for someone who dislikes rap like myself, the music was inspirational and very intriguing. As I observed the audience, everyone seemed as though they were enjoying the music, the elderly, the children, the adults, everyone.

I was sitting in the front of the orchestra on the left side. Bummed at first that I couldn’t see some of the stage, I was considering checking whether there were any open seats still available in the center of the orchestra. But once the show started, it really didn’t make a difference where I was sitting. There was so much going on every inch of the stage. Although it would have been great sitting front and center, it was still great sitting where I was on the left side. So truthfully, it doesn’t matter whether your sitting in the center, left, or right. With In the Heights there is so much going on you can sit anywhere in the theatre and enjoy the show.

Overall, WorldBroadway.com gives In the Heights out of 5 stars. It was an absolutely exceptional show, full of laughter, that I would highly recommend everyone to see.