Results tagged “California” from Blogway Baby

I believe!

Last weekend I went to Santa Ana, California to see Shanna Palmer starring as Peter Pan in 3-D Theatricals' PETER PAN at the OC Pavillion.

PETER PAN, a musical production of the play by Sir James Barrie, has lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Music by Moose Charlap, additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and additional music by Julie Styne.

3-D Theatricals is the newest professional theatre company in the Southern California area, and has made the OC Pavillion its new home with a full season of musicals.

I've seen the Mary Martin version on television many times of course, and I also saw an outdoor production in Carmel a few years back, so I was expecting more of the same. Not so!

This production of PETER PAN is exciting, fresh and totally endearing. Shanna is amazing! She was was born to play Peter. She is totally believable as a young boy, and her physicality is amazing - she is at once both graceful and powerful. She is funny, touching, and full of excitement! She's an amazing singer, dancer, actress and flyer (the new quadruple threat!). And boy, is there a lot of flying, swooshing and dancing mid-air! Just glorious.

The whole cast is fabulous; Gregory North as Captain Hook/Mr. Darling and Alyssa Kennedy as Tiger Lily were two of my favorites.

The OC Pavillion is a cool theatre. They took an old bank building and transformed it into an arts building complete with theatre, recording studio, dance studio and restaurant. The band (which was terrific) was split in two and was located up in box seating on either side of the stage. The theatre seats about 500, is highly raked with one row of banquettes in front. We had amazing seats in a banquette which seated all four of us. And we could bring our drinks in with us!

I also got to see Patti Colombo's fabulously exciting choreography! Her choreography breathed new life into a story and a show that I am very familiar with, and once again took my breath away! Here is a picture of the Ugg-A-Wugg dance number:

Now this is why I miss New York!

The Astaire Awards, presented by Ava Astaire in tribute to her Father and Aunt, will be held this year on June 1^st at 7:30pm in The Haft Auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Wow. What a night! Alan Cumming will host the evening, with Liza Minnelli presenting Stanley Donen with The Douglas Watt 2009 Lifetime Acheivement Award, Georfffrey Rush presenting The Best Choreography in Film Award and Bebe Neuwirth presenting the Best Male Dancer Award!

Here are the nominees from Broadwayworld.com:

BEST BROADWAY CHOREOGRAPHER NOMINEES:

9 to 5: Andy Blankenbuehler

Hair: Karole Armitage

Billy Elliot: Peter Darling

Guys and Dolls: Sergio Trujillo

Pal Joey: Graciela Daniele


BEST FILM CHOREOGRAPHER NOMINEES:

Mamma Mia: Anthony Van Laast

Slumdog Millionaire: Longines Fernandes

Center Stage Turn It Up: Aakomon "AJ" Jones

Make It Happen: Tracy Phillips

Fados: Patrick De Bana and Pedro Gomes

High School Musical 3: Kenny Ortega

Were the World Mine: Todd Underwood



BEST FEMALE DANCER NOMINEES: 

West Side Story: Karen Olivo

Rock Of Ages: Angel Reed, Katherine Tokarz, Savannah Wise

Guys and Dolls: Kearran Giovanni

You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush: Pia Glenn



BEST MALE DANCER NOMINEES:

Billy Elliot - role of Billy: David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish

Billy Elliot - role of Michael: David Bologna, Frank Dolce

White Christmas: Jeffry Denman

Pal Joey: Matthew Risch



The Astaire Awards, established 26 years ago by the Anglo-American Contemporary Dance Foundation, recognize outstanding achievement in dance on Broadway each season. The awards were established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in 10 Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931. In 2008 the Awards were expanded to include dance in choreography for film as this was the métier that brought Fred Astaire to international fame and a permanent slot on every list of the top movie stars of the century.



In addition to the Awards Ceremony, the show will include some of the best live Broadway and Hollywood dance numbers! Holy Top Hat Batman! Not only that, but a friend of mine and extremely talented playwright, Randall David Cook, is writing the show (you know, the stuff that is said between numbers and awards, and creating the order of events!) So that means I am one degree of separation from Liza...just sayin’!

i have a sudden urge to put on my tap shoes!

Mack David and Hal David -- Legendary Songwriting Brothers!

Wow, talk about songwriting talent running in the family!  Mack and Hal David are brothers (Mack was older by nine years). Hal David is probably most famous for his collaborations with Burt Bacharach (“What The World Needs Now”, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” just to name a couple!).

Now, I knew Mack David was a songwriter, but I never knew just how extensive and famous his song catalogue was, and that he sued Jerry Herman over “Hello Dolly”, claiming that it was partially taken from David’s “Sunflower”;  they settled out of court.

Here is Mack David’s impressive bio off the fabulous Songwriters Hall of Fame website

Mack David was born in New York City on July 5, 1912. He originally thought of becoming an attorney, and attended Cornell University and then St. John's University Law School. When his younger brother Hal David was considering careers, Mack advised his brother against becoming a songwriter and urged him to take up a more stable profession. However, he failed to follow his own advice, and instead of following a career in law, Mack David began writing songs on Tin Pan Alley.

His song "Moon Love", written with Mack Davis and Andre Kostelanetz, and based on a theme by Tchaikovsky, was a hit in 1939. In 1945, he wrote the words for Duke Ellington's "I'm Just A Lucky So-And-So," and in 1947, he had a hit with a novelty number "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba", written with Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman.

While primarily a lyricist, David sometimes also contributed to a song's music, and he wrote both words and music for 1948's "Sunflower" (years later, he filed an infringement of copyright lawsuit over resemblences between this song and Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly").



In 1948, David moved to Hollywood, where he became active in film and television. His songs were featured in the score for the Disney animated featureCinderella (1950), written with Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman. These songs include "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", "The Working Song", and the film's hit song "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo", which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1950. For another Disney feature Alice in Wonderland (1951), the same team wrote "The Unbirthday Song".

The nomination for "Bibbidy Bobbidi Boo" was the first of eight Academy Award nominations David would receive. The other nominations came for his songs "The Hanging Tree" (1959, title song, with Jerry Livingston), "Bachelor In Paradise" (1961, title song, with Henry Mancini), "Walk On The Wild Side" (1962, title song, with Elmer Bernstein), "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1961, title song, with Ernest Gold), “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964, title song, with Frank De Vol), "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" (1965, from Cat Ballou, with Jerry Livingston), and "My Wishing Doll" (1966, from Hawaii, with Elmer Bernstein.).



Another great success came in 1950, when he wrote the English-language version of "La Vie en Rose" (French lyric by Edith Piaf, music by Louigny). And in 1961, the Shirelles had a hit with his song "Baby, It's You", written with Burt Bacharach (whose collaboration with Mack's brother Hal David has become legendary) and Barney Williams. Mack David and Jerry Livingston wrote theme songs together for many successful television series, including Caspar the Friendly Ghost, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside 6. Their theme song “This is It” for 1960's The Bugs Bunny Hour also became a hit. In addition to those already mentioned, Mack David's collaborators included John Green, Jimmy Van Heusen, Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney, Count Basie and Franz Waxman. Mack David died on December 30, 1993 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

Boy, I'm really glad he decided not to become a lawyer!

From the article on Playbill:

La Jolla Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions, will present a developmental run of Peter and the Starcatchers, billed as a prequel to the story of Peter Pan, in winter 2009.

The new play by Rick Elice, directed by Roger Rees and co-directed by Alex Timbers, will be part of La Jolla Playhouse's Page to Stage program, the same program that launched The Farnsworth Invention, Zhivago, the Tony Award-winning 700 Sundays and I Am My Own Wife, which went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Based on the popular novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers will play La Jolla Playhouse's Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, in California, from Feb. 13-March 8, 2009. No cast has been announced.

I remember reading and loving Peter and the Starcatchers. It's a really good book, you all should pick it up today. So, I am pretty psyched to hear about this. I wouldn't mind seeing it. Tickets go on sale in September. To buy tickets, we're going to have to probably click here or call (858) 550-1010.