Latest news with #Follies
Belfast Telegraph
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth resuming her love affair with Belfast
The stage star, part of the cast of the musical Follies at the Grand Opera House in Belfast, has a soft spot for the city, having had a boyfriend from there.
BBC News
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Lesley Garrett 'honoured' to sing in Bedford Proms 2025
Opera singer and performer Lesley Garrett said she was "honoured" to be invited back to an outdoor concert series to restart a Proms 70, will perform at Proms in the Park, alongside Russell Watson, as part of the Bedford Summer Sessions on Sunday 6 July. The event was last held in the town in 2023 and has returned after requests from members of the public, organisers said. Garrett said it could be the last Proms she performs in, but "I will give it my all, which is still considerable". "Singing isn't something I do for a living, it's what I am", she said. "I do it because that's what I was born to do.""It's an exciting time in my life. I no longer have to prove anything. I'm not looking to grow my career, but enjoy the legacy of being in the profession for 45 years, as I started in 1980."After the Proms, her next role will be Heidi Schiller in Stephen Sondheim's Follies for the Northern Ireland Opera Company in September. Then she will help plan a November concert for Bantam of the Opera, a choir she is involved with, before undergoing a hip replacement. Garrett said music was in her soul, and she would "carry on until I can no longer perform"."The big criteria is whether I'm still good enough - I still have singing lessons every week with Joy Mammen, my original singing teacher," she said. "We will then decide together to hang up those chords. I would hate to start disappointing people. You never know if the next one is going to be the last."Garrett last came to the town to sing in 2018 and said she could not wait to return to Bedford to perform in the Proms with her "old friend" Russell Watson. "If it's my last Proms, I'm thrilled it's going to be with him," she continued. "I'm honoured to be asked to restart the Bedford Proms, I will give it my all, which is still considerable." Mark Harrison, promoter at Cuffe & Taylor, said the absence of the Proms from the Summer Sessions in 2024 "left many feeling disappointed". "We have listened to the general public's wishes, and we are delighted that we have been able to bring it back for 2025," he last Proms was held in 2023, in a slightly different format as West End Proms. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
San Diego Unveils A New Stage: ‘The Joan' At Liberty Station
A rendering of the exterior of the new Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center in San Diego. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center In 1923, San Diego's Liberty Station welcomed its first Navy recruit—later tripling in size as a military center during World War II. More than a century later, it's about to welcome an enthusiastic theater crowd. After more than two decades of vacancy, 'Naval Building 178' will be reborn as The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center, referred to as 'The Joan.' The center will open on September 10, 2025, with the Cygnet Theatre's production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies . A rendering of the main Cygnet Theatre at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center Named for lead donors Joan and Irwin Jacobs, the $43.5 million adaptive reuse project marks a partnership between two nonprofits: the Cygnet Theatre Company and the Arts District Liberty Station, formerly the NTC Foundation. The Liberty Station grounds closed in 1997, and in subsequent decades were gradually repurposed into a 100-acre center for arts, history and commerce. Called Arts District Liberty Station, the area harbors numerous artist, dance and design studios, eateries and markets, art galleries,, a creative academy, architecture offices, museums and more. The Naval building's original enclosed arcades, windows, doors and colonnades have been reopened—they were boarded up during previous Navy renovations. The look ties into the district blend of Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture, enhanced by landscaped open spaces. The northern portion of the Naval building has been entirely reconstructed, excluding the historic arcade. The original 1942 design is back, while the basement level has been expanded to accommodate a main proscenium theater. It once housed a bowling alley, with the first and second floors hosting 1940s-era dance clubs, billiard games and a commissary. All told the project will cover 42,166 square feet. A rendering of an outdoor space at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center The 280-seat Joseph Clayes III Theater will be the main performance space, with the 150-seat Dottie Studio Theater—named for donor Dorothea Laub—staging more intimate productions. (Cygnet Theatre will be the main tenant, operating out of both spaces.) Laub has been a longtime San Diego philanthropist, donating $1 million to Dance Place San Diego and $1 million to restore the Balboa Park Carousel, among other projects. Her late husband Dick Laub joined in her efforts. Joan and Irwin Jacobs, married for nearly 70 years, have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to medical, scientific, technology, art and educational causes in San Diego. Most notably, they helped rescue the San Diego Symphony after the organization went bankrupt in the 1990s, with an infusion of $100 million. They also made a significant impact on UC San Diego programs. Irwin Jacobs is the co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm Inc., a wireless technology company. Joan Jacobs died in 2024 at age 91. A rendering of the community green room at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center 'Joan was a visionary civic leader and philanthropist whose mission was to make the world a better place—and a dear personal friend,' said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, upon Joan Jacob's death. The Joan Will House San Diego's Third Largest Theater Cygnet Theatre artistic director Sean Murray calls the new space 'a vibrant hub for creativity and connection in the heart of the Arts District.' When opened, The Joan will be the cornerstone of the arts district, a needed addition, adds Murray, to San Diego's cultural infrastructure. About 50,000 theater-goers are expected to attend annually. The main proscenium theater will include a sophisticated amplification system designed for musical performances, as well as an orchestra pit. Given that the structure is in a flyover area (it's about three miles from the San Diego International Airport), designers used thicker walls, a roof that deflects noise, and HVAC system shock absorbers, among other build-ins. Rendering of a bar at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center Two green rooms, dressing rooms, rehearsal spaces, two bars and a dedicated costume shop fill out the design. The open-air lobby has indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, suited to Southern California weather. Local artists will show their work in an art gallery located on the lower lobby. The two project partners are well-aligned. The Arts District Liberty Station has long been adept at adaptive reuse and historic building management, while Cygnet Theatre has a 22-year history of building relationships in the arts community, along with a dedicated patron base. Cygnet Theatre opened near UC San Diego in 2003, and in 2008, moved to the Old Town Theatre in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. The theater is named after a young swan, called a cygnet. The new theater will be about two miles from the Cygnet's present location. An Old Globe Theatre Designer Headed The Project Ownership of the building will remain with Arts District Liberty Station, with Cygnet Theatre serving as the primary tenant. Other community performing arts organizations are expected to use the space. Rendering of the lobby at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center A design firm that helped create San Diego's venerable Old Globe Theatre partly headed the project: Fisher Dachs Associates, founded by renowned Broadway lighting designer Jules Fisher. Joshua Dachs is the firm's principal-in-charge. The company has designed performance spaces worldwide, including: the Goldman Sachs Auditorium in New York City; the Chicago Symphony Center, Orchestra Hall; and the Tianjin Juilliard School in China. The project team also brought San Diego-based obrArchitecture on board, which mastered the Liberty Public Market and other Arts District Liberty Station buildings. Rendering of the elevators and lobby at The Joan. Courtesy of The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center Cygnet Theatre's first season at its new home will include four musicals and two plays. After Follies opens (the theater's largest production to date), the line-up features Christopher Durang's comedy, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike , the company's tenth anniversary production of A Christmas Carol and Cygnet's A Magical Holiday: Christmas at The Joan . The season continues with the San Diego premiere of Somewhere Over the Border , the Tony Award-winning The Lehman Trilogy and The SpongeBob Musica l. The season runs until July 19, 2026. The cash behind the effort largely came from major philanthropic donations and public funding. Lead donors include the Jacobs family, Dorothea Laub, the Conrad Prebys Foundation and Molly Wagner. The State of California provided a $10 million catalyst grant, and the National Parks Service's 'Save America's Treasures' program also contributed.
The Independent
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Stephen Sondheim's papers go to Library of Congress, offering a look into a Broadway genius
Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from Stephen Sondheim have been donated to the Library of Congress, offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants. The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 'Notes and Ideas' that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. He died in 2021. 'It's staggering,' said Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in an interview. 'He's constantly refining, changing words or phrases here and there. It's like he never gives up on trying to perfect the things.' The cache includes drafts of variations on the lyrics to 'I'm Still Here' from 'Follies' and 'Putting It Together' from 'Sunday in the Park with George' that Sondheim wrote for Barbra Streisand at her request. The collection arrived at the Library in March. There also are lyrics for a reprise of 'Side by Side by Side' that never made it into 'Company' and 40 pages of lyric sketches for 'A Little Priest' — 'Is the politician so oily it's served with a doily?' go one of the final lines — from 'Sweeney Todd,' with lists of more than 150 possible professions and types of people who could have been baked into pies written in the margins. 'It seems like the older he gets, the more sketching there is,' says Horowitz. 'For the early shows, there may be three boxes of materials or four boxes. By the later shows, it eight or nine boxes. I don't know if it's because it became harder for him or because he became more detail-oriented.' Some surprises in Sondheim's papers The Library of Congress expects a surge in requests to view the collection when it becomes available this summer. Anyone over 16 with a driver's license or a passport can ask for access to the original pages. It becomes available July 1. Horowitz, the author of " Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions " and editor for The Sondheim Review, who has taught musical theater history at Georgetown, has been surprised by some of the items. One of them was a song Sondheim wrote as part of a public TV contest in the early 1970s. The winner wanted the Broadway icon to write a song for his mother's 50th birthday and Horowitz stumbled over their correspondences. 'I had no idea that existed,' he said. Horowitz convinced Sondheim to donate his papers to the Library of Congress in 1993 and the composer put it in his will. 'I'd seen his manuscripts to some degree in his home before, but nothing like the kind of in-depth page after page after page that I'm doing now.' Horowitz, who has been processing collections for 34 years, built a friendship with Sondheim and even found his own name a few times in the collection. "For large collections that I spend a lot of time on, I tend to feel the ghost of that person over my shoulder. But with Sondheim, it's the first time I can think of that I'm processing a collection of someone who I really knew." A fire and 'a miracle' Six of Sondheim's musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize ('Sunday in the Park'), an Academy Award (for the song 'Sooner or Later' from the film 'Dick Tracy'), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The fact that Sondheim had anything to donate to the Library at all is a miracle. He suffered a fire in 1995 that started in his office, just feet from where the collection rested on wooden shelves and in cardboard boxes. But somehow it survived, albeit with some papers suffering scorch marks. 'There's absolutely no reason why the collection should not have gone up in flames. And it is truly the closest I've ever seen to a miracle, the fact that they didn't,' said Horowitz. The country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill. It's not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. In his second term, President Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a 'woke' agenda. The Library of Congress is already home to the collections of several Broadway icons, including Neil Simon, Arthur Laurents, Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
Associated Press
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Stephen Sondheim's papers go to Library of Congress, offering a look into a Broadway genius
NEW YORK (AP) — Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from Stephen Sondheim have been donated to the Library of Congress, offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants. The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 'Notes and Ideas' that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. He died in 2021. 'It's staggering,' said Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in an interview. 'He's constantly refining, changing words or phrases here and there. It's like he never gives up on trying to perfect the things.' The cache includes drafts of variations on the lyrics to 'I'm Still Here' from 'Follies' and 'Putting It Together' from 'Sunday in the Park with George' that Sondheim wrote for Barbra Streisand at her request. The collection arrived at the Library in March. There also are lyrics for a reprise of 'Side by Side by Side' that never made it into 'Company' and 40 pages of lyric sketches for 'A Little Priest' — 'Is the politician so oily it's served with a doily?' go one of the final lines — from 'Sweeney Todd,' with lists of more than 150 possible professions and types of people who could have been baked into pies written in the margins. 'It seems like the older he gets, the more sketching there is,' says Horowitz. 'For the early shows, there may be three boxes of materials or four boxes. By the later shows, it eight or nine boxes. I don't know if it's because it became harder for him or because he became more detail-oriented.' Some surprises in Sondheim's papers The Library of Congress expects a surge in requests to view the collection when it becomes available this summer. Anyone over 16 with a driver's license or a passport can ask for access to the original pages. It becomes available July 1. Horowitz, the author of " Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions " and editor for The Sondheim Review, who has taught musical theater history at Georgetown, has been surprised by some of the items. One of them was a song Sondheim wrote as part of a public TV contest in the early 1970s. The winner wanted the Broadway icon to write a song for his mother's 50th birthday and Horowitz stumbled over their correspondences. 'I had no idea that existed,' he said. Horowitz convinced Sondheim to donate his papers to the Library of Congress in 1993 and the composer put it in his will. 'I'd seen his manuscripts to some degree in his home before, but nothing like the kind of in-depth page after page after page that I'm doing now.' Horowitz, who has been processing collections for 34 years, built a friendship with Sondheim and even found his own name a few times in the collection. 'For large collections that I spend a lot of time on, I tend to feel the ghost of that person over my shoulder. But with Sondheim, it's the first time I can think of that I'm processing a collection of someone who I really knew.' A fire and 'a miracle' Six of Sondheim's musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize ('Sunday in the Park'), an Academy Award (for the song 'Sooner or Later' from the film 'Dick Tracy'), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The fact that Sondheim had anything to donate to the Library at all is a miracle. He suffered a fire in 1995 that started in his office, just feet from where the collection rested on wooden shelves and in cardboard boxes. But somehow it survived, albeit with some papers suffering scorch marks. 'There's absolutely no reason why the collection should not have gone up in flames. And it is truly the closest I've ever seen to a miracle, the fact that they didn't,' said Horowitz. The country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill. It's not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. In his second term, President Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a 'woke' agenda. The Library of Congress is already home to the collections of several Broadway icons, including Neil Simon, Arthur Laurents, Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
