Latest news with #JerseyBoys'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Jersey Boys' taking the stage in Brighton
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The first Rochester-produced version of the hit musical 'Jersey Boys' is ready to open as part of OFC's Broadway in Brighton series this month. Adam Marino stars as Frankie Valli, and Matt Henningsen plays Tommy DeVito. Both stopped by our Sunrise studio to share more about what audiences can expect. Watch their interview in the player on this page. The shows run May 8 through the 25th. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Post
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Just in Time' review: Jonathan Groff parties like it's 1965 in stellar Bobby Darin musical
Theater review JUST IN TIME Two hours and 20 minutes, with one intermission. At the Circle in the Square Theatre, 235 West 50th Street. That a musical about the too-short life of Bobby Darin, the 1950s and '60s crooner who notched a string of hits before dying young at 37, would turn out to be one of the most wondrous of the season was not on my Broadway bingo card. He wasn't a Michael Jackson or a Tina Turner. And even though Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons came shortly after him, their show 'Jersey Boys' feels like a Broadway of a bygone era. Advertisement But director Alex Timbers and his irrepressible star Jonathan Groff have made magic with 'Just in Time,' which opened Saturday night at the Circle in the Square Theatre. For a little over two hours, there's nowhere you'd rather be than at this dazzling dream of a New York that truly never slept, presided over by a Harlem-born singer whose output was so rich and rapid-fire that the man must have been fueled by the dire prognosis he received as a child: Darin wasn't supposed to live past 16. 'Just in Time' is a wallop of joy, though. And while it doesn't shy away from Darin's heart struggles, anatomically and romantically, the musical is never gloomy. Advertisement What's astounding is how the show manages to be, at once, both jukebox retro and to-the-minute fresh. Too often, onstage musician biographies are tethered to and limited by twitch-perfect impersonations and the same old scene-song-scene-song formula. They're judged, clinically, like Madame Tussauds wax replicas. What Timbers, Groff and designer Derek McLane do instead is conjure the electricity of a late, boisterous night at the Copacabana. 5 Jonathan Groff plays singer Bobby Darin the new Broadway musical 'Just in Time.' Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Advertisement The audience is situated in a sumptuously imagined, sparkling silver nightclub with multiple stages and a brilliant band in back. Groff spiritedly darts around the room, jumping on tables and dancing with ticket-buyers like the consummate host. The actor, bursting with charisma, sweeps away the old radio static from Darin's classics like 'Mack the Knife,' 'Dream Lover' and 'Beyond the Sea' with his silky tenor. Groff, by the way, is introduced as, well, Jonathan Groff. 'I'm Jonathan, and I'll be your Bobby Darin tonight,' he announces. The actor also amusingly points out we are, in fact, in the basement beneath 'Wicked.' The self-reference (he even jokes about his well-known habit of spitting when he speaks) is a shrewd move by book writers Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver that allows Groff to become Darin in his lively essence rather than a pile of pat mannerisms. Advertisement 'Bobby wanted nothing more than to entertain,' Groff adds. And then he fabulously follows in his footsteps. 5 Erika Henningsen plays Darin's wife Sandra Dee. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Much of 'Just in Time' is a fantastic party. Ditties such as 'Splish Splash' that the younger set will think is a parent's baby-talk become surprise showstoppers. Timbers, who also directed the atmospheric ragers 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Here Lies Love,' brings his unique sense of fun to material that doesn't obviously scream out for it. Lo and behold, it's some of the best work of his career, and just what this limping genre needed — like Baz Luhrmann and 'Elvis.' Darin's turbulent life offstage is covered, too, though not exhaustively or exhaustingly. His relationship with Connie Francis (Gracie Lawrence), who he wrote songs for before he hit it big, and his rocky marriage to movie star Sandra Dee (Erika Henningsen) show the personal toll of fame. 5 Michele Pawk's Polly plays a major role in the darker second act. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Lawrence — whose name sounds like she could've landed a record deal in 1965 — makes a terrific Broadway debut with a striking voice belting out tunes like 'Who's Sorry Now?' And Henningsen has real authority with the more full-throated emotional arc as her marriage collapses in the public eye. Bobby also loves and spars with his mother Polly (Michele Pawk) and sister Nina (Emily Bergl), who concealed an existence-altering secret from him for almost his entire life. Advertisement The darker second act, needless to say, does not fizz as much as the more innocent first. 5 Emily Bergl's Nina has kept a secret from Bobby for a lifetime. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman But, much like Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen in 'The Boy From Oz,' the excellent musical thrives on Groff's natural effervescence and ability to connect so deeply and personally with audiences. 'Merrily We Roll Along,' which he won a Tony for last year, was a giant leap in his maturity as an actor. I'd actually seen him play Bobby in an early version of this musical seven years ago at the 92Y. Groff sounded great as ever then, but the gravitas and world-weariness of a man who's fully aware his time is short weren't there yet. Advertisement 5 Groff nails the part of a talented entertainer who knows he's running out of time. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman Well, they are now. And how. The Broadway season ends today. One of its most enjoyable shows has arrived just in time.
Chicago Tribune
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Next weekend, a confluence of dance events you definitely should see
Three upcoming, monumental dance events, all with deep ties to Chicago, are on a collision course with your calendar. But it is possible to see the Joffrey Ballet, Twyla Tharp and Parsons Dance next weekend — and you should. Parsons Dance David Parsons launched his dance company in 1985. Three years later, he opened the season at Columbia College Chicago. 'For some reason, they gave us a white limousine,' Parsons said in a recent phone interview. 'I remember that gig. And I've done a lot of gigs.' Born in Rockford and raised in Kansas City, Parsons credits Chicago with putting wind in the sails of a company that went on to international acclaim. 'Chicago is a major city in the United States,' he said. 'You start getting that stuff on your resume, it's the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. You're on your way.' Since the city's early endorsement, Parsons Dance has toured 30 countries and five continents, but it has been 30 years since Parsons Dance has been back. That changes on April 12, when they perform for one night only at the Auditorium. Howell Binkley, Parsons Dance co-founder and lighting designer, is prominently featured, lighting all but two of the pieces on the program. Binkley died in 2020; among his many accolades are two Tony Awards for 'Jersey Boys' and 'Hamilton.' 'He lit every work I did,' Parsons said of Binkley, beginning with 'Caught' in 1982. 'Lighting is my muse. Light is the thing that gets me going.' Parsons was dancing with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the time. 'Caught' uses a flashbulb effect to catch its single dancer in mid-air, and has become a signature work of the company. 'If I didn't do 'Caught,' I wouldn't be talking to you today,' he said. 'It's just one of those things.' The piece is second to last on Saturday's program, which opens and closes with ensemble works from the aughts: 'Wolfgang,' an homage to ballet set to the soundtrack from 'Amadeus,' and 'Shining Star,' set to music by Earth, Wind & Fire. A newer tour de force, 'Balance of Power' (2020), and an older one, 'Nascimento' (1990), complete the bill's repertory by Parsons, with the 2024 work 'Juke,' by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater resident choreographer Jamar Roberts, completing the program. 7:30 p.m. April 12 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $30-$120 at 312-341-2300 and Twyla Tharp Dance Twyla Tharp Dance hasn't been here in a while, either, not since her 2017 lecture demonstration on some of her earliest works called 'Minimalism and Me' visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. Now, Tharp brings something brand new to the Harris Theater as part of her company's 60 th anniversary season. 'Slacktide,' which premiered last year, is set to music by Philip Glass, realized and played on stage live by Third Coast Percussion and Constance Volk, all from Chicago. 'The Glass is a piece of music I've admired for a while in a different format,' Tharp said. 'When I was introduced to Third Coast and saw that they could make something old new again—that was very attractive.' It's the first time Tharp has used the composer's music since 'In the Upper Room,' which premiered in 1986 at Ravinia Festival before it had a title. Tribune critic Richard Christiansen called it a 'breathtaking, big buster of a dance.' Indeed, 'In the Upper Room' has long been considered one of Tharp's greatest dances. 'Slacktide' begins where it left off. The front half of the program is taken up by Tharp's 1998 work 'Diabelli,' set to Beethoven's theme and variations of the same name. 'Theme and variation is a natural form, in that it makes a statement and then it examines the breadth, depth and issues around the theme,' she said, 'which provides a natural dramatic unity. It's both contrast and similarity, and that's a very attractive thing.' Tharp wrote a theme 'as simple and useful' as composer Anton Diabelli wrote for Beethoven, took it apart, examined it, and put it back together every which way. Unlike Mozart's one-upping of Antonio Salieri in the film 'Amadeus' (which Tharp choreographed), Beethoven wasn't cynical in his approach, she said. 'There is a lot of humor,' she said. 'He does do parodies. But he's always respectful of the material.' She's talking about Beethoven, but the sentiment is easily extrapolated to Tharp's decades of dancemaking. 'The juxtaposition of what's old and what's new is always a pretty thorny problem,' she said. 'It becomes kind of meaningless: Old, new, used or not used, A.I., fresh, original — all things that I've always had a kind of sense of the mortality of this concept.' April 10-12 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $74-$225 at 312-334-7777 and CSO x Joffrey Ballet Lest you think that's enough dance for one weekend, don't sleep on the Joffrey Ballet's two world premieres performed alongside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Harry Bicket. It is the third such collaboration — an unconventional challenge involving an assigned piece of music and an atypical dance space on the CSO's home turf. At first, Joffrey rehearsal director Nicolas Blanc was taken aback by his selection: Darius Milhaud's 'Le Boeuf sur le Toit' (literally translated from French to mean 'the cow on the roof'). 'Despite the fact that it's written by a French composer, I didn't know the piece,' said Blanc, a Frenchman himself. 'To be frank, when I listened to the piece, I thought, this is really fun, but I'm not sure it's corresponding to my personality. I've been more doing serious works like ' Under the Trees Voices,' more nostalgic, more lyrical. It became a lot of fun, actually, to do my research.' The result is 'Les Boeufoons' (pronounced like 'buffoons, a theatrical tribute to the piece's origin story. Milhaud intended 'Le Boeuf' to be incidental music in a Charlie Chaplin film. Chaplin didn't want it. Neither did Serge Diaghilev, the impresario overseeing the wildly popular Ballet Russes in 1920s Paris. Choreographer Jean Cocteau, who had pitched 'Le Boeuf sur le Toit,' premiered his ballet without Diaghilev's help. Blanc employs references to Cocteau, the famous Ballet Russes ballet 'Parade' and the haute couture of the era. It's fun and hedges on ridiculous, without crossing the line into farce. That is miles away from Amy Hall Garner's work 'Second Nature' with visualizes music by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, an American composer whose connection to dance is concretized in the score to Alvin Ailey's 'For Bird with Love.' For Blanc, it's been a welcome project that has pushed him outside his comfort zone — particularly with dancers he sees every day. 'I'm really excited this project is happening,' he said. 'It's not been easy to conceive. I'm hoping all my hours of research and thinking and brainstorming are fruitful for what's going to be presented to the audience. But I do think that in the particular context we live in at the moment, a lighthearted piece is very welcome.' April 10-13 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $55-$399 at 312-294-3000 and Also of note: In her newest piece, Praize Productions artistic director Enneréssa LaNette Davis suggests a slow-down in this work-obsessed chaotic world. Called 'Complexions,' the multi-disciplinary piece features dance made by Davis, former Deeply Rooted Dance Theater co-founder Kevin Iega Jeff and two former powerhouse Chicago dancers, Dominique (Atwood) Hamilton and Monique Haley, who have found their choreographic sea legs since leaving the stage. Musicians Junius Paul and Isaiah Collier join for the multimedia performance.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Yahoo
Bond set for man charged after deadly dog attack in New Orleans East
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — According to court records, a piece of the fence that separated the yards of 36-year-old Chad Bridges and 81-year-old Barbara Stewart, was broken. New Orleans Police Department Detective Matt Riffle says a piece of plywood was placed over Bridges' side of the broken fence where his three dogs Sadie, Potato and Rocky got through to get into Stewart's yard. Bond set for former Jefferson Parish deputy accused of computer-aided solicitation of a juvenile The defense argued that the fence was as secure as possible prior to the dogs getting out. 'That particular board is actually bolted at the top, middle and the bottom and it appears that essentially what happened, was that the dog was able to force itself out of a fence that by all appearances had been properly secured,' Defense Attorney John Fuller said. Court records also show that this was not the first time Bridges' dogs were involved in an attack. According to Riffle and the prosecutors, Bridge's 15-year-old neighbor was bitten on the ankle by Sadie. The defense says there is no proof of this attack. 'There was no actual presentation of evidence as far as police being called, as far as police report, as far as EMS report,' said Defense Attorney Devin Jones. Mother goose injured, nest destroyed in Armstrong Park attack During the hearing, the prosecution also highlighted several videos from Bridges' social media account where they claim he taught the dogs how to open gates, climb obstacles and even attack. Prosecutors say in one particular video Bridges is seen running down a street with multiple dogs not on leashes; but according to the defense, none of these videos incriminate bridges. 'Any suggestion that those videos were images of him teaching dogs to attack humans is 100% disingenuous,' Fuller eyes will adore them: 'Jersey Boys' on stage in the French Quarter House GOP leaders play hardball to stop Luna push for proxy voting for new parents Northwest Louisiana inmates acquire skills for future jobs Cast for Beatles biopics revealed: Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson to star Louisiana Public Broadcasting honors six students as young heroes Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
