Latest news with #MusicoftheNight
West Australian
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
What's On: Your guide to events around Albany and the Great Southern, July 31-August 6
From national poetry month to documentary screenings, here's your guide to the week ahead in the Great Southern. THURSDAY Andy Bradshaw , Wilson's Brewery Bar, 5pm FRIDAY Lez Karski , Wilson's Brewery Bar, 5pm Spectrum Karaoke Night , Spectrum Theatre, 6pm Corals' Last Stand Free Community Screening , Vancouver Arts Centre, 6pm Music of the Night , Albany Entertainment Centre, 7.30pm SATURDAY Pete Murray , Albany Entertainment Centre, 7pm SUNDAY Albany Heritage Day Market , Amity Quays, 12pm Adam Grok , Wilson's Brewery Bar, 5pm MONDAY Patchwork and Quilting Basics Class , The Empty Bobbin, 1pm TUESDAY NT Poetry, Politics and Place Online Panel , Albany Public Library, 4.30pm WEDNESDAY Winter Ocean Plunge , Middleton Beach, 6.30am Homelessness Event: Dandjoo Koort , Retravision Stadium, 9am Poems for Peace , Albany Public Library, 5.30pm Planning something? Let us know! Send details of your event to greatsouthern@
The Citizen
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Jonathan Roxmouth's going Broadway
Jonathan Roxmouth is a performer amongst performers, and his new Broadway-inspired show promises to get audiences of all ages going. He's a performer amongst performers. Jonathan Roxmouth can tickle ivories like few musicians can draw from their instruments. And he's back at the stage where it all began for him almost two decades ago at the Teatro stage at Montecasino, this time with a full orchestra at his command and a show designed to time-travel audiences into comfort and familiarity. Roxmouth has described My Favourite Broadway as more than just another concert. He called it a love letter to the golden age of musicals. 'The whole show is about nostalgia,' Roxmouth said. 'Musical theatre tends to carry a lot of memories for people. They saw that show with their sweetheart, or their kid, or their grandfather took them to see it. It's personal.' But he noted, audiences must not expect just another trip down memory lane. He has upped the ante. 'It's Broadway like they've never heard or seen it before,' he said and added that with a full 32-piece Egoli Symphonic Orchestra on stage, it's going to be a blast. 'Orchestral shows aren't as common here as they should be,' he said. 'To hear the music is one thing. To see it performed by 32 people right in front of you. That's a completely different experience.' Catchy showbiz tunes The connection people have with Broadway music, Roxmouth shared, goes far beyond catchy tunes. 'We all grew up having stories read to us. Musical theatre is just storytelling with music,' he said. 'Songs like Bring Him Home, now who doesn't have a child or a partner they wish they could see again? And Music of the Night, for everyone's wanted to say 'I love you' but didn't know how. These songs become our stories. It's therapy, with amazing music.' And in a world teetering on the edge of chaos, Roxmouth believes theatre is more important than ever. 'I don't like using the word escapism, but right now, it's better than travelling to get away from daily life,' he said. 'Go out. Get your heart warmed instead of just sitting at home in front of a heater. We're lucky in Johannesburg, we've got places like Montecasino, with safe parking, great restaurants, and a show on top of that. It's important to get out and not let the news weigh you down.' ALSO READ: It's lekker, messy creativity and art Theatre is magical. He likened the thrill of live theatre to watching a tightrope walker. 'They could fall. Things could go wrong. That makes it even more exciting when everything goes right,' he said. 'There's no 'pause for a bathroom break' like Netflix. This is happening, live, in front of you.' And for naysayers that doom-preach theatre's inevitable death, well, Roxmouth doesn't buy it. 'Audiences are changing, yes, but the magic of seeing a live human being do something extraordinary right in front of you and that's never going to change.' Extraordinary homecoming This show is a homecoming for Roxmouth, marking his first musical theatre appearance in South Africa since 2017. 'It's been eight years since I performed a musical at home,' he said. 'I've been all over the world, but this is special. I get to come back to the very theatre where it all began for me.' With new glitzy costumes, production surprises, and a setlist that includes both beloved classics and unexpected gems, Roxmouth is pulling out all the stops. 'There are songs audiences will expect and a few they'll never expect from me, but they'll love them anyway,' he said. 'There's a moment at the start of Act Two involving a piano that I've been dreaming about for years. I'm finally doing it.' Despite his extensive globetrotting, from Asia to Europe and then some, Roxmouth said nothing compares to a South African audience. 'South Africans have a lack of restraint when they love something. They let you know, loudly and immediately,' he said. 'That energy, that honesty, it's like nowhere else in the world.' My Favourite Broadway runs for eight shows only at Montecasino's Teatro from 25 July to 3 August 2025. Tickets at Webtickets. NOW READ: Dire Warnings of TV's Handmaid's Tale
Daily Mirror
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
6 unhinged Donald Trump moments as he gets booed and trolled by drag queens
Among the many surprising things about Donald Trump is his apparently sincere and deep love for popular stage musicals of the 80s and 90s. He's frequently spoken of his love of the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber - citing Cats and Phantom of the Opera among his favourites. Anyone who's been to one of his speeches will be familiar with his warm-up tape. Alongside high energy radio rock hits, MAGA fans are regularly treated to often lengthy cuts from the soundtracks of the above musicals - usually soft solo ballads like Music of the Night from Phantom and Memory from Cats. Last night, Trump got a treat - a performance of his other favourite musical, Les Miserables, at the Kennedy Centre. Regular readers will be familiar with Trump's offbeat plan to recast Washington's major cultural centre to be more to his tastes - fewer drag queens and experimental theatre, more basic musicals and country rock. Well, last night was the culmination of that process - a command performance of the epic show just for him. And a half full audience. And some drag queens. Here's more on that, and some other things that happened in Trump world yesterday. "Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men?", the cast of Les Mis intone at one of the show's many emotional climaxes. Well, Trump, sitting at the front of the circle, certainly did. He also heard the people boo. As he and rarely seen First Lady Melania Trump took their seats, parts of the (roughly half capacity) crowd erupted in boos. Shortly after, cheers took over from elsewhere in the crowd, followed again by chants of "USA! USA!". Later, someone accurately shouted "felon" at the President. Among the modest crowd were a large contingent of drag queens, who sashayed past the first family. About a dozen performers from the show's cast refused to appear at the performance in protest against the administration. Asked on the red carpet whether he identifies more with unfortunate, redemption-seeking ex-convict turned politician turned revolutionary Jean Valjean or obsessive and vindictive policeman Inspector Javert, Trump said: "Oh, that's a tough one." 'You better answer that one, honey,' he said, deferring to his often absent wife. 'I don't know.' Meanwhile Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to tell a Congressional committee how much it'll cost to refit the "free plane" Trump was gifted by Qatar. A contract has been awarded for reconfiguration of the plane, which it's been claimed the President could use as a temporary replacement for Air Force One while a new presidential jet is being completed by Boeing. Trump has become increasingly impatient with the slow pace of ensuring the Boeing jets are suitable for use as a flying White House. Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. And follow our Mirror Politics team here - Lizzy Buchan, Mikey Smith, Kevin Maguire, Sophie Huskisson, Dave Burke and Ashley Cowburn. Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox. And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell, hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday. But it's been pointed out that even the free plane would have to be subject to the same rigorous programme of security checks - effectively dismantling it and rebuilding it to ensure there aren't any bugs or ancient Greeks hiding in the walls. But asked how much all this was going to cost, a not unreasonable question for the Senate Appropriations defence subcommittee - which is in charge of approving the departmental budget - Hegseth said no. "That cannot be revealed in this setting," he said. "Why can't it be revealed in this setting?" asked Senator Jack Reed, "This is the appropriations committee of the United States Senate. We appropriate the money that you will spend after it's authorised by my committee, and you cannot tell us how much the contract is for." "You will have that number, senator," Hegseth insisted. "We want it now. The contract has been signed, correct?" Reed asked - reminding him of reports that aviation firm L3Harris had been awarded the contract. But Hegseth said: "Nothing on that front, that I'm aware of, is being executed." This Saturday, tanks and other military equipment will roll through the street of Washington DC. It's totally in celebration of the 250th birthday of the US armed forces, and not for Trump's 79th birthday, which happens to also be on Saturday. Anyway, Trump is very much looking forward to it - as are we. We'll be on the ground to see the whole grotesque spectacle of military might unfold. But about 60% of Americans say the parade is "not a good use" of taxpayers' money, according to a poll published last night. The NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found just 4 in 10 Americans "somewhat" or "strongly" approve of the parade, while about 3 in 10 "somewhat" or "strongly" disapprove. About 3 in 10 neither approve nor disapprove. Matt Wheeler, 40, called the display "extremely wasteful" and "a bit of a performance" that "just sends a bad message" in terms of the overt military display. "The only other time I can think about this, it's been in old throwbacks to the USSR or things you see out of North Korea," said Wheeler, who works in nonprofit fundraising in Los Angeles and described himself as a lifelong Democrat. "It's a direction this administration is inclined to move in that isn't in line with what I thought our country really was." Lee Greenwood, whose patriotic anthem "God Bless the USA" has soundtracked almost every Trump speech since 2016. The song - which many people loathe, but I personally consider to be an absolute stone-cold banger - contains the line "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free." It is Greenwood's only work of note. But he unashamedly dines out on it - and under Trump it's even been played at official naturalisation ceremonies for new citizens. Well, great news everyone. Greenwood will be singing it live at definitely not Trump's birthday party. As the military rolls through the nation's capital, a string of protests are scheduled to take place in hundreds of cities across the US. Protests are growing in response to his immigration policies. The "No Kings" protests have been called, organisers say, to protect America's democracy as Trump vows to increase his deployment of military forces inside the United States. But there aren't any planned for the capital, which is probably a good thing after Trump warned any protesters disrupting his not birthday parade would face a severe response.
