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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
A raucous night at the Elliot Norton awards
The cast of the Sullivan Rep performs a song from "A Little Night Music." JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE There were, as always, heartwarming stories. Jenny Tsai, who won outstanding music direction for Sullivan Rep's 'A Little Night Music,' told us that when she came to the US from Taiwan at age 23, she knew nothing about musical theater. Accepting outstanding lead performance in a musical for her work in 'Next to Normal,' Sherée Marcelle said, 'There was a time that I was told I was not cut out for this industry,' before confessing, 'This is only the second professional show of my career.' Advertisement Armando Rivera, who directed Gloucester Stage/Teatro Chelsea's 'The Hombres' (outstanding play and outstanding director in the midsize division), said, 'We Latino hombres are not bad men, we are human,' and 'If you tell stories in any language, I promise you will be understood. Because the heart is there.' Winners for outstanding sound design (large) for the Huntington's 'Toni Stone,' Lucas Clopton and Aubrey Dube hugged each other at the podium before Clopton explained that 'We haven't seen each other for a year' and Dube gave a shout-out to his native Botswana. From left, Aubrey Dube and Lucas Clopton celebrate their prize for Outstanding Sound Design in a large play for their work on "Toni Stone." JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE There's always room for humor at the Norties. When it seemed no one from American Repertory Theater was coming to accept the outstanding lighting design (large) award, BTCA member Bob Verini offered to fill in: 'I saw 'Gatsby' and I'll be happy to tell you about the lighting.' Presenting the outstanding featured performance (midsize) award, a cheeky Mishka Yarovoy caught the audience off guard with 'And the winner is' before the nominees had even appeared on the screen. A special citation honoring the Boch Center Wang Theatre's 100th anniversary was unexpectedly interrupted by the opening bars of 'The Music of the Night' from 'The Phantom of the Opera,' prompting the observation that 'There are ghosts in these old theaters.' Presenter Paul Melendy appeared in a T-shirt bearing the image of this year's Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence recipient, Kathy St. George, and announced he'd be selling copies from the back of his Subaru after the show. St. George's five-minute acceptance speech was a show in itself, as the Stoneham native told the crowd how at age seven she decided she wanted to be a second-grade teacher and that she actually taught second grade before becoming an actress. In New York, she played a life-size Lamb Chop alongside Shari Lewis; she answered an ad to 'Work on Broadway this Christmas' and got the part — as an elf at Macy's. Her real Broadway debut came in 1981 when she was cast in the Jerome Robbins–directed 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Advertisement But Boston called her back: 'You are my people. Being part of the Boston theater community is the best thing ever.' Channeling her one-woman show 'And Now Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Judy Garland,' she whispered mischievously toward the wings, 'Auntie Joyce?,' before concluding, three times, 'There's no place like home.' Even then St. George wasn't done: she appeared in the musical number 'Streets of Dublin,' from SpeakEasy Stage Company's ' Four awards were given in memory of theater luminaries whom we lost over the past year. Former BTCA member Terry Byrne remembered James Earl Jones. Lenelle Moïse recited a poem to honor South African playwright Athol Fugard. Paula Plum recalled getting her first job in Boston from Lyric Stage Boston co-founder Ron Ritchell. And Scott Edmiston extolled 'Falsettos' creator William Finn. As the ceremony wound down, I created a couple of unofficial awards. The Huntington's ' Advertisement Despite giving out 39 actual Elliot Norton Awards, the BTCA wrapped up the show in just over three hours. In what's become an Elliot Norton Awards Ceremony tradition, the entire BTCA crew assembled on stage to announce the outstanding ensemble winner. After they'd shouted out 'Titanic' and no one from NSMT immediately responded, Kulhawik peered anxiously into the audience and wondered, 'Did the ship go down?' It didn't; the award was accepted and the Boston theater community sailed exuberantly into the ceremony's afterparty. Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Leopoldstadt,' ‘Next to Normal,' and ‘The Piano Lesson' among winners at Elliot Norton Awards
In the midsize theater division, Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea's ' Jade Guerra, Anthony T. Goss, Jonathan Kitt and Omar Robinson in Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Nile Scott Studios Advertisement In the combined midsize or small theater category, 'The Piano Lesson' also won for outstanding scenic design (Jon Savage). Outstanding lighting design went to Jeff Adelberg for Arlekin Players Theatre's ' Topping the small theater honors was 'The Dybbuk' as outstanding play. Apollinaire Theatre Company's ' 'Next to Normal' garnered outstanding musical, outstanding lead performance in a musical (Sherée Marcelle), and outstanding featured performance in a musical (Cortlandt Barrett). Outstanding music direction went to Jenny Tsai for Sullivan Rep's 'A Little Night Music.' Ayodele Casel won the outstanding choreography award for American Repertory Theater's 'Diary of a Tap Dancer.' Jenece Upton gave the outstanding solo performance in Merrimack Repertory Theatre's 'Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.' Outstanding new script went to Mfoniso Udofia for the Huntington's ' Of the previously announced awards, the outstanding visiting play was ' Advertisement This year's Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence went to longtime Boston favorite Kathy St. George. Rehearsal for Life received the 2025 Elliot Norton Arts Education Award. Special Citations were given to the Boch Center Wang Theatre (100th anniversary), Apollinaire Theatre Company (30th anniversary), Greater Boston Stage Company (25th anniversary), and [Expletive]-Faced Shakespeare (10th anniversary).
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why ‘Next to Normal' is your grief and rage catharsis in 2025
Many of us might want to yowl like a rock star, shut ourselves off in a fantasy world, alternately numb ourselves with pills and fling them in the trash or simply indulge a fit of histrionics. To all that, Ray of Light Theatre's 'Next to Normal' says, 'Hold my beer.' One of musical theater's sacred duties, exemplified by the production that opened Saturday, May 31, at the Victoria Theatre, is to give expression to all the chest-beating, teeth-gnashing, hair-tearing grief and rage that all of us feel but most of us suppress. Actors rip off their shells, and we sit quietly in the dark, thinking, 'Yes, that's what it's like,' and feel cleansed. Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt's 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner begins with a facade. Diana (Anne Warren Clark) sings of her 'perfect loving family, so adoring.' But before long, she's frantically making sandwiches on the floor, while her husband and kids back slowly away and look at her like she's a crazy person. Diana zings to life in a tango with her psychopharmacologist Dr. Fine (Courtney Merrell), with one dancing her fingers up the other's body. Under the frisky direction of Jenn BeVard, Dr. Fine grinds powders with a mortar and pestle like it's a kink, and Diana recites her side effects, including constipation, like she's a movie star giving an Oscar acceptance speech. The pill-popping Diana doesn't just have bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and a grab bag of other hazily defined maladies that append to her diagnosis whenever she says the right thing at the right time. She's also bearing a herculean grief that's metastasized and hobbled her, preventing her from interacting with her family in the way they crave. In Yorkey and Kitt's brilliant writing, that mourning takes human form, singing with a voice of pure joy. It understands, condoles and boosts, and in Christian Mejia's lighting design, it's as colorful as a jar of candy. Between it and demanding, unhappy family members, why wouldn't Diana choose the former? Yorkey and Kitt's writing keeps turning over stones to unearth the creepy-crawlies underneath. It dares to let a mother admit she doesn't love her child that much or that a wife finds her husband 'boring.' Caring for a mentally ill family member is 'just a slower suicide,' Diana's husband Dan (Albert Hodge) sings. Elsewhere, asking her what she's so afraid of, he adds, 'Can you tell me why I'm afraid it's me?' In a show where agony succeeds agony, performers don't always find ways to show how one fresh hell is distinguished from the last, and voices aren't as tuneful as they might be. But as Diana, Clark is sensitive to microbeats within microbeats. When she remembers her younger self, singing, 'I miss the mountains,' it's as if she has a whole mighty peak within herself. When Diana realizes that in her life, 'nothing's real,' and decides to throw away all her pills, Clark combines the shock of discovery with the rage of all the time she's wasted by pretending. If 'Next to Normal' doesn't cure Diana or elbow its way into a hunky-dory ending, nor does it force its characters to just sink deeper into a quagmire of despair. The show gives Diana and her family permission to say the status quo isn't working and make different choices — still suboptimal, but at least different. In a genre famous for happily-ever-afters and kicklines, such down-to-earth restraint is a balm and a gift.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BLAST raises awareness for mental health with latest show ‘Next to Normal'
ENDICOTT, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month, a vulnerable musical that explores the complexities of mental illness is coming to the Cider Mill Stage. Bold Local Artists of the Southern Tier, or BLAST, is presenting Next to Normal. Next to Normal is a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning show that follows the Goodman family as they struggle with the highs and lows of mental illness. Stephen Kane portrays Dan, a husband and dad who is trying his best to keep his family together. The son of a psychologist, Kane says talking about mental health was encouraged in his household. He says mental health is health. 'Why this musical is so important is because we are talking about it. We are quite literally putting it on stage in a way that up until this point, hadn't been done before. So, to see it on stage is just one huge, monumental step in normalizing this thing that is something that none of us are impervious to,' said Kane. Kane encourages everyone to take care of their mental health. He says if you are struggling, seek help because there is hope. Next to Normal opens on Friday and will run throughout this weekend and next. Show times are at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday and 2:30 on Sunday. Tickets begin at $32. To purchase, visit NY lawmakers push AI safety bills Elementary students join Mayor Kraham for first carousel ride of the season Local Rotary Clubs prepare for Band Organ Rally and Carousel Festival Binghamton High School recognized for musical excellence BLAST raises awareness for mental health with latest show 'Next to Normal' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Binghamton High School recognized for musical excellence
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Binghamton City School District is one of over a thousand schools and districts across the country being recognized for making music part of a well-rounded education. News 34 was in the chorus room of Binghamton High School Tuesday morning as students were rehearsing for the annual Taste of Broadway cabaret. Binghamton has been named to the NAMM Foundation's Best Communities for Music Education list. Fine Arts Department Chair Ariana Koniuto says Binghamton provides musical opportunities at all levels, with violin and chorus beginning in 3rd grade and band in 4th. By the time they get to the high school, students have a number of bands, orchestras, ensembles, and choruses to choose from. Koniuto says the district provides musical opportunities to all students regardless of their interest or talent. 'We recognize that music is such a fundamental part of who we are as humans, and that a strong connection to the school community and a strong music background really helps our students in all other areas of their education,' said Koniuto. Special offerings at Binghamton High School include modern band and music production classes as well as the well-known steel drum band. Other local districts on the Best Communities list are Candor, Chenango Forks, Chenango Valley, Johnson City, Maine-Endwell, Owego-Apalachin, and Windsor. NY lawmakers push AI safety bills Elementary students join Mayor Kraham for first carousel ride of the season Local Rotary Clubs prepare for Band Organ Rally and Carousel Festival Binghamton High School recognized for musical excellence BLAST raises awareness for mental health with latest show 'Next to Normal' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
