Latest news with #OldFriends
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Old Friends Welcomes Namesake Stakes Winner Flatlined
Old Friends Welcomes Namesake Stakes Winner Flatlined originally appeared on Paulick Report. Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, Ky. is pleased to announce the arrival of Flatlined, winner of the 2016 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky joins Kalamos, Next Shares, and Get Western as winners of the race who have utilized the guaranteed spot at Old Friends that they are granted upon their victory in the race.'It is a particularly happy day for us at Old Friends when we can welcome the winner of one of the races that bear our name. We are so pleased to honor our commitment to Flatlined and welcome him to Old Friends. This successful, rugged gelding will enjoy a well-deserved retirement and I suspect he will be among the favorites of our thousands of annual visitors,' said John Nicholson, President and CEO of Old Friends. Bred by B & B Thoroughbreds and Marty Hughes. Flatlined was a successful racehorse with his 36 starts seeing him earn $499,504 with six wins and eight other top three finishes. The gelding's win in the Old Friends S. came in just his second start at the stakes level and immediately after he'd romped in an Allowance Optional Claiming race. Entered by trainer Charles Dickey in the Old Friends S. for his first Kentucky Downs start, he led nearly all the way to win by a neck in a three-way photo finish for the addition to the Old Friends Stakes, his victories also include the 2017 Ft. Lauderdale S. (G2) and Cliff Guilliams Handicap. Flatlined retired on June 8, 2019 after finishing fourth in an Allowance Optional Claiming race at Suffolk Downs, one of the final races run at the of the five winners of the Old Friends S. have retired to Old Friends with remaining winner Sir Dudley Digges currently standing at stud in Canada. This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Post
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Bringing down the dog house: cute pets gather with stars at Shubert Alley for Broadway Barks adoption event
The star-studded 27th annual Broadway Barks dog and cat adoption event went off without a hitch Saturday at Shubert Alley, the heart of the Great White Way. Broadway legend Bernadette Peters co-hosted the event with Beth Leavel, who just wrapped up an extended run in Stephen Sondheim's 'Old Friends.' 6 Puppies found in Queens got a lot of love from Broadway Barks attendees. Michael Nagle 6 A woman pets four-month old Terrier mix puppies rescued from Georgia. Michael Nagle 6 Doggie selfies were also taken during Saturday's eveny. Michael Nagle The presenters for this year's event included three-time Tony Award winning actor Andy Karl, 'Mary Poppins' star Gavin Lee, 'Hell's Kitchen' lead Jessica Vosk, and South African-born country singer and actor Orville Peck Erika Henningsen from 'Mean Girls,' Lesli Margherita from 'Gypsy,' Erich Bergen from 'Jersey Boys,' and Michelle Williams from Destiny's Child and 'Death Becomes Her' also served as presenters. 6 Broadway Cares Beth Leavel, left, and Bernadette Peters pose with rescue pups. Michael Nagle 6 This little lab mix was sent home with new owners. Michael Nagle 6 There was a great turnout for the event. Michael Nagle The event brings animal shelters and rescues from across New York into one spot, in hopes of finding forever homes for hundreds of loving pets. The event is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and helps promote the importance of spaying and neutering throughout the Five Boroughs.
Arab Times
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
Lea Salonga to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
MANILA, Philippines, July 3: Broadway and West End icon Lea Salonga is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced, though the official date has yet to be revealed. Salonga, most recently seen on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, is being recognized for her extraordinary career spanning stage and screen. Once dubbed the 'Shirley Temple of the Philippines' during her early days as a child star in Manila, Salonga rose to international fame with her groundbreaking performance as Kim in the original London production of Miss Saigon, the follow-up to Les Misérables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Her portrayal earned her an Olivier Award in London and a Tony Award when she reprised the role on Broadway.
Forbes
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Stephen Sondheim's ‘Old Friends:' Don't Miss This Broadway Experience
Bernadette Peters on the opening night of "Old Friends" at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre The run of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, the posthumous musical love letter to Stephen Sondheim, has been extended on Broadway until Sunday, June 29th, 2025. The show offers musical theatre enthusiasts living near or visiting New York City the rare opportunity to experience the humor, joy and pathos of more than three dozen songs from Sondheim's most cherished musicals in one of Broadway's most intimate theaters. The program includes tunes from such Sondheim classics as Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Follies, and Into the Woods. Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga at a press event for "Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends" Old Friends was first conceived as a one-night concert in London's West End, but the loyal legions of Sondheim fans wanted more. The sold-out production was live-screened from the Gielgud Theatre in London and then broadcast on the BBC before being reprised on stage for 16 weeks. A North American premiere in Los Angeles preceded its arrival on the Great White Way. On Broadway, the show stars Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, who were part of the West End cast, joined by an array of talented performers from the London, Los Angeles, and New York productions. The company of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends Old Friends was brought to the stage by Cameron Mackintosh, a longtime friend and collaborator of Sondheim. The two developed the idea during the COVID lockdown, but Sondheim died in November 2021 at age 91 before it was realized. Bernadette Peters has often been called Sondheim's muse; she was a friend who worked closely with Sondheim and inspired him. He frequently praised the three-time Tony Award winner for her unique ability to express the depth of his music and lyrics in the roles she played: Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George, The Witch in Into the Woods, Rose in Gypsy, Desiree in A Little Night Music, and Sally in Follies. The revue celebrates Sondheim's extensive contributions to musical theater. Peters, who continues to bring the same vitality and joy she did decades ago, co-stars with the talented Lea Salonga. Best known for her Tony Award-winning performance in Miss Saigon, Salonga belts out memorable solos and duets with Peters. Although the songs are removed from the context of the musicals where they were first heard, the incredible Matt Kinley set design, staging by Matthew Bourne, 14-piece orchestra with arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, and spectacular talents of the cast have created a virtual collage of Sondheim's talents in a single show. Stephen Sondheim in 1997 Sondheim is considered one of Broadway's most important musical innovators, credited with raising the bar on complex storytelling and sophisticated lyrics that advance a plot. Perhaps this show's name acknowledges the many friendships he forged during his career with musicians, composers and performers. (Old Friends was also the name of one of the songs from Merrily We Roll Along.) A protege of famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, Sondheim became a mentor to numerous other composers, including Jonathan Larson (Rent) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). His own debut as a lyricist was in the 1957 musical West Side Story in collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim's obituary in The New York Times recounts his myriad contributions to musical theater, including a dozen Broadway shows, five of which garnered Tony Awards for Best Musical and six for Best Original Score. He also won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park. Old Friends marks the fifth revival of Sondheim's work since his death. Although there have been several revues of his music in the past, this retrospective tribute uniquely allows Sondheim fans to enjoy a wide breadth of his greatest hits in one sitting. It's impossible not to hum these energetic tunes long after the curtain closes. NY Times theater critic Jesse Green wrote about Old Friends: 'Any opportunity to experience how the feelings he channeled and the connections he made have mined our psyches and reshaped our world is an opportunity even old friends should take.' The limited Broadway engagement of Old Friends at the non-profit Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre will close on June 29, 2025. Running time is 2 hours 35 minutes with an intermission.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Here We Are, National Theatre, review: Stephen Sondheim musical is more Severance than sing-a-long
Here We Are review and star rating: ★★★★ Stephen Sondheim's final musical is nothing like his most famous works – in fact, it's barely a musical at all, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. As Here We Are writer David Ives remarked, the legend relished in challenging his loyal followers with reinvention. 'Sondheim makes people crazy in all kinds of interesting and different ways.' An absurd comedy about a bunch of rich Americans who try to go for brunch but can't seem to get served, Here We Are is a barmy satire with the existential trappings of a Beckett play. Proferring a message about overconsumption, it is certainly no gentle nostalgia vehicle like Old Friends, the blast through Sondheim's most famous tunes that scored a five-star review from City AM in 2023. Inspired by Luis Buñuel's absurdist films The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, after Sondheim died aged in 2021 aged 91, there was controversy over whether the piece should be staged at all. Would this super experimental show dent Sondheim's legacy as perhaps the 20th century's greatest composer and lyricist, the man behind Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods? Unlikely: the reality is that even if Here We Are ruffles the feathers of Sondheim purists, it wouldn't be the first time. Many of his shows didn't do big box office numbers or become classics for years after release. We meet a highly-strung group of yuppies, including a plastic surgeon, an ambassador and an industrialist. Wealthy central couple Leo and Marianne Brink, played by Rory Kinnear and Jane Krakowski, struggle to land a brunch booking for their group, and things go awry when the six friends become entangled with the radical left-wing group Prada – 'not the shoes' – and are taken down an absurdist rabbit hole not dissimilar to the Apple TV show Severance, where dream sequences become indistinguishable from reality. As a satire on wealth, Here We Are has some hilarious and pertinent bits, including the lady cloning her dogs so her fluffy friends are with her no matter which country she's in, and the insufferable chef who goes from serving French Deconstructionist cuisine to Post-Deconstructive, where 'everything is actually what it is.' Ives finds his biting point in how desperately out of touch these people are with reality. 'I want things to be what they seem and not what they are,' groans one character in one of the show's many interesting meta parts. It also works as a fascinating physical piece. Choreographer Sam Pinkleton, alongside director Joe Mantello and set and costume designer David Zinn spent seven years in development to orchestrate this frankly incredibly weird show, in which characters speak and move in time with Sondheim's accompaniment, like characters in an old black and white movie. Much of the comedy is mined from Fawlty Towers-style farcical faffing – but on a grand, complex scale. It's the type of tomfoolery that might look silly but is pulled off vanishingly rarely. As for Sondheim, he must have loved Ives' script. As for his ditties, they serve as a function to enable the story rather than existing to entertain us in and of themselves. Songs including Here We Are (Overture), The Road and Waiter's Song are more a final reminder of the legend's skill at employing music to bolster the plot rather than songs that stand alone. One audience member who sat near me joked that the songs and accompaniments were stitched together from bits of music he'd left on his cutting room floor from other productions, but I don't think that's necessarily a criticism. They add to the production's bags of natural charm. In the main, it's just refreshing to see something this surrealist and bonkers getting a mainstream staging. Here We Are plays at the until 28 June Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
