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Musical Theater News, Production Tips, New Musicals and More on The MTI Marquee Blog
Musical Theatre News and information for schools, community and professional theaters
Can you find 19 talented performers to play all the roles in Into the Woods? That seems to be an order as tall as the second-act Giant. But if you take some tips from the most inaccurately named Fiasco Theater, you can stage the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine masterpiece with only 10 people. Don’t believe it? [...]
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When Jeff Whitty, Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez created the “School Edition” of their Tony-winning AVENUE Q, they had high schools in mind. And yet, this abridged and expurgated edition was what Thomas Stretton, a professor at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pennsylvania, decided to stage on his campus. “I have found the show an engaging [...]
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All right, so your theater company doesn’t have a juggler who can keep a half-dozen knives in the air. You’re also lacking a contortionist who can balance himself upside down on a board that rests on unsecured round cylinders. You may not even have a young woman who’s willing to have her body tossed like [...]
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“It is so large,” says successful 19th century artist Jules when he gets his first glimpse of Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” And yet, when Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE went looking for a theater in 1984, their musical landed in one [...]
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Is anyone on the Northeast Corridor planning to present JEKYLL & HYDE? If so, don’t hesitate to contact Donald J. Simon. The president of the International JEKYLL & HYDE Fan Club will automatically take an interest in your upcoming production. “I’ll go anywhere on the east coast to see JEKYLL & HYDE,” says the Allentown, Pennsylvania [...]
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I’m glad to be back in my hometown of Arlington, Massachusetts to see SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at the local community theater. Granted, you may giggle a bit when you hear the official name of the place. Can’t you just tell that “Arlington Friends of the Drama” was an outfit formed many moons ago? I [...]
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It only ran 63 days in 2002, but THE LAST FIVE YEARS has lasted far longer than the last 11 years. Jason Robert Brown’s musical, which has had countless productions around the country, is now enjoying a first-class revival at Second Stage in New York City. It must be the production that Brown has always [...]
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Audiences love when a character makes a fast costume change. If it happens with enough speed, they almost feel as if they’re getting two characters for the price of one. That opportunity arises only moments into THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, after Salina, Kansas native Millie Dillmount has arrived in New York City. It’s the start of [...]
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When my New Jersey travels took me to Plays in the Park in Edison for Nunsense, I was overwhelmed by the power-packed performance of Susan Speidel – and told the director afterward. “Oh, yes,” she said. “Susie’s our Ethel Merman.” When my Arizona travels took me to The 3rd St. Theatre in Phoenix for Minnie’s [...]
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Her name was Stella. She was a heavy-set girl who was a techie in the high school drama club for which I was an advisor. Between scenes of every show, you could see, if you looked carefully through the dimmed lights, Stella’s unmistakably large figure whisking around the stage. Despite her weight, Stella was faster [...]
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