“Beautiful the Carole King Musical” Opens the Spring Season of Shows

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Karen Nowosad

beautiful The first of New Broadway shows for the Spring 2014 season opened on Sunday, Jan. 12. Beautiful The Carole King Musical celebrated Opening Night at the Sondheim Theater on W. 43rd Street.

As indicated by its title, Beautiful tells the story of how Carole King came into her own as a songwriter and performer. The story starts back in the late 1950’s when Carole was just 16 years old but already writing music. As she got older, the story of how she and her husband, Gerry Goffin, became a song writing team is told. She wrote numerous songs for some big acts in rock’n’rock and the catalog includes such hits as “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” and “Up on the Roof” among many others. The show concludes with her own entry as a performer as the world famous “Tapestry” album was being enjoyed by so many of her generation.

L-R: Jeb Brown as Don Kirshner, Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Jessie Mueller as Carole King, Jarrod Spector as Barry Mann, and Anika Larsen as Cynthia Weil. Photo Credit: Joan Marcus 2013

L-R: Jeb Brown as Don Kirshner, Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Jessie Mueller as Carole King, Jarrod Spector as Barry Mann, and Anika Larsen as Cynthia Weil. Photo: Joan Marcus 2013

To see what the critics had to say about the show, visit this Review Roundup on www.BroadwayWorld.com. To summarize, there are mixed reactions to the show but a basic enjoyment of the musical aspects presented.

Learn more about the show at the official website of beautifulonbroadway.com. Full priced tickets are available through this site. As of yesterday, discounts were not showing up easily if at all.

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Box Office for ‘Rocky’ on Broadway Opens Today

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Karen Nowosad

The Box Office is opening today at the Winter Garden Theatre to sell tickets for what is promising to be one of the big new blockbusters to hit Broadway this spring season: Rocky. Based on the long time hit movie by Sylvester Stallone, Rocky is a musical that will have the big fight scene at the end. The official website for Rocky on Broadway says:

Somewhere in downtown Philadelphia, a down-and-out fighter named Rocky Balboa struggles to stay on his feet. But when the chance of a lifetime comes along, he takes his best shot at becoming a champion… and his last shot at finding first love.

The first preview is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2014 and opening night is March 13.

The show has been running in Hamburg, Germany for about a year. American actor Drew Sarich plays Rocky and Wietske van Tongeren plays Adrian. Take a look at this clip which features the fabulous Sarich and van Tongeren and get a little feel for the way the show might look:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8TnDZIZY4&w=560&h=315]

Now here’s a chance to see Broadway’s Rocky and Adrian played by Andy Karl and Margo Seibert:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnve93ijdBM&w=560&h=315]

Sylvester Stallone, the original creator and star of the movie Rocky is the producer of this show along with Stage Entertainment. Stallone has been out to a few talk shows already in early promotion. Watch for him more as the opening gets closer.

The score for this musical was written by Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Boxing choreography is by Steven Hoggett. Kelly Devine is the choreographer.

If looking to purchase tickets, I have no discounts to pass along for this show at this time. I would suggest checking at Audience Rewards as they are handling full priced tickets for the show and as of this writing, the offer is to “Earn up to 2,000 Bonus ShowPoints per ticket.”

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A ‘Glorious’ Day Seeing ‘Oliver’ at the Paper Mill Playhouse

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Karen Nowosad

Photo by Billy Bustamante; From left to right: Tyler Moran (Oliver) and Ethan Haberfield (Artful Dodger).

Photo by Billy Bustamante; From left to right: Tyler Moran (Oliver) and Ethan Haberfield (Artful Dodger).

Last Saturday, I went to see “Oliver!” at the Paper Mill Playhouse. They have done an outstanding job on this show and I highly recommend it. It’s been a long time since it was on Broadway (a revival which only ran a short time in 1984) and so everything was fresh and new again.

Being a Charles Dickens’ based piece, it just fits so well with this time of year. Also, the Paper Mill has added some nice touches that really add to the holiday spirit. I wrote a full review:

The Paper Mill Playhouse has a fine offering for theater goers for this holiday season. Playing now through December 29th is the musical “Oliver!” It is a show that can be seen and enjoyed by all who love seeing theater with good music and a good, heart warming story to tell.

To read the entire article, click this link to go over to my Newark Theater Column on Examiner.com

As you read, I had a very special young lady with me seeing the show. I named her my “Junior Reviewer” because she had nice insights and it allowed me to see how it would run for youngsters that might be going with their families. She’s only 10 years old but already has developed a love for live theater.

Since it was an afternoon matinee, it was still early enough for us to make a stop at Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionary in Bloomfield, NJ. We both enjoyed the burgers which were nicely cooked, juicy and very tasty. For dessert, we ordered from the ice cream menu and had our own version of “Food, Glorious Food!”

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I hope many of you reading this will get to see “Oliver!” and maybe even grab an ice cream later on at Holsten’s.

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