Live Entertainment Blog

God of Carnage is looking like a tough play to follow. They got 3 or 4 Tony Award nominations last year and it’s looking like it remains the best play of the year according to most people. The new cast includes several highly respected and successful actors. Jimmy Smits is one of them, the actor who won the election on The West Wing, with an earnest and idealistic character. In this one, he is a cynical and practically impossible character who represents drug companies. The rest of the actors, including the British actor Ken Stott, who reprises his role, is just as good as the original New York cast, although it doesn’t give much new to the experience.

When Jimmy Buffett puts a new album out, you know that it will be a great time in your house. His new album, Buffet Hotel, apparently was made in the same way as his earlier CDs, records and tapes. He is still talented at this music, but in the last several albums, he’s fallen into a kind of routine of writing and recording. But the new one, Buffett claims that he decided to go back to the kind of writing that worked before. He used to have a glass of wine and write the songs at his leisure, late at night. It’s a big hanging-out party when you write with Buffett in those days. Well, now he’s doing it similarly, although he and his other writers and producers were sending the music back and forth on the internet rather than sitting in a home studio together for hours. But otherwise, it’s been said that this new album is a departure from his previous work into his early work, in terms of style. Check it out and get yourself to his upcoming concerts, because you’ll surely hear some of his music in those shows.

Nick Jonas has moved on. Or that’s what it might look like. But actually, he’s just doing a side project called The Administration. It’s his solo work and they’re about to release their first album called “Who I Am”. Then, they’re going to go on tour to promote that album. It’s going to be a lot of fun though, because we haven’t gotten to see the youngest Jonas brother perform by himself all that much. Get Nick Jonas and the Administration tickets to see for yourself. But don’t worry! This isn’t the end of the Jonas Brothers! In fact, it’s just the beginning of a new project for him. The excitement brought on by this group will be bigger than you could imagine, so get your tickets and get ready.

Alec Baldwin, the famous actor of stage and screen may not be such a famous actor for long. He has announced that in 2012 he will quit acting. Maybe this is what they meant when they said the world would be ending in that year? He apparently really doesn’t enjoy it much, even though he’s got a great part in the tv show 30 Rock. It seems like a fun assignment but it’s possible that he just doesn’t like it anymore. We had been hoping to see him back on stage sometime soon, where he had made some memorable performances. And in previous suggestions that he’ll retire, he left open the possibility that he could come back and do some live theater in the future too. I hope that he does, because he’s so talented and brings great energy to the performance!

Adam Lambert’s story has been a complicated one of late. He has been a popular artist, filling out venues like crazy and gaining fans quickly. But there is a problem that he has encountered. The artist did a bit of an edgy performance at the big AMA Award show this weekend, among various racy moves, he kissed his keyboardist. His orientation has been well known for awhile, and suspected even longer, but this has caused a surprising controversy. But for most people, he is just coming across as a whiny kid who doesn’t think he’s getting respect. But there are  lot of columnists who are saying “you’ve made your point, but you’re not helping anymore.” They want him to step back and let the controversy fade. Maybe even admit that some of his performance wasn’t fitting for the occasion? It’s complicated, but it’s dramatic, so people are paying attention!

Since we’ve been talking about older musicals for the last few weeks, I noticed right away when I saw the review for Showboat in Arlington Virginia. This is a show that has been well-loved for many years and we can certainly enjoy it still. The music is still beautiful and easy to recognize. This version even has a smaller cast than the earlier ones and they changed some things in the book and the music so that it would become a bit more modern and interesting. Showboat, however, is an old fashioned style piece, with songs and themes that a current audience won’t be touched by, it would appear. They aren’t as good with the racial inequality part of things as we might hope today. People still love this show, but it’s just a bit out of date, which is what will keep it from having a huge revival in its current form.

It is hard to imagine: the Sound of Music is now 50 years old. In 1959, this was a brand new theme in musicals. Usually, at that time, musicals weren’t as often going to address such big questions, so serious. Before that, you had things like Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, Hello Dolly. They didn’t portray anything particularly serious. But after the Sound of Music, you had West Side Story and other such shows. People still weep at the Sound of Music, with those poor kids having to climb the mountains to freedom, to keep the Baron from having to join the Austrian navy for the Germans in World War 2. The music is still beautiful and it has become a classic musical since those days. It’s almost the holidays too, so you will certainly see this movie on television again and again over the next few weeks.

Mary Poppins has been one of the shows that people have come to rely upon when they want to see a great family-friendly show that will help you to enjoy top quality theater. The current production of the show running in LA has become one of the country’s best, including great performances and fantastic sets among other things. The reviewers practically say that the show is overdone, though they don’t go quite that far. The fact that the music and the sets and the actors have matched up so well for this company says much about the quality of direction. As a result, we expect the performances to be extended beyond the original run. No matter if you’ve seen this show on the pro stage before or not, this would be the production that you really want to see. I guarantee it!

This year’s installment of Disney on Ice has some special stories that they are aiming to tell. Mickey doesn’t really play a huge roll this time, because it’s the princesses that take precedence over the mouse. You will see Cinderella, Snow White, Mulan and a lot of others. Before the intermission has a lot of different princesses on ice meeting each other and having fun. It’s after the intermission where it really happens: there is a longer version of the Cinderella story and you can enjoy them dancing around. Disney on Ice tickets let you see a real skating event too. They are dancing and interacting on the ice, singing. This is a great show for families with children, or just anyone who really enjoys the Disney characters and music!

The newest Neil Simon production “Brighton Beach Memoirs” was one of the most anticipated non-musicals on Broadway this season. And it didn’t disappoint. But according to the reviews, it lacked the punch that they had been hoping for from a Neil Simon play. I was hoping to go see it, but I didn’t get the chance. It’s going to close next week, after a very short run, so I wont have the chance to catch it. But the New York Times suggests that the problem is with the changing of comedy styles. The highly verbal style of comedy isn’t nearly as much in style as it was back when Neil Simon was one of the most celebrated writers in theater and movies. Instead, Brighton Beach Memoirs will head out, another quality work from Neil Simon, but not one that could sell out theaters as much.