Monday, August 8, 2011

Richard Maltby, Jr. Will Speak at Annual Broadway Blessing Sept. 12

Producer, director and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. will deliver a theatre  reflection at the 15th anniversary celebration of Broadway Blessing, 7 pm Sept. 12 at the Cathedral Church of St. the Divine, Amsterdam Avenue at 112th  St., NYC.

Maltby holds the distinction of having conceived and directed the  only two musical revues to ever win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' (1978, also Tony Award for  Best Director) and Fosse (1999:). He was  director/co-lyricist for the American version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and  Dance, starring Bernadette Peters, and was co-lyricist for Miss Saigon.

In a partnership that  began when they were students at Yale, Maltby and composer David Shire have  collaborated many times over the years. Their first Broadway credit was in 1968,  when their song "The Girl of the Minute" was used in the revue New Faces of  1968. In 1977 the Manhattan Theatre Club produced a review of their  earlier songs, written for other works, titled Starting Here, Starting Now.

With Shire  as composer, Maltby directed and was lyricist for Baby and the lyricist for Big. Also with Shire, he conceived and wrote  the lyrics for Take Flight, which had  its world premiere in July 2007 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in  London.

He also conceived and directed Ring Of Fire, The Johnny Cash Musical Show and  was co-bookwriter/lyricist for The Pirate  Queen. He was most recently represented on Broadway as the director of  the new, original musical The Story of My  Life by composer/lyricist Neil Bartram. That musical had a brief run at  the Booth Theatre in February 2009 and received a 2009 Drama Desk Award  nomination for outstanding production of a musical.

Maltby will be joined  by Broadway singer/actress Natalielie  Toro who will sing the Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman song “Where  Is It Written,” backed by the Broadway Blessing Choir, and Tony Haris will  perform a new song by composer/playwright Phil  Hall written in honor of the anniversary.

Following a tradition  established at the 10th anniversary celebration, Project  Dance will perform and Rabbi Jill Hausman of The Actors’ Temple and the Rev.  Canon Tom Miller, the Cathedral’s canon for liturgy and the arts, will lead the  annual candle lighting ceremony.

As with all announced guests, Maltby’s  availability is subject to change. Broadway Blessing is the free interfaith  service of song, dance and story that has been bringing the theatre community  together every September since 1997 to ask God’s blessing on the new season.  Reservations are not necessary.
was founded and is produced by journalist and author Retta Blaney, who will receive a 2011 "Lights Are Bright on Broadway Award" presented by Masterwork Productions, Inc. as part of the service.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Gracewell Prodiuctions

Gracewell Prodiuctions
Producing Inspiring Works in the Arts
Custom Search
Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008- 2024 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

Search

Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.

Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.

Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.

Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.

Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.

Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.

Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.

Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.

Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.

Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.

Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

All Posts on this Blog