Small Business Revolution Host To Head Local Conference Call Next Week
Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Submitted image.JAMESTOWN – The Chief Brand Officer of Deluxe, and the creator, producer, and host of The Small Business Revolution will be featured on a digital conference with the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Monday at 4:30 p.m. Chamber officials say Amanda Brinkman will give some tips on how to maintain communications with customers during the global COVID-19 outbreak.Brinkman is familiar with Chautauqua County through her recent work on Season Five of The Small Business Revolution. She spent time with a number of small business people in Fredonia in February and early March.She will focus on the important work of maintaining communication with customers at this time and will use her extensive marketing background to assist local business people at this time. You can join the meeting here: www.gotomeet.me/TTranumYou can also dial in using your phone:+1 (571) 317-3122Access Code: 283-421-797This is a free event. Advance registration is not required.
Alan Alda and Candice Bergen have known each other for decades, but have never worked together—until now. They are starring on Broadway in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, a title that Alda admits is potentially a bit misleading. “In spite of the title,” he says, “it’s not gooey and sentimental. It’s very tough, sometimes. And very funny. And there are only one or two actual love letters in the play.” The two have celebrated successful careers on the big and small screen, but there’s something special about being on stage together with just a table and two chairs. “Everyone who does it does it for the love of the work,” says Bergen. Have a look below, and catch the pair in Love Letters at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre; the two have just recently extended their run through December 18! Stacey Keach and Diana Rigg will now play December 19 through January 9, 2015, followed by Anjelica Huston and Martin Sheen from January 10 through February 15. Love Letters Show Closed This production ended its run on Dec. 14, 2014 Related Shows View Comments
View Comments We trudged uphill 100 miles barefoot in the snow this morning for one reason and one reason alone: To bring you the Lessons of the Week! Admit it, you’ve been waiting with bated breath to find out the crazy things we learned about Bradley Cooper, Kelli O’Hara, Vanessa Hudgens and more stars this week. Check it out!Kelli O’Hara Is the New Mama BroadwayWatch out, Audra McDonald—The King and I headliner Kelli O’Hara is angling to steal your title. When Beautiful’s Anika Larsen recently found out she was pregnant, she immediately told O’Hara, who has become her “baby guru.” Wait, can’t there be two Mama Broadways? There have been like 8 million Mama Mortons…Bradley Cooper Has a Tiny SecretWe already know The Elephant Man headliner Bradley Cooper’s acting prowess is huge, but on The Tonight Show, he admitted to Jimmy Fallon that there’s something else about him that’s very, very small. His talent for air-guitaring! Wait, what did you think we were gonna say?Showtunes Make Us SweatyDon’t think we forgot about that drunk New Year’s resolution you made. You know, the one where you said you’d go to the gym every day and give up peanut butter cups? Don’t worry, just stick our Broadway workout playlist on your phone, crank up the volume and you’ll be ready to rip off your shirt like Ramin Karimloo in no time.Tracy & Link Sealed the DealWe’ve been up all night for the last 13 years trying to figure out the answer to one of Broadway’s most mystifying questions: Did Tracy Turnblad lose her virginity to Link Larkin the night they won the dance competition or what? Hairspray star Marissa Jaret Winokur has confirmed that the answer is yes. Yes, they did. OK, moving on to Elphaba and Fiyero. Did they or didn’t they, Idina?Frankie J. Grande Wants to Play SherrieThere’s some role swapping going on at Rock of Ages. Mitchell Jarvis, who originated the role of Lonny in the hit musical, has returned as Stacee Jaxx—so Broadway.com vlogger Frankie J. Grande wants to get in on the action and play Sherrie. Hmm. If your sister won’t take the midnight train going anywhere, that could work.Even Broadway Stars Get Friend ZonedYou’d think a gorgeous, talented star would have no trouble getting dates, but Phantom’s Julia Udine got stuck in the dreaded Friend Zone with her crush for six years, just like Eponine in Les Miz! (Spoiler alert, the dude finally got the hint, asked her out and they lived happily ever after, but still.)Korean Oz Has No ArtichokesWicked is a hit all over the world, but apparently Glinda’s snappy insults don’t always hold up. International Elphie Jennifer DiNoia told us the line “It seems the artichoke is steamed” has been changed to “broccoli” in Korea, because they don’t have artichokes there. WHAT? That’s terrible! What kind of dip do you guys even eat?!Vanessa Hudgens Goes to Bubbly U.Gigi star Vanessa Hudgens is taking her new role very seriously—she told us she dances around the house drinking champagne and singing songs from the musical just like the feisty French fille. Cheers to the Dom Perignon School of Method Acting!Rum Tum Tugger’s Ready to Rap in NYCWhat’s that sound? Could it be… The sound of Jellicle cats meowing? It is, it is! This week, Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed that Cats is prowling back to Broadway, featuring a glam Grizabella and of course, a raptastic Rum Tum Tugger. Let the memory live again! Right now. Is it open yet? Now is it open? Now? Meow.Everybody Wants to Be ElsaWith a Frozen musical on the Broadway horizon, Lea Michele and Shoshana Bean popped out of the woodwork this week to sing their own interpretations of “Let It Go.” While both gals would make great Elsas, you voted Bean’s fractal-spiraling rendition as your favorite on our poll. Keep ‘em coming, ladies—let the storm rage on!
In addition to Yazbeck, Johnson and Alves, the cast includes Alysha Umphress as Hildy, Megan Fairchild as Ivy Smith, Elizabeth Stanley as Claire, Jackie Hoffman as Madame Dilly, Michael Rupert as Judge Pitkin and Allison Guinn as Lucy Schmeeler. The Broadway revival of On the Town will cancel six performance this spring due to a scheduled event at the Lyric Theatre. Performances scheduled for May 7 through May 12 have been scratched; additional evening performances will now take place on May 4 and May 17. First seen on the Great White Way in 1944, On the Town features music by Leonard Bernstein and a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It follows the adventures of three sailors (Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves) on leave in New York City. Based on the ballet Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins, the musical’s toe-tapping numbers include “New York, New York,” “I Can Cook Too,” “Lonely Town” and “Some Other Time.” View Comments Related Shows On the Town Show Closed This production ended its run on Sept. 6, 2015
View Comments Betty Buckley to Lead Grey Gardens RevivalA show set in the Hamptons is set to play the Hamptons this summer! Tony winner Betty Buckley will star opposite Rachel York in a revival of Grey Gardens. Directed by Michael Wilson, the pair will play Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, respectively, in the tuner about two of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ unconventional relatives. Grey Gardens is scheduled for a limited engagement August 4 to August 30 at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater. The cast will also include Matt Doyle (back from Seattle), James Harkness, Sarah Hunt, Simon Jones, Gracie Beardsley and Dakota Quackenbush.Sneak Peek of Cumming & Chenoweth’s ChemistryBroadway’s biggest night will soon be upon us, co-hosted by Tony winners Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth. Cheno is of course doing double duty, as she’s also Tony nominated this year for her current starring role in On the Twentieth Century. Check out the fun promo below as Cumming asks: does this make her a “Tony hostinee” or a “Tony nominost?” The 2015 Tony Awards airs on June 7. Idina Menzel on Her ‘Weird Dancing’And last but by no means least today, Broadway supernova Idina Menzel is about to kick off her world tour. Check out the video below as she reveals that if you’re going to catch one of her shows, you can expect “high notes” and “weird dancing.” We always knew she was great at defying gravity! .@idinamenzel wants to tell you 3 things you can expect from her upcoming World Tour. WATCH here: pic.twitter.com/htEhgUKPb7— Live Nation NYC (@LiveNationNYC) May 28, 2015 Star Files
Idina Menzel Here’s a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today. See Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Rap Ode to Helen MirrenFor those lucky enough to attend the recent Drama League Awards, the talk of the event was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tribute rap to The Audience’s Helen Mirren. Video of the Hamilton headliner in full flow along with 2015 Tony nominee Mirren’s adorable reaction has finally surfaced online—check it out below! The Audience is playing on Broadway through June 28; the Great White Way transfer of Hamilton begins previews on July 13. Lin-Manuel Miranda
Tony winner Helen Mirren took her final bow in The Audience on June 28 at the Schoenfeld Theatre, and theatergoers showered her with oodles of riches. Well, $1,425,523, to be exact. The play concluded its run with its highest-grossing week and with a capacity once again over 100%. Meanwhile, a handful of new musicals celebrated their highest-earning weeks as well, including the Tony-winning Fun Home and The King and I, plus Something Rotten! and Finding Neverland. An Act of God inched closer to hitting the $1 million mark. With summer crowds flocking to see Jim Parsons as the Almighty, the play looks poised to extend its run. A change of venue would be in order, though; Thérèse Raquin inhabits Studio 54 beginning in October.Here’s a look at who was on top—and who was not—for the week ending June 28:FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)1.The Lion King ($2,120,670)2. Wicked ($2,047,143)3. Aladdin ($1,644,688)4. The Book of Mormon ($1,524,996)5. An American in Paris ($1,433,433)UNDERDOGS (By Gross)5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch ($538,365)**4. Wolf Hall Parts One & Two ($515,472)3. It Shoulda Been You ($415,180)2. Hand to God ($400,070)1. Amazing Grace ($200,392)*FRONTRUNNERS (By Capacity)1. Fun Home (103.55%)2. The Book of Mormon (102.63%)3. The Audience (101.85%)**4. Matilda (100.34%)5. The King and I (100.02%)=5. The Lion King (100.02%)=5. Aladdin (100.02%)UNDERDOGS (By Capacity)5. Jersey Boys (76.62%)4. It Shoulda Been You (75.09%)3. On the Town (69.92%)2. Amazing Grace (59.91%)*1. Wolf Hall Parts One & Two (49.71%)* Number based on five preview performances** Number based on seven regular performancesSource: The Broadway League View Comments
View Comments Waitress We’ve been waiting for this! Finally, we have a first listen of the track “She Used to Be Mine” from the Broadway-bound Waitress. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles composed the score for the show, which is playing at the American Repertory Theater through September 27, led by Tony winner Jessie Mueller. Bareilles will release a concept album entitled What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress later this fall; the below number is now available as a single. Waitress (casting and dates yet to be confirmed) will open on the Great White Way at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre next spring. Star Files Related Shows Show Closed This production ended its run on Jan. 5, 2020 Sara Bareilles
After Tuck Everlasting’s sadly short stint on Broadway, Carolee Carmello is returning to Finding Neverland on the Great White Way. The three-time Tony nominee will take over for Sally Ann Triplett as Madame du Maurier on July 5; the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award-winning musical is set to shutter at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on August 21.Carmello earned Tony nominations for her performances in Parade, Lestat and Scandalous.Directed by Diane Paulus and featuring a score by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy and a book by James Graham, Finding Neverland follows the story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the family of widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Llewelyn Davies’ children eventually became Barrie’s inspiration to write Peter Pan.The cast currently also includes Tony Yazbeck as J.M. Barrie, Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, Paul Slade Smith as Charles Frohman and Dana Costello as Mary Barrie. Related Shows Finding Neverland Star Files View Comments
Show Closed This production ended its run on Aug. 21, 2016 Carolee Carmello Carolee Carmello(Photo: Caitlin McNaney)
Carly Anderson & Jacqueline Hughes in the international tour of ‘Wicked'(Photo: Matt Crockett) View Comments Wicked love is a universal language! Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s beloved musical is heading to China. In April 2017, audiences in Shanghai will join all those around the world who have already experienced this enchanting tale of friendship. Wicked is set to have its premiere in China on April 11, 2017 at Shanghai Culture Square. The hoi polloi will continue through May 14.Wicked’s swankified international company includes Jacqueline Hughes as Elphaba, Carly Anderson as Glinda, Bradley Jaden as Fiyero, Steven Pinder as The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond, Kim Ismay as Madame Morrible, Iddon Jones as Boq and Emily Shaw as Nessarose. Jodie Steele will soar as Elphaba during certain performances. All performances are in English.In addition to China, the Wicked international tour will also play in Singapore, Hong Kong and Manila. The production will continue touring until January 2018. Wicked has already defied gravity in over 100 cities in 14 countries around the world, including Canada, Ireland, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Mexico and Brazil.The smash hit looks at what happened in the Land of Oz from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another girl, born with emerald-green skin—smart, fiery, misunderstood, and possessing an extraordinary talent. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships until the world decides to call one “good,” and the other one “wicked.” The Broadway production will celebrate its 13th anniversary at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30.
Qui Nguyen(Photo: Caitlin McNaney) Qui Nguyen is a playwright, screenwriter, fight choreographer, co-founder of the theater company Vampire Cowboys and self-professed geek. A Los Angeles-based writer for Marvel Studios, Nguyen won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the animated pre-school program Peg+Cat and has a slew of accolades and awards for his writing. His works for the stage include She Kills Monsters, Soul Samurai, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G., Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel and Living Dead in Denmark. His play Vietgone is currently being produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and will run at City Center through December 4. Nguyen took time out of his busy schedule to hang out with Broadway.com at New Dramatists, which he considers his home away from home.Was there a specific incident that inspired Vietgone?I’ve always wanted to write a play about my parents. It took a while to do it, though. I went to The University of California, Irvine to do some research on Vietnamese refugees. They had these files of pictures from different refugee camps, and I saw one of those files was for Fort Chaffee, where my parents were. I just got obsessed with looking through that file in hopes I would see a picture of them somewhere. I didn’t, but that’s what made me decide to write about it. I was obsessed with that thought: Who were they in 1975 when they were new in America? What percentage of this play really happened?I can’t give you a percentage, but I can tell you most of the events are real. Like how they escaped Vietnam, my dad did have a wife and two kids, my mom had a boyfriend—all those things were real. They don’t speak like 2016 teenagers, and they also don’t rap, so that’s totally fake. It’s my parents love story, which is about two refugees who lost their families and loved ones in Vietnam and how they had to rebuild their lives in a refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas in 1975. Which writers have inspired you?What time of day do you get your best work done?The morning. It’s shifted throughout my life. When I was in my 20s, I was a night owl. I wrote from like midnight to five in the morning. Now that I have kids that seems stupid, so I write during the day. I have a day job where I write, so it’s definitely as soon as I get my first cup of coffee in me. I’m good to go from nine to at least one. At that point, I start to edit. My creative brain starts to go away and then my editorial brain starts to show up.What’s the first thing you do when you sit down to write? If it’s a piece that is in progress, I tend to look over what I’ve written already to get the momentum of where I was going to go next. If it’s a brand new piece and I haven’t written anything, then I go to my white board. I actually pull out my dry-erase marker and kernel. I write images and ideas and create graphs; I’m a very visual writer. I like to know the world—who’s related to who—stuff that may not ever show up in the play or the screenplay. I like to have it all mapped out in a nice visual way because then I can look up at that board anytime I get lost. I’m definitely a person who like finds newspaper clippings or pictures and pin them onto my cork board. I look at those and get inspired. I’m a really regimented writer. I outline everything from top to bottom. I do all my beats and stuff like that. I’ve always thought of my plays as Hollywood popcorn movies. If you ever watch one of my plays, you can almost take out a clock and every seven minutes some big theatrical event will happen. Vietgone’s a prime example of it—seven minutes, a musical piece; seven minutes, a kung fu fight; seven minutes, a big movement sequence. I think of those big movie places, and how to get to them. What do you geek out over? I geek out over a lot. I am, after all, a self-professed geek. I’m a big cinephile: I love old flicks. I’m also a big comic book fan. I also just geek out over fellow writers; I love all the writers I’ve become friends with throughout the years through New Dramatist and May-Yi Theater Company.I just love seeing their work, and I’m more inspired by living playwrights than by dead ones. I love seeing what my peers are doing and watching their work. I’ve never felt like I was a theater geek—my wife can tell you all about the history of Broadway and her favorite musicals; I couldn’t tell you any of that stuff, but I can tell you what all our friends are doing and how they’ve evolved and what I can steal and use in my own work and things like that. That’s what I really geek out over, the craft of writing.What play changed your life?What obsesses you as a writer?It feels like the themes have changed throughout the years, I think right now because of the political climate that we’re in, I really want to show the humanity behind people who end up becoming political tropes. The Vietnamese are definitely a political trope—a prop for speeches and things. I always want to find the humanity in that. Right now, it’s Syria and the Middle East. These are people with loves, passions, desires. They’re not just an easy carbon copy picture that politicians want to put out there to win an argument. How does being a fight choreographer inform your work as a writer? I think that’s why I think of my play in set pieces—that’s how it all started. Because I’m such a fan of kung fu movies , and [in them] fights happen every few minutes. You watch kung fu movies to watch people fight and not for the intricate plots. I try to I keep that momentum and excitement—to get the audience pumped up watching my plays and to always have that kind of visceral connection. It also just allowed me to do the fights I’ve always wanted to see on stage. When you’re being hired to do fights for theater, it’s Shakespeare most of the time or very realistic—like the people get slapped or pushed off a couch or something. You rarely get to use crazy Eastern swords and weapons. You don’t just see that in the middle of a Sam Shepard play. What’s the hard work of being a playwright no one ever told you? Time management. I think I was prepped for all the romanticism of being a playwright, including being a starving artist. I was prepped for staying up late, getting rejected,doing readings, grubby bars—all those things. I was excited for all of that. What I was not prepped for was the time management. As my career’s progressed, I’m getting pulled in five different directions and yet I also need to be home because I have a family and kids. To be able to make time for all of those things is the hardest thing for me. I feel like it’s heartbreaking on every level. I want to be here in New York working on my play, but I also want to be in L.A. working on the TV shows or movies I’m working on, and I also just want to be home to play with my kids on the weekend. Since I’m flung all over the place, I never get to dive into any one thing anymore. That’s something I didn’t expect to see in my career, and it’s probably the hardest thing. I’ve missed a lot of birthdays and weddings and funerals because of it. I miss some important events.What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring playwrights?Be you. That’s as short as I can get it: Be you. What’s your favorite line in Vietgone? View Comments