Cast:
Julie Kent, Gillian Murphy, Jose Manuel Carreño

Synopsis:
Set to Tchaikovsky’s glorious score, this romantic tale of love and forgiveness is often considered the world’s most beloved ballet. With breathtaking choreography, lavish costumes and visually spectacular sets evoking a lakeside Renaissance court, ABT’s production “glides to the forefront of stagings all over the world. The fabled lake of the swans has risen into view, inspiring awe for its mystery and magic.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Choreography by: Kevin McKenzie, after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music by: Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Set by: Zack Brown
Costumes by: Zack Brown
Lighting by: Duane Schuler

The original Swan Lake was based on the story of Ondine, a German myth with a theme common in Romanticism that was adapted by Hans Christian Andersen for his story The Little Mermaid. Ondine was a beautiful and immortal water nymph. The only threat to her eternal happiness was if she fell in love with a mortal and bore his child, as she would then lose her immortality. Ondine duly fell in love with a dashing knight, Sir Lawrence, and they were married, the knight pledging unfailing love and faithfulness to her with his every waking breath. A year after their wedding Ondine bore Lawrence a son. From that moment she began to age. As Ondine’s beauty faded, Lawrence lost interest in her.

One afternoon Ondine was walking near some stables when she heard the familiar snoring of her husband. When she entered the stable, she saw Sir Lawrence lying in the arms of another woman. Kicking her husband awake, she cursed him such that he would have breath so long as he remained awake, but if he ever fell asleep his breath would be taken from him and he would die.

According to Alastair Macaulay (formerly chief dance critic of The Times Literary Supplement and chief theatre critic of the Financial Times, now chief dance critic for The New York Times), the Ondine myth is said to be an image of psycho-sexual distress: the nymph is a forlorn image of repressed virginity, anxious that she will never achieve womanly fulfillment, while her feminine nemesis that leads her husband astray represents the confident seductive power that threatens her hopes. The story is double-edged: the human protagonist, in loving the nymph, transgresses against his own kind and may be punished. If, having betrayed her once, he returns to her, her kiss will bring him death; in fact, it may be this love-in-death that the man desires most.[5]

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake radically reinterprets the myth. The focus of the ballet is turned away from the Ondine character to the man – the Prince. It is the Prince who struggles against repression and hopes for liberty, and who needs love to make him safe.[5] In addition, it is not the mortal who is unfaithful to the nymph. Rather, it is the Swan who (in Act Two) expresses love for the Prince, betrays him in the form of the Stranger (Act Three), and finally returns to him (Act Four). However, as in the Ondine myth, the sin of betrayal cannot be expiated except in death.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake_%28Bourne%29

In the mid 1920s in Chicago, Illinois, Velma Kelly is a vaudevillian who murdered both her husband and her sister when she found them in bed together. She welcomes the audience to tonight’s show (“All That Jazz”). Meanwhile, we hear of chorus girl Roxie Hart’s murder of her lover, nightclub regular Fred Casely.

Roxie convinces her husband Amos that the victim was a burglar, and Amos cheerfully takes the blame. Roxie expresses her appreciation of her husband’s thick skull (“Funny Honey”). However, when the police mention the deceased’s name Amos belatedly puts two and two together. The truth comes out, and Roxie is arrested. She is sent to the women’s block in Cook County Jail, inhabited by Velma and other murderesses (“Cell Block Tango”). The block is presided over by the corrupt Matron “Mama” Morton, whose system of mutual aid (“When You’re Good to Mama”) perfectly suits her clientele. She has helped Velma become the media’s top murder-of-the-week and is acting as a booking agent for Velma’s big return to vaudeville.

Velma is not happy to see Roxie, who is stealing not only her limelight but also her lawyer, Billy Flynn. Roxie tries to convince Amos to pay for Billy Flynn to be her lawyer (“A Tap Dance”). Eagerly awaited by his all-girl clientele, Billy sings his anthem, complete with a chorus of fan dancers (“All I Care About is Love”). Billy takes Roxie’s case and re-arranges her story for consumption by sympathetic tabloid columnist Mary Sunshine (“A Little Bit of Good”). Roxie’s press conference turns into a ventriloquist act with Billy dictating a new version of the truth (“We Both Reached for the Gun”) while Roxie mouths the words.

Roxie becomes the new toast of Chicago and she proclaims so boastfully while planning for her future career in vaudeville (“Roxie”). As Roxie’s fame grows, Velma’s notoriety is left in the dust and in an “act of pure desperation”, she tries to talk Roxie into recreating the sister act (“I Can’t Do It Alone”), but Roxie turns her down, only to find her own headlines replaced by the latest sordid crime of passion. Separately, Roxie and Velma realize there’s no one they can count on but themselves (“My Own Best Friend”), and the ever-resourceful Roxie decides that being pregnant in prison would put her back on the front page.

Velma again welcomes the audience with the line “Hello, Suckers,” another reference to Texas Guinan, who commonly greeted her patrons with the same phrase. She informs the audience of Roxie’s continual run of luck (“I Know a Girl”) despite Roxie’s obvious falsehoods (“Me and My Baby”). A little shy on the arithmetic, Amos proudly claims paternity, and still nobody notices him (“Mr. Cellophane”). Velma tries to show Billy all the tricks she’s got planned for her trial (“When Velma Takes The Stand”). With her ego growing, Roxie has a heated argument with Billy, and fires him. She is brought back down to earth when she learns that a fellow inmate has been executed.

The trial date arrives, and Billy calms her, telling her if she makes a show of it, she’ll be fine (“Razzle Dazzle”), but when he passes all Velma’s ideas on to Roxie, she uses each one, down to the rhinestone shoe buckles, to the dismay of Mama and Velma (“Class”). As promised, Billy gets Roxie her acquittal but, just as the verdict is given, some even more sensational crime pulls the pack of press bloodhounds away, and Roxie’s fleeting celebrity life is over. Billy leaves, done with the case. Amos stays with her, glad for his wife, but she then confesses that there isn’t really a baby, making Amos finally leave her. Left in the dust, Roxie pulls herself up and extols the joys of life (“Nowadays”). She teams up with Velma in a new act, in which they dance and perform (“Hot Honey Rag”) until they are joined by the entire company (“Finale”).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_musical

The Broadway production received mostly mixed reviews. The most positive review came from Michael Giltz of the Huffington Post: “Catch Me If You Can is a sheer delight from the poignant and brilliant book by Terrence McNally to the sexy but character-driven choreography by Jerry Mitchell to the perfect sets by David Rockwell to the spot-on costumes by William Ivey Long to Kenneth Posner’s marvelous lighting. It’s all tied together by the superlative direction of Jack O’Brien which is seamless in weaving together drama, comedy, dance, acting, genuine scenes of pathos and casual banter with the audience and orchestra.”

Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote, “With “Hairspray” Mr. Shaiman and Mr. Wittman lucratively mined another vein of the 1960s — Motown-style pop — so taking on “Catch Me” seemed a natural. But this time they’re doing pastiches of music from television variety shows — of both the Mitch Miller and Dean Martin kinds — a form that is dangerously close to lounge and elevator music. The flashy musical numbers definitely emerge from the plot, just as they are supposed to do in your basic organic musical, but they sometimes have the chalky flavor of audio-visual aids.”

Thorm Geier of Entertainment Weekly gave the show a “B-” and said, “Part of the problem with Catch Me If You Can is Terrence McNally’s book, which is oddly paced and curiously structured. When Abagnale is arrested by the feds in the opening scene, he takes the opportunity to tell his own story from the beginning in the style of a ’60s TV show. Why a TV show and not a Broadway play? I have no idea. Perhaps composer Marc Shaiman is just accustomed to the idiom since ’60s TV factored so largely in his Tony-winning hit Hairspray. Shaiman has also conceived the music as a pastiche of early ’60s musical styles, all of them curiously pre-rock. Unfortunately, this makes the score seem even more old-fashioned than some of the musicals genuinely from that era (like the current hit revival How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying). Under the direction of Jack O’Brien, though, Catch Me If You Can moves mostly in fits and starts. But the creators of Catch Me If You Can have rigged the game against them. What should have been a fun lark of a story seems almost stodgy, like your grandmother’s idea of a good time.”

In Steven Suskin’s review of the show in Variety, he wrote, “Tuner has fine credentials, with the lead producer, songwriters, director, choreographer, designers and two featured actresses from the 2002 megahit “Hairspray” returning to the Neil Simon. “Catch” shares the time period with the former hit as well, but the high quotient of irrepressibly sly fun is missing. Noticeably absent is the typical creative inventiveness of director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. The score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman is more ambitious than their work on “Hairspray,” but they are hamstrung by all those production numbers for sexy stewardesses and sexy nurses. Newcomer to the writing team is librettist Terrence McNally, with reportedly extensive ghostwriting by Brian Yorkey (“Next to Normal”). The problem, though, doesn’t seem to be the book but the source material. If there is a musical to be made from this tale of a bumbling FBI agent chasing a naively innocent charmer, the creators haven’t found it.”

Elysa Gardner of USA Today said, “Boasting a score by the famously witty team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a book by Terrence McNally, Catch Me is too ambitious and stylish in its efforts to entertain and move us to induce boredom. The musical is structured so that we see our mischievous finagler crafting his own story, introducing some numbers and then literally trying to sing and dance his way out of trouble. It’s a canny conceit, but one that only emphasizes the character’s disingenuousness. There are other elegant and frisky flourishes, from William Ivey Long’s eye-candy costumes to Jerry Mitchell’s vampish choreography — both of which draw attention to the leggy, voluptuous figures in the female ensemble. Still, in failing to deliver a youthful protagonist you can really cheer for, this Catch Me If You Can may leave you feeling a bit cheated.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Me_If_You_Can_%28musical%29

Wink and Goldman had become friends when they bonded as the “new kids” in a Manhattan (New York City) junior high school. In college, however, the two went separate ways: Wink to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and Goldman to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. After college in 1984, Wink and Goldman reunited in NYC and later, in 1986, met Stanton, a recent transplant from Savannah, Georgia. Formed in 1987 by Goldman, Stanton, and Wink, The Blue Man Group played around Manhattan in such venues as Central Park, the Performing Garage, Dixon Place and PS 122. It is not clear how much influence the Brazilian band Uakti had on the founders, although Uakti’s Marco Antônio Guimarães had been building tuned PVC instruments (struck with foam paddles) since the late 1970s. Uakti was introduced to US audiences just about the same time as Blue Man Group was forming, through Paul Simon, The Manhattan Transfer and composer Philip Glass.
Astor Place Theatre with marquee for the group

Meryl Vladimer, the Artistic Director of The CLUB, saw their work as part of a variety show hosted by the Alien Comic (Tom Murrin) and commissioned Blue Man Group to create a full-length show. The resulting piece, Tubes, took off after Vladimer persuaded New York Times theater critic Stephen Holden to review it. Blue Man Group’s popularity continued to snowball, resulting in a performance at Lincoln Center titled “Serious Fun”, and eventually an Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel Award, which led producers to take the show to off-Broadway. Tubes opened in 1991 at the Astor Place Theater in New York City.

Blue Man Group won a special citation in the 1990-1991 Village Voice Obie Awards, and a special award in the 1992 Lucille Lortel Awards, which are for excellence in off-Broadway theatre.

Early in the history of the group, the members would speak with audiences after the show while still in makeup, answering questions, signing autographs, and talking about the show. Eventually, however, it was decided that cast members would stay in character at all times while in makeup, meaning after shows they would still not speak to audience members, and the only “autograph” they would sign would be a smudge of blue paint.

In 1999, the group released their first audio recording, appropriately titled Audio. Although it contained some of the music from their stage productions, it was less of a soundtrack and more a collection of full-length instrumentals that featured new instruments.

In 2002, the group participated in Moby’s Area2 tour, giving a more rock-oriented performance than in the theatrical shows. Songs developed during this tour appeared on 2003′s album The Complex.

Unlike Audio, The Complex featured a variety of vocalists and guests including Tracy Bonham, Dave Matthews, Gavin Rossdale and Venus Hum. The record spawned its own 2003 tour, the first headlined by Blue Man Group. The tour deconstructed the traditional rock concert experience into its often clichéd parts and was chronicled in a 2004 DVD release. The tour featured Tracy Bonham and Venus Hum as supporting acts. The DVD included a surround sound mix of some of the studio recordings.

Blue Man Group launched its second tour, The “How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0″, on September 26, 2006. The tour added some new material to material from the original Complex Rock Tour, and had Tracy Bonham as an opening act and vocalist. DJ/VJ Mike Relm was the opening act for the second leg of this tour, which ended April 22, 2007 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. This third leg of the tour began in May 2007 and included performances in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Santiago, Chile. The fourth leg, using “2.1″ in its title, included more U.S. and Canada dates. Following that, the Megastar World Tour visited France, Korea, Canada, Germany, and a few other European countries throughout 2008.

The “How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0″ visited Taipei, Taiwan from August 19 to 23 as part of a promotional campaign for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, most of the show’s dialogue displayed with subtitle. As Typhoon Morakot hit the island and caused serious damage in mid August, the group agreed to perform one extra show with the proceeds being donated to the victims of the flood.

Announced in 2009, Blue Man Group will be performing for the first time at sea on Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Norwegian EPIC. The EPIC begins alternating 7-Day Eastern and Western Caribbean sailings round-trip Miami with Blue Man Group shows nightly starting July 2010.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_man_group