Millennial Notes Mona Golabek Relives Her Mother’s Story & Plays Classics by Evelyn Arevalo “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” is absolutely spellbinding. Mona Golabek’s solo performance expertly entwines riveting classical piano with a shocking WWII story. She recounts how, in 1938, her mother, Lisa Jura, narrowly escaped the Nazi’s. Lisa, a passionate fourteen year…
Millennial Notes Charles Dickens’ London Explodes in Songs & Spirits by Natasha Munasinghe For Christmas, Center REP offers a charming musical rendition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Director Scott Denison recreates Victorian London from stony walls to elegant wooden arches. Scenic designer Kelly James Tighe creates a gothic Victorian London with an upper…
Martin & Brickell Celebrate Blue Grass & Women’s Rights by Lynne Stevens The musical “Bright Star,” a bittersweet Romeo and Juliet story, shows “grown-ups” thwarting young lovers. Country music intensifies the love story as we flash back and forth between 1923 and 1946. Director Marilyn Langbehn takes us to three small towns in North…
Henrik Nánási Brings Color, Depth to Mozart in Colonial America by Cedric Westphal Sometimes it takes a lot of effort from a director to make a classic opera relevant, centuries later. In the case of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” an opera warhorse if ever there was one, the times have caught up with…