CLAIRE BLOOM
Little Rock connection: Performed at Wildwood Park for the Arts in the 1990s.
Tony Awards connection: Nominated for Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in 1999 for Electra.
Category Archives: Theatre
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Agnes de Mille
Photo by courtesy Anderson Ferrell
AGNES DE MILLE
Little Rock connection: In 1951 she and her dance troupe performed at Robinson Auditorium.
Tony Awards connection: Won Tony Awards for Choreography for Brigadoon (1947) and Kwamina (1962). Was nominated for a Tony for choreographing Goldilocks. In 1993, accepted a special Tony for the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma!
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Joe E. Brown
JOE E. BROWN
Little Rock connection: Appeared at Robinson Auditorium in the national tour of Harvey in 1948.
Tony Awards connection: At the 1948 Tonys, received a special Tony Award for touring in Harvey while the original play still was on Broadway. He had previously played the role on Broadway earlier in the run (succeeding original star Frank Fay). The original production of Harvey was directed by Antoinette Perry, after whom the awards were named.
The photo on the right was a publicity photo showing Brown taking down a painting of Fay with Harvey to mark the fact that Brown was taking over the role.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Barbara Loden and Elia Kazan
William H. Alden/Evening Standard, via Getty Image
BARBARA LODEN and ELIA KAZAN
Little Rock connection: The pair were married in 1967 in Little Rock at the home of Kazan’s son, who lived here at the time.
Tony Awards connection: Loden won a 1964 Tony for Featured Actress in a Play for her performance of a Marilyn Monroe-like character in After the Fall, Arthur Miller’s roman a clef about his marriage to Monroe. Loden was directed in the play by Kazan. He won Tonys for directing Miller’s All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949) as well as MacLeish’s J.B. (1959). He was nominated for directing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Sweet Bird of Youth. As a producer, he received Tony nominations for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Strange Interlude and Tartuffe.
Red Octopus SPRING SHOWMANCE! kicks off tonight
The unofficial start of summer may have taken place this past Monday, but Red Octopus Theater reminds us that it is still technically spring – so it is time for a Spring Showmance. The latest production from Arkansas’ oldest sketch live comedy troupe will run May 29-31, 2014 at The PUBLIC Theatre, located at 616 Center Street, in downtown Little Rock, AR. Doors will open at 7:30PM and the show will start at 8:00PM. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students, senior citizens and all military personnel. Red Octopus Theater does not take reservations and tickets are available at the theater. The theater is smoke-free.
The cast includes Sandy Baskin, Allyson Bode, Drew Ellis, Michael Goodbar, Brittany Sparkles and Jason Willey with cameos by Luke Rowlan and Christi Seatts.
Theatre involves long hours, hard work, character study, dueling egos and often sorted romance! Passion on and off the stage or screen is the inspiration for Red Octopus’s latest show, Spring Showmance!
Spring Showmance will look at the inherent romance of the audition in “The Casting Couch” and “Whattaya Have to do in Little Rock to Make It Big?!” Soap opera actors will lament the cancellation of their show and maybe their families in “They Sold All The Children in All My Children.” “Saved By The Smell” harkens back to the rise of the 1990’s teen actor heartthrob. And no show about theater and romance would be complete without a trip to Broadway in “Porky’s: The Musical!”
The show is full of struggling actors just trying to make it in the big bad entertainment industry. Some actors finding love along the way, and others, discovering heartbreak. From headshots to auditions, dance class to opening night, the silver screen to the unemployment line, Red Octopus will weave them all together into a twisted tale of sketch comedy and showbiz!
So join us May 29-31, 2014 for “Spring Showmance!” The cast is hoping they won’t get snowed out this time around.
For more information please contact Red Octopus Theater at (501) 291-3896 , or RedOctopusTheater@gmail.com. To contact The PUBLIC Theatre, call 374-PLAY.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Debbie Gravitte and Christiane Noll
DEBBIE GRAVITTE and CHRISTIANE NOLL
LITTLE ROCK connection: Both have appeared with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. The pair appeared together during one of the Broadway Pops concerts in 2007. Noll returned in 2010 to appear in the Valentine Pops concert.
Tony Awards connection: Gravitte won the 1989 Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. (She was then known by her maiden name, Debbie Shapiro.) Noll was nominated for a 2010 Tony for Actress in a Musical for her performance in the revival of Ragtime.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Jane Lanier
JANE LANIER
Little Rock connection: Choreographed Ring of Fire for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
Tony Awards connection: Nominated for a 1989 Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 