Music and Entertaiment

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Sunday, March 26 at 3 p.m. Theme: “WE, THE PEOPLE”

Helen Stolzfus in Dispatches from the Great Burning. The sobering subject of climate change is met head-on.

Kirsten Laurel Caplan in Is It History or Is It His-Story? In a humorous, satirical game show format,, contestants vote on who ought to be included in history books.

Kathryn Taylor Smith in “A MILE IN MY SHOES.”. Ester, an omniscient “Shoe Whisperer,” walks us through her life on Skid Row. In this socially conscious poetic dramedy, Kathryn portrays 19 characters inspired by research and personal interviews with members of the homeless community as well as those who advocate for them.
Rosie Lee Hooks in “A GRIOT SPEAKS.” Rosie Lee weaves the audience historically through song and call and response.
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Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Conductor

Yanfeng (Tony) Bai, Piano
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Emmy award-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor, is a master of color, drawing idiomatic interpretations from a diverse and wide range of repertoire in concerts across the globe.
Now in its 19th season, the Colburn Orchestra is the flagship ensemble of the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Under the direction of Music Director Yehuda Gilad, the Colburn Orchestra performs for Southern California audiences at venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, Royce Hall, The Broad Stage, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and The Soraya.
PROGRAM:
BOULANGER - D’un Soir Triste

RACHMANINOFF - Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18

MUSSORGSKY/ARR. RAVEL - Pictures at an Exhibition
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The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts (HB APA) will present “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a love letter to the Jazz Age musical that features one show-stopping song and dance number after another.
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Written by Terrence McNally. Directed by Larry Eisenberg. Produced by David Hunt Stafford for Theatre 40.

It's the opening night of The Golden Egg on Broadway, and the wealthy producer Julia Budder is throwing a lavish party in her lavish Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but the real action is upstairs in the bedroom, where a group of insiders have staked themselves out to await the reviews. The group includes the excitable playwright; the possibly unstable wunderkind director; the pill-popping leading lady, treading the boards after becoming infamous in Hollywood; and the playwright's best friend, for whom the play was written but who passed up this production for a television series. Add to this a drama critic who's panned the playwright in the past and a new-in-town aspiring singer, and you have a prime recipe for the narcissism, ambition, childishness, and just plain irrationality that infuse the theatre—and for comedy. But don't worry: This play is sure to be the hit they have all been hoping for.
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“Pure, lively (and live) entertainment! It is remarkable to see two dozen children abandon their electronic devices to watch a live stage performance and, when prompted, hear their advice and warnings called out to the heroine. SNOWHITE at Santa Monica Playhouse provides such a theatrical (and non-CGI) experience.” Tolucan Times. It’s SNOWHITE, a captivating Rudie-DeCarlo musical fairytale for girls, boys, and young-at-heart audiences of all ages.
“Sure to delight, enchant and entertain!” LA SPLASH
A charming tale of companionship, coming-of-age, and the magical bond between mothers and daughters, SNOWHITE takes audiences on a magical adventure as everyone’s most beloved young heroine journeys to find herself, her mother, and her true destiny, aided by Seven Silly Companions and a Most Magical Mirror. No evil Stepmother here, no shadowy forests or villainous potions; just a wondrously humorous and touching story of friendship, dedication and discovery, as Snowhite, and the audience, learn that love does, indeed, conquer all, even though it can sometimes be found in the most unlikely places.
Modeled on the original 1812 Brothers Grimm tale, SNOWHITE examines stereotypes, familial bonds, ethics, friendship, the power of commitment, and the value of tolerance and understanding. Beautifully-detailed Medieval costumes by award-winning designer Ashley Hayes and sparkling special effects by James Cooper add to the historical authenticity of this exciting interactive family-friendly production.
Members of the internationally renowned Actors' Repertory Theatre Meghan Nealon (Into the Woods, Shakespeare’s Other Women), Cydne Moore (Beauty and the Beast, Absolutely Halloween) and Michala Peltz (No Returns, Absolutely Halloween), join guest artists Bethany Dream (Bye Bye Birdie, Gypsy), Krit Gough (Metamorphoses, Barefoot in the Park), Margot Leach (Call Me Kat, The Switch Up) and Filipina-American actress Julia Masterson (Evita, Circle Mirror Transformation) as Snowhite. Written & directed by Playhouse Co-Artistic Directors Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie.
Special birthday parties, hosted by gaily-costumed fairytale characters, are available for every performance. All current protocols are observed.
Santa Monica Playhouse, celebrating 63 years of continuous operation, is supported in part by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Rotary Club Foundation and Playhouse PALS.
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5-STAR theatricals

is proud to announce the First Show of its 2023-2024 Season!

The Tony Award Winning

RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL

Book by Terrence McNally

Music by Lynn Ahrens

Lyrics by Steven Flaherty

Musical Direction & Conductor: Tom Griffin

Choreography by Michelle Elkin

Directed by Jeffrey Polk
Make Them Hear You Beginning March 24

at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center!
5-STAR THEATRICALS is proud to announce the first show of its 2023-2024 season, the Tony Award winning, RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL, book by Terrence McNally, music by Lynn Ahrens, lyrics by Steven Flaherty, conductor and musical direction by Tom Griffin, choreography by Michelle Elkin and directed by Jeffrey Polk. RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL opens on Friday, March 24, 2023 and runs through Sunday, April 2, 2023 at the Kavli Theatre at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center (formerly the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza), 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.
Based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, this musical tapestry depicts an African-American family, a Jewish immigrant family, and a wealthy white suburban family in turn-of-the-century America, who collide in pursuit of the American Dream. Nominated for 13 Tony Awards® including “Best Musical,” and winning for “Best Original Score” and “Best Book of a Musical,” Ragtime is a powerful portrait of life during the turn-of-the-century, exploring America’s timeless contradictions of freedom and prejudice, wealth and poverty, hope and despair.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST
JEFFREY POLK (Director) Directed and Choreographed: The Color Purple, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Memphis (The Musical), Ain’t Misbehavin’. Choreographed: Dreamgirls, (TUTS, Houston with Sheldon Epps, Director), Kiss Me, Kate, (Pasadena Playhouse, Sheldon Epps, Director), Blues In The Night, (The Wallis, Beverly Hills, Sheldon Epps, Director). Guest Director with “The Young Americans” and “Heartglobal Outreach World Tours.”  Mr. Polk has performed on Broadway, national tours, TV and film.
MICHELLE ELKIN (Choreography) Select credits include: “Sutton Foster Live” with Jonathan Groff (PBS), “Young Sheldon” resident choreographer (CBS), “Younger” (TV Land), “The Wonderful Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “Me And My Grandma” with Rhea Perlman, “Baby Daddy” (ABC Family), TNT pilot “Dawn” directed by Sam Raimi, Lifetime’s reality show “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” “Kristin” starring Kristin Chenoweth, and tap sequences in ABC Family's “Bunheads.” Theater: Live musical numbers featuring Tony Award winner Sutton Foster with special guest Joshua Henry for the NSO at Kennedy Center, New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and the Houston Symphony. Theater: Something Rotten (Broadway World Nominee) Sister Act The Musical (Broadway World Nominee), Hunchback Of Notre Dame (Broadway World Nominee) Children Of Eden (Broadway World Nominee); Little Shop Of Horrors (Straz Center), The Goodbye Girl (MTG). Feature films: Wild Hogs, What Just Happened. Associate Choreographer credits include; “Dancing With The Stars,” Sister Act at Pasadena Playhouse, “Emmy Awards” with Jane Lynch, “Academy Awards” with Hugh Jackman and the Broadway show, Wonderland (Marquis Theater).
TOM GRIFFIN (Musical Director/Conductor) is a nationally recognized musical director and conductor for professional musical theater. Tom was musical director for the Los Angeles productions of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, The Music Man, Annie, “13” The Musical, Bye Bye Birdie, Sweet Charity, West Side Story, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the national tour of My Fair Lady for Theatre Of The Stars, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s productions of A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan, 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee, Disney’s Mary Poppins, the East Coast Premiere & New York Workshop of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory and The Pioneer Theatre Company’s productions of Once, A Christmas Carol, Elf, The Musical, Peter & The Starcatcher, Oliver, Newsies and Once On This Island.
Tom has received awards for his musical direction of shows including the Broadway revival of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Los Angeles premiere), for which he received a Garland Award for Best Musical Direction, and Side Show (Los Angeles premiere), for which he received a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Musical Direction, as well as eight Theatre LA Ovation Award nominations. Tom was the musical conductor of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast on two national tours and served again as musical director for the show’s run at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Tom’s other productions include Grease, The Mystery of Edmond Drood, the West Coast premiere of My Way, A Connecticut Yankee, Honk! The Musical, the West Coast & Los Angeles premieres of The Last Five Years, the West Coast premiere of The Spitfire Grill, 70 Girls 70, Baby, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jungle Book, Aladdin, Fatty, Oklahoma, The Wizard of Oz, Inside the Music and Club Indigo, for which he also won a DramaLogue award for Best Musical Direction.
The Cast of RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL will feature Marty Austin Lamar as “Coalhouse,” Brittany Anderson as “Sarah,” Misty Cotton as “Mother,” Michael Scott Harris as “Father,” Hank Jacobs as “Tateh,” Samantha Wynn-Greenstone as “Emma Goldman,” Ceron Jones as “Booker T,” Monica Ricketts as “Evelyn Nesbit,” Jeremy Ingraham as “Younger Brother,” Steven Perren as “Grandfather,” Jacob Hoff as “ Harry Houdini,” Josh Christoff as “JP Morgan,” Davis Hamilton as “Henry Ford,” Lila Dunham as “Little Girl,” Daxton Bethoney as “Little Boy (Edgar)” and Jordan Jackson as “Sarah’s Friend/Ensemble.” The Ensemble will feature (in alphabetical order): Christopher D. Baker, Emily Cochrane, Domo D’DAnte, BK Dawson, Julia Feeley, Glen Hall, Tyler Marshall, Almand Martin, Jr., Donovan Mendelovitz, Kristen O’Connell, Will Riddle, Zara Saje, Leasa Shukiar, Kumari Small, Tania Pasano Storrs and Dekontee Tucrkile. The Youth Ensemble will feature (In alphabetical order): Delilah Bank, Tanner Cox, Camryn Daniels, Madelyn Freidman, Harley Grey, Harrington Gwin, Madison North, Calulla Sawyer, Weston Walker-Pardee , Poppi Wilbur-McDaniels and Olivia Zenetzis.
The Design Team of RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL features: Lighting Design by Brandon Baruch; Costume Design by Shon LeBlanc; Sound Design by Jonathan Burke; Props Design by Alex Choate; Hair and Wig Design by Luis Ramirez. The Production Stage Manager is Erin Nicole Eggers.
ABOUT THE PRICING AND SCHEDULE
RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL opens on Friday, March 24 and runs through Sunday, April 2, 2023 at the Kavli Theatre at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center (formerly the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza), 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.
Performances are Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm; Sunday, March 26 at 2pm and Sunday, April 2 at 1pm; with an added performance on Thursday, March 30 at 7:30pm.
Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center Box Office located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks, or through www.5startheatricals.com, or by phone at (800) 745-3000. For groups of 10 or more, please call Group Sales, 5-STAR THEATRICALS at (805) 497-8613 x 1.
Ticket prices range from $35 – $90. For ticket and theatre information, call (805) 449-ARTS (2787). RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL performs exclusively at the Kavli Theatre, Bank of America Performing Arts Center, at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. For

membership and ticket information, call 805-497-8613 x 6 or visit www.5startheatricals.com.
COVID PROTOCOLS for RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL at the KAVLI THEATRE
There will no longer be any COVID vaccination requirements for The Bank of America Performing Arts Center.  In compliance with the Ventura County Public Health Order masks or face coverings are highly recommended for all persons, regardless of vaccination status.
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To schedule press interviews, photos, press comps, or for additional information, please contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at (818) 508-1754 or by e-mail at davidelzer@me.com.
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