Podcasts about hammerstein's carousel

Tenor Alfie Boe, poet John Agard, writer Allan Jenkins, and comedian and writer Katy Brand join Libby Purves. Alfie Boe is one of our most popular tenors. He is starring as Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel alongside Katherine Jenkins at ENO's London Coliseum. He has performed in opera and musical theatre alike, from Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme on Broadway to leading the cast of Les Miserables in the West End. The youngest of nine children, he left school to work as a mechanic before being plucked off the shop-floor to stardom. Carousel is at ENO's London Coliseum. John Agard is a poet. Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, his new show Roll Over Atlantic is a reimagining of the voyage of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the 'New World'. Born and educated in Guyana, John came to the UK in 1977. His most famous poems explore identity and belonging and he writes for children as well as adults and is well known for his skill in performing poetry. Roll Over Atlantic is on tour. Allan Jenkins is the editor of the Observer Food Monthly. In his memoir, Plot 29, he recounts his life growing up in foster care with his brother Christopher. Their foster father introduced them to the joys of growing flowers which triggered Allan's lifelong love of gardening. As the boys grew up, their lives took different paths and Allan began to search for the answers to questions about his past. His book follows the course of a year in which he traces the story of his birth parents and finds solace tending his London allotment. Plot 29 - A Memoir is published by Fourth Estate. Katy Brand is an award-winning comedian, writer and actor. She is taking part in the Red Nose African Convoy acting as one of the outriders to a convoy of HGVs travelling from Kenya to Uganda to deliver supplies to Comic Relief funded projects. Katy's show I Was a Teenage Christian explores her youthful fascination with evangelical Christianity. The Red Nose African Convoy is broadcast on BBC One. I Was a Teenage Christian is on tour from May. Producer: Annette Wells.

Chicago Tribune chief theater critic Chris Jones tells Naomi Lewin that nothing lights up his e-mail inbox like an opera company staging a Broadway musical using full amplification. "It's full of disgruntled patrons," he said. "You get the natural hall acoustics working – and then you get a miked performer." The controversies go beyond acoustics and amplification – there's also the question of how to blend performers from the worlds of opera and Broadway in a single cast. On the other hand, there’s a huge potential upside for opera houses: the ability to reach new audiences clamoring for the sound of a full orchestra, which has all but vanished from Broadway pits. The trend has been particularly pronounced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which in recent years has staged “Oklahoma,” “Show Boat" “The Sound of Music” and now, Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Carousel." Elsewhere, Stephen Sondheim's “Sweeney Todd” is coming to Houston Grand Opera next week and San Francisco Opera in September. Companies in Los Angeles and Washington, DC as well as the Glimmerglass festival have also been bit by the Broadway bug. James Jorden, editor of the opera website Parterre Box and a contributor to the New York Observer, notes that the now-defunct New York City Opera made a staple of musicals in the 1980s. And yet, "opera houses are not made for talking in," he said referring to the spoken dialogue. "Even with very excellent sound design, it's going to be difficult to do 'Carousel,' which is very talky." Jorden and Jones also weigh in on the decline of the Broadway touring circuit and how that has opened up a place for opera companies, and whether more musicals means fewer operas for major houses. Jorden also tells us what musical he believes would be particularly well-suited for the Metropolitan Opera. Listen to the full segment at the top of this page and tell us what you think of the trend in the comments box below.

With June about to bust all over, today we're turning to that masterpiece of narrative musical theater, Rodgers and Hammerstein's CAROUSEL.

Marlyn Mason has been an acting professional from the age of 9. By the mid 1960s, she was playing a recurring role of Sally Welden on TV's Ben Casey. In 1967, she starred as Carrie Pipperidge in a television version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel and in 1969, she made her big-screen debut opposite Elvis Presley in The Trouble With Girls and as Nikki Bel in the 1970s series Longstreet. After a long absence, Marlyn returned to television in the early 1990s in a variety of roles. Most recently, she has written, produced, and starred in award winning short, Model Rules.  Model Rules is film about a 70 year old woman who works as an artists’ model posing nude for a classroom full of men. During the session, she begins to fantasize about one of the artists as he draws her nude form. Model Rules has screened a variety of festivals including LA Shorts and has received the Grand Prize for Screenplay at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. .