April 2, 2019
With all the madness going on in the world, it’s enough to make your head spin incredulous with “breaking news” locally, nationally; sad, crazy-funny, infuriating. It’s not lost on me to have focus on work that is optimistic and hopeful and in service to making something good for so many incredibly fine people. Yes, working for you is the sanest, most positive, fulfilling thing we can do!
And who we get to work with around here is a big plus and a reward in itself. Paramount’s Director of New Works, Amber Mak is back in town after tending to August Rush rehearsals in New York City, and we’ll be catching up this morning on the show’s progress and on a particular new work to discuss for the Copley Series here. As well, Amber is directing next season’s Beauty and the Beast (The Wizard of Oz, Elf, The Little Mermaid, Hairspray) and is in the process of casting which is spectacularly shaping up! Before ya know it, it’ll be “Happy Holidays”!
Take a break from your screens and come see THEATER full of music and life and hope!
We’re opening next season with Newsies, which is continuing being cast and designed. This afternoon, I will be meeting with Scenic Designer William Boles again, (The Producers, Paramount debut) to make further progress on the set with Associate Director Trent Stork. Trent also has been simultaneously occupied as Paramount’s Casting Director arranging auditions for all four of next season’s shows which include the new work, The Secret of My Success, and Kinky Boots (directed by Trent who debuted this season as Director here with Legally Blonde). The set William is creating is another breathtaking New York experience but this time in the Lower Manhattan of 1899. The show is getting a superbly crafted, fresh new look, and with Victoria Bain, making her Paramount debut as Lighting Designer (formerly assisting on several Broadway Series productions), I can guarantee another thrilling visual feast you will never forget. Returning from her debut as Costume Designer for The Producers, Jordan Ross has been showing me her sketches of the period fashions of the Gay 90’s from Gibson Girls to the Ziegfeld Follies. The contrast in class is all the more telling and dramatic with the striking young men’s worn, ill-fitting immigrant pieces, sleeping on the streets after hawking newspapers for a bite to eat.
Great production teams will be working all spring and summer long for Season Nine coming this fall. All their attention to detail in depicting these stories shines with humanity and speaks to what is the best in all of us. Take a break from your screens and come see theatre full of music and life and hope!
Love & thanks,
Jim
Jim
