CCHS Fall Theater To Present Tony Winner "Yellow Face" In Collaboration With East/West Players

Art is both a reflection of culture and a way to inspire culture to evolve. The Academy of Visual and Performing Arts at Culver City High School has chosen a play and brought in a professional company to collaborate on a landmark play that does both.

"Yellow Face" blurs the lines between fact and fiction in the same way that stereotypes blur the truth in matters of race, personal identity and cultural authenticity. The play asks provocative questions about racial identity and, on another level, examines the social biases, both casual and institutionalized, that target Asian Americans and, indeed, any outsider to mainstream American culture. 

"David Henry Hwang's Tony-award winning Yellow Face is a comedic satire that features the complex emotions that are involved when talking about race in America," said teaching artist and guest director Stephanie Lee. "But what Hwang does so brilliantly is marry this complex issue with comedy so that the audience can sit in a theater and laugh together. To quote Hwang during his 2014 interview with Propeller TV, 'Laughter opens your mind and allows you to think about new things.'"

Read more at Culver City Crossroads

All Arts’ ‘The First Twenty’ Initiative Announces Fall Lineup (EXCLUSIVE)

All Arts unveiled the fall lineup for “The First Twenty,” a new content initiative exploring how the first two decades of the 21st century have impacted American art and culture. 

“The First Twenty” includes three new specials. Premiering on Sept. 7 is “Afterwards” by playwright Enda Walsh. Jeremy Dennis’ “Ma’s House” premieres on Oct. 11 in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. “Twenty Years of Asian American Playwriting” by Ralph Peña and the Ma-Yi Theater Company will air in November. All three will stream on the All Arts app and website, and premiere in the New York Metro area on the All Arts TV channel.

Peña wrote and directed “The First Twenty: Twenty Years of Asian American Playwriting,” a 30-minute documentary that examines the perception of Asian American plays at large and notes how those works have shifted in scope and subject over time. It features interviews with Tony winner David Henry Hwang, playwright, director and filmmaker Young Jean Lee and others. Francisco Aliwalas is the director of photography and editor, with original music by Fabian Obispo. Jakob Carter serves as associate producer.

Read more at Yahoo News

Audra McDonald to Host Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert

The Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert will be held on September 14 and broadcast on October 1 at 9PM ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS video app. This special celebration will be hosted by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald with special guest Caroline Kennedy and feature the National Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be directed and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse and feature conductors JoAnn Falletta, Steven Reineke and Thomas Wilkins.

David Henry Hwang (Photo by Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com)

The concert will feature performances from a slew of stars, including the original cast of David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s Soft Power, Kelli O'Hara, Renée Fleming, Flying Over Sunset-bound star Tony Yazbeck, The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical creators Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear and more.

Read more at Broadway.com

Pioneer Actor/Singer Alvin Ing Dies at 89

Alvin Ing in a promotional image and as Shogun's Mother in Pacific Overtures
(image via @thealvining/Martha Swope/New York Public Library )

Actor and singer Alvin Ing, an advocate for Asian Pacific Americans in the entertainment industry, died on July 31 at the age of 89.

Ing died of cardiac arrest amid a battle with COVID-19 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though he had been fully vaccinated, he had been diagnosed with the virus two weeks earlier.

When the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Flower Drun Song” went on tour after opening on Broadway in 1958, Ing played the male lead, Wang Ta (the role played by James Shigeta in the 1961 movie). In 2002, the show was revived with a new book by David Henry Hwang, and Ing was cast as a different character, Chin.

Ing also appeared in the Stephen Sondheim musical about the opening of Japan to the West in the 19th century, “Pacific Overtures,” in 1976. The cast included other pioneer Asian American actors who have since passed away, including Mako, Yuki Shimoda and Soon Teck Oh. Ing also appeared in that show’s revival.

Read more at The Rafu Shimpo

Hawaii Actor Fought For Better Roles For Asian Americans

Alvin Ing, best known as the romantic lead in "Flower Drum Song," died last month after contracting COVID-19.

During the pandemic, Hawaii-born actor Alvin Ing was performing on stage, on Zoom, shooting a BTS dance cover video and giving interviews right up until he got sick.

In mid-July, the 89-year-old Broadway veteran was diagnosed with pneumonia. A few days later, tests showed he had COVID-19, though he had been fully vaccinated. After two weeks of battling COVID in Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, Ing died on July 31.

His long career included roles on Broadway in “Pacific Overtures” and “Flower Drum Song,” in the national touring company of “The World of Suzie Wong,” and in films such as “The Gambler,” “Stir Crazy” and “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” as well as many television appearances. One of his greatest achievements was that he supported himself as a working actor, making a living doing what he loved. His legacy is in the battles he fought for roles for Asian actors on stage and on screen.

“He was the beloved link between generations of AAPI performers who had found employment and sometimes even stardom during a time when other opportunities were virtually non-existent,” said playwright David Henry Hwang. “As an AAPI actor of his generation, Alvin faced terrible racist exclusion, yet survived as an artist with his joy and talent (not to mention his high notes) intact.”

Ing was born in Hawaii in 1932, graduated from Roosevelt High School, and got a BA in music from the University of Hawaii. A talented singer since childhood, Ing was a member of the Honolulu Community Chorus and performed with the Honolulu Community Theater, which later became Diamond Head Theatre. Though he loved musical theater, he didn’t think an acting career was possible, so he set out to become a music teacher. He moved to New York to get a master’s degree in education from Columbia University. It was there that a friend convinced him to audition for musical theater.

Read more at Civil Beat

Welcome to the Jungle!

Hurricane Theatrical proudly presents the stage musical “Tarzan.” Thanks to the giant Disney Theatrical Productions (Beauty and the Beast and Lion King), Tarzan swings onto the stage accompanied by music from the rock legend Phil Collins. The book is by Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, and the musical garnered both Tony Award nominations and international awards.

The Tarzan that we think of clad in a loincloth and swinging through the jungle is complements of author Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1912 novel, “Tarzan of the Apes.” The Tarzan character has been a staple of pop culture, including books, films, comics, television, and numerous parodies.

Read more at The Independent

Concord Launches Originals Division to Develop Movies, TV and Podcasts From Its IP Vault (EXCLUSIVE)

Courtesy Everett Collection

Concord Launches Originals Division to Develop Movies, TV and Podcasts From Its IP Vault (EXCLUSIVE).

Concord is diving deeper into its IP vault of music and theatrical performance rights to develop movies, TV shows and podcasts through the newly established Concord Originals division.

Sophia Dilley has been promoted to senior vice president to lead the push at Concord Originals from Los Angeles. Dilley told Variety the company plans to be nimble in its dealmaking and aims to work with a range of production and distribution partners, depending on the needs of each project.

Among the properties that Concord is actively developing is a new take on “Flower Drum Song” with Daniel Dae Kim’s 3AD production banner and Janet Yang Prods. The 1958 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical was adapted as a 1961 movie starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta and Miyoshi Umeki. Concord represents the voluminous Rodgers & Hammerstein for theatrical licensing.

Here are descriptions of Concord’s new projects:

Flower Drum Song

Concord Originals has partnered with Daniel Dae Kim’s 3AD and Janet Yang Productions to re-imagine Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Tony Award-winning musical Flower Drum Song for screen. The 1961 feature adaptation of the 1958 Broadway production of the same name received five Academy Award nominations and was the first major Hollywood feature film that featured a majority Asian/Asian American cast. The show returned to Broadway in 2002, with a revised book by David Henry Hwang. Dilley is producing the project for Concord Originals, alongside Kim and John Cheng for 3AD and Janet Yang.

Read more at Variety

Concord Developing New Film Re-Imagining of Flower Drum Song, More With New Originals Division

Cast of Flower Drum Song Friedman-Abeles/©NYPL for the Performing Arts

The division will develop works from Concord's extensive library of holdings, which includes the catalogs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, August Wilson, and Kander and Ebb.

Entertainment conglomerate Concord has launched an Originals division tasked with developing new projects across a variety of formats from its large library of intellectual property holdings, which include the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, August Wilson, Adrienne Kennedy, Kander and Ebb, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Irving Berlin, and more. Concord also controls works by such music artists as Cyndi Lauper, James Taylor, Phil Collins, and Otis Redding.

Sophia Dilley will lead the new division as senior vice president, heading a team that includes Directors of Development and Production Wesley Adams and Charles Hopkins and Development Coordinator Quile Gomez.

Among the first projects being worked on are new adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1958 musical Flower Drum Song. The project is being worked on in collaboration with Daniel Dae Kim's 3AD and Janet Yang Productions, which will re-imagine the musical for the screen.

Originally adapted as a film in 1961, the musical centers on a community of Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco. This new take on the property would not be its first re-imagining; a 2002 Broadway revival featured a dramatically revised book by David Henry Hwang.

Read more at Playbill

Having a birthday today, Aug. 11, 2021

Actor Arlene Dahl is 96. Songwriter-producer Kenny Gamble is 78. Rock musician Jim Kale (Guess Who) is 78. Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant is 75. Country singer John Conlee is 75. Singer Eric Carmenis 72. Computer scientist and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is 71. Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 68. Singer Joe Jackson is 67. Playwright David Henry Hwang is 64. Actor Miguel A. Nunez Jr. is 62. Actor Viola Davis is 56. Actor Embeth Davidtz is 56. Actor Duane Martin is 56. Actor-host Joe Rogan is 54. R&B musician Chris Dave is 53. Actor Anna Gunn is 53. Actor Ashley Jensen is 53. Actor Sophie Okonedo is 53. Rock guitarist Charlie Sexton is 53. Hip-hop artist Ali Shaheed Muhammad is 51. Actor Nigel Harman is 48. Actor Will Friedle is 45. Rock singer Ben Gibbard is 45. Actor Rob Kerkovich is 42. Actor Merritt Wever is 41. Actor Chris Hemsworth is 38. Rock musician Heath Fogg (Alabama Shakes) is 37. Singer J-Boog is 36. Rapper Asher Roth is 36. Actor Alyson Stoner is 28.

Read more at The Daily Sentinel

Alvin Ing, Originator of Role in Pacific Overtures, Dies at 89

Ing, a trailblazing Asian American performer, also starred in more productions of Flower Drum Song than any other actor.

Trailblazing Asian American actor Alvin Ing has died at the age of 89 from cardiac arrest caused by complications from Covid-19. Ing, fully vaccinated, contracted pneumonia in July and was confirmed to have the virus a few days later. 

Born in Honolulu, Ing never expected to go into show business, arriving in New York City at the age of 25 to study music on the graduate level with an expected plan of becoming a teacher. As a youngster, he appeared in several amateur theater productions, eventually landing in the summer stock circuit on the East Coast, performing in the chorus of shows like Annie Get Your Gun and Song of Norway. His first leading role was Lun Tha in The King and I, which he played at several theaters. 

In 1958, Ing auditioned for one of the musicals which would go on to be a staple in his career: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song. Though he didn't land the Broadway production, he served as understudy for the role of Wang Ta in the national tour, though he never went on. Ing would return to Flower Drum Song on multiple occasions over the course of his professional life, including playing the role of Uncle Chin in the 2002 Broadway revisal and it's subsequent tour. In that version of the show, where the script was revised by David Henry Hwang, Ing sang the Broadway premiere of the Rodgers and Hammerstein number "My Best Love," which had been cut from the original production. He did more productions of Flower Drum Song than any other actor.

Read more at Theatermania

Alvin Y. F. Ing, Star of Pacific Overtures and Its Revival, Dies at 89

Mr. Ing also starred in the Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song, featuring a revised book by David Henry Hwang.

Alvin Y. F. Ing, who starred in both the original 1976 Broadway production of Pacific Overtures and the musical's Main Stem revival in 2004, passed away July 31 due to COVID-19 complications at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was 89 and had been fully vaccinated.

Also known as Alvin Ing, the trailblazing actor was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, May 26, 1932.

Alvin Y. F. Ing

In 1960 Mr. Ing appeared in a tour of The World of Suzie Wong, which played engagements in both the U.S. and Toronto, and in the late '60s he was part of productions of the Jerry Herman musical Mame at Caesar's Palace and the Sacramento Music Circus.

Mr. Ing made his Broadway debut December 31, 1975, with the first preview of the aforementioned Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman musical Pacific Overtures, which officially opened January 11, 1976, at the Winter Garden Theatre. In the '60s, Mr. Ing had headed TAAPA (Theater for Asian American Performing Artists), which, according to his Playbill bio, convinced producer-director Harold Prince to cast Pacific Overtures with an all-Asian company. He played several roles in the Tony-nominated musical—which follows Commodore Matthew Perry on his journey to Japan in 1853 on a U.S. mission to open up trade relations—including Shogun's Mother, Observer, Merchant American, and Admiral.

Mr. Ing had one other Broadway credit, the 2002 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, playing the role of Chin opposite Tony winner Lea Salonga's Mei-Li. It was not his first outing with the 1958 musical; he had previously starred in the musical's national tour, eventually playing the role of Wang Ta more than any other actor.

Read more at Playbill

HONG KONG SUPERSTAR ANDY LAU REJECTED HOLLYWOOD FILMS INCLUDING ‘M BUTTERFLY’ THAT DEGRADE CHINESE

Lau turned down 'M Butterfly' because "the character he was asked to play had to lick the toes of a foreigner"

Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau refused to take on Hollywood roles that degraded Chinese people.

God Of Gamblers director Wong Jing said Lau rejected roles after reading the script.

“He felt the roles he had to play degraded the Chinese. So, he decided to reject it,” Jing said.

The 59-year-old star even turned down 1993’s M Butterfly based on David Henry Hwang’s play because “the character he was asked to play had to lick the toes of a foreigner.”

Other films Lau was asked to audition for include Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Spiderman 3 and Sandman.

Lau remains the most awarded Hong Kong singer and has appeared in 140 movies.

Read more at Resonate

Watch Trailer for On Broadway Documentary, Featuring Hugh Jackman, George C. Wolfe, Helen Mirren, More

Oren Jacoby’s film will arrive in New York movie theatres August 20

Oscar nominee Oren Jacoby’s documentary On Broadway—which chronicles how Broadway, on the verge of bankruptcy in the '70s, avoided collapse and reinvented itself—will be released in New York August 20. The film will subsequently open in Los Angeles August 27 prior to a national rollout.

Watch a trailer, featuring interviews with Hugh Jackman, Helen Mirren, George C. Wolfe, Ian McKellen, Christine Baranski, and Alec Baldwin, above.

The story of Broadway's self-reinvention is told by a cast that also includes August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Alexandra Billings, David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, Nicholas Hytner, Jack O’Brien, Daniel Sullivan, Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymor, Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller, and Tony Kushner.

Directed by Jacoby, On Broadway is executive produced by Pat Schoenfeld, Stephanie P. MccLelland, No Guarantee Theatricals, John Breglio, Betsy West, Barbara H. Freitag, and Riki Kane-Larimer and produced by Jacoby and Holly Siegel. 

Cinematography is by Buddy Squires, Bob Richman, and Tom Hurwitz with editing by Abhay Sofsky, Ted Raviv, Steven Wechsler. The film is a Kino Lorber release.

Read more at Playbill

Costume designer Emilio Sosa elected chair of the American Theatre Wing

Emilio Sosa will be the new board chair of the American Theatre Wing. (Photo: Shevett Studios)

Broadway costume and fashion designer Emilio Sosa has been elected chair of the American Theatre Wing. 

Sosa will succeed David Henry Hwang and Ted Chapin, who will continue to be active within the Wing as immediate past chairs. He is joined by newly appointed vice-chairs Dale Cendali, Patricia Crown, James Higgins, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Lee Perlman and Nadine Wong.

Pam Zilly will serve as treasurer and Natasha Katz will serve as secretary. The American Theatre Wing offers educational programming and support to emerging theater artists and acts as the co-presenter of the Tony Awards.

Read more at Broadway News

Asian Composers Reflect on Careers in Western Classical Music

DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER

BY BRIGHT SHENG
Libretto By David Henry Hwang and Bright Sheng / June 14–July 3, 2022

When someone asks Bright Sheng whether he’s a Chinese or American composer, he responds, “100 percent both.”Credit...Nora Tam/South China Morning Post, via Getty Images

For all their shared experiences, each of these five artists has a unique story of struggles and triumphs.

Bright Sheng

Asian composers who write in Western classical musical forms, like symphonies and operas, tend to have a few things in common. Many learned European styles from an early age, and finished their studies at conservatories there or in the United States. And many later found themselves relegated to programming ghettos like Lunar New Year concerts. (One recent study found that works by Asian composers make up only about 2 percent of American orchestral performances planned for the coming season.)

When I left China, it was a time of economic and cultural reform. I’m glad I came to the United States, but I do have a little bit of guilt. I probably could have done more there. At the time, my ambition was to try to learn Western music and become the best composer, pianist and conductor I could be. I was fortunate to work with many fantastic musicians and meet Leonard Bernstein, who took me under his wing for five years. Now, at 65, when someone asks me if I consider myself a Chinese or American composer, I say, in the most humble way, “100 percent both.” I feel well-versed in both cultures.

Occasionally, there has been racism and misunderstanding, but that is inevitable. Would that be different if there were more Asian people running orchestras? Maybe. My response has just been to try to produce the best music I can. I wrote an opera for San Francisco Opera — “Dream of the Red Chamber,”. It’s based on a very popular Chinese story, and when I worked on it with David Henry Hwang, we asked ourselves: “Is this for a Western audience or Asian audience?” We decided first and foremost it should just be good, and it had to be touching. Good art should transcend.

Read more at the New York Times

TARZAN Swings Into Theatre West Virginia This Weekend

Tarzan will swing into Theatre West Virginia beginning this weekend with performances July 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

Based on Disney's epic animated musical adventure and Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan features heart-pumping music by rock legend, Phil Collins, and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang. High-flying excitement and hits, like the Academy Award-winning "You'll Be in My Heart," as well as "Son of Man" and "Two Worlds," make Tarzan an unforgettable theatrical experience.

Washed up on the shores of West Africa, an infant boy is taken in and raised by gorillas who name him Tarzan. Apart from striving for acceptance from his ape father, Tarzan's life is mostly monkey business until a human expedition treks into his tribe's territory, and he encounters creatures like himself for the first time. Tarzan struggles to navigate a jungle, thick with emotion, as he discovers his animal upbringing clashing with his human instincts.

Read more at Broadway World

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Viola Davis & More Appear in New Documentary, ON BROADWAY

As theater goers prepare for the return of Broadway after an unprecedented absence of eighteen months, Kino Lorber is proud to announce the Friday, August 20th release of Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby's documentary ON BROADWAY, an enlightening and moving tribute to one of the most vibrant legacies of New York City, and the inside story of Broadway's last self-reinvention as told by an all-star cast.

Broadway was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 70s with talk of tearing down theaters and replacing them with parking lots; the plays were considered obsolete and audiences severely declining. The documentary explores how, thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and the sometimes-uneasy balance between art and commerce, an industry on the verge of extinction not only avoided collapse, but managed to reinvent itself and come back stronger.

Legends of the stage and screen take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from "A Chorus Line" to "Hamilton." Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Viola Davis, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way in a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business.

Also featured are interviews with some of today's most influential playwrights, directors, choreographers, performers and producers such as Alexandra Billings, David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, Nicholas Hytner, Jack O'Brien, George C. Wolfe, Daniel Sullivan, Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymour, Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller and Tony Kushner.

It also featuring interviews with Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen.

They tell the stories of the remarkable changes they helped initiate or witnessed over the past 50 years, the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on the theater community, and track the breakthrough works and artists which made Broadway into a venue where one can find everything-from the experimental and iconoclastic to the mainstream and commercial.

Read more at Broadway World

Final Steel Beam Placed Atop Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center In Financial District, Manhattan

From left to right is Kevin O’Toole, Chairman, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Holly Leicht, Chair of the Board, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Leslie Koch, President, Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC); Michael R. Bloomberg, Chair of the Board, PAC, and 108th mayor of New York City; Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, dancer and choreographer, PAC Artistic Advisor; Ronald O. Perelman, Chairman and CEO, MacAndrews & Forbes; David Henry Hwang, playwright, PAC Artistic Advisor; Bill Rauch, PAC Artistic Director; and Rick Cotton, Executive Director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

At a ceremony on June 23, the final steel beam for the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Centerwas signed and lifted into place atop the Financial District structure. Designed by REX with Davis Brody Bond Architects as the executive architect and developed by an independent non-profit company called The Perelman, the cubic performance building stands 138 feet tall at the northern end of the original 16-acre World Trade Center complex, bound by Greenwich Street to the east, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill‘s One World Trade Center to the west.

Read more at New York Yimby

Top Filipino artists sing as one in a video against anti-Asian prejudice

Together with Filipino celebrities such as Black Eyed Peas’s Apple de Up and Tony Award-winning Lea Salonga You are now taught carefully From Broadway musicals South Pacific, With lyrics that are against the prejudice that Asians are experiencing all over the world because of the pandemic.

Anti-Asia Hatred Campaign of the Asian Society Using the Song “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” by Rogers & Hammerstein Musical South Pacific Inspired by the Asia Society’s Philippine Center, the song was directed by a well-known Filipino artist singing as one of the “Stop All Hate”. Share love. “

With the help of Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang of the Asian Society Hong Kong, we secured permission to fine-tune the lyrics and created a version with a Hong Kong-based artist.

• Read more at Illinois News Today

A 90th anniversary benefit for the Library of the Performing Arts’ Billy Rose Theatre Division

Last week, it was announced that multiple Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, the son of a librarian, donated $2.5 million to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which will establish a new dedicated educational space in the building, named in his honor. The Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab, for students and teachers from middle school through graduate school levels, will allow the Library to make new and innovative use of its extensive theater archives and collections by providing scholarly engagement, curricular and extracurricular experiences for students and teachers, and programming for lifelong learners.

The online pay-what-you-can fundraiser, honoring producer/director Harold Prince and playwright/director George C. Wolfe, will offer a rare opportunity to view never-before-seen clips from the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT, now celebrating its 50thanniversary), interviews with Broadway legends and emerging creatives, and reconceived performances of classic musical theater show tunes, including Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, In the Heights, The Mountaintop, Ragtime, The Seagull, Spamalot, and Sunset Boulevard. Funds raised by the event will allow the TOFT Archive to capture Broadway and Off-Broadway shows coming out of this historic pandemic shutdown, and to ensure that the Division’s vast collection of historic theatrical negatives are digitized before they erode.

Read more at DC Metro