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Posts Tagged ‘london’

God of Carnage (originally Le Dieu du Carnage) is a Tony Award-winning play by Yasmina Reza, first directed by Jürgen Gosch and performed in Zürich on 8 December 2006.^[1] It was first produced in English in London on 25 March 2008, in a translation by Christopher Hampton.^[2] The play is about two pairs of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos. In 2009, God of Carnage was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.^[3] God of Carnage won Best Play at the 2009 Tony Awards.

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical’s profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.^[1] The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of “rock musical”, using a racially-integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a “Be-In” finale.^[2]

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Chicago is a Kander and Ebb musical set in prohibition era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice, and the concept of the “celebrity criminal.” The musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she had reported on.

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The Lion King is a Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M. Directed by Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. The show is produced by Disney Theatrical.

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West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical’s plot is based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Set in New York in the mid-1950s, the musical explores the rivalry between two teenage gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The young protagonist, Tony, who belongs to the Anglo gang (Jets), falls in love with Maria, the sister of the rival Puerto Rican gang’s (Sharks) leader. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein’s score for the musical has become extremely popular; it includes “Something’s Coming,” “Maria,” “America,” “Somewhere,” “Tonight,” “Jet Song,” “I Feel Pretty,” “One Hand, One Heart,” and “Cool.”

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After Miss Julie is a play which relocates August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888) to an English country house in July 1945. In this radical re-imagining of theatre’s first “naturalistic tragedy” the events of Strindberg’s original are transposed to the night of the British Labour Party’s “landslide” election victory.

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Wicked is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and West End musical, with songs and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. The story is based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a parallel novel of L. Frank Baum’s classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz.

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