Live Entertainment

Where you’re happy and you know it!

Actress and Comedian Livia Scott hosts this monthly variety show, where dead celebrities are brought back to life and stellar guest performances contribute to the experience of Livia’s Castle of Enchantment at the UCB Theater East. I attended Livia’s Castle of Enchantment on Tuesday, April 24, and was pleasantly taken on a whirlwind as Livia [...]

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  Even casual readers of The Happiest Medium know that when it comes to Company XIV and Austin McCormick I am reduced to a screaming fan-girl.  I am older, of course -not a girl, so my screaming is done on the inside (most of the time), but when it comes to this neo-baroque dance ensemble [...]

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The Happiest Medium review by guest contributor Katelyn Manfre.   Are you ready to rock? No, seriously, are you? Because  Traveling Musicians, the glam-rock quartet straight out of the barnyard, are ready to help you find your inner animal. This merry band of misfits is comprised of four multi-instrumentalist critters–a cat, a dog, a donkey [...]

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Musical Pawns: Lost Music And Direction, Found Voices (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

by Diánna Martin March 1, 2012 Festivals

Part historical odyssey, part musical, Musical Pawns centers on the career work of Russian composer David Nowakowsky, a brilliant contemporary of Tchaikovsky and Wagner, whose works have been lost for nearly 100 years. Guarding his unpublished manuscripts for decades were his Grandson and then Great-Grandson, and the play also follows their life as Jews in [...]

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Aerial Allusions: A Ladder To Nowhere (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

by Diánna Martin March 1, 2012 Dance

  Performance art pieces, in general, can be thrilling to behold, whether they break new ground, or simply retrace the steps made by others in new and innovative (or deeply personal and fascinating) ways. The idea of combining dance, theatre, and clown with music to portray emotional journeys and the struggle of gender roles sounds [...]

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LOL:The End – Beginning And End (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

by Stephen Tortora-Lee February 29, 2012 Dance

What do cell phones, natural disasters, and the industrial revolution have in common? LOL: The End (written and performed by Michi Ilona Osato, Una Aya Osato, and Yoshimasa “Sen” Osato) sets out to investigate how the world got to where it is, starting with Man’s earliest domination over nature in order to create shelter, and [...]

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Company XIV – The Workshop You’ve All Been Waiting For …

by Karen Tortora-Lee February 7, 2012 Dance

If you read THM with any frequency you already know that I am a HUGE fan of Austin McCormick and his amazing Company XIV. What comes out of the 303 Bond Street Theatre is almost impossible to describe – because how can you describe the way your life is changed, over and over again? The [...]

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Stabat Mater Fabulosa, Morningside Opera Productions

by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson January 31, 2012 Manhattan

The Morningside Opera company offered up a quite singular interpretation of Pergolesi‘s Stabat Mater in their Fabulosa rendition on January 26th at Dixon Place, which proved, at once, a scholarly as well as a quite literal undressing of the original. Composed in 1736 – the year of Pergolesi’s death at the august age of 26 [...]

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The Knocking Within: 4 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (Times Square International Theater Festival 2012)

by The Happiest Medium January 19, 2012 Dance

The Knocking Within ANIKAI Dance Theater Texts from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, MacBeth, Titus Andronicus and Othello Selected and compiled by Wendy Jehlen Direction, concept: Wendy Jehlen Choreographer: Wendy Jehlen with Pradhuman Nayak ANIKAI Dance Theater premieres “The Knocking Within,” a new text-based work looking at insanity and a dysfunctional relationship through texts from three of [...]

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A Time To Dance: 4 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (Times Square International Theater Festival 2012)

by The Happiest Medium January 16, 2012 Dance

  A Time to Dance written and performed by Libby Skala The story of a pioneering Austrian who transcends poverty, artistic repression and the rise of Hitler through the magic of dance. Show Times: Tuesday, 1/17 @ 6pm Friday, 1/20 @ 9pm Sunday, 1/22 @ 3pm Answers by Libby Skala (Playwright, Director, Producer, Performer)   [...]

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Interview: Eden And John’s East River String Band

by Michelle Augello-Page January 3, 2012 Interview

If you haven’t heard Eden and John’s East River String Band yet, then you are in for a treat! Based in the East Village in NYC, Eden Brower and John Heneghan have been entertaining audiences in America, Canada, and Europe for the past several years with their versions of 1920s pre-war blues, jazz, pop, and [...]

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The Fairest Of Them All: Company XIV – Snow White

by Karen Tortora-Lee December 22, 2011 Children's Theatre

Of all the things to be tempted with this holiday season, nothing is so tantalizing as Company XIV’s production of Snow White which lures audiences to 303 Bond Street with all the seduction of an evil queen extending a shiny, beautiful, apple in order to cast a magical spell.  One thing is certain – there [...]

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3 Ghosts By Pipe Dream Theatre Productions

by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson December 13, 2011 Music

Younger minds may find entertainment and diversion at 3 Ghosts, this stage musical adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ story, A Christmas Carol by Pipe Dream Theatre Productions. Everything about it resonates with an enthusiastic note of, well, glee. The attractive and animated cast strut and stand about stage looking very pleased with themselves, and the energy [...]

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Benefit Concert For Ghar Sita Mutu

by Michelle Augello-Page November 10, 2011 Event

A benefit concert is being held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ghar Sita Mutu – “House with a Heart” – a charity that offers a children’s home, a children’s learning center, a women’s training center, and a family outreach program to those living in extreme poverty in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Ghar Sita Mutu Benefit Concert is [...]

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Wasabassco Extravaganza: Better Than Promised … Night One

by Karen Tortora-Lee November 5, 2011 Brooklyn

      Temperatures were rising last night at the first evening of the two part celebration for Doc Wasabassco’s 7th Anniversary Extravaganza. The blazing hot belles were ravishing, revealing and  resplendant as they strutted, sauntered and slowly stripped their way across the stage of The Bell House last night. But that was only part of [...]

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Champagne Pam Is A Fizzy Delight

by Karen Tortora-Lee November 4, 2011 Event

Vocalist Champagne Pam, the Dog Walking Diva had the audience eating out of her palm last night at Don’t Tell Mama, New York’s legendary cabaret room.  With a song list that ranged from jazz to R&B to original songs, every note was a little drop of love for the clients she so adoringly tends to [...]

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Wasabassco Burlesque – Celebrating Seven Years And Still Going Strong

by Karen Tortora-Lee November 3, 2011 Brooklyn

If you’re any kind of regular reader of THM then you know that around here we sure love Burlesque.  Lucky us!  Living in New York City as we do, there is no shortage of fantastic Burlesque performers who constantly and consistently have us hooting and hollering and calling out for more. If you, too, are [...]

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