PANORAMA NEWS BRIEFS | CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 5 6
To
Broadway and back again
In the
last few months, the bright lights of Broadway have welcomed new CCM alumni
to its boards, shone with particular brilliance on one performer and even
followed a Tony-winning alumnus back to UC where he premiered a brand
new show.
| zzz |  |
| zzz | Performing
for a packed house probably puts on the pressure, but nothing can
compare to premiering a show with the composer in the audience. CCM
students know. They opened "We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens
and Flaherty" this summer when Flaherty came to town. His first
musical review incorporated tunes from eight shows, including "Mama
Will Provide" from the show "Once on This Island." photos/Dottie Stover (left) Mark Lyon (right) |
Stephen
Flaherty, CCM '82, and his lyricist partner Lynn Ahrens created their
first musical revue at the suggestion of CCM drama chair Richard Hess,
who directed the college's Hot Summer Nights production. "We Tell
the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty" incorporated tunes from
eight shows, including the Tony-winning "Ragtime" and the animated
movie "Anastasia"; merged numbers from different plays into
new songs; turned solos into duets; gave a sneak preview of the team's
"A Man of No Importance," which has since premiered at New York
City's Lincoln Center; and featured never-heard-before songs that had
been cut from original productions.
Being involved with the revue's birth was "like creating a new show,"
Hess says. "And it was nostalgic for Stephen because the first show
he wrote as a student was a musical review that premiered at CCM 20 years
ago."
While in town, Flaherty not only spent time coaching CCM students individually,
but also attracted Jake Heggie, the composer of the opera "Dead Man
Walking," and renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade to a performance.
Both were so impressed that they came back to tour the college the next
day.
Attracting attention was also an admirable achievement for Justin Bohon,
CCM '00, whom the Astaire Awards named Best Male Dancer in May and who
received nominations from both the Outer Critics Circle Awards and the
Drama Desk Awards for his role as Will Parker in "Oklahoma!"
This summer, two '99 CCM classmates officially joined the ranks of Broadway
alumni. After recording the Off-Broadway cast album of "Godspell"
and doing backup vocals for Michael Jackson's 30th anniversary concert,
Shoshana Bean is playing Shelley in "Hairspray," and Sara Gettelfinger
is a courtesan in the first Broadway revival of "The Boys from Syracuse."
Back in Cincinnati, excitement has been mounting over Lee Roy Reams returning
to perform at the Aronoff Center when "The Producers" recently
stopped on its first national tour. Hailed by the New York Times as "Broadway's
song and dance man nonpareil," Reams, CCM '64, MA (CCM) '82, Hon.
Doc. '98, is appearing in the role of Roger De Bris through Nov. 10.
On a final note, Matt Bogart, CCM '94, who was in the Broadway company
of Elton John's "Aida" over the summer, released his first solo
musical theater record, "Matt Bogart -- Simple Song" last month.
Link:
Visit the "A Man of No Importance" Web site.
Read a review.
Get
your slimy coils off the table and ... take smaller bitessssss
Taking
smaller bites at the dinner table may be polite behavior for humans, but
not for snakes. Reptiles have only one way of eating -- a giant gulp at
a time.
Or so we thought. Imagine the world's surprise when a UC researcher discovered
a tropical serpent that politely tears its prey into bite-size pieces.
OK. Maybe "politely" is going overboard, but biologist Bruce
Jayne has a video
tape to prove that two species of Singapore snakes, Fordonia leucobalia
and Gerarda prevostiana, capture their prey (crabs), coil around
it and tear it apart.
"Most snakes are limited to prey they can swallow whole," Jayne
says. "It's a little mind-boggling, but prey size limits must be
rethought. We don't know what the upper limit is now." illustration/Angela
Klocke
