CCM Slideshows: More Photos from ‘A Chorus Line’

Local critics have praised CCM’s Mainstage production of A Chorus Line, which continues tonight and runs through October 30 in Patricia Corbett Theater. Directed and choreographed by Diane Lala with musical direction from Roger Grodsky, A Chorus Line gives an inside look at the world of musical theatre by telling the story of a group of Broadway hopefuls as they audition for the next big hit.

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Scott Cain of Talkin’ Broadway says the musical’s cast “shows themselves to be true triple threat performers. All of the dancing is sharp and cohesive, executed with full energy.” He went on to compare A Chorus Line with another Tony Award-winning musical that is currently on Broadway:

“A Chorus Line has a lot in common with the hottest show on Broadway right now, Hamilton. Both were developed Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, won numerous Tony Awards including Best Musical, and won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a rarity for musicals. CCM’s production is skillfully helmed, performed, and designed, and is a wonderful example of this show in its traditional form.”

The show was praised as being “one of the best shows in Cincinnati,” by the League of Cincinnati Theatres. The reviewer wrote: “A Chorus Line and CCM Musical Theatre Program are a perfect match.  These students LIVE these stories. They bring a passion and a pathos that is visceral, making this musical about an audition as true today as it was in 1975, when the show first hit Broadway.  Director Diane Lala’s cast delivers so many great moments in this show that it is a 10, both for dance and looks.”

Rafael de Acha praised CCM’s “lineup of excellence” and A Chorus Line‘s creative team in his review of the production on Rafael’s Music Notes. “The stunning visual aspects of the production again remind us that CCM is unarguably one of the top theatre arts training centers in the country,” he wrote. “From Matthew D. Hamel‘s clean-lined and symbolic set to Lindi-Joy Wilmot‘s period-perfect costumes to Jeremy Dominik‘s gorgeous lighting, the show’s design by students is as good as you will get outside of the school by seasoned pros.”

You can read a preview of the production on the River City News website.

The League of Cincinnati Theaters gives viewers an inside look at A Chorus Line costuming in this video interview with student designer, Lindi-Joy Wilton.

Kirk Sheppard‘s A Chorus Line review is available to read online at The Sappy Critic.

Find more information on CCM’s A Chorus Line online at http://ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/mainstage/chorus-line.html.

Performance Times
•    8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26
•    8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27
•    8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28
•    2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29
•    2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to A Chorus Line are $31-35 for general admission, $22-25 for non-UC students and $18-21 for UC students with a valid ID. Customizable subscription packages are also available.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/mainstage/chorus-line.html.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

CCM’s Production of ‘Living Dead in Denmark’ Recognized by League of Cincinnati Theatres

We are happy to report that panelists for the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have recognized CCM’s Studio Series production of Living Dead in Denmark for its fight choreography and make-up, and for the work of lead actress Anna Stapleton!

In this hilarious spoof set five years after the tragic events that ended Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a resurrected Ophelia, Juliet and Lady MacBeth must save Denmark from an overwhelming zombie horde. Anna Stapleton, portraying “Lady M,” was a panelist favorite, conjuring up “a bouncy sword wielding Xena: Warrior Princess in her shorty short leather skirt and her blunt blonde cut, festooned with at least seven knives, a sword and a shield.”

Panelists also praised Professor of Make-Up Kelly Yurko for “outstanding” make-up, special effects and wigs, as well as Professor of Drama k. Jenny Jones and Andrew Dylan for exemplary fight choreography including rapier and dagger work and plenty of zombie killing in a graphic superhero comic book style.

CCM’s Studio Production of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ Receives 4-Star Rating from the League of Cincinnati Theatres

We are thrilled to report that panelists for the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have recognized CCM’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee with a four star rating!

In this Tony Award-winning musical, six young people (overseen by grownups who have barely managed to escape childhood themselves) learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.

Panelists praised the production as “delightful, smart, silly and a well-structured crowd pleaser.” Director and Visiting Professor Vince DeGeorge was praised for bringing “a freshness to it with smart directing choices that were spot on.” The entire ensemble was commended: “I appreciated the nuances each performer created for their characters. They worked together seamlessly and we’re having such a good time… The performers were working together as an to create the warmth and charm so inherent in this musical.”

LCT Awards ‘S.L.U.T.’ Top Prize in CCM’s TRANSMIGRATION Series

Panelists for the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have recognized S.L.U.T. as the best production at CCM’s 2013 TRANSMIGRATION Festival, the Drama department’s annual presentation of student written and produced work. Panelists awarded second place to Sentenced, and honorable mentions to 2122 Michigan Avenue and The Sherwin Williams Effect. Congratulations to all involved!

The fifth-annual festival allows the audience to experience half-hour works produced by small groups of Drama majors, who create and design all aspects of their productions from start to finish. The festival is an exciting event for both guests and the presenters, as audiences get the opportunity to see up to four very different pieces of new theatre in a single night and the students premiere works that are entirely their own. This year, six shows were presented. “TRANSMIGRATION teaches our actors to be entrepreneurs,” says Richard Hess, chair of CCM’s Drama Department and director of the TRANSMIGRATION Festival. “There are absolutely no holds barred, with the exception of the thirty-minute time limit, allowing our students to learn to express from within.”

CCM’s ‘Chess’ Receives Four League of Cincinnati Theater Nominations

“Chess” runs Oct. 25 – 28 in UC’s Corbett Auditorium. Photography by Mark Lyons.
Tickets on sale now! Visit ccm.uc.edu for more information. Photography by Mark Lyons.

CCM’s production of Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice’s Chess has earned four nominations from the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT)! The LCT also distinguished the rock musical as a recommended production: Outstanding Production (musical), Ensemble, Lead Actor (Julian Decker) and Lead Actress (Aubrey Ireland). Congratulations to the entire creative team!

Loosely based on the lives of chess grandmasters Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, Chess involves a romantic triangle between two top players (an American and a Russian) and the woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.