Chicago – Kokandy Productions is one of the best in Chicago doing musicals, and scores again with “Head Over Heels,” through August 25th, 2019, at Theater Wit. For more details and tickets, click here.
Play Rating: 5.0/5.0
Not knowing what “Head Over Heels” was about is part of the sheer pleasure of experiencing it. I knew it had the music of The Go-Go’s – that exquisite all-female pop/rock band that exploded in the 1980s – but would it be a jukebox musical, a 1980s nostalgia or something equally unimaginative? The answer, gratefully, was no. “Head Over Heels” is adapted from a pastoral romance written in the 16th Century, modernized with sparkling hilarity, and features the best songs of The Go-Go’s in perfect context, premiering in Chicago only six months after it ended its Broadway run.
The Oracle Pythio (center) Leads Us All in ‘Head Over Heels’
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow for Kokandy...
Play Rating: 5.0/5.0
Not knowing what “Head Over Heels” was about is part of the sheer pleasure of experiencing it. I knew it had the music of The Go-Go’s – that exquisite all-female pop/rock band that exploded in the 1980s – but would it be a jukebox musical, a 1980s nostalgia or something equally unimaginative? The answer, gratefully, was no. “Head Over Heels” is adapted from a pastoral romance written in the 16th Century, modernized with sparkling hilarity, and features the best songs of The Go-Go’s in perfect context, premiering in Chicago only six months after it ended its Broadway run.
The Oracle Pythio (center) Leads Us All in ‘Head Over Heels’
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow for Kokandy...
- 7/16/2019
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The Ferryman, Network, To Kill A Mockingbird and What The Constitution Means To Me are among the Broadway and Off Broadway productions taking nominations in this year’s New York Drama League Awards.
The 2019 nominees were announced today in the categories of Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the Distinguished Performance Award. The roster was read this morning by the current stars of Broadway’s Waitress, Shoshana Bean and Jeremy Jordan at Sardi’s Restaurant.
The 85th Annual Drama League Awards will be held on Friday, May 17.
Here is the complete list of nominees:
Outstanding Production Of A Broadway Or Off-broadway Play
Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties
by Jen Silverman
Directed by Mike Donahue
McC Theater
Dance Nation
Written by Clare Barron
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Playwrights Horizons
Fairview
Written by Jackie Sibblies...
The 2019 nominees were announced today in the categories of Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the Distinguished Performance Award. The roster was read this morning by the current stars of Broadway’s Waitress, Shoshana Bean and Jeremy Jordan at Sardi’s Restaurant.
The 85th Annual Drama League Awards will be held on Friday, May 17.
Here is the complete list of nominees:
Outstanding Production Of A Broadway Or Off-broadway Play
Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties
by Jen Silverman
Directed by Mike Donahue
McC Theater
Dance Nation
Written by Clare Barron
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Playwrights Horizons
Fairview
Written by Jackie Sibblies...
- 4/17/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Head Over Heels, the Broadway musical featuring songs from The Go-Go’s including the title tune, “We Got The Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed” will play its final performance Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, producers announced today.
The musical, which opened at the Hudson Theatre on July 26, will have played 188 regular performances and 37 previews by the time it closes next month. The production, greeted by mixed reviews, never caught fire at the box office, and has been struggling in recent weeks with grosses hovering around 20% of a
$883,552 box office potential. Even during weeks when 60% of seats were filled, modest average ticket prices of $61 kept box office far from reaching potential.
“Along with my partners, creative team and cast, it was our desire to create a piece of live theatre that celebrates love of all kinds and portrays a world of beauty in which joy and acceptance reign above all else,” said lead producer Christine Russell.
The musical, which opened at the Hudson Theatre on July 26, will have played 188 regular performances and 37 previews by the time it closes next month. The production, greeted by mixed reviews, never caught fire at the box office, and has been struggling in recent weeks with grosses hovering around 20% of a
$883,552 box office potential. Even during weeks when 60% of seats were filled, modest average ticket prices of $61 kept box office far from reaching potential.
“Along with my partners, creative team and cast, it was our desire to create a piece of live theatre that celebrates love of all kinds and portrays a world of beauty in which joy and acceptance reign above all else,” said lead producer Christine Russell.
- 11/26/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s really hard to laugh when somebody’s holding a gun to your head. That’s the way this Go-Go’s feels in “Head Over Heels,” an over-written, over-designed, and generally overdone production directed by Michael Mayer. From the sets and costumes to the performance style, the basic principle seems to be: Less is boring and more is never enough. Thanks, no doubt, to the Oracle of Delphi (played here by the impishly funny Peppermint), it’s a miracle that at least some of the wit in Jeff Whitty’s original book gets through.
The storyline is credited to Sir Philip Sidney, an Elizabethan sonneteer whose 180,000-word narrative poem, “The Arcadia,” inspired many other imitations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If Shakespeare could crib from this rom-com material (see “As You Like It”), so can Whitty and James Magruder, who did the adaptation for this Broadway production.
The storyline is credited to Sir Philip Sidney, an Elizabethan sonneteer whose 180,000-word narrative poem, “The Arcadia,” inspired many other imitations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If Shakespeare could crib from this rom-com material (see “As You Like It”), so can Whitty and James Magruder, who did the adaptation for this Broadway production.
- 7/27/2018
- by Marilyn Stasio
- Variety Film + TV
For better or worse, Broadway’s Head Over Heels is stuck with being known as “the Go-Go’s musical” – better because of the good will floating on stage with all those lighter-than-air hits by Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, et.al., worse because the hard-working new production can’t seem to keep itself from popping those effervescence tune bubbles one by one.
With the Go-Go’s music shotgun-wedded to Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th century prose poem The Arcadia – a marriage conceived by Avenue Q‘s Jeff Whitty, who wrote the original book before splitting, reportedly in part over his inclination to rewrite some of the Go-Go’s lyrics – Head Over Heels is Elizabethan farce by way of ye olde MTV. The verse may be archaic, but the we’re here sentiment is as up to date as last week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Further adapted by James Magruder...
With the Go-Go’s music shotgun-wedded to Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th century prose poem The Arcadia – a marriage conceived by Avenue Q‘s Jeff Whitty, who wrote the original book before splitting, reportedly in part over his inclination to rewrite some of the Go-Go’s lyrics – Head Over Heels is Elizabethan farce by way of ye olde MTV. The verse may be archaic, but the we’re here sentiment is as up to date as last week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Further adapted by James Magruder...
- 7/27/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Seagull and Head Over Heels director Michael Mayer on Adam Driver for the role John Malkovich originated in Lanford Wilson's Burn This: "It will be the first Broadway revival. He is just perfect for this part." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
While The Seagull, starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, and Brian Dennehy with Corey Stoll, Billy Howle, Jon Tenney, Michael Zegen, Glenn Fleshler and Mare Winningham is in cinemas across the Us, including the prestigious Paris Theatre, Michael Mayer is busy in preparation for an original Broadway musical (producers include Gwyneth Paltrow and Jordan Roth) that he is directing. Head Over Heels, based on Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, a 16th century masque, adapted by James Magruder, original book by Jeff Whitty, costumes by Arianne Phillips, scenic design by Julian Crouch, choreographed by Spencer Liff to the song catalogue of The Go-Go's and Belinda Carlisle, arranged by musical supervisor Tom Kitt,...
While The Seagull, starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, and Brian Dennehy with Corey Stoll, Billy Howle, Jon Tenney, Michael Zegen, Glenn Fleshler and Mare Winningham is in cinemas across the Us, including the prestigious Paris Theatre, Michael Mayer is busy in preparation for an original Broadway musical (producers include Gwyneth Paltrow and Jordan Roth) that he is directing. Head Over Heels, based on Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, a 16th century masque, adapted by James Magruder, original book by Jeff Whitty, costumes by Arianne Phillips, scenic design by Julian Crouch, choreographed by Spencer Liff to the song catalogue of The Go-Go's and Belinda Carlisle, arranged by musical supervisor Tom Kitt,...
- 6/20/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The area of intersection between fans of iambic pentameter and doers of the “Cool Jerk” may be a limited one, so you can imagine the initial chore in store for anyone charged with targeting the exact crossover audience that will most enjoy “Head Over Heels,” now and maybe forever to be popularly known as “that Go-Go’s musical produced by Gwyneth Paltrow.” Rather than being a “Jersey Boys”-style origin story about the pioneering all-female band, the story harks back to very olde England, with a cast of royal-court types offering intermittently Elizabethan-sounding dialogue between all the rocking out. Surely “Thy Lips are Sealed” popped up at some point on a list of discarded alternate titles.
The mix of ’80s music and 1680s setting is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and that’s a good thing, for the most part. Perhaps appropriately for a show whose themes end...
The mix of ’80s music and 1680s setting is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and that’s a good thing, for the most part. Perhaps appropriately for a show whose themes end...
- 4/23/2018
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
The Go-Go’s are back!
Original members Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin reunited Monday’ at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City to perform their first show together in six years — and People has the exclusive premiere footage of their return to the stage!
Making their way through hits like “We Got the Beat,” “Head Over Heels,” “Vacation,” “Cool Jerk,” and “Our Lips Are Sealed,” the band had the celebrity-packed crowd — including Bravo’s Andy Cohen and Roseanne actress Sandra Bernhard — dancing all night long.
It was a joyous evening not just because the band was back together,...
Original members Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin reunited Monday’ at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City to perform their first show together in six years — and People has the exclusive premiere footage of their return to the stage!
Making their way through hits like “We Got the Beat,” “Head Over Heels,” “Vacation,” “Cool Jerk,” and “Our Lips Are Sealed,” the band had the celebrity-packed crowd — including Bravo’s Andy Cohen and Roseanne actress Sandra Bernhard — dancing all night long.
It was a joyous evening not just because the band was back together,...
- 2/1/2018
- by Dave Quinn
- PEOPLE.com
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