Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Cropped David Shankbone / CC BY 3.0 NEW YORK – Legendary television host Regis Philbin has died.According to PEOPLE Magazine, Philbin passed away Friday night of natural causes.The news of Philbin's death comes one-month shy of his 89th birthday."His family and friends are forever grateful for the time we got to spend with him – for his warmth, his legendary sense of humor, and his singular ability to make every day into something worth talking about," a statement from his family read. "We thank his fans and admirers for their incredible support over his 60-year career and ask for privacy as we mourn his loss," the Philbin family says." In 1988, Philbin began his iconic career as the host of Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee alongside Kathie Lee Gifford.Philbin also served as the original host of the widely popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from 1999 to 2002.PEOPLE says throughout his career, Philbin had various health issues. The host underwent an angioplasty in 1993, followed by triple bypass surgery due to plaque in his arteries in March 2007. Additionally, in December 2009, the television personality had his hip replaced.Philbin is survived by daughters J.J. Philbin and Joanna Philbin, Amy Philbin. His son Daniel Philbin died in 2014. read more
WNY News Now / MGN Stock Image.MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County officials have reported 19 new positive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,006.Todays new cases consist of seven in Fredonia, six in Dunkirk, five in Jamestown, and one in Sinclairville. There are currently 132 active cases countrywide.There are currently six active cases among employees and 38 active cases among residents of Tanglewood Manor. 18 employees and 52 residents associated with this outbreak have since recovered.The Chautauqua County Health Department continues their investigation regarding a cluster of cases in the North County, which were the result of a private event. At least 17 cases have been linked to this event. Seven cases remain active while 10 have recovered. There are 21 hospitalizations in the county.To date, there have been 861 recoveries and 13 deaths.Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) read more
Andy Karl View Comments Related Shows Rocky Show Closed This production ended its run on Aug. 17, 2014 Star Files Yo, Adrian! It's Andy! Andy Karl invited The Today Show co-host Willie Geist to the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre to receive a Rocky-style boot camp intensive. The two took to the ring, downed a couple raw eggs in Rocky's apartment and climbed the iconic steps. We're exhausted just watching; we can't imagine going through this eight times a week! You're our hero, Karl. If you don't mind, we'll just watch from the stands. Take a look below as Karl, as well as Margo Seibert and Terence Archie, the musical's Adrian and Apollo Creed, share what it takes to bring the ring to the stage. read more
The London production is currently in the early stages of casting. The New York cast of Here Lies Loves includes Ruthie Ann Miles as Imelda Marcos, Jose Llana as Ferdinand Marcos and Conrad Ricamora as Ninoy Aquino. Show Closed This production ended its run on Jan. 3, 2015 The Public Theater's acclaimed Here Lies Love is crossing the Pond! According to the Daily Mail, the U.K.'s National Theatre will open its newly named Dorfman Theatre (formerly the Cottesloe), with the off-Broadway hit this fall. Directed by Alex Timbers and with music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, the musical recently received 11 Lucille Lortel nominations. Related Shows View Comments Here Lies Love Here Lies Love tells the story of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos, her meteoric rise to celebrity and subsequent descent into infamy. Set to the beat of a throbbing dance club score, the production is an immersive theatrical experience that puts audience members directly into the action in a 360-degree scenic and video environment. The show goes beyond Marcos' legendary obsession with shoes and explores the tragic consequences of the abuse of power. read more
On April 29, we'll finally find out which of our favorite actors are nominated for a Tony Award this year. There are lots of hopefuls hitting the stage eight times a week this spring, but we also don't want to foget the contenders who appeared in shows that closed earlier this season. We asked you which actor from a previously shuttered tuner (First Date, Big Fish, A Night with Janis Joplin and Soul Doctor) better not get lost in the shuffle. The results are in, and here's what you had to say! And remember to tune in Tuesday morning when Jonathan Groff and Lucy Liu announce the 2014 Tony nominations! 3. Norbert Leo Butz, Big Fish — 6% Norbert Leo Butz was the hero of our story last year as the adventurous Edward Bloom in Big Fish. Butz has won the Tony for a Leading Role in a Musical twice before (Catch Me If You Can and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). Could Tuesday mark the start of his road to number three? 2. Zachary Levi, First Date— 43% The First Date lovebirds led the pack, separated by just a few votes! How cute is that? Zachary Levi made his Great White Way debut as the high-strung first date virgin Aaron, and his performance merits the word "adorkable" (you won't hear us say that often). Hopefully we'll hear both his and Rodriguez's names called on Tuesday morning. Star Files Zachary Levi View Comments Norbert Leo Butz 1. Krysta Rodriguez, First Date— 44% Go on a blind date, get a Tony nomination. Why can't it be that easy?! Krysta Rodriguez brought the charm, spunk and sass to the Longacre Theatre stage earlier this season as serial dater Casey in First Date, so here's hoping the nomination committee remembers this Broadway.com vlogger's red-hot performance. Krysta Rodriguez read more
Tix Now Available for The Color Purple on Broadway
Star Files The Color Purple Hell yes! Tickets are now on sale for The Color Purple, starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo and Orange Is the New Black's Danielle Brooks. The John Doyle-helmed musical will begin performances on November 10 at Broadway's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and is set to officially open on December 10.The Color Purple features a book by Marsha Norman, lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray and music by Russell and Willis. Based on the novel by Alice Walker, the tuner tells the story of Celie (Erivo), a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discovers her voice in the world. Hudson will take on the role of Shug Avery and Brooks will play Sofia.Doyle's stripped-down production opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London on July 15, 2013, starring Erivo. The new staging cuts approximately 30 minutes of material from the original incarnation and its producers include Oprah Winfrey.Check out Broadway.com's exclusive interview with the leading ladies and Doyle below. Danielle Brooks Cynthia Erivo Show Closed This production ended its run on Jan. 8, 2017 View Comments Jennifer Hudson Related Shows read more
Jeremy Kushnier & More Tapped for Shear Madness
Broadway alums Jeremy Kushnier (Jersey Boys), Lynne Wintersteller (Grand Night For Singing) and more will star in the off-Broadway premiere of worldwide hit Shear Madness. Directed by Bruce Jordan, the hair salon-set murder mystery comedy, which has been seen by more than 11 million people, will begin previews at New World Stages on October 22, with opening night scheduled for November 11.Joining Kushnier and Wintersteller in the cast will be Adam Gerber, Kate Middleton, Patrick Noonan and Jonathan Spivey.Marilyn Abrams and Jordan adapted Shear Madness from the 1963 play Scherenschnitt by German playwright Paul Pörtner. Their English reworking opened in Lake George in 1978 with Abrams and Jordan starring and at the helm. After further developments, the show moved to Boston for what it was treated as an out-of-town run before New York. Over 30 years later, the comedy still resides at Beantown's Charles Playhouse.The show incorporates improv and audience participation as theatergoers question the cast of characters in a unisex hair salon after the landlord, Isabel Czerny, is murdered. Think Drood with blow dryers.Shear Madness will feature scenic and lighting design by Will Cotton, costume design by Rodney Harper and sound designer by Bruce Yauger. View Comments read more
She Loves Me Star Scarlett Strallen on Singing 'Ice-Cream' with a British Accent & More
Scarlett Strallen in 'She Loves Me'(Photo: Alastair Muir) No sooner had the gossamer-voiced Scarlett Strallen got herself a base in New York before the English star of such shows as Mary Poppins, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and the West End's most recent A Chorus Line found herself back in her home country, this time to play the lovelorn Amalia in the Menier Chocolate Factory's enchanting revival of She Loves Me. Co-starring Mark Umbers and Katherine Kingsley, the production bears no relation to the much-lauded take on the same honey of a show that was seen on Broadway last season—as the ever-winning performer made clear in a wide-ranging interview one recent afternoon.Welcome home but hadn't you thought you were settled for the moment in New York? I was but I'm also a gypsy traveler: I go where I need to be, which I guess makes me very lucky. When the offer came to do [Amalia] at the Chocolate Factory, I knew it probably wouldn't come around again, and it's a part that I totally feel is in my range and allows me really to dive into the comedy, which I love to do. I knew it wouldn't be the beautiful, sparkly, magical Roundabout production in terms of its grandeur at Studio 54, and the costumes, but that's also what I love about the Chocolate Factory. You actually feel like you're in that shop and can buy those bottles of perfume.Had the part of Amalia been on your "must-do" list? I think it was my very first singing teacher at college who gave me "Dear Friend" and "Will He Like Me?" These are such beautiful, lyrical legato songs—and then you've got "Ice Cream"! So, I was sitting there watching the recent Broadway production thinking, "God, that's a part I would love to have had a crack at, but it's probably now going to happen, so I'll just focus on getting my flat in New York"—and then this came up!Are you surprised to be performing the piece in English, not American, accents?I just assumed we would do [the show] American because that's the way I had always heard it and sung it. I had sung "Ice Cream" before at various events, and it was so ingrained in me in an American accent. But Matthew [White, the director] being very clever pointed out that the show is set in Hungary and we're still in Europe, at least for the time being, so there was absolutely no reason why we should be using American accents when actually it gives us even more of a sense of the class definition between all the characters to do it English, which I think works brilliantly. But, honestly, it was a bit of a shock to all of us. Speaking of Amalia's defining number "Ice Cream," how do you prepare each performance to ascend the scales as required by that song?What's so amazing, and it's the same with "Glitter and Be Gay" [from Candide, in which Strallen also appeared at the Menier], is that the drama is so strong and the writing so brilliant that if you've done the preparation, you can just let it happen. The beauty of it, too, is that it's proper singing. It's not a sort of screamy thing, so you have a chance to think about how you are singing, and I made the choice—as I'm sure Laura Benanti did in New Yor—to really honor this score and sing it properly, like Barbara Cook used to do, and to celebrate that vocally.Have you ever met Barbara Cook?I met her briefly at various celebrations—there was one here at the Coliseum and another in New York during Mary Poppins, so probably around 2008 or so, when Kelli O'Hara and Rebecca Luker and I all sang for her and it was a great, great honor. There was the possibility on this at one point that she might have been around to coach me on a couple of numbers though that, sadly, didn't happen. Did it make a difference on this that you had worked with Matt [the director] before, on Candide?Yes, for sure. Matt is so brilliant at knowing exactly what this space requires and helping us to be brave in terms of not needing to force anything. The [Menier] is so small that it is like being in someone's living room, almost, and that takes courage as an artist to not push anything and just to let it happen. What has it been like working alongside a real-life couple, Katherine Kingsley and Dominic Tighe, as Ilona and Kodaly?And their doggie, who's been with them as well [laughs]! Seriously, they are such an amazing item! All sorts of challenges can come up when you are with another actor or another artist having to do with competition, but they manage that all so brilliantly and are so supportive of one another. I remember at one point watching Dom watching Katherine doing her [show-stopping number] "A Trip to the Library," and his face was so beaming. It's incredibly moving when you see a couple functioning in that way for one another. Was it a challenge on opening night to find the show's 92-year-old lyricist, Sheldon Harnick, right there on the aisle in the second row? I make a point never ever to look out at the audience, but I did see [Harnick] and he was wiping away tears, which was incredibly moving. He just loved it and was so kind.Did he say anything specific to you afterward?He said what he had said on stage [during the curtain call] which is that it was the best production he had seen. That's all you ever want to hear from the writer—that you have made their work make sense.On the non-musical front, were you surprised to find yourself playing Lady Macduff in the Kenneth Branagh Macbeth that came to the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan in 2014? That came from a wonderful casting director, Anne McNulty, whom I knew at the Donmar from when I did Passion there and we had gone for tea to talk about other things and she remembered that conversation seven or eight years later and brought me in [for Macbeth]. What was great about it was that feeling I do think you get in America of being unlimited in what you can do as an artist, in that you do what is required and what's necessary in order to grow. That's partly why I've been spending so much time in America because people think in terms of career crossovers quite a lot. And are you disappointed that this production can't transfer to New York, since She Loves Me has just been seen there?I think we sort of knew that going in. But I'm actually going straight back to New York after this anyway to do a Cole Porter musical at Encores! called The New Yorkers [March 22-26], directed by John Rando, who directed me last summer in The Pirates of Penzance [at Barrington Stage Company], and I had the best time working with him. I'm very excited! View Comments read more
Cost Estimating.
For landscape managers, job bidding is tough. Bids have to be low enough to get jobs and high enough to turn a profit after covering costs. That makes cost estimating even more critical, especially for beginners who have no benchmark data to base their estimates on.A University of Georgia workshop, offered in Savannah Oct. 18-19 and Athens Oct. 25-26, will make it much easier. The workshop will introduce managers to "Hort Management," a computerized cost-estimating and job-bidding module developed by UGA faculty.Participants don't have to know anything about computers. With hands-on instruction, they will learn: Even people who don't bid directly on jobs will find the program useful in estimating labor costs, time and task data and cost comparisons.The workshop is limited to the first 28 people who register. The $60 fee includes a copy of the $50 "Hort Management" program, lunch the first day, refreshment breaks, handouts and personalized instruction.The deadline to sign up is Friday, Oct. 12. To learn more, call the UGA Extension Service horticulture department at (706) 542-2861.Where to GoThe Savannah workshop is at the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens (912-921-5460). The BFCG Web site has directions and a map.The Athens site is the bottom-floor computer lab, Room 1203, in the Miller Plant Science Building on the corner of Carlton Street and D.W. Brooks Drive. The UGA Web site has a campus map. Bidding strategies.How to estimate both fixed and variable costs, including overhead and labor.How to structure bids in the form of a contract for presenting to clients.How computers make the bidding and estimating process more efficient and accurate.How to tailor "Hort Management" for their own business. read more
Fruit Rootstock.
If you want to be successful with a home fruit orchard, you need to start from the ground up.Generally, fruit trees are composed of two parts: the scion and the rootstock. The scion is equivalent to the variety. The rootstock is the bottom part of the tree and is critical to its longevity.The bud union is the site where the scion was grafted to the rootstock seedling. It's generally obvious at the time of planting.Rootstocks affect trees' size, aesthetics and resistance to freeze injury, diseases and pests. Dwarfing trees makes them easier to manage by making them simpler to prune, thin and harvest.Apple RootstockApple rootstock development has provided the greatest range in size modification. The M7 is semidwarfing rootstock and reduces pruning needs while making thinning and harvesting easier. It also provides some fire blight resistance.Too much dwarfing can increase expenses and management. The M26 requires support by way of trellising. This technique is expensive, but it has the benefit of placing all of the fruit virtually within arm's length. Trellised apple trees on M26 make interesting and friendlier fences between you and your neighbors, too.In pear production, the Calleryana seedling rootstock develops into a very large tree that's susceptible to fire blight. But Old Home and Province Quince are resistant to fire blight.Plums, PeachesFor plums and peaches, Nemaguard and Guardian are good rootstocks. Nemaguard is useful where root knot nematodes are in the soil. Guardian is advisable in peach replant sites or when root knot or ring nematodes are a problem. For peaches, Lovell and Halford are also options, but they don't provide nematode resistance.If you plan to buy named varieties from tree nurseries, now is the time to make a decision for next year.The nurseries plan now which scion-rootstock combinations they will plant for sale next year. To be certain you get your favorite variety on the dwarfing or resistant rootstock of your choice, place an order now. PlantCarefullyPlan Orchard read more
12…476Next →