Welcome back to the final round of the 6th Annual Marco Awards, this time for Excellence in Theatre. Looking at this year’s nominees we are getting a valuable lesson in the mindset of Broadway theatre. These awards arose on 2020-2021 as a comforting mechanism for all of us to deal with the way Covid affected … Read more
The Kennedy Center ushered in the holiday season with a spectacle featuring Christmas standards, sacred hymns, and an abundance of holiday pageantry hosted by Virginia native Charles Billingsley and his big band. Also featuring performances from TaRanda Greene, The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, The National Christian Choir Ensemble, and special guest star, award winning, … Read more
This past Sunday evening, excellence and art took center stage as the cultural heartbeat of the nation welcomed the brightest stars of a generation for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors. It’s a night dedicated to artistry, impact, and legacy, and it all began on the red carpet. The parade of cultural icons, in comparatively conservative … Read more
The Holiday Season continues at Mark on the Arts with the season’s seminal dance classic, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s immortal masterpiece, The Nutcracker, performed by the prestigious Cincinnati Ballet, with stunning choreography by Artistic Director Emerita of the company Victoria Morgan. Tchaikovsky’s opus is based on Alexander Dumas Pere’s revised edition of E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker … Read more
It’s been a volatile year for the Kennedy Center. A new regime has taken over and is dictating beliefs and guidelines for programming. Agendas are being evaluated and redefined. Casts are refusing to perform and audiences and subscribers are reconsidering their support. Most disappointing, the crowning jewel of the organization, their critically and publicly acclaimed Broadway … Read more
50 years ago, the world was introduced to a tabletop wargame that took on a life of its own. Called Dungeons & Dragons, (although both are just marginal elements of the game), it was a cult success. The game received a boost from the highly successful H.R.R. Tolkien fiction novels The Hobbitt and The Lord … Read more
Ireland, the Emerald Isle, is full of magical, mystical, colorful traditions. Leprachauns. Shamrocks. Corned beef and cabbage. Red-headed lasses named Colleen. And for the last 30 years, completing that list is the international entertainment sensation Riverdance, a fast-paced, invigorating celebration of the art of Irish Dance. Just in time to set the scene for a … Read more
In 1994, the Disney Renaissance, launched by the landmark release of The Little Mermaid in 1989, was in full swing. Riding high on a wave of critically acclaimed and financially successful movies including Aladdin and the Oscar-nominated Best Picture Beauty & the Beast, new Disney was creating modern classics with old Disney success. But behind … Read more
The Kennedy Center continues their 2024-2025 season of their incomparable Broadway Center Stage series with a production that takes the prestigious company to a new level. Not only have taken what started as a glorified “concert” series and built it into the most impressive regional repertory company on the east coast, they have transferred one … Read more
When Opray Winfrey named Yann Martel’s Life of Pi to her book club list in 2001, I did not read it (I have many issues with Winfrey and run 180 degrees from most things associated with her). When Ang Lee directed an Academy Award nominated movie adaptation of the book in 2012, I was team … Read more