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news
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current and upcoming performances |
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September 5 - October 5, 2008
An Italian Straw Hat
WORLD PREMIERE
Segerstrom Stage
book and lyrics by John Strand
music by Dennis McCarthy
directed by Stefan Novinski
Emmy Award-winning composer Dennis McCarthy ("Star Trek") teams up with Charles MacArthur prize winner John Strand and director Stefan Novinski, who delighted SCR audiences with A Little Night Music, for the spirited American adaptation of a classic European farce by Eugene Labiche. With flavors of vaudeville, ragtime, light opera and even barbershop quartet, the rollicking new musical follows a hapless young bridegroom through turn-of-the-century New York, as he tries to correct a horrendous problem. It seems his horse has eaten a young lady’s hat, and his wedding will be derailed if he can’t find a replacement—today!
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visit Damon at:
 
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Sunday, July 20, 2008
How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?
Food and the Family Farm in the American Song Book
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
Westchester, NY
6:30 PM
In its Golden Age, New York was “The Big Apple,” not the merely the prize of a showbiz career, but the largest, sweetest fruit of America’s vast agricultural wealth. Among New York’s cultural elite, its songwriters (often immigrant, Jewish or both) expressed a shrewd understanding of America’s sacred relationship with its land and its farms, ranging from whimsy and biting humor to nostalgia and regret. Baritone Damon Kirsche and pianist Andrew Martin present this glorious bounty of vintage songs, famous and forgotten, celebrating America's rural heritage and exploring such topics as land use, food miles, capital, labor, disease, consumerism and ownership. Local songs about local food, these are the cream of the crop of Tin Pan Alley and Broadway.
“The lyricist must hurdle the mind to reach the heart . . . Like any artist he cannot be neutral; he should be committed to the side of humanity. He should be concerned for the rights, potential and dignity of his fellow man. He should also be concerned for the rights of the human ear, the potential of the human brain and the dignity of the English language.” - E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (1896-1981)
Featuring the words and music of: Harold Arlen, George M. Cohan, Dorothy Fields, E.Y. Harburg, Lorenz Hart, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Al Jolson, Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Meredith Willson, P.G. Wodehouse and others. Selected readings of: L. Frank Baum, Ezra Cornell, Washington Irving, Theodore Roosevelt, Peter Stuyvesant, William Carlos Williams and others.
Pricing information & tickets for purchase will be available soon.
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is a farm, a kitchen, a classroom–an exhibit, a laboratory, a campus. The mission of this unique, nonprofit, member-driven collaboration is to celebrate, teach and advance community-based food production and enjoyment, from farm to classroom to table.
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Kim Huber as Eliza Doolittle and
Damon Kirsche as Professor Henry Higgins (Photo by Jerry Fritchman)
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June 18 - 22, 2008
MY FAIR LADY
Musical Theatre of Wichita
Wichita, KS
book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
music by Frederick Loewe
based on the play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw
originally produced and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince
Director - Wayne Bryan
Choreographer - Sharon Halley
Musical Director - Thomas Wesley Douglas
Sets from Music Theatre West
Costumes Supervised by Debbie Roberts
Lighting by David Neville
Sound Design by David Muehl
Production Stage Manager - Suann Pollock
Stage Manager – Emily McMullen
Damon appears as Professor Henry Higgins with Kim Huber as Eliza Doolittle in Musical Theatre of Wichita's production of MY FAIR LADY. Often cited as the most perfect musical show ever created, this is an elegant and literate Cinderella story, boasting the wit and wisdom of George Bernard Shaw seamlessly wedded to a lilting score by Lerner and Loewe. "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live," and "I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face" are only a few of the incandescent tunes.
Eliza Doolittle - Kim Huber
Henry Higgins - Damon Kirsche
Alfred Doolittle - Justin Robertson
Mrs. Higgins - Kathleen Huber
Colonel Pickering - Charles Parker
Mrs. Pearce - Stephanie Rascoe Myers
To view a quicktime movie of production stills from this show, click the photo (all photos by Jerry Fritchman, quicktime player required).
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Damon Kirsche and Amanda Naughton as the Count and Countess Malcom
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September 7 - October 7, 2007
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
South Coast Repertory
Costa Mesa, California
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
book by Hugh Wheeler
suggested by a film by Ingmar Bergman
originally produced and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince Directed by Stefan Novniski
Musical Direction by Dennis Castellano
Damon appears as Count Carl-Magnus Malcom in South Coast Repertory's debut production of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. There never has been a weekend in the country quite like this, as loves are lost, found, yearned for and sent packing to the tune of some of the most breathtaking songs ever written, including the classic “Send in the Clowns.” Sophisticated and stylish, this glorious musical comedy based on Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night abounds with effervescent wit as romantic liaisons are played out beneath the mysterious night lights of Sweden at the turn of the century.
For tickets, visit: www.scr.org
Damon Kirsche and Mark Jacoby and Stephanie Zimbalist.
To view a movie of production stills from this show, click the photo above (Photos by Henry DiRocco, quicktime player required).
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"Director Nick DeGruccio has assembled a three-member cast that's easily the best vocal ensemble ever heard at the Welk."
- North County Times, Pam Kragen
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May 24 - July 8, 2007
I LEFT MY HEART
A Tribute to Tony Bennett
The Welk Resort Theatre
San Diego, California
Directed by Nick Degruccio
Musical Direction by Justin Gray
Co-starring Eric Kunze and Kevin McMahon
"Leading the way is Damon Kirsche... who looks, sounds and moves as if he were lifted directly out of the '50s and dropped onto the Welk stage. His impeccable phrasing, scatting and big, baritone voice are heard best in the show-stoppers 'Night and Day' and 'I'm Just a Lucky So & So.'
- North County Times, Pam Kragen
To view a quicktime movie of production stills from this show, click the photo below (all photos by Marc Northover, quicktime player required).
Kevin McMahon, Damon Kirsche and Eric Kunze sing Tony Bennett's most requested songs. Photos: Marc Northover
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Charley (Robert Brewer), Mary (Molly Bell) and Frank (Damon Kirsche) reach for their dreams.
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April 4-April 29, 2007
MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
TheatreWorks
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Mountain View, CA
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
From the Play "Merrily We Roll Along"
by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Directed by Robert Kelly
Musical Direction by William Liberatore
"Damon Kirsche is outstanding as Franklin Shepard. He instills a feasible ambivalence in the role...
he does not take Shakespeare's warning "to thine own self be true."
- Talkin' Broadway, Richard Connema
Damon starred as Franklin Shepard in Stephen Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, chronicling the rocky rise to renown of three writer and composer friends, told in reverse, rolling backward in time from the self-serving cynicism of the late 1970s to the starry-eyed idealism of the '50s.
To view a montage of production stills from this show, click the photo below (quicktime player required).
The guests raise a toast to their host, "That Frank"
Photos: David Allen
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To view a montage of production stills from this show, click the photo below (quicktime player required).
Damon as Gaylord Ravenal
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February 28 - March 4, 2007
SHOW BOAT
Casa Mañana
Bass Performance Hall
Fort Worth, TX
"We all thought they didn't make leading men like this for the American musical theater anymore. Mr. Kirsche shows off a gorgeous legit voice, used with delicacy as well as power."
- Dallas Morning News, Lawson Taitte
Music by Jerome Kern
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, II
& P.G. Wodehouse
Based on the novel by Edna Ferber
Directed by Mark Madama
Musical Direction by Eugene Gwodz
Conducted by Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Damon appeared as Gaylord Ravenal with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, under the musical direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and presented in a semi-staged production against the backdrop of one of America's finest symphonies. The passion and flamboyance of the Deep South comes to life on stage as Cap'n Andy and the SHOW BOAT “Cotton Blossom” set sail down the Mississippi River. This romantic tale spans nearly four decades beginning in the 1880s, and depicts life onboard the Cotton Blossom floating theater where “everyone comes to see great musical entertainment.” Celebrating it’s 80th Anniversary since its premiere in 1927, SHOW BOAT is packed full of showstopping hits, including “Make Believe,” Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “Bill,” and “Ol’ Man River.” . . .
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