Musical Language

In this true-crime bad taste comedy singalong, Mother-from-hell Karen Matthews revels in her newfound fame, while everyone else searches for her missing daughter, little Shannon Matthews, aged 9.

Well-known fans celebrate Stevie Wonder and his music by selecting some of his best-loved songs. Wonder is one of the dominant figures in American music, a multi-faceted genius whose music has permeated popular culture, and he is not short of celebrity fans. His musical achievements are lauded in this anthology of his greatest hits.

Filmed live on stage at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, CA, this not-to-be-missed high energy show stars Original Broadway cast members Jeremy Jordan as "Jack Kelly," Kara Lindsay as "Katherine," Ben Fankhauser as "Davey" and Andrew Keenan-Bolger as "Crutchie". They're joined by North American Tour stars Steve Blanchard as "Joseph Pulitzer," and Aisha de Haas as "Medda Larkin," and Ethan Steiner as "Les" along with members of both the Broadway and North American Tour ensembles, filling the stage with more "newsies" and more dancing than ever before. Set in New York City at the turn of the century and based on a true story, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'newsies,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies …

"A Musical Zoo" with Ashley Riches and Joseph Middleton is a veritable tour de force, featuring compositions spanning nearly 160 years, from Schubert’s The Trout to Shostakovich’s Once there lived a cockroach, and four languages (German, French, Russian, and English).A strong representation of the German Lieder tradition (Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Brahms, and Richard Strauss) is balanced by the French mélodie (Fauré, Ravel) and English lyricism (Ireland, Howells). The humans seem to have an endless fascination with the animal kingdom, and animals have proved an inspiration for artists, composers and writers alike. This recital demonstrates what a rich seam this has proved for a diverse range of composers. Ashley Riches comments: "The text [of a song] may outline to us what we see. But the flutterings of Schubert’s Birds, the flicking antennae of Shostakovich’s Cockroach, the rush of notes with which Ravel’s Peacock spreads its tail – these are movements and energies accessible to music alone".