Billy Crudup and Raul Esparza, currently starring in the Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, appeared on Bloomberg’s “The Charlie Rose Show” April 19 to talk about the play that opened at the Barrymore Theatre March 17.
Rose first shows an interview with Stoppard that he conducted in 1995 when the show first premiered in New York City. Stoppard talks about the themes and subject matter of the play, which straddles two completely different time periods.
Directed by David Leveaux, Arcadia, according to press notes, “is set in April 1809 in a stately home in Derbyshire. Thomasina, a gifted pupil, proposes a startling theory, beyond her comprehension. All around her, the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. Two hundred years later, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard are piecing together puzzling clues, curiously recalling those events of 1809, in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth.”
The revival cast also includes Margaret Colin, Glenn Fleshler, Grace Gummer, Edward James Hyland, Byron Jennings, Bel Powley, Tom Riley, Noah Robbins, David Turner and Lia Williams.
A special medley of "Step Into the Light"/"Leap of Faith," two songs from the new musical Leap of Faith, is now available on Itunes.
The Broadway-hopeful musical, currently running at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, stars Raul Esparza as a phony faith healer who sets up shop in a small Kansas town and finds the ultimate challenge in the love of a pretty waitress (Brooke Shields) and her son.
Esparza, Kecia Lewis-Evans and Leslie Odom, Jr. lead the company on the Itunes track, which is part of a score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. Slater and Janus Cercone (who wrote the film on which the musical is based) collborated on the book of the musical, which is directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford.
Tony Award nominee Raul Esparza performs the gospel rave-up number “Step Into the Light” in a promo video for the upcoming Los Angeles production of the new musical Leap of Faith.
Esparza will play a con-man preacher who sets up shop in a small Kansas town and meets a pretty waitress (Golden Globe nominee Brooke Shields) and her son. The musical, featuring a score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater and a libretto by Janus Cercone and Slater, is based on the 1992 film starring Steve Martin, Lolita Davidovitch and Debra Winger. Directed by Tony winner Rob Ashford, it will premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre Sept. 5-Oct. 17.
A montage of highlights from Babalu, the tribute to Desi Arnaz’s music currently playing the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, has been released.
The montage features Arnaz’s children, theatre veteran Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., as well as Tony nominees Raul Esparza (a Miami native) and Valerie Pettiford. Highlights include Esparza’s passionate rendition of the Arnaz classic “Babalu,” Desi, Jr. playing percussion on the “I Love Lucy” theme music, and Esparza breaking out the bongo drums for an exciting number with Desi, Jr. and the band.
Lucie Arnaz directed and hosts the evening, performing “Cuban Pete” with Esparza, “Old Devil Moon” with Pettiford, and several of her father’s greatest hits.
The montage was filmed at an earlier 92nd Street Y presentation of the show.
“Babalu!” runs through July 11 at the Arsht Center.
Raúl Esparza lends his Broadway voice to the audiobook version of Stephen King’s just-released novel “Under the Dome.”
The book jacket reads: “On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.” (The audio version is available in unabridged and on CD of mp3.)
Esparza has earned Tony Award nominations for his work in Speed-the-Plow, The Homecoming, Company and Taboo. He has also appeared on Broadway in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cabaret and The Rocky Horror Show. Other credits include tick, tick . . . BOOM!, The Normal Heart, Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along.
