It’s a funny, freaky little bit of hallucinatory ballroom from director Victoria Bussert, head of the music theater program at Baldwin Wallace University, one of many small, canny touches in this moving — and fast-moving — production.
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http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2013/03/next_to_normal_at_the_beck_cen.html
Photo: Søren Malmose
The Broadway cult-hit musical [title of show] makes its Danish debut Jan. 31 in an American-directed, Danish-language staging opening at the Fredericia Teater in the city of Fredericia, Denmark. Victoria Bussert, best known for her work in U.S. regional theatres, directs.
“The added bonus with this production is the incredible director Victoria Bussert. She’s been a long time friend both personally and professionally to the original [tos] team. She directed the first developmental production post-Broadway as we worked on the materials for the licensed version through R&H, so having her take on the show in one of the first internationally translated productions makes us very comfortable and happy.” – Hunter Bell
Take a listen to host Dee Perry and Cleveland critics Bob Abelmen, Christine Howey and Andrea Simakis discuss Spring Awakening, Lizzie Borden and 2011′s Rent and La Boheme in Rep on Around Noon on 90.3 WCPN.
For the entire show, go here: http://www.ideastream.org/an/entry/51153
It is the purpose of THE CLEVELAND CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS to recognize outstanding Cleveland area productions, performers, directors and others who were involved in those offerings during the 2012 year.
Spring Awakening, directed by Victoria Bussert, was named Best Musical of 2012 by the Cleveland Critics Circle. For more: http://clevelandtheaterreviews.blogspot.com/p/the-cleveland-critics-circle-theater.html
But don’t let me sway you. Consider the critique from Ted Chapin, president and executive director of Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization in the audience last Saturday. As a college student, Chapin was the production assistant for the original 1971 Broadway production.
“I think you did a remarkable job,” he told Bussert and her gathered company in a Q&A after the show, adding that they had done “great honor” to one of Broadway’s greatest musicals.
It doesn’t get any better than that, folks.
Read More: http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2012/11/baldwin_wallace_follies.html
Foster (Anything Goes) stars in The Circus in Winter, Ben Clark and Beth Turcotte’s musical based on the novel by Cathy Day. Directed by Victoria Bussert,The Circus in Winter tells the story of legend and lore as both worlds collide under the big top.
Since the fall of 1995, the unsinkable and indefatigable Bussert has cranked out star players the likes of whom Mike Holmgren or Mark Shapiro would dress up in lederhosen and sing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” to get their paws on.
Bussert pushes. She drives them until they drop. She accepts nothing less than 110 percent.
They practice, they work out, they stretch their physical and emotional limits, and when they take the field — er, the stage — they make us cringe and cry and laugh. They are good, they are evil, they are winners and they are losers, and they always give their best.
Bussert has a slew of players in the majors — as in, on Broadway — and when they’re asked where they learned their A-game, they can each include a mention of a small, private university in the Cleveland suburbs.
Hey, nice going, Coach.
Read More: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/08/the_bright_lights_of_baldwin_w.html
At the 2012 showcase, agents and managers snapped up every one of Bussert’s 13 seniors. In short, there’s a little star factory chugging away in that bucolic enclave in Northeast Ohio.
“For my money, Vicky Bussert is running the finest musical theater program in the country,” said Nichols, a proud graduate of Cincinnati’s CCM. “And I’ll tell anybody who’ll listen.”
So who exactly is Victoria Bussert, and why are her kids so good?
Read More: http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2012/08/baldwin_wallace_universitys_vi.html
Photo by R. Mastroianni
“When all is said and done, Great Lakes Theater should be extremely proud of its first collaboration of PlayhouseSquare as part of the annual Key Bank Broadway Series. The production is on par with the touring shows that stop in Cleveland.”
