The Roundtable with Robert Bannon

Shepka Productions have announced the UK release of the brutal, topical thriller, Dead Before They Wake. The feature will be available to rent or own on Digital Platforms in the UK from January 27th and is available to download in the US now.

Based on true events, the film follows nightclub bouncer Alex who is hired by a retired lawyer to track down a missing teenaged girl, suspected of being snared by a trafficking ring, and to bring her home no matter what it takes.

Dead Before They Wake stars Nathan Shepka (Lock & Load, The Baby in the Basket), Grace Cordell (Cara), Manjot Sumal (The Last Bus, hit BBC sitcom Scot Squad), Kareem Nasif (The Job). Also starring Dr Who legend Sylvester McCoy (The Hobbit trilogy, The Munsters) and Patrick Bergin (Sleeping With the Enemy, Patriot Games). The film features an original score by Academy Award winning composer Joseph Renzetti and is directed by Andy Crane and Nathan Shepka.

The film is now out and we sat with Nathan to talk how he created this, wrote it, and stars in it! Plus costar Kareem Nasif stops by as well!

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Gretchen Cryer and Gracie Hyland’ are here to talk thier new musical HOUSE ON FIRE in streaming and digital formats on Friday, January 31. This timely show with environmental themes features performances by Angela Birchett (The Color Purple), Michael McCorry Rose (Wicked, The Queen of Versailles, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Gabriella Joy Rodriguez (The Color Purple National Tour, Five: The Parody Musical) and Tyley Ross (Miss Saigon, The Who’s Tommy in Toronto), in addition to Cryer and Hyland.

A New York record release show will be presented at The Green Room 42 on Tuesday, February 4 at 7:00 PM. The evening – directed by DeMone Seraphin, with Jody Shelton serving as music director – with feature the album’s full cast. The Green Room 42 is located at 570 Tenth Avenue at 42nd Street, on the 4th Floor of Yotel. The cover charge ranges from $30-$70. A livestream option is available for $20. For tickets, please visit www.TheGreenRoom42.com. 

Gretchen Cryer (Book, Music and Lyrics) is a playwright, lyricist, performer, and director best known for writing and starring in I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road – with music by Nancy Ford – which ran three years in New York City, a year in Los Angeles, a year in Chicago, and with performances around the world. It won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Musical, Best Actress, and a Grammy nomination for the album. She has written numerous other shows with Nancy Ford: Now Is the Time for All Good Men (Lortel Theater), The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (Obie Award: Best Musical, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Shelter (Golden Theater), Hang On to the Good Times (Manhattan Theatre Club), Eleanor (Williamstown workshop), The American Girls Revue (American Girl Place: Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles), and Circle of Friends (American Girl Place: Chicago and New York), Anne of Green Gables (Theaterworks USA), and Still Getting My Act Together (Laguna Playhouse). She is on the Dramatists Guild Council and is President Emeritus of the Dramatists Guild Foundation. Gretchen and Nancy were just awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild. Gretchen teaches the workshop “Creating Your Own Solo Performance” and has helped dozens of solo artists develop their pieces and has directed many of their pieces. In 2019 and 2022, she won the Best Director award at the United Solo Festival, the largest solo festival in the world.

Gracie Hyland (Music and Lyrics) is a NYC-based singer/songwriter, performer, and occasional roller-skater. Most recently, Gracie has been seen performing around NYC with The Satin Dollz, sharing her originals in some iconic venues, touring as a front/back-up vocalist with The Chiclettes, and has been collaborating on a musical with her grandmother, Gretchen Cryer. You can also catch her on season three of “Claim to Fame,” hosted by Kevin and Franklin Jonas, airing on ABC and streaming on Hulu.

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CLUE, the hilarious murder mystery comedy inspired by the Hasbro board game and adapted from the fan-favorite film, comes to the Fisher Theatre from February 4 – 9, 2025.

CLUE is based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. Written by Sandy Rustin with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. It features original music by Michael Holland.

Well we have two of the stars with you today!

GRAHAM STEVENS(Professor Plum) is an award-winning actor and singer, based in New York City. Drama Desk Award winner,In Transit Off-Broadway at Primary Stages. Broadway:Monty Python’s Spamalot, Beetlejuice. Off-Broadway:Peterand the Starcatcher, The Robber Bridegroom, In Transit. He is a Michigan Native and is making his debut in the show in Detroit!

JEFF SKOWRON(Wadsworth). Broadway:Enron(Trader),How the Grinch Stole Christmas!(Grinch),The Lion King(Zazu/Timon/Ed),Beauty and the Beast(LeFou),High Society(Stanley). Film/TVincludes Dorfman opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Miramax's “Bad Santa 2,” Malcolm opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Showtime’s “Super Pumped”

These are two comedic powerhouses! Do not miss our chat! Come see Clue! At the Fisher in Detroit Feb 4-9th and everywhere else right after!

www.BROADWAYINDETROIT.com

www.clueliveonstage.com

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970, Ohio. Lizzie gathers a small group of women to talk. But talking quickly becomes a necessary and bracingly funny attempt to change their own lives and the world. Fifty years later, her daughter is shocked to find herself asking the very same questions her mother did, and goes on a search through the past for answers. 

From Tony Award® nominees Bess Wohl (Grand Horizons) and Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) comes a provocative, revealing, and irreverent jolt of a play about what really goes on when women meet behind closed doors. 

The cast including Betsy Aidem as “Margie,” Audrey Corsa as “Dora,” Kayla Davion as “Joanne,” Susannah Flood as “Lizzie,” Kristolyn Lloyd as “Celeste,” Irene Sofia Lucio as “Isidora,” Charlie Thurston as “Bill,” and Adina Verson as “Susan.” Plus, playwright, Bess Wohl and director, Whitney White.

Liberation begins preview performances on Friday, January 31, 2025, and opens officially on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). This is a limited engagement through Sunday, March 30, 2025.

For Tickets : www.roundabouttheatre.org

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Well in my "Electric Youth," I loved Debbie Gibson! From "Lost In Your Eyes" (which is a personal favorite, to "Shake Your Love," "Only In My Dreams," "Foolish Beats" and more, I was a fan! You had to be in the eighties and in NJ for sure! Well, really across the world, we were fans!

Did you know Debbie wrote all those hits, plays mean piano, and is a Broadway/Theatre Monster as well! Hear how many shows she did in how many years? INSANE! She does it all! She acts, sings, plays piano, produces, and is currently writing a memoir about her life! We hit all the topics!

Plus we talk her upcoming return to 54 Below for a show all about Love Songs February 7th & 8th! Grab a ticket quick, because they are almost sold out! As we knew they would be!

For tickets: www.54Below.org

For More Info On Debbie: www.DebbieGibsonOfficial.com

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LoveNotes! – the storytelling event created and hosted by author Heather Christie, based on her popular book of the same name – will be performed for three special Valentine’s Day weekend shows on Saturday, February 15 at New York’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space (250 West 95th Street, NYC 10025) for its second annual engagement. Shows will be at 2:00 PM, 5:00 PM, and 8:00 PM. In addition, the 8:00 PM show will be available as a livestream. Leading up to the New York shows, there will also be LoveNotes! presentations in Indianapolis, IN (January 31, Ticket Link) and Chicago, IL (February 1, Ticket Link). Tickets to the New York shows are available HERE.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend, LoveNotes! is a one-of-a-kind storytelling event of memoir and music, in which real people share real stories about romantic love in all of its incarnations. The show reveals true stories of first love, last love, and all the love in between – tales from heartbreaking to heartwarming – in which Cupid has shot someone in the heart… and they have lived to tell the tale.

Storytellers for the New York performances include Shreya Ambatti, Bella Bader, Wanda Colón, Tony Crocamo, Kristina Kelley, Ronna Levy, Sergio Lockhart, Brian Lorio, Sandi Marx, Franklin Matthews, Phillip Palladino, Rita Plush, Holly Rutchik, Xuan Zhao, with music by Glen Roethal.

LoveNotes! debuted last year with a sold-out show Off-Broadway and has expanded to three performances this year. The book LoveNotes! – which is published by 71st Street Books, and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and beyond – features true love stories, journal prompts, and puzzles. The LoveNotes! podcast will be launched later this year.

After a divorce and dating disappointment, Heather Christie found herself in a dark place, questioning whether love was real. Even so, there was a nudge from deep inside that urged her to look around and find the proof of what real love looked like. So she went on the search for evidence of love in other people’s stories. The poets, the dreamers, the lovers, and a lot of regular people answered her call. LoveNotes! was born.

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Heather Christie, the creator of LoveNotes!, is the award-winning author of the Young Adult novel, What the Valley Knows, and the producer/director of the storytelling shows “Listen to Your Mother NYC” in addition to the LoveNotes! shows, books, and podcast. Her essays have been published both online and in print by Salon, Next Tribe, Writer’s Digest, Baltimore Style, Scary Mommy, Elephant Journal, The Good Men Project, Grown & Flown, Baltimore Child, Parent.co, Her View from Home, the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, and The Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Her second Young Adult novel, The Lying Season, debuted as an Amazon #1 bestseller in Young Adult Soccer Fiction. Heather holds a BA in Literary Studies from the University of Texas, Dallas and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pine Manor College, Boston, MA. Heather is the CEO of SocRoc Soccer, voted “Manhattan’s Best Soccer Program for Kids,” and is an adjunct lecturer at the City University of New York. She lives in New York City, but a piece of her heart remains in her small hometown near Reading, PA. www.HeatherChristieBooks.com. 

LoveNotes! will be performed on Saturday, February 15 at 2:00 PM, 5:00 PM, and 8:00 PM at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space, located at 250 West 95th Street, NYC 10025. In person tickets, which range from $50-$70, are available HERE. Tickets for the 8:00 PM livestream, which are $30, are available HERE.

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Monkey Wrench Films is racing to release one of the most fascinating stories in pop culture in the new documentary “Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross," in theaters throughout North America (USA & Canada), Australia, New Zealand, and the UK beginning on January 24th, 2025. Narrated by Oscar nominee   Josh Brolin (New Memoir “From Under The Truck,” Netflix’s “Brothers,” Marvel’s “Avengers Endgame”), and directed by multi-Emmy winner Paul Taublieb (producer of the $200 Million earning box office hit “The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, “Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau,” “Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear”), the documentary explores the electrifying story from the beginning days of the sport of Supercross in 1972, including Michael Goodwin, a man who created the sport and now serving a double-life sentence without the possibility of parole for murdering his ex-business partner, featuring the biggest names, past and present of the most underappreciated, demanding, dramatic motorsports across the planet. Relying on the twin pillars of cinematic camera work and deep archival research combined with in-depth interviews of virtually everyone who’s had an impact on the sport, including Hall of Fame legends Jeremy McGrath, Bob Hannah, Ricky Johnson, and Ricky Carmichael.

“Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross," a Taublieb Films produced documentary is presented by the global sponsors of Supercross, Monster Energy, Feld Motor Sports and Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

 “Pay Dirt is a project born from a deep admiration for skill, courage and sacrifices of the incredible athletes of Supercross, featuring an all-star cast of riders and speaking from prison, the man who created the sport, Michael Goodwin,” states filmmaker Paul Taublieb.

 Supercross. A sport born in 1972 by a man now serving a double-life sentence without the possibility of parole for murdering his ex-business partner Mickey Thompson and his wife. He’s just one character in this feature documentary that includes the sport’s biggest names, past and present. “Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross," takes you on a wild ride through the most underappreciated, demanding, dramatic motorsports on the planet. Narrated by Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (New Memoir “From Under The Truck,” Netflix’s “Brothers,” Marvel’s “Avengers Endgame”) and directed by two-time Emmy-winning filmmaker Paul Taublieb (producer of the $200 Million earning box office hit “The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, “Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau,” “Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear”), “Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross," captures the essence of the sport where passion meets commitment, relying on the twin pillars of cinematic camera work and deep archival research combined with in-depth interviews of virtually everyone who’s had an impact on the sport, including Hall of Fame legends Jeremy McGrath, Bob Hannah, Ricky Johnson, and Ricky Carmichael.

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“Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross," a Taublieb Films produced documentary is directed, produced, and co-written by multi-Emmy winner Paul Taublieb ((producer of the $200 Million earning box office hit “The Vow,” starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, “Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau,” “Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear”); narrated by multi-award Winner Josh Brolin (New Memoir “From Under The Truck,” Netflix’s “Brothers,” Marvel’s “Avengers Endgame”) and Paul is here! Paul talks about his journey, why this story, and so much more!

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The Village Theater Group presents the first Off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s classic, The Price. Tony-nominated for “Best Play” in 1968, this Miller masterpiece is the inaugural production of the theater company, which comprises a collective of young artists committed to advancing new and classic works to savvy and inquisitive generations of theater-goers. Forty performances of The Price will be staged Off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street in NYC from February 21-March 30, 2025.

Noelle McGrath* directs a cast of four, including Bill Barry, Michael Durkin*, Janelle Farias Sando*, and Cullen Wheeler*. Understudies are Benjamin Russell*, Monica Lowy, John Palacio, and Joe Bowen*. *Member, Actors’ Equity Association

Set in an attic of a condemned Manhattan building at the end of the 1950s, this compelling play examines the price we pay for the choices we make or fail to make in life. Four unforgettable characters struggle to make sense of the past and create a future in this 1968 tour de force masterpiece of Miller's pen.

This production of The Price is being presented by arrangement with Dramatists Play Service and the Arthur Miller estate, with proceeds benefiting the Theatre at St. Clements Charities and The Village Theater Group.

"The Village Theater Group is a new collective determined to revolutionize the performing arts by igniting the passion and spirit of theater professionals and audiences,” said co-founder Daniel J. Condon. “We aim to prioritize artistic integrity over profit by offering the most affordable tickets, trusting that by producing quality productions and focusing on our art, success will naturally follow."

Performances are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. There is no performance on Sat. Feb. 22 at 2:00 p.m. Opening night is Friday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m.

General admission tickets start at $35. For tickets, visit ThePriceOffBway.com.  

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She is a film icon! Award Winning Movie Star Jacqueline Bisset is here! From her Golden Globe awards to her iconic roles like in "The Deep," she has done it al! She is joined by filmaker and writer Russell Brown to talk the critically acclaimed new film "Loren & Rose!"

A single meal frames this three-act story of the indelible bond between Loren, a promising filmmaker, and Rose, a storied actress looking to reinvigorate her career. From a lunch meeting to discuss a possible collaboration grows a years-long friendship between two people whose love of art, understanding of grief, and faith in life’s potential guide them through personal and creative hardships. Kelly Blatz and Jacqueline Bisset star with a chemistry that is at once authentic and intoxicating.

LOREN & ROSE was written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Russell Brown (Search Engines, The Blue Tooth Virgin) and was produced by Russell Brown & Valeria Lopez. The film also stars Gia Carides (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Paul Sand (Sweet Land), and Erin Cahill (“Sleepy Hollow”). Wise Lars LLC will release the film on Amazon Prime exclusively on January 28, 2025.

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COME SEE HOW THE WORLD COULD BE. You know we love our Broadway In Detroit family and we will be in the house when Hadestown comes to the Fisher theatre Jan. 28th to Feb. 2nd. Well, the show then hits the road across the US! We have Nickolaus Colòn who is Hades & we have Megan Colton making her tour debut as Eurydice here with us!

Welcome to HADESTOWN, where a song can change your fate. Winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the 2020 Grammy® Award for Best Musical Theater Album, this acclaimed new show from celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and original director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) is a love story for today ... and always.

HADESTOWN intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — as it invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers and singers, HADESTOWN is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

For tickets & info: www.BroadwayInDetroit.com or www.HadestownTour.com.

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Check out "The Roundtable with Robert Bannon" here on BPN on the daily, on YouTube, Broadway World, and on social media! Like, comment, share, & subscribe!

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