Latest The Will Rogers Follies Stories
By Pat Craig Shane Partlow saunters into the Pleasant Hill rehearsal room of Diablo Light Opera Company looking very much like Will Rogers, or at least the Will Rogers you remember from photos and movies. Good thing, too, because Partlow, who grew up on an Illinois quarter horse ranch, is playing the title role in "The Will Rogers Follies," the musical extravaganza produced by DLOC and opening tonight in Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts. He's been in the show 22 times before, but...
By Anthony Del Valle By ANTHONY DEL VALLE REVIEW-JOURNAL I got lulled into "The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue" halfway through. There's something about the soft, steady flow of elegance that keeps you smiling. The 1991 musical pays tribute to the folksy commentator in the style of a Florenz Ziegfeld extravaganza. That is, long, leggy numbers are often interrupted by jokes of wisdom by our star (Michael Brown), infiltrated by scenes of family and hearth. The approach tells us more...
By Steve Bornfeld By STEVE BORNFELD REVIEW-JOURNAL Bump him up a century, aim a camera or microphone at him, arm him with today's hot-button topics and he'd likely earn ... nothing. No fans. No attention. No respect. What a woeful misfit Will Rogers would be in the modern media world. And how woeful is that? Famously, the actor/vaudevillian/columnist/cowboy/comedian/ commentator never met a man he didn't like. If only verbal flamethrowers Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly,...
By Robert Osborne NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - With Chita Rivera beginning previews Wednesday on Broadway at the Schoenfeld (previously the Plymouth) with her "Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life," it's great news that another Broadway dancing legend might soon be headed back to the local environs as well. Multiple Tony-winner Tommy Tune begins rehearsals December 19 in New York for the upcoming stage version of "Doctor Dolittle," which is being produced by the Nederlanders and will...
