8/5/19 8/5/19

[Prince George's Sentinel] An Enchanted Evening with 'South Pacific'

“I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description.”

So begins James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” the book which was the inspirational source of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical “South Pacific.”

The challenge of this musical was to combine visual beauty with the horror of war while sprinkling in elements of romantic comedy.

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts production, masterfully directed by and choreographed by Penny Ayn Maas and produced by Patrick A’Hearn, succeeds in weaving these delicate threads of the music together and is complemented with an outstanding cast and brilliant singing and musical numbers.

8/5/19 8/5/19

[DC Metro Theatre Arts] Review: ‘South Pacific’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. The winner of multiple Tony awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, South Pacific continues to charm audiences seventy years after its debut. Penny Ayn Maas directs and choreographs a powerhouse cast for this beloved production.

8/5/19 8/5/19

[Culpeper Times] CURTAIN CALLS: Islands of delight dot 'South Pacific'

One enchanted evening many years ago (seventy, to be exact) Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein opened their mint new musical, “South Pacific”, for its New Haven and Boston previews. The response was immediate and enthusiastic… Riverside Center’s just-opened production scores where it counts most in this tale of two non-traditional love affairs and war in the Pacific. Central to the conflict are one middle-aged Frenchman with the mysterious past, Emile de Becque, and his much younger love interest, the Arkansas-bred nurse, Ensign Nellie Forbush. Around them swirl issues of Japanese invasion, high jinks among the sailors, and a separate, doomed love affair with further racial implications.

8/5/19 8/5/19

[Free Lance-Star] Riverside Center for the Performing Arts sets course for 'South Pacific'

When “South Pacific” first débuted on Broadway, it was an immediate hit.

That was in 1949, pulling on the reflective heartstrings of audiences who had World War II fresh on their minds.

Flash forward to today: While WWII is long gone, many of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical’s poignant messages still hit home. The show owns the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts stage through Sept. 15.

8/5/19 8/5/19

[Press Release] Riverside Center for the Performing Arts Announces Cast and Creative Team for South Pacific

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts is excited to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning South Pacific with its new production in Fredericksburg, VA. The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic – which premiered in 1949 – did not have a revival until the 2008 Lincoln Center production (which, like its predecessor, won multiple Tony Awards®). Several of its songs, including “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” “Happy Talk,” and “I’m In Love with a Wonderful Guy” have become popular standards.

8/5/19 8/5/19

[CBS6's Virginia This Morning] 'South Pacific' Returns!

RICHMOND, Va - Riverside Center for The Performing Arts features many great productions during the year. Their latest musical offering is “South Pacific” that creates a story during World War 2 that is filled with laughter, sorrow, and thought-provoking moments. Producing Artistic Director Patrick A’Hearn along with actors Branch Fields and Kate Marshall stop by CBS6’s Virginia This Morning for a brief interview and a musical performance.

8/5/19 8/5/19

Penny Ayn Maas previews "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific" with Town Talk's Ted Schubel!

Listen to Penny Ayn Maas (Director & Choreographer) preview our upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific at Riverside alongside director and Riverside Center's Producing Artistic Director, Patrick A'Hearn and Town Talk's Ted Schubel (NewsTalk 1230 WFVA).

6/17/19 6/17/19

[Culpeper Times] CURTAINS: “Pirates…” The Very Model of a Modern Operetta

They fancy themselves a dangerous lot, but the grim list of killed and captured by the Pirates of Penzance is…nonexistent. Their job is to be fierce and take hostages, but somehow - dash it all! – the hostages always turn out to be orphans! And being orphans themselves, they just can’t take ungentlemanly advantage. That means our pirates are no more successful now in 2019 than they were back in 1879. That’s when this Gilbert and Sullivan jewel first held audiences captive with its rapier wit, and it’s been swashing its buckles ever since.

Three cannon shots of congratulation to Riverside for staging this gold nugget and doing it justice. In a whimsical modification, director Catherine Flye has renamed this the “Rascals of the Rappahannock” and brought the pirates to Fredericksburg in the time of George III, as opposed to the Victorian era Cornwall coast.

6/5/19 6/5/19

[CBS6's Virginia This Morning] Pirates of Penzance hits the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

RICHMOND, Va. - Riverside Center for the Performing Arts has a new offering on stage and you’re invited! Patrick A’Hearn, the Producing Artistic Director, along with Actress Claire Leyden and Musical Director Joe Walsh stopped by to share a preview of the event.

6/4/19 6/4/19

DC Metro Theater Arts Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance (or the Rascals of the Rappahannock)’ at Riverside Center

Riverside Center of the Performing Arts reprises Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, a two-act comic operetta that was first produced in December of 1879, and remains in production to this day! Director and Adaptor Catherine Flye gives the show (originally set in Cornwall) a local spin by placing the action on the banks of the Rappahannock River and offering the revised title Rascals of the Rappahannock.

6/4/19 6/4/19

[The Free Lance-Star/Culpeper Star Exponent] Review: A shipshape 'Pirates of Penzance' is swashbuckling fun at Riverside

Brilliant wit, successfully delivered, is a rare delight—to experience such wit, joyously sustained and sprinkled steadily over several hours may occur only a handful of occasions in a lifetime.

“The Pirates of Penzance,” onstage now at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Stafford County, qualifies as one of those occasions—an opportunity to be avidly sought and relished by any intelligent music lover with a sense of humor.

6/4/19 6/4/19

[The Zebra Press] Review: Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, Fredericksburg, Va.

I have just seen/heard an absolutely first-rate production of “The Pirates of Penzance or The Rascals of the Rappahannock” at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Va. Honestly, I’ve attended many, many productions of this piece with all kinds of adaptations, and this is—hands down—the best. Boom. Period.

6/4/19 6/4/19

[The Free Lance-Star] Riverside's 'The Pirates of Penzance' gets a Fredericksburg-themed hook

Arrrrr, matey. Let’s go on a pirate-filled adventure, shall we?

Don’t worry, this one isn’t dangerous or life-threatening like you’ll find off the Somalian coast. Instead, it’s a beloved comic operetta hitting a local stage and being customized with familiar places and people galore.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance—The Rascals of the Rappahannock” opened at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday and runs through July 7.

6/4/19 6/4/19

Catherine Flye and Claire Leyden preview "The Pirates of Penzance" with Town Talk's Ted Schubel!

Listen to Catherine Flye (Director) and Claire Leyden (Mabel Boshington) preview our upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance or the Rascals of the Rappahannock at Riverside alongside director and Riverside Center's Producing Artistic Director, Patrick A'Hearn and Town Talk's Ted Schubel (NewsTalk 1230 WFVA).

6/3/19 6/3/19

Young Life: 'Steal Away Home' tells of two brothers' journey to freedom

With a cast of eight actors (including two who are 12 and under), the Riverside Children’s Theatre production of “Steal Away Home” will take audiences on a powerful and unforgettable journey through history and into moments of introspection, humor, dangers and heartwarming joy.

6/3/19 6/3/19

[CBS6's Virginia This Morning] Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents “The Color Purple”

RICHMOND, Va. - The 1982 Alice Walker novel "The Color Purple" was introduced to a wider audience with the 1985 movie, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey was among the producers who helped bring a musical based on the book to Broadway in 2004. That musical is the latest offering of the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg. The theatre's producing artistic director, Patrick A'Hearn along with Kanysha Williams and Kadejah One, who play Celie and Sofia in the production are here to share about the musical and perform a song.

6/3/19 6/3/19

CURTAIN CALLS: 'The Color Purple' is the new gold

For some reason, stories about rape, incest, degradation, and spousal abuse don’t spring to mind when we think of plots for uplifting musicals. Nevertheless, such is the searing, epistolary story that forms the basis for “The Color Purple”, Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1983 which was quickly followed by a film in 1985. A musical version had to happen.

That Broadway hit, which ran from ’05 to ’08, garnered eleven Tony nominations and a Tony-winning revival that ran from late 2015 to 2017. Dramatically speaking, “…Purple” is gold.

That musical revival in all its scorching, heart-breaking glory awaits patrons at the Riverside Center through May 5. If you pick and choose which shows to see, see this one. If you’ve never been, but always meant to go, go now.

6/3/19 6/3/19

BWW Review: THE COLOR PURPLE at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning The Color Purple is one of the greatest stories of the last 50 years, and its musical adaptation is one of the most magical Broadway experiences of the last 20 years. Riverside Center for the Performing Arts has captured much of that charm in its moving production of The Color Purple, running through May 5 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

6/3/19 6/3/19

Culpeper music maker contributes to success of 'The Color Purple' at Riverside

One of Culpeper’s great musical figures is contributing his talents to a new production of “The Color Purple” at The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Stafford County.

C. Alexander Smith, music worship leader for Culpeper Baptist Church and director of the Blue Ridge Chorale, plays Grady in a show that features a cast of Broadway-caliber actors.

6/3/19 6/3/19

Review: ‘The Color Purple’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Magic. Magnificent. Marvelous. There are only so many superlatives I can muster in such a small space, but The Color Purple, now running at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, is phenomenal. Director Amy Jones, Music Director and Conductor Garrett Jones, and Riverside’s Producing Artistic Director Patrick A’Hearn, who also produced the show, have put on the must-see show for this spring.