 Midtown Live [four] tells the real-life stories of cast members through live musical theater and pop music performances. Lauren Salazar shares how her song, from the Sara Bareilles musical WAITRESS, found her!
"When WAITRESS first came out, I didn't really pay too much attention to it because I was too hyped up on Hamilton that year to really listen to anything else! But so many of my friends were obsessed with it, and they would tell me that there were so many songs that I needed to hear and a character that I needed to play. Cut to summer of last year, when I was doing the Actor Therapy summer intensive, I was in the audience of WAITRESS on Broadway, and sure enough, the character of Dawn comes out on stage, and I immediately saw myself in her. The social awkwardness and anxiety, but the cheerfulness, and the hopefulness and desire for personal connection... and that really shines in the song. So, of course, I fell in love with it, and immediately went home and learned it. It's become one of my favorite songs to perform now, and I'm excited to be performing it for Midtown Live!" Don't miss your chance to hear Lauren Salazar tell her real-life story through her performance of "When He Sees Me" from Waitress. --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.
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 Don't miss your chance to see Seth Cunningham perform in Midtown Live! For him, performing is about creating opportunities to share his truth with audiences. Seth Cunningham is a graduate of Sam Houston State University, where he studied Musical Theater and Acting. He has been seen on stages across the Houston area, with most recent performances as Ernest Ludwig in Cabaret, John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Octavius Caeser in Antony and Cleopatra. Midtown Live is his PMT Productions debut. Seth shares what performing means to him: "Performance has always been a place of escape, discovery, and expression for me. Starting as a kid, I just need a place to feel accepted. Now, performing is how I show people my truth; who I am." --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  Midtown Live [four] tells the real-life stories of cast members through live musical theater and pop music performances. Heather Buzonas shares how she instantly fell in love with her song, "A Way Back to Then."
"I first heard 'A Way Back to Then' when I was cast as Heidi in [title of show]. I instantly fell in love with the song because it describes my journey into musical theater. I got stuck living in the mundane of everyday life and took a chance on an auditions as a total nobody in thee world of Houston theater. I was able to reconnect with something that I forgot I was even looking for. My first real show in Houston was an amazing experience with some crazy-awesome idiots, and I really did have a 'kick-ass time,' all while remembering why I loved performing in the first place." Don't miss your chance to hear Heather Buzonas tell her real-life story through her performance of "A Way Back to Then" from [title of show]. --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  Did you know that PMT Productions has its own band? From YAS! Cabaret Camps to Midtown Live (and everything in between), The PMT Band provides live accompaniment for all of PMT's productions.
At PMT, we pride ourselves in producing high-caliber musical theater and commercial music events. Our commitment to utilizing professional musicians to provide live accompaniment for every performance is part of what makes our productions high quality. Aside from playing for our in-house productions, The PMT Band also contracts itself out to provide live accompaniment for Houston-area theaters and performing organization. (They are currently playing at Obsidian Theater's production of Evil Dead The Musical!) The PMT Band will be on-hand at Midtown Live [four]! Don't miss your chance to see a dynamic group of musicians as they perform unique arrangements of contemporary musical theater and commercial music songs. --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  Tickets to Midtown Live [four] are ON SALE NOW! From standing room next to the bar, to general admission seating, to reserved seating on the second level, we have a ticketing option that is perfect for you.
Read more about each ticketing level below, then head over to pitchmethis.com/upcoming to reserve your tickets to PMT's signature performance event now! STANDING ROOM ONLY -- $10 Experience Midtown Live [four] from cocktail tables near the first-floor bar at Rockefeller's. Mingle, come and go as you please, enjoy the concert your way. Doors open 30 minutes prior to show time. GENERAL ADMISSION SEATING -- $25 Experience Midtown Live [four] from general admission seating on the main floor of Rockefeller's. Grab a seat and get up close and personal to the action. Doors open 30 minutes prior to show time. RESERVED SEATING -- $40 Experience Midtown Live [four] from the second floor of Rockefeller's, complete with a dedicated bar and plenty of space to move around and visit with other guests. Regardless of arrival time, your reserved, box-style seats will be waiting for you. Doors open 30 minutes prior to show time. --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  Don't miss your chance to see Betty Le perform in Midtown Live! She's come a long way from her first-ever performance when she was just 5 years old--but she is just as excited about performing as she was then! Betty Le was born and raised in Houston TX. Recent theater work includes touring in theater for youth productions with Express Children's Theater. She is excited at the opportunity to step in to adult theater and perform with PMT Productions in Midtown Live [four]! Betty Le recounts her first-ever performance experience: "I was 5 years old when I was in my first play at my church. It was a play about Adam & Eve, and I played Eve. I had one line, and after I said it, everyone was thrilled and clapped for me--and I was officially hooked! Any chance I got, I was up on stage, even if it was just standing next to my dad while he sang. I don't think I really knew what performance was then, but I knew I wanted to do it for the rest of my life." She dedicates her Midtown Live performance to her parents, who she knows will be with her in spirit, and to her family, who are the inspiration for her story. Special thanks goes to her boyfriend, Aaron, and best friends, Julie and Daniel for always encouraging her to pursue her passion. --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  Midtown Live first launched in the summer of 2014. Check out the "behind the scenes" video we created to share the process of producing PMT's inaugural performance event! --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  The songs of Midtown Live cover a wide range of titles from contemporary musical theater and from the pop music genre. Although those two styles seem worlds apart, they are more similar than you might expect.
When most people think of musical theater, what kind of music do they think of? My guess, at least for the less-experienced patron, would be something from the Golden Era, like Sound of Music or Oklahoma or Show Boat. While those musicals are classics for a good reason, the sound of the music is not always the most accessible to new audiences. American Idiot, a musical based on the Green Day album of the same name, and Waitress, a musical written by pop artist Sara Bareilles, though, are much more familiar sounds for modern audiences. But how many singer-songwriter and pop fans know that the new Broadway sound is right up their alley? Highlighting the similarities of those distinct genres is one of the goals of Midtown Live! In the past we've covered artists from David Bowie to Beatles, from Carrie Underwood to One Direction, and from modern musicals from Spring Awakening and American Psycho--this year, we will cover similar music. The goal is to have a set list that brings in more diverse audiences and that helps the uninitiated become acclimated to musical theater in the context of a familiar format (a concert at a bar). We hope that people can leave saying that musical theater music is better than they had expected! Come hear the similarities between contemporary musical theater and pop music for yourself as we cover songs from across those genres in this year's production of Midtown Live [four]! --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  In most auditions, the actor is auditioning to portray a character; for Midtown Live, we ask actors to portray themselves. And knowing that you will play yourself on stage changes the entire audition experience.
There are all kinds of auditions an actor might go out on: open-call auditions (these are sometimes called cattle-call auditions), where the casting team tries to see as many actors as possible; private auditions, where only a select group of actors are invited to audition; video auditions, where actors can submit a recording of an audition rather than attend in person. Whatever the type of audition, actors typically have to prepare a song, or a monologue, or a dance combination, or all three! For Midtown Live, we asked the actors to audition with a song they thought would work in the final production. We wanted them to actually be involved in the design of the show! We also asked them to share a personal story about why they connected with their song. We heard stories of love and loss, of missed opportunities, of life changes--all honest and all real. (More about those stories in future blog posts!). Those who were cast in Midtown Live, go through a production process in which their audition song is developed into a full-scale arrangement and their story is made into a video that will play during Midtown Live. The result of highlighting actors' real-life stories in a live performance environment is both unique and familiar: We all have stories to tell, and our stories are more connected than we may think. Don't miss your chance to hear the cast of Midtown Live tell their real stories through musical theater and commercial music performances at Midtown Live [four]! --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com.  From song cycles to plays to full-scale musicals, theater productions take on a wide array of formats. The musical theater concert is the format we've chosen for Midtown Live. But what inspired that choice?
When we talk about musical theater concerts, there are two broad categories. The first kind are concert versions of full-scale musicals--think Oklahoma! in concert, Spring Awakening in concert, or (as recently produced right here in Houston by our friends at Kirkwood Music Services) Parade in concert. These kinds of musical theater concerts use songs from a full-scale musical, presented in back-to-back order in a concert format. In these concerts, dialogue can be performed alongside the music or omitted all together. The second kind are closer in style and content to a cabaret show (often confused with a burlesque show, but very different!). Instead of being connected through a single show, the music from this kind of musical theater concert utilizes music from across multiple shows, even including pop and commercial music. It looks and feels more like a review show or a night of cover music. Midtown Live is presented in this style. The musical theater concert format gives us a wider range of options in venue choices and allows us to utilize more unconventional performance spaces; it also allows us creative flexibility in specific programming. In addition to utilizing content from musicals and pop music, Midtown Live has a multimedia component that heightens the concert environment and is unique to PMT's signature performance event. Experience the musical theater concert for yourself, and join us as we tell the real-life stories of Houston-based performers in PMT's signature performance event: Midtown Live! --- Midtown Live [four] performs November 16-18, 2018, at the historic Rockefeller's on Washington. All performances begin at 8:00pm (with an additional 2:30pm matinee on November 18). Ticket prices range from $10-$40 and are available for purchase now at pitchmethis.com. |
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