The Milwaukee Dance Theatre is currently performing a dance adaptaion of Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck. The music for the piece was composed by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan (which was featured on Blood Money). The show will run through November 4th.
Minneapolis based Zenon Dance Company will feature music by Tom Waits, among others, during their upcoming concert November 16 through the 26th:
Choreographer cavalcade. For the 24th year, Zenon presents cutting edge work by local and national modern dance choreographers. But the real excitement comes from watching this remarkable ensemble of dancers absorb every kind of movement guest choreographers throw at them with breathtaking aplomb. This concert features a work by New York hottie Sean Curran; one by the sublimely eclectic Cathy Young to music by Tom Waits, Nine Inch Nails and Joe Williams; and a premiere by the dynamically intense Wynn Fricke. Southern Theater, Minneapolis. Tickets: 612-340-1725.
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | 09/10/2006 | Eight dance shows to move your soul
Inside a Broken Clock: A Tom Waits Peepshow will be held at the Elks Lodge, 700 Dawson Road in Austin TX. As reported earlier, there will be two shows nightly, October 5th through the 7th. Tickets will go on sale on September, 15th.
I posted on this Tom Waits extravaganza last year. Inside a Broken Clock is a full fledged cabaret based entirely on the music of Tom Waits taking place in the great city of music, Austin, TX. From what I heard, it is a wonderful show that does great honor to Mr. Waits. The organizers do a great job of describing the show in their press release:
A small-scale spectacular featuring dance, puppetry, vaudeville comedy and other weirdness set to the music of Tom Waits, played live by some of Austin’s finest junkyard musicians. Expect to be titillated by Vegas showgirls, a dancing bear, disgruntled gravediggers, a mad scientist and dancing skeleton, German prostitutes, a drunken ringmaster and other ramshackle characters from the big top and back alleys of the Tom Waits universe.
Well, after much public demand, they are bringing the show back for three more nights between October 5th and 7th. There will be two shows a night. The venue hasn’t been nailed down yet, but I’ll post it as soon as I know. Prepare to buy your tickets early, all of the performances last year sold out fast.
Update: The show will be held at the Elks Lodge, 700 Dawson Road, Austin, Texas. Tickets are now on sale.
Though this has already been commented on frequently on this site in the last few weeks, but there are more rumors about an upcoming tour. Mr. Waits’ tour manager has stated that a tour is in the works for next year. I’m taking a guess in saying that this would be in support of the also rumored “Orphans” box set. Primarily I think this because Sarah V. has an incredible ability to be right almost all the time. 
While I’m being quiet on most news this month, I promise to keep the site updated on any tour news.
Mr. Waits seems to be extremely popular among the dance set. The Southeast Missouri State University Fall Dance Concert will feature an unspecified Tom Waits tune in their series of performances this weekend:
“The Wink of an Eye” uses the talents of the Southeast Sundancers set against the dark wails and back-alley howls of the great Tom Waits. Waits’ style in contrasted by Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” placed at the beginning and the end. With dress and stage accented in black, the Sundancers do a sinister slink across the mirage of a dark urban landscape.
[Via: semissourian.com: Story: Collage of styles packed into hour of dance]
Sorry folks, got a bit busy again . . .
The Center Theater Group at the Ahmanson Theater in downtown LA is staging a production of The Black Rider from April 22nd through June 11th. Tickets are available now and run from between $40 and $95. You can find complete details at the show’s website.
Thanks to Dorene on the Raindogs mailing list.
Tom Waits Tom Waits along with Tim Robbins, Marisa Tomei, Don Cheadle, Eva Mendes and Alfre Woodard will be appearing in a staged reading of “Impossible Boulevard: From Homelessness to Hope”on Saturday, October 29th at 8:00 PM at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, CA. The piece is adapted from the book 40 Lives-From Homelessness to Hope. From the press release:
“Impossible Boulevard” celebrates the human spirit as it captures true stories of circumstance, misfortune, triumph and independence. Putting a human face on the homeless condition, “Impossible Boulevard” is a real life testament to what is possible when compassion and commitment combine to empower people to rebuild their lives.
[Via: Stars Align for Benefit Performance October 29, 2005 to Support OPCC & The Actors’ Gang]
Proceeds from the show go to benefit the theater troupe The Actor’s Gang and OPCC, “a network of shelters and services for low-income and homeless youth, adults and families, battered women and their children and people living with mental illness.”
Tickets are $250 and can be ordered from the OPCC website.
Update (10/26/2005 6:00 PM): There has been some speculation that Mr. Waits might not be appearing at the event since his name doesn’t appear on the OPCC or Theater Gang website. I just got off the phone with the OPCC office and they confirmed that Mr. Waits will be appearing at the event. However, they left open the nature of his appearance, stating that he could be either “reading or singing.”
Update (10/26/2005 11:52 PM): Despite the confirmation from OPCC that Mr. Waits would appear, I have now learned that he will not. Sorry for any difficulties this may have caused.
Update(10/28/2005 11:58 AM): Considering the amount of strife this event has caused me, I really don’t even want to report on it any more. But now the news has changed ONCE AGAIN. I now have confirmation that Mr. Waits will appear at the benefit and will perform three songs with Larry Taylor on bass. Sorry again for the confusion.
The Broken Clock Cabaret of Austin, Texas is putting on a risque little show called “Inside a Broken Clock: A Tom Waits Peepshow”. According to the site:
” A Tom Waits Peepshow is a small-scale spectacular featuring dance, puppetry, comedy and other vaudeville-style weirdness, set to the music of Tom Waits and played live by some of Austin’s finest junkyard musicians.
Of course, this is not a literal peepshow (though you may see a little skin at times, heh heh), but instead a peek through the keyhole at the sin and salvation, the sweet nothings and sour grapes that make up the Tom Waits universe as we see it. “
All of this will be accompanied by music from EVERY Tom Waits album. Apparently opening acts will be performed by the Tom Waits cover band The Box Spring Hogs and Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Texas Burlesque.
Performances will be on October 28th and 29th at the Victory Grill and November 4th and 5th at the Arts on Real.
Sounds like it’ll be a fun time and I’m going to try to make it down there for this one. I haven’t been to Austin in years and this sounds like a good excuse.
Just count your lucky stars isn’t not Tom Waits doing burlesque.
Thanks to the Eyeball Kid.
I’m pushing forward on my great quest to get caught up with news, so excuse me if you’ve read some of the next few posts elsewhere . . .
In any case, the Calgary production of The Black Rider picked up several Betty Mitchell Awards (Calgary’s professional theatre awards) at the award ceremony on the 28th of August. The show received awards for:
You can read the whole story over at Jam!
I missed reporting on the original run of this show in Australia, but the Waits’ inspired “Tom Waits for No Man” (no relation to this blog), now titled “Belly of a Drunken Piano” is making it’s way for a run in New York. It’ll be running from August 28th through October 9th at the SoHo Playhouse. You can find ticket information here or at the SohoPlayhouse show page.
For more information on this show, check out this story about the show’s performer at The Age (Registration Required).
Thanks Mark T. for the heads up.
Just a little advance notice for all of you Black Rider fans out there. The Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles will be putting on a performance of The Black Rider from April 22nd through June 11th, 2006. Full information including ticket details can be found at the show’s website.
[Via: Playbill News: Sisto, Scott and Van Patten Reach Dead End for Upcoming Los Angeles Show]
I found this small reference in an interview with the choreographer Pina Bausch talking about her new piece “Nefes”:
The music you chose often gives a strong atmosphere to the piece — here the works of Mercan Dede, Astor Piazzolla and Tom Waits
[Via: The Japan Times Online]
Then, while catching up on the Raindogs newsgroup, I found that Jarlath had done some more digging and found that the actual song used in the piece is “All the World Is Green” from Blood Money.
[Via: www.pina-bausch.de]
Has anyone out there seen this work and want to share a review?
The North Dakota Ballet Company’s spring concert (April 28th and 29th) will feature an unnamed Tom Waits tune:
The repertoire also will include contemporary jazz and modern pieces by U2, Tom Waits and the classic Benny Goodman tune “Sing, Sing, Sing,” classical pieces such as “Swan Lake Waltz Act I” and Chopin’s “Les Sylphides” and a reprise of Christenson’s “The Hours,” a ballet piece to the music of Phillip Glass from the movie soundtrack “The Hours.”
[Via: Grand Forks Herald | 04/22/2005 | DANCE : It’s a ‘Red Hot Spring’]
Tickets range from three to eight dollars and are availible at the Chester Fritz box office (701- 777-4090).
Some former members of Cirque de Soleil have formed their own circus group called Les 7 Doigts de la Main which features some Tom Waits tunes in their performance:
Cirque’s new-age soundtrack is replaced by a combination of styles, including some great Tom Waits, rap and beat-box action, didgeridoo and tango all mixed live on stage by Les 7 Doigt’s DJ Pocket.
[Via: The New Zealand Herald]
