A Perfect Fit: KINKY BOOTS and Dinner at Leatherby's Café Rouge

The Broadway show KINKY BOOTS that comes to the Center December 30 – January 11 was inspired by a true story. And the special KINKY BOOTS-themed menu at Leatherby’s Café Rouge is the inspiration of Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan. You can enjoy this delicious three-course prix fixe designer dinner before any evening performance of KINKY BOOTS in Segerstrom Hall. Leatherby’s Café Rouge is located in the beautiful Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, an easy walk across the Arts Plaza from the show – even in the most uncomfortable, albeit utterly fashionable, pair of shoes.

KINKY BOOTS 

DECEMBER 30, 2014 - JANUARY 11, 2015

FIRST

The Most Beautiful Thing

House cured Shetland's salmon, traditional garnishes

MAIN

Land of Lola

North Sea cod and corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots

DESSERT

Hold Me in Your Heart

Panettone bread budding, red wine poached pear,

candied orange sauce, Grand Marnier ice cream

45 per person 3 course menu

64 with wine pairing

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION | 714 429 7640

Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan

Menu subject to change

Even a Grinch Needs to Eat!

The Grinch may steal Christmas, but he will fall in love with the delicious menu that Leatherby’s Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan has planned for the holidays. In fact, to honor the arrival of DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL at Segerstrom Center from December 10 – 14, Leatherby’s Café Rouge in the Center’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall has a very special festive three-course prix fixe menu that will turn even the grinchiest Grinch into a pussycat. To take a peek at the special menu or to purchase tickets to DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL, click here.

DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL

DECEMBER 10 - 14

FIRST

Welcome, Christmas

Butternut squash soup with gifts – vanilla foam, sage, cranberry tempura, 

star anise crouton, parsnip chip, amaretti crumble, hazelnut soil

MAIN

Roast Beast

House porchetta, confit sweet potatoes, roasted market vegetables,

cranberry salsa verde, natural jus

DESSERT

Santa for a Day

"Milk and cookies"

45 per person 3 course menu

64 with wine pairing

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION | 714 429 7640

Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan

Menu subject to change

The Search for a Legendary Meal Stops at Leatherby's Café Rouge

In the Tony Award®-winning musical PIPPIN, the story is guided by the Leading Player as the young Prince Pippin searches for meaning and significance. This famous show in its new Broadway production comes to Segerstrom Center to open the 2014 – 2015 Broadway Series November 11 – 23. To help celebrate the occasion and to give meaning and significance to your culinary life, the leading player at Leatherby’s Café Rouge, Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan, has created a special menu inspired by the show. The three-course prix fixe menu is magic. To learn more about the PIPPIN menu and other special menus prepared by Chef Pangilinan for the other shows in the Center’s Broadway and Curtain Call Series, click here.

PIPPIN

NOVEMBER 11 - 23

FIRST

Magic to Do

Molecular beet salad, orange sphere, balsamic caviar, 

goat cheese gelée, pistachio powder, olive oil sorbet, beet air

MAIN

Prayer for a Duck

Muscovy duck breast, polenta cake, poached quince, pomegranate seed,

brussels sprout petals, truffle vinaigrette

DESSERT

Simple Joys

"Catherine royale," cinnamon swirl vanilla cake,

pumpkin ice cream

45 per person 3 course menu

64 with wine pairing

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION | 714 429 7640

Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan

Menu subject to change

A Whole New World

Historic collaboration brings musical theater programs to OC schools. First in a series. 

Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Disney Theatrical Group are off and running on an exciting new project, and four OC schools are bound to soon discover there may be something there that wasn’t there before. The Disney Musicals in the Schools program, the result of a $100,000 grant awarded by Disney to Segerstrom Center for the Arts last spring, recently dispatched eight teaching artists to four OC schools, where they will work with educators to produce a 30-minute Disney musical and lay the groundwork for ongoing musical theater programs.

Photo by Michael Kirsch

Training began with a flourish in our Studio Performance Space a few weeks ago with three days of intense instruction in which teaching artists were run through the paces of building an elementary school musical from the ground up. Directing, blocking and casting were just some of the elements featured in the sessions, the third day of which brought the actual classroom teachers from the four school sites in to the fray. 

Photo by Michael Kirsch

The four schools taking part include Eisenhower and Hill Elementary Schools in Garden Grove, Price Elementary in Anaheim and Rea Elementary in Costa Mesa. Teachers were given little time to stand on ceremony. “They had us jump right in,” Rea Elementary 2nd grade teacher Jessica DeLloyd told The OC Register. 

The 17-week program is free to participating schools and the goal is to bring substantial and meaningful encounters with the arts for students, building confidence and community, which in turn aims to enrich relationships and bolster motivation in academics.

It’s also going to be fun – and once that genie’s out of the bottle, he’s not going back in.

Out of the Background

Lisa Fischer. Photo by Chiaki Sato.

It's been a good year for Lisa Fischer. 

With the Oscar®-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom thrusting her into the national spotlight, Fischer now finds herself sharing that spotlight with Becca Stevens and Moira Smiley on tour with Billy Childs' Map to the Treasure, a jazz interpretation of the songs of Laura Nyro. 

They perform a show in the Samueli October 17th at 8 p.m. (Check ticket availability.)

Billy Childs. Photo by Javiera Estrada.

A Grammy®-winner as a solo artist in 1992 (for "How Will I Ease the Pain"), Fischer worked with the late Luther Vandross for 22 years and more recently with Sting, Tina Turner, Chris Botti, Nine Inch Nails and others. She has toured with The Rolling Stones since 1989, adding backing vocals before moving up front for the solo on the famous chorus of "Gimme Shelter." 

Now, Fischer, Childs, Stevens and Smiley are putting Nyro, who passed away in 1997, back in the spotlight with fresh versions of "And When I Die," "Save the Country," "Stoned Soul Picnic" and others. 

Read more about Billy Childs, the tour and the star-studded Map to the Treasure CD in this month's Revue. 

– Cristofer Gross

Only the Best for Orange County's Own

Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley

Much of Opera News magazine August edition is dedicated to Broadway. On the cover is a stunning Marin Mazzie, called “Broadway’s Brightest Light” by Opera News Features Editor and author Brian Kellow. In the story titled “What Mazzie Knows” by Kellow, he writes, “On September 26, 2005, in a one-night staged concert performance to benefit the Actors Fund of America, Marin Mazzie gave the greatest single performance I have experienced in the musical theater.“ For those who remember and are in the musical theater know, Mazzie and her also-star-quality husband Jason Danieley were sensations in the Center’s 2012 – 2013 Cabaret Series. They performed a special Valentine’s Day program. In addition to their performances in Samueli Theater, the celebrated couple conducted a master class for promising young Orange County artists who have their eyes on the Great White Way. 

Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley teach a master class in Samueli Theater.
Photo by Xuong Do.

The Center's Cabaret Series is a veritable constellation of vocal luminaries, Broadway and musical theater stars, including this year’s line-up of Tony Award® winners Brian Stokes Mitchell and Laura Benanti, Tony nominee and 14-time award winner from The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway, and Grammy Award® winners and recording legends Johnny Mathis and Judy Collins. 

Only the best for the Center’s audiences and stars-to-be!

Misty Copeland Recalls Center Triumph in New Autobiography

Misty Copeland and Roman Zhurbin in The Firebird.
Photo by Gene Schiavone.

Misty Copeland, soloist with American Ballet Theatre and one of the brightest young stars in the dance world, recently released her autobiography. Copeland was raised and studied dance in San Pedro. On page 242, she writes, “Before kicking off our season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, we debuted The Firebird on the road. Our first performances were at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, California. It was a homecoming....” The chapter goes on to quote Jean Lenihan’s LA Times blogged review: ”Ratmansky’s revised storyline and forward-backward movement idiom finally emerged clearly with second cast leads Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo, a hypnotizing pair.... With them, the audience’s standing ovation was absolutely spontaneous.” 

Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo in The Firebird.
Photo by Gene Schiavone.

The book is titled Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, and was written with Charisse Jones. 

The Center will present another ABT world premiere March 3 – 8, 2015. This will be the company’s new production of The Sleeping Beauty. And for the 2015 holidays, the Center will present ABT’s The Nutcracker for the first time outside of New York. 

Once is Never Enough at Leatherby's Café Rouge!

Another of Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan’s blockbuster Broadway-themed menus will be available at Leatherby’s Café Rouge in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall during the run of ONCE, the eight-time Tony Award®-winning show, including Best Musical, with its Grammy®, Tony, Olivier and Academy Award®-winning music. The hit production comes to the Center August 19 – 31. 

ONCE 

AUGUST 19 - 31

FIRST

Guy

Patina's tuna tower, soya onions, tomato confit,

yuzu granité, grilled scallions

MAIN

If You Want Me

Modern beef and Guinness stew, New York steak, short rib,

fingerling potatoes, peas, carrots, celery

DESSERT

The Moon

Moon-shaped New York cheesecake, local fresh strawberries

45 per person 3 course menu

64 with wine pairing

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION | 714 429 7640

Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan

Menu subject to change

Enjoy a critically acclaimed dinner before attending ONCE right across the Arts Plaza in Segerstrom Hall. Click here for more information about ONCE, to purchase tickets and to make your dinner reservations at Leatherby’s Café Rouge.

Solo for Two Takes Flight

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev will introduce three new works to the world this evening at Segerstrom Center: MERCY by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, PASSO by Ohad Naharin and FACADA by Arthur Pita. The program is called Solo for Two – the title paying tribute to the unique talents of these two extraordinary dancers whose spirit, passion and commitment unite into riveting works of art. Following are glimpses into the creative process, photos from the recent rehearsals at the Center. 

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui rehearsing with Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Photo by Steve Dawson.

Final dress rehearsal of MERCY. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

Solo for Two will be performed Friday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday July 27 at 2 p.m. It will then receive its London and Moscow premieres, culminating with its New York premiere next year. 

Final dress rehearsal of PASSO. Photo by Doug Gifford.

Final dress rehearsal of FACADA. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

For more photos from Solo for Two rehearsals, visit the Center’s Facebook page here. 

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Photo by Doug Gifford.

The Center's Psychic Says: "I See Great Dinners in Your Future!"

Leatherby’s Café Rouge Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan will present the first of several new menus themed to the Center’s upcoming Broadway shows when GHOST – THE MUSICAL comes to Segerstrom Hall July 29 – August 10. These special prix fix menus are a perfect way to begin a wonderful evening of culinary and musical magic. 

GHOST – THE MUSICAL

JULY 29 - AUGUST 10

FIRST 

Three Little Words 

Three little appetizers – avocado & crab toast, 

beets & goat cheese, beef carpaccio & truffle vinaigrette

MAIN

Sam Wheat

Farro wheat "risotto," poached organic chicken breast, 

shaved market vegetables, Banyul's vinegar, chicken jus

DESSERT

The Love Inside

Raspberry chocolate macaron, manjari ganache,

raspberry sorbet, chocolate soil, yuzu cloud

45 per person 3 course menu

64 with wine pairing

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION | 714 429 7640

Executive Chef Ross Pangilinan

Menu subject to change

Special menus are planned for ONCE (August 19 – 31), PIPPIN (November 11 – 23), DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL (December 10 – 14) and KINKY BOOTS (December 30, 2014 – January 11, 2015). Don’t miss a bite or a note of any of these great menus and shows. Visit each show’s web page on www.scfta.org to review the specific menus and book your tickets.

Soccer Fans Storm the Arts Plaza

Fans for The Netherlands and Argentina gather on the Center’s Arts Plaza

Soccer fans at the Center

There’s been ballet, dance classes, opera, an electric guitar concert, parties, rock bands, The Car Plays, Movie Mondays, community festivals, Walks for various causes – and now – World Cup soccer! The Center welcomed soccer fans to watch The Netherlands vs. Brazil on Saturday, July 12th and Argentina vs. Germany on Sunday, July 13th (lucky 13 as it turned out for Germany). The games were shown on LED jumbotrons. Food trucks fed the hungry, and the Center’s children’s Imagination Playground provided diversions for little ones not yet in the soccer groove. 

The great Russian dancers Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, with Russian 
impresario, dance producer and artist manager Sergei Danilian, center. Vasiliev 
and Osipova took time off from their rehearsals for Solo for Two, in which they will 
perform a world premiere and two American premieres July 25 – 27.

And the tension builds.

A little advertising for Segerstrom Center worn by 
Director of Education Jason Holland at the Imagination Playground.

And the win goes to Germany!

For more fun on the Arts Plaza, don’t miss the Center’s Movie Mondays: Gigi on July 21, Cabaret on July 28 and ending with Sweet Charity on August 4. For more information about Movie Mondays, click here. 

All photos by Doug Gifford.

Broadway Babies – on Their Way to the Great White Way!

Emily Rozek warms up students before dance class

Segerstrom Center’s popular Six Days of Broadway musical theater summer camps just finished another exciting year June 23 through July 6. During the week-long sessions, students learned and participated in musical performance, audition technique, scene work, dance and much more. Tony Award® nominee and Broadway/film star Erin Dilly led the program along with Broadway veterans Stephen Buntrock, Danny Gurwin, Hank Stratton and Emily Rozek.

Six Days of Broadway 2014 cast and instructors

Erin Dilly works on a scene with a student during musical theater acting class

Participants honed their skills as they got the opportunity to interpret and perform assigned scenes and musical numbers from hit Broadway shows. During dance class, students learned choreography from shows such as Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Will Rogers Follies and Catch Me If You Can. The “acting on film” session featured students working on-camera as they practiced cold readings in front of their peers. The program culminated with an open classroom session showcasing the week’s efforts to family and friends.

Stephen Buntrock works with students on ensemble performance

It Was a Grand Night at the Movies

Movie Mondays at Segerstrom Center

A cool grand turned out to give a warm welcome to the Center’s 2014 Movie Mondays and to cheer on Shirley Temple in her 1935 hit film The Little Colonel. The movie, in which Shirley appears in Technicolor for the very first time – only in the final scene – was a Movie Monday tribute to the beloved film star who passed away earlier this year. 

The Poormehr family: Seena, Nahid, Arian and Nadi from Irvine

The Center’s Jonathan Vietze is the Movie Mondays’ emcee, providing themed contests and fun prizes and giveaways prior to each screening. 

Happy Birthday, Paul Stutzke!

Macy’s sponsored the opening. In addition to its support of Movie Monday’s, Macy’s is an underwriter for the Center’s Arts and Business Leadership Awards Dinner, provides special in-store promotions for the Center and underwriting for this year’s OnStage at the Center performances of the Center’s holiday Broadway offering, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! the Musical. Doug McKay, Macy’s District Grants Co-Chairman and a member of the Center’s Rising Leaders Council, was on hand to present a check for $25,000 to Center President Terrence W. Dwyer.

Macy's District Grants Co-Chariman Doug McKay presents
Center President Terry Dwyer with a check for $25,000

Kia, the official automobile of the Center, set up a special The Little Colonel tableau featuring their 2015 K900. They'll be back each week with a new themed display and car.

Display by Kia, the Official Automotive Partner of the Center

Also for the first time, food trucks offered delights and delicacies to satisfy those who might not have brought their own picnic dinners. New trucks and new selections will be on hand for the next four Mondays, when the movies will be Spice World – July 14, Gigi – July 21, Cabaret – July 28 and Sweet Charity – August 4.

Jiah Park, Roger Bell, Brandi Hawkes – with Charlie and Tess

All photos by Joesan Diche.

Box Office Hits and Tasty Eats on Wheels

Piaggio on Wheels food truck

Orange County foodies have reason to celebrate when they get together on the Arts Plaza for the annual free Movie Mondays. For the first time in Movie Mondays history, popular food trucks will sell gourmet snacks for fans to enjoy under the stars, while they watch films projected on the side of Segerstrom Hall. Guests may set up beach chairs and easily portable seats as early as 5:30 p.m., and trucks will begin selling food at 6 p.m. 

First up: The Little Colonel tonight, featuring the adorable little Shirley Temple and the iconic stair dancing scene with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. May we suggest burgers, bite-size appetizers and root beer floats for this American classic? 

Drive Me Cookie food truck

The Little Colonel (July 7 at dusk) 
A Bite Truck 
Stuff N It Burgers 
We Heart Froyo 

Spice World (July 14 at dusk) 
Adobo Express 
Chunk-n-Chip 
The Burnt Truck 

Gigi (July 21 at dusk) 
Drive Me Cookie
Piaggio on Wheels 
Stuff N It Burgers 

Cabaret (July 28 at dusk) 
Bakery Truck 
Currywurst 
Piaggio on Wheels 

Sweet Charity (August 4 at dusk) 
Adobo Express 
Bakery Truck 
Dogzilla 

For more information about Movie Mondays and the Free for All series, please visit www.scfta.org/freeforall.