Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City

Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City
Author :
Publisher : Great Life Press
Total Pages : 256
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1938394348
ISBN-13 : 9781938394348
Rating : 4/5 (48 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City by : J. Dennis Robinson

Download or read book Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City written by J. Dennis Robinson and published by Great Life Press. This book was released on 2019-10-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portsmouth's historic Music Hall has welcomed the best from Victorian superstars Buffalo Bill, Tom Thumb, and Mark Twain to today's top musicians, comics, authors, and performers. Built in 1878, expanded by Frank Jones in 1901, the theater's spacious stage and phenomenal acoustics have made it one of the finest venues in New England. Within these brick walls generations have seen America evolve from minstrel shows and silent films to jaw-dropping musicals and Hollywood blockbusters, from animal acts to symphony orchestras, and from vaudeville slapstick to provocative Ted talks. Behind the scenes, the Music Hall story is a wild ride from thriving to barely surviving and back. Fully researched, artfully written, and richly illustrated, this volume is a must-read for anyone who cherishes the performing arts.Shuttered and decaying during World War II, New Hampshire's vintage venue went on the auction block in 1945. Recast as the Civic, it served as a movie house for the next four decades. Following two failed revivals in the 1980s, the century-old structure came close to being turned into condominiums. Saved from demolition by a grassroots team of volunteers, the nonprofit Friends of the Music Hall launched an unprecedented $13.5 million capital campaign. Signature programs like the "Telluride by the Sea" film festival and "Writers on a New England Stage" have put New Hampshire's historic theater on the national map. Today the restored Music Hall delivers hundreds of diverse cultural events annually, both in the historic 900-seat hall and in its modern new Loft stage nearby. Digging even deeper, this book traces the development of the performing arts in Portsmouth from the arrival of its first settlers. We glimpse the city's colonial gentry partying at the Assembly House, hear the shrill sounds of early church singers, and wander the "lewd amusements" of a post-Revolutionary seaport. We watch as an acre of forest land is transformed from an almshouse and prison to a church, a temperance hall, a public lyceum and a theater. And we discover how that beloved theater--called "the beating heart of cultural Portsmouth"-has shaped the city that built and preserved it.


Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City Related Books

Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: J. Dennis Robinson
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-28 - Publisher: Great Life Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Portsmouth's historic Music Hall has welcomed the best from Victorian superstars Buffalo Bill, Tom Thumb, and Mark Twain to today's top musicians, comics, autho
Big Apple Brain Busters Activity Book
Language: en
Pages: 52
Authors: George Toufexis
Categories: Juvenile Nonfiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-03-15 - Publisher: Courier Dover Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

New York City is made up of five different boroughs and there are a lot of things to see and do. This activity-packed tour guide will show you around Manhattan,
World's Work
Language: en
Pages: 716
Authors:
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1914 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The World's Work
Language: en
Pages: 776
Authors:
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1913 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How Pandemics Shape the Metropolitan Space
Language: en
Pages: 238
Authors: Barbara Rief Vernay
Categories: Health & Fitness
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-10-12 - Publisher: LIT Verlag

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines the impact of the recent global health crisis on the urban development of Vienna and Tokyo. Contributions from fields such as regional, lands