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MEDIA QUOTES:
"'TONYA' ROCKS THE STAGE"
PORTLAND OREGONIAN, front page; Feb. 23, 2008
"BRILLIANT AND TOUCHING...
Portland, I suspect, will be anxious to deny this production its artistic genius until it's produced in New York, when we'll all have to say, 'I told you it was brilliant.' Well, I told you it was brilliant...
Let us not be ashamed of something marvelous, just because it reminds us who we are."
PORTLAND MERCURY
"Darkly comic...
A fascinating experiment
...It's not a lampoon or low comedy...In operatic style, composer Michael Teoli challenges cast members to use their voices as virtuosic instruments, favoring aural intensity and range...Jeff Gilooly [is]powerfully portrayed...The edgy opera presents both Harding and Kerrigan as characters
developing dreams on parallel tracks, destined for a violent collision."
THE COLUMBIAN
"You can look for deeper meaning or simply revel in the troubled triple-axel named Tonya. This is Tonya and Nancy like you've never seen before!"
CNN
"The script, not just a comedy, delves into the drama of troubled childhoods and
Harding's downward spiral, complete with a steamy sex tape."
GOOD MORNING, AMERICA
"WHY TONYA HARDING VERSUS NANCY KERRIGAN MAKES A PERFECT ROCK OPERA...A full-length
rock opera replete with fist-pumping anthems"
BOSTON GLOBE
"TONYA & NANCY THE OPERA has a rockin' new beat!"
BOSTON HERALD
"Both Tonya and Nancy skate on hilariously thin ice in Elizabeth Searle's quirky Rock Musical...The Searle/Teoli Rock Opera has show-stopping numbers..."
THEATER MIRROR (reviewing Songwriter's Showcase, 2008)
"THE BEST PIECE OF THEATER I'VE EVER SEEN...GO, BEFORE THE NEW YORK TIMES TELLS YOU TO...INCREDIBLE... pre-review teaser:
PORTLAND MERCURY
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TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA premiered FEBRUARY 21, 2008 in Portland, Oregon, produced by triangle productions, with Tonya Harding herself in enthusiastic attendence, inspiring national media coverage: a nationwide AP wire story, extensive clips from the Rock Opera shown on CNN, FOX, GOOD MORNING AMERICA (available online) and a front page write-up in the Portland Oregonian headlined: "'TONYA' ROCKS THE STAGE!"
Based on the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan ice scandal, the new Rock Opera has been praised by THE COLUMBIAN as "darkly comic" and "fascinating" and by THE PORTLAND MERCURY as "brilliant and touching", "something marvelous" and a show possessing "artistic genius." As Bill Littlefield commented on NPR: "Knee-whacking as opera; this is irresistible!"
The Portland Area Music awards nominated TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA for Best Original Musical and Best Original Song (2008) and Boston Cabaret featured songs from the show in its 2008 Songwriter's Showcase. While inspiring epic-size media response, the show itself is easily
tourable, with virtually no 'set', a cast of 6 principals, chorus of 10
and rock ensemble of 5.
The show's initial run at the World Trade Center Auditorium in Portland was EXTENDED due to popular demand. Future productions are in the works for 2009.
To find out more about our show, feel free to contact Elizabeth Searle or Rachel Cohen--
Elizabeth Searle (Librettist)
e.searle@comcast.net
tonya and nancy the opera.com
Booking: Rachel Cohen, Cadence Arts Network, Inc. cadencearts@aol.com
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TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA
The new Rock Opera is a collaboration between four parties on two coasts: triangle productions! director Don Horn in Portland, Oregon;composer Michael Teoli in LA; librettist Elizabeth Searle and Abigail Al-Doory Cross (additional music) in Boston.
The original one-act chamber opera version of TONYA & NANCY, with score by Abigail Al-Doory Cross and libretto by Elizabeth Searle, was selected as one of the top three 'new operas' of 2007 by Opera Vista in Houston, which performed it in excerpt. The chamber opera premiered in Boston in May, 2006, at the American Reperatory Theater's 'new space for new works,' the Zero Arrow, produced by Tufts Music.
Media coverage included two worldwide Associated Press stories, interviews on ESPN Hollywood and Tucker Carlson, and articles in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, London Times, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, ESPN Magazine, the Portland Oregonian, mention on THE DAILY SHOW and a widely played piece on National Public Radio.
The Portland Oregonian praised the original chamber opera as 'dark and edgy and musically funny... a complex classical piece that pops with intensity' and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ('On Campus') rated the show as 'HOT.'
The
new Rock Opera's music is composed by Michael Teoli, whose many film
credits include work on the music teams of LORD OF THE
RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING (2003) and the SIMPSONS MOVIE (2007) and 41 (2007) for which he won BEST SOUNDTRACK at the Directors Chair Film Festival. Along with librettist Searle, Michael has composed nearly 30 original songs for the Rock Opera,
and has 'rocked up' some themes composed by Abigail
Al-Doory for the one-act TONYA & NANCY.
For the new longer 'Rock Opera', Searle (who first wrote about Tonya and Nancy in her novella CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE, which the New York Times Book Review called 'a miniature masterpiece') has expanded her original libretto to nearly 2 hours, adapting it for stage with Don Horn (playwright, producer, Artistic Director).
The Rock Opera cast includes celebrated folk/rock singer Beth Willis (who has headlined at the House of Blues in Vegas) and Lilla D'Mone (who has played from the NewOrleans Jazz festival to Beijing, China) as 'Tonya' and 'Nancy.'
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