The legendary singer songwriter, who catapulted to stardom in the 1970s with his hit, “Okie From Muskogee” and went on to win every imaginable country music award, makes his Music Hall debut on April 20. Haggard and his band, The Strangers, will launch the first Portsmouth Singer Songwriter Festival. Deputy Director of Programming/Curator Thérèse LaGamma interviewed him to get the backstory on his colorful past, what continues to inspire his music, and why his messages are more relevant than ever. Read on to discover why Haggard is arguably the coolest superstar of Americana music.Read More
Read More
by Chris Curtis
What an amazing time last Friday’s Wildcard Movie was- The fundraiser/debut of In Danger of Being Discovered with reunion performances by Groovechild and Thanks to Gravity! When Monte Bohanan and I first heard about the film (at that time entitled only Portsmouth Music Documentary) we knew this had to be a Wildcard. We did not realize at the time what, in collaboration with producers Marc Dole, Mike Venn and Karlina Lyons, a huge event it was to become.Read More
Read More
Comedy Central star Juston McKinney, performing his Merry Funny New England Christmas with Bob Lord and The Gaudy Baubles at the Historic Theater on December 8 and 9, comes clean to The Music Hall’s Thérèse LaGamma about humor and the holidays.Read More
Read More
Chuck Palahniuk has been amazing readers with his writing for almost two decades, starting with his 1996 debut, Fight Club, right up to his 2010 release, Tell-All. Palahniuk’s books are gritty and gripping, and his new one, Damned, is no exception. The novel follows Madison, a young dead girl assigned to an afterlife in Hell, as she journeys to confront Satan about her situation. Chuck will be appearing at the Music Hall on Thursday, November 3, as part of the Writers on a New England Stage series. He recently took the time to answer a few questions about Damned, the afterlife, and the future of print books.Read More
Read More
KS: Hi this is Kathleen Soldati from the Music Hall in Portsmouth NH. We’re talking today with Meredith Vieira, the producer of Life in a Marital Institution and James Braly the renowned storyteller that we hear on NPR’s This American Life. Meredith and James are bringing their hit off-Broadway one-man comic monologue show to the Music Hall Loft September 9-11. So Meredith and James, welcome. We can’t wait to see the show!
KS: Meredith, our listeners are most familiar with you from The View and The Today Show and now you’ve moved into producing theater. Can you tell us a little bit about what brought you to that point in your career?Read More
Read More
From Laugh-In to The Music Hall stage, Lily Tomlin has had audiences in stitches for more than 30 years. Our Deputy Programming Director/Curator Therese LaGamma caught up with her recently to get the backstory on her illustrious career and talk about what makes Lily, Lily.Read More
Read More
by Chris Bohjalian
Not long ago, I was in my basement, which is the scariest place on earth. We’re talking “Silence of the Lambs” scary, “Night of the Living Dead” scary, “lion and tigers and bears, oh my” scary. It’s not merely that a sizable chunk of the floor is dirt, which means that with all the rain we’ve had this summer it’s like quicksand down there. It’s not the fact that there is a Gordian knot of tubes and pipes along the ceiling (which is little more than a crawlspace in some sections), some of which carry water and some of which carry LP gas to heat the house.
It’s the door.Read More
Read More
Summer House Furnishings has chosen The Music Hall as the beneficiary of its “Bags with Benefits” community partnership now through September 30, 2011.Read More
Read More