Schimmel Center Blog

This week we are proud to offer you two very diverse pieces of entertainment. Acclaimed clarinetist Julian Bliss leads his renowned jazz septet in a Tribute to Benny Goodman on Wednesday, February 10. Come listen to the music of the Big Band great played by accomplished jazz musicians.  Songs like “Lady be Good,” “Up a Lazy River,” and “Moonglow,” have never sounded so fresh before. Check them out in action in the video below.

We are also very proud to present The Flying Karamazov Brothers. This whacky troop of performers have been entertaining the masses with their high stakes juggling and vaudevillian like comedy routines for the last 5 decades. These kilt-clad jugglers are sure to please everyone including adults, students, students who watch Glee, tourists, theatergoers, theatre-avoiders, pseudo-intellectuals, friendless geeks, hedge fund managers, hedge fund managers who are now Duane Reade assistant managers, kids (but only gifted ones with a solid background in the classics), disgraced religious leaders, Kardashians, and politicians.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers

The group has quite the colorful history. Below are some interesting facts about the Brothers Karamazov.

• They have shared stages and screens collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Placido Domingo, The Grateful Dead, The Who, Dolly Parton, Robin Williams, Patrick Dempsey, Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Kenny Rogers, Los Lobos, The Smothers Brothers, Click and Clack the Tappett Brothers, Joyce Brothers and many, many, more.
• They have appeared on TV shows including “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Seinfeld”, “Ellen”, “The Tonight Show”, “The Today Show”, “Good Morning America”, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and many others.
• They starred in the hit film The Jewel of the Nile.
• They have performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, The Seattle Symphony, The Canadian National Symphony, the Toronto Symphony and many other orchestras.
• They won an Obie award in 1980 for their show, Juggling & Cheap Theatrics which played at the Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, BAM, London’s West End and moved to Broadway and was taped for a television special on Showtime.
• They performed at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in The Comedy of Errors and The Three Moscowteers.
• They represented America for classic theatre at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
• In 1986, they appeared at BAM  in  L’Historie du Soldat and reopened the Vivian Beamont theater with Juggling and Cheap Theatrics.  Their show Juggle and Hyde premiered at the Lincoln Center Theatre’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, and they returned to the Beaumont with The Comedy of Errors which was also seen on PBS’ “Great Performances.”
• In 1992, they performed in theaters all over the country including The Guthrie, The Wilbur in Boston, Hasty Pudding in Cambridge, MA, ACT in Seattle, and The Apollo in New York City to name a few. They premiered Le Petomane at the La Jolla Playhouse and at ACT in Seattle.
• In 1993, they premiered The Brothers Karamazov at the Seattle Rep and at Arena Stage.
• In 1994, The Flying Karamazov Brothers Do The Impossible appeared on London’s West End and on Broadway.  The same year, they premiered Sharps, Flats and Accidentals at ACT in Seattle.
• In 1996, they performed Sharps, Flats and Accidentals at the New Victory Theatre in New York City and premiered Club Sandwich at ACT.
• In 1997, they premiered an adaptation of Room Service directed by Robert Woodruff at ACT in Seattle and at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
• In 2000, they collaborated with MIT’s Media Lab and premiered L’Universe at ACT in Seattle, the Arizona Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and at the Carré in Amsterdam.
• In 2004, they premiered Life: A Guide for the Perplexed at ACT in Seattle, the Lensic in Santa Fé and at ART in Cambridge, MA and, in 2005, at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.
• In 2007, they premiered Don Quijote at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.
• In 2008, they premiered 4PLAY.
• In 2009, they premiered Flings & Eros at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, MA
• In 2010, they appeared in The Flying Karamazov Brothers at The Minetta Lane Theater in New York City.
• In 2011, The Flying Karamazov Brothers appeared in London, England and in Madrid, Spain.