Neohumanist Hope Offered Amid Dark Days

Neohumanist Hope Offered Amid Dark Days
by | Oct 17, 2023 | New Haven Independent

Dada Shambhushivananda looks at the wars and ecological disasters ravaging the planet, and sees a need for human beings to change our way of thinking. more

State $$ Flows Toward A Less Wet Whalley

State $$ Flows Toward A Less Wet Whalley
by  | Jun 14, 2023 | New Haven Independent

John Cavaliere saw reason Wednesday to hope that water won’t stream into Lyric Hall in future rainstorms, now that state money is on the way to plan how to protect the heart of Westville from future floods.. more

Lyric Hall goes with the Flow

Lyric Hall goes with the Flow
by  and  | Feb 18, 2022 | New Haven Independent

Restoration is in full swing at Westville Village’s hub of reinvention. The work was taking place inside Lyric Hall, the circa 1913 vaudeville theater at 827 Whalley Ave. that John Cavaliere has revived and repurposed for the past 15 years. more

Old West

Old West
BY Kathy Leonard Czepiel | June 5, 2020 | Daily Nutmeg

The small business district of Westville Village, which came of age in the second half of the 19th century, is special in part because its long history as a center of industry and commerce is still visible today more

Black & Ugly & Here

Black & Ugly & Here
BY Lucy Gellman | February 21, 2019 | Arts Paper

We are standing in a waterpark with Porsha Olayiwola and her lover. The sun is high overhead, warming their skin. It’s one of those exposed shoulder days, those thigh touching thigh days. One of those bathing suits are on and joy is permitted kind of days. And then, on the fourth waterslide, the attendant asks Olayiwola to get on a scale. more

“Cabaret” by The Harpers

“Cabaret” by The Harpers
BY Noah Golden | Jul 6, 2018 | Onstage Blog
Bracingly original, astonishingly resourceful and daringly theatrical. These are phrases I often associate with artists like John Doyle, Ivo Van Hoe or Michael Arden, directors who reinvent and reinvigorate everything they touch. These aren’t phrases, however, I often associate with the local theater scene.  …read more

“Cabaret” Brings Sex and Fascism to Lyric Hall

“Cabaret” Brings Sex and Fascism to Lyric Hall
BY Karen Marks | Jul 5, 2018 | The Arts Paper
At the engagement party of their landlady and her Jewish fiancee, Cliff Bradshaw and Sally Bowles huddled together in one part of the room. They looked over to a small crowd, where party guests broke into the patriotic German anthem—and Nazi marching song—“Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” .read more

A Coarse, Cacophonous, Compelling ‘Cabaret’ In New Haven

A Coarse, Cacophonous, Compelling ‘Cabaret’ In New Haven
BY Christopher Arnott | Jun 26, 2018 | Hartford Courant
There’s a new theater company in town, The Harpers, and its inaugural season begins June 22 with a production of “Cabaret.” The Kander and Ebb classic musical will continue for two more weekends through July 15 at Lyric Hall on Whalley Avenue….read more

Chilling Cabaret Demands Attention

Chilling Cabaret Demands Attention
BY E.A. MCMULLAN | Jul 2, 2018 | New Haven Independent
Sam Plattus, director of Cabaret — playing now at Lyric Hall in Westville until July 15 — met us, his guests, with warmth and enthusiasm on our way into the auditorium. We found the stage filled with the cast in their attire, quiet chatter and knowing smirks abounding as they managed their preparations. Just after a hush settled over the whole room, Plattus walked to the foot of the apron. read more

New theater troupe offers ‘Cabaret’ at Lyric Hall in New Haven

New theater troupe offers ‘Cabaret’ at Lyric Hall in New Haven
BYJoe Amarante | Jun 22, 2018 | New Haven Register
There’s a new theater company in town, The Harpers, and its inaugural season begins June 22 with a production of “Cabaret.” The Kander and Ebb classic musical will continue for two more weekends through July 15 at Lyric Hall on Whalley Avenue….read more

Sara Hope, All Strings Attached

Sara Hope, All Strings Attached
By Leah Andelsmith | May 22, 2018 | The Arts Paper
Sara Hope Hill stepped out onto the worn floorboards of Lyric Hall’s front room. Behind her, a miniature stage fashioned from old chair legs and a sturdy work table held eerily intriguing puppets with elongated fingers and bare ceramic faces. read more

The Other Guys Tour Video

The Other Guys Tour
Follow The Other Guys as they tour the USA January 2018!   New Haven, hometown of our very own Thomas Halvorsen, saw us play gigs at the beautiful Lyric Hall Theatre and at Yale in collaboration with Something Extra. We squeezed in a trip to the football field and ate a lot of tacos. As usual, plenty of sweating, singing and socializing!     Watch the video

The Other Guys

The Other Guys
By Robert DiGioia | January 11, 2018 | New Haven Register
Hopkins School alum and New Haven native Thomas Halvorsen, 19, is taking a break from his studies at the University of St. Andrews to tour the East Coast and Toronto…Read More

Dream Train Podcast

Dream Train: A Radio Play

After a sold out run at Lyric Hall, it was decided to take “Dream Train” to the airwaves!  It is a poignant, thought provoking musical radio play that can be described as The Polar Express meets A Christmas Carol, with a modern twist.  The show is appropriate for listeners age 5-105!

LIsten here

Betsy Ross Comes To Lyric Hall

Betsy Ross Comes To Lyric Hall
BY Daniel Eugene | Nov 7, 2017 | The Arts Paper
Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School (BRAMS) is an inter-district middle school that incorporates and emphasizes the practice of performance art, literary art, and visual art to provide a learning environment …read more

How Rick Omonte Is Bringing Niger To New Haven

How Rick Omonte Is Bringing Niger To New Haven
BY Brian Slattery | Sep 22, 2017 | New Haven Independent
For New Haven-based musician and sometimes promoter Rick Omonte, music is a contagion. “It’s like a parasite or a bug,” he said in an interview last week. “You might walk by a window and hear something, and then it’s in your head. And then you hear …read more

Right Space, Team To Make A Movie

Right Space, Team To Make A Movie
BY  | Jul 31, 2017 | New Haven Independent
The cameras were in focus, the actors in position, the lights, and furniture in the antique barroom rearranged in preparation for the next scene of the movie. But just as the various players…read more

All Aboard The “Dream Train”

All Aboard The “Dream Train”
BY Lucy Gellman | July 21, 2017 | New Haven Independent
The Dream Train is, at first glance, disarmingly simple. As we learn in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Dawn (Ariana Valdez) and Ezra (Tim Smith) are close friends. They play for hours together … read more

Cinema Gets Strange At Lyric Hall

Cinema Gets Strange At Lyric Hall
BY Karen Ponzio | June 19, 2017
Alex Dakoulas, owner of Strange Ways in Westville, had been enjoying the weekly underground movies being shown at Lyric Hall on Whalley Avenue, down the street from his own shop every Tuesday.  read more

Westville Welcome Madame Thalia | New Haven Independent

Westville Welcome Madame Thalia!
BY Lucy Gellman | Jan 16, 2017 | New Haven Independent
Zohra Rawling was racking her brain, trying to explain all of the things that a recent beau had been doing to make her feel that special, warm tingly feeling from her nose to her toes, that flutter within her chest and stomach… read more

Benefit concert raises money to support Standing Rock

Benefit concert raises money to support Standing Rock
BY Caitlin Westerfield | December 06, 2016 | Yale Daily News
On Sunday afternoon, 200 people came to New Haven’s Lyric Hall to listen to live music and raise money to support the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The concert raised $2,968, nearly triple the original goal, and included…read more

Lyric Hall Makes Noise For Toys

Lyric Hall Makes Noise For Toys
BY Alessanrdo Powell | November 19, 2015 | New Haven Independent
“Can you remember the best Christmas ever?” asked Mike Miglietta, aka noise artist Parlay Droner. “How about the worst?” Noise for Toys, an outgrowth of Drink Deeply’s Elm City Noise Festival, is set to ring in the Yuletide spirit on Friday at Lyric Hall in Westville, where the festival’s proud parents, Margaret Milano and Miglietta, celebrated their engagement …read more

Collector Communities & the Magnetism of Obsolete Media

Collector Communities & the Magnetism of Obsolete Media
BY nemmcoalition | January 17, 2016 | NEMMC
The rush. There’s a rush you get when you’re rifling through boxes and crates of VHS tapes hoping to stumble upon that rare gem you’ve been looking for since high school. These boxes seem to always have a similar scent, that faintly familiar smell of a basement closet or a relative’s apartment (and that relative is always a heavy smoker.) The hunt is something I know all too well about. Since middle school I’ve obsessed over horror films and have spent (and continue to spend) hours researching, hunting for, and collecting movies on a variety of (mainly now obsolete) formats: laserdisc, betamax, VHS, ...read more

Be Dazzled

Be Dazzled
BY Dan Mims | January 22, 2016 | The Daily Nutmeg
New Haven >> A superb playlist. Whimsical lighting. Eye-popping outfits. Everybody dancing. Those are the makings of a legendary party. And that’s a good way to describe what’s happening for the next two nights at Lyric Hall, where Escapade: An Unusual Experience gets three stagings“Legendary party” is a good description, yes, but it’s not complete. …read more

Radical Shakespeare in ‘Wretched State’ at Lyric Hall Saturday

Radical Shakespeare in ‘Wretched State’ at Lyric Hall Saturday
BY Register Staff | April 20, 2016 | The New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN >> Billed as “A night of radical Shakespeare: Films, Music, Art Performance,” a city-based art collaborative called Art Secession Cabal will present “O Wretched State! O Bosom Black as Death!” Saturday at Lyric Hall Theater on Whalley Avenue. The 8 p.m. show is timed to the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and will include artists, filmmakers and artwork, some of which will explore the tragic, supernatural and magical…more….

Tet Offensive Breaks New Ground

Tet Offensive Breaks New Ground
BY Lucy Gellman | Sept 12, 2016 | New Haven Independent

New Haven>> It was the end of the world and Brian Robinson, bouncing up and down in a flower-dotted yellow dress on the cusp on his 41st birthday, knew it. Behind him, a string quartet played on, rap-tap-tapping drums carrying its members toward a big finale. Before him, a a packed Lyric Hall was rising to its feet, audience members old and young bobbing to R.E.M. as he jumped off the stage and into a frenzied…READ MORE

Recently Restored Lyric Theatre in New Haven Presents Evening of Plays by Connecticut Playwrights

Recently Restored Lyric Theatre in New Haven Presents Evening of Plays by Connecticut Playwrights
BY  BWW News Desk | Sept. 14, 2016 | Broadway World
New Haven>>Long-time professional acting duo, Allan Zeller and Kimberly Squires of Milford, will perform their two-person show: “Zeller & Squires – Delightful Differences: An Evening of One-Act Plays” at the historical and beautiful Lyric Hall in New Haven, CT. Opening weekend is Oct. 14 & 15 at 8pm,which will be followed by two weekends…read more

Zeller & Squires ready ‘Delightful Differences’ one-acts Oct. 14 at Lyric Hall

Zeller & Squires ready ‘Delightful Differences’ one-acts Oct. 14 at Lyric Hall
BY E. Kyle Minor | Oct 7, 2016 | New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN >> Milford actors Allan Zeller and Kimberly Squires believe that, if they want something done, they should do it themselves. This brings us to “Zeller & Squires — Delightful Differences: An Evening of One-Act Plays,” the couple’s homegrown showcase opening Oct. 14 at New Haven’s Lyric Hall. “One reason we’re putting this together is that… read more

California Closes Out Summer At Lyric Hall

California Closes Out Summer At Lyric Hall
BY Brian Slattery | September 9, 2015 | New Haven Independent
NEW HAVEN >> “Happy Labor Day, everyone. Good to see some of you are wearing white. It’s the last chance of the summer season.” So Alex Burnet of Laundry Day amiably kicked off a night of music to a full house at Lyric Hall, on, of all things, the Monday of Labor Day weekend.  … read more

Where He Is, Music Intervenes

Where He Is, Music Intervenes
BY Lucy Gellman | AUG 3, 2015 | New Haven Independent
A high school student who had ever only thought of New Haven as a rough place. A teenager whose voice had been stifled by adversity for years, but had a “rip your face off” kind of quality to it when she opened her mouth and sang. An Afghan war veteran who …read more

Intervention, the musical version, at Lyric Hall in New Haven Friday

Intervention, the musical version, at Lyric Hall in New Haven Friday
BY Joe Amarante | July 7, 2015 | New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN >> Adam Christoferson’s Friday night music show at Lyric Hall should be a moving event — for all involved. The therapist/songwriter’s new LLC organization, Musical Intervention, scored a grant from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven to showcase songs written and performed by youth, veterans and others who have had difficult-but-inspiring life stories.  New Haven-raised Christoferson, 31, originally … read more

Professor B and the Army of Love VIDEO

Professor B and the Army of Love – Tough Times video shot on location at Lyric Hall
The new album release Tough Times on HMG records is a beautiful mixture of positive vibes about life that will warm your heart. A signature vintage sound, with across the board influences of rock, rhythm and blues, country, jazz, and gospel, unleashed on a roots reggae vibe. From an inspiring story, this artist takes his music over the top, and succeeds in capturing your conscious. (BMI)   Music Makes a Difference ….. shot on Location @ Lyric Hall 2015 Watch the video!

 

Lyric Hall Brings More Movies, Better Beer To Westville

Lyric Hall Brings More Movies, Better Beer To Westville
BY Thomas Breen | JUL 9, 2015 | New Haven Independent
A young, handsome doctor in a white lab coat hunches his shoulders and stares across the screen at his colleague. In between them stands a maze of tubes and wires, a half-filled beaker secured tightly to a metal post, and a tray of dark, gelatinous liquid holding … read more

‘Paintings on Salmon’ exhibit latest addition to thriving New Haven art scene

‘Paintings on Salmon’ exhibit latest addition to thriving New Haven art scene
BY Jason C Diaz | APRIL 22, 2015 | New Haven Register
Resident Noé Jimenez 25, who graduated from Hamden’s Paier College of Art in 2011, said he is very content with the art he is now producing. “I like where I am right now with my work, and I’m glad that I went through something like that … read more

Noé Jimenez Paintings at Lyric Hall

Noé Jimenez Paintings at Lyric Hall
BY Sarah Fritchey | APRIL 2015 | Critics Picks, Artforum.com
Thirty-six paintings by Noé Jimenez hang in clusters around the salon of this Vaudeville theater. Sporting irregular, petal-shaped manes of striped wood that seem to expand and contract from their centers, the works suggest… read more

Effort Underway to Save New Haven’s Lyric Hall

Effort Underway to Save New Haven’s Lyric Hall
BY Randall Beach | MARCH 5, 2015 | New Haven Register
John Cavaliere will be the first to tell you he has always been “a dreamer.” But dreams don’t pay the bills, especially in today’s economy.
And so now, Cavaliere, who 10 years ago bought … read more

Wine & Fun May Mix In Westville, Not On Grand

Wine & Fun May Mix In Westville, Not On Grand
BY Aliyya Swaby | DEC 10, 2014 | New Haven Independent
Westville’s Lyric Hall will now have permission to sell beer and wine at its shows, while a Grand Avenue restaurant may serve, too—minus the live entertainment. That is the upshot of decisions made Tuesday night by the Board of Zoning Appeals. The board unanimously approved licenses allowing Lyric Hall and Grand Avenue restaurant La Cabana to serve beer and wine. But community complaints led the board to nix the part of La Cabana’s … read more

Macbeth, The Murder Ballad

Macbeth, The Murder Ballad
BY Brian Slattery | DEC 9, 2014 | New Haven Independent
MacCoy is a small-time drug dealer somewhere in Appalachia. Little Lady is the mother of his unborn child. They’re hot for each other and desperate to improve their lives. MacCoy’s uncle has a better thing going. So early in the play, Little Lady convinces “Mac” that they have to kill him and take over. Sound familiar? …read more

New Haven’s Lyric Hall gets tavern license

New Haven’s Lyric Hall gets tavern license
BY Mary E. O’Leary | DEC 9, 2014 | New Haven Register
Westville neighbors couldn’t say enough good things about their neighbor John Cavaliere and his loving restoration of Lyric Hall. Whatever he needs to allow the community performance space in Westville Village to thrive was OK with them. The Board of Zoning Appeals took their advice Tuesday and allowed Cavaliere to seek a tavern license to serve wine and beer at the musical, theater and movie programs at Lyric…. read more

 

Adoption Journeys Celebrated

Adoption Journeys Celebrated
BY David Sepulveda | NOV 18, 2014 | New Haven Independent
Event sponsors insisted it was not a workshop or seminar, but it had all the hallmarks of one. Flip charts with prompts scrawled in magic marker lined the walls of the hall. On tables sat programs to go along with bright-red information packets. November is National Adoption Awareness Month and invited speakers drove shards of awareness into every heart present. …read more

Vincent Price’s House of Horror film-fest

Vincent Price’s House of Horror film-fest
OCT 12, 2014 | AXS ENTERTAINMENT

Vincent Price lives! The beloved actor will be highlighted in a special film-festival presented by New Haven Cinematheque, a new local organization devoted to bringing repertory cinema to the greater New Haven, Connecticut area.  … read more

A “One City” Jam

A “One City” Jam
BY Paul Bass | JUN 12, 2013 | New Haven Independent
The ghost of Miles Davis haunted an old Vaudeville theater—and racked up some coins for a modern-day mayoral campaign. A jazz quartet summoned Davis’s classic cool-jazz composition “All Blues” at a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Henry Fernandez. The musicians performed Tuesday night from the stage of the restored Lyric Hall, a one-time Vaudeville hall in Westville village… read more

 

LYRIC HALL: A MAGICAL NEW HAVEN LANDMARK

LYRIC HALL: A MAGICAL NEW HAVEN LANDMARK
By Sarah Cristiteillo Heneghan for GROOVE Magazine
How do you describe a place when it leaves you speechless? As you enter the enchanting world of Lyric Hall it has a funny way of taking your breath away. However, when you finally do catch your breath you may agree with theater goers and critics alike in saying that this place is welcoming, homey and intimate… read more

Clinic Blooms As Communities Unite

Clinic Blooms As Communities Unite
BY David Sepulveda | New Haven Independent | FEB 26, 2013

A spirit of giving and fellowship enveloped a crowd of supporters who came to Westville’s Lyric Hall Friday, with the common purpose of raising funds for a modest health clinic in Ejemekwuru, Imo State, Nigeria. The project, sponsored by New Haven’s MaryCare organization, brought… read more

Communities Join To Raise A Clinic

Communities Join To Raise A Clinic
BY David Sepulveda | New Haven Independent | FEB 14, 2013
Despite a U.S. health care system in transition and often described as being broken, the majority of Americans can still access health care when needed. It is difficult for us to imagine what it might be like to live with no health care, no… read more

Words and music of Bob Dylan come to New Haven

Words and music of Bob Dylan come to New Haven
Posted by Southern News | Jan 29, 2013 | by Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter
Bob Dylan’s words and music have been moving and inspiring people for more than 50 years, and his songs have been covered, covered and covered in that long stretch of time. For a short time right now  in the Westville section of New Haven, Dylan’s music and words are being used to portray the unbelievable mark the man has left on the musical landscape in Long Time Gone: Words & Music by Bob Dylan.  read more

This Is Not Bob Dylan

This Is Not Bob Dylan
By Paul Bass | New Haven Independent | Jan 25, 2013
This is BettySoo.
This is BettySoo performing a Bob Dylan song on opening night at Lyric Hall. This is BettySoo singing like BettySoo. Playing guitar like BettySoo. Not like Bob Dylan.
Praise the lord—and pass the microphone. read more and see some clips from the show

It’s a Long Story

It’s a Long Story 
January 22, 2013 | Written for The Daily Nutmeg by Christopher Arnott
Bob Dylan—or at least a reasonable facsimile of him—is back in town. Quebec-based writer/producer Peter Landecker portrays the music legend in the “theatrical biography”Long Time Gone: Words & Music by Bob Dylan. The Dylan character read more

A Tribute to Bob Dylan Opens in New Haven on Jan. 18

A Tribute to Bob Dylan Opens in New Haven on Jan. 18
By Christopher Arnott, January 14, 2013 | CT.com
If the very thought of a Bob Dylan tribute show makes you feel like there’s no direction, makes you feel like going home, makes you break just like a little girl… well, don’t think twice. It’s all right. read more 

Lyric Hall Sings Away The Apocalypse

Lyric Hall Sings Away The Apocalypse
By Allan Appel | JAN 1, 2013 | New Haven Independent
It was 9:15 p.m. John Cavaliere was slicing garlic and uttering incantations warmed by his 1930s gas stove in his cozy kitchen off the performance space. Composer and chanteuse Chrissy Gardner (pictured) was at the piano running through her big upbeat “Buddhist Blessing.” read more

Westville Jazz Holiday Celebration

Westville Jazz Holiday Celebration
Chris Randall | I Love New Haven | Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday night  Lyric Hall hosted a festive Jazz Celebration in Westville. Money was raised to purchase new instruments for young musicans, and towards the repairs of Lyric Hall. See the photos!

Arts Council Hails Those Who Go “Against the Grain” BY Allan Appel | DEC 10, 2012 8:08 AM

Arts Council Hails Those Who Go “Against the Grain”
Cavaliere was one of five people or institutions to receive the Arts Council’s 2012 awards for their contributions
New Haven Independent, by Allan Appel | DEC 10, 2012

COLE PORTER AND LYRIC HALL – A BENEFIT FOR LYRIC HALL

COLE PORTER AND LYRIC HALL – A BENEFIT FOR LYRIC HALL  Watch the video! 

Mission0 Video shot at Lyric Hall

Mission 0 shoots their new video at Lyric Hall
Mission 0 chose the haunting environment of Lyric Hall Theatre for their new single “Disappear.” The video features Megan Chenot on vocals and the other band members, Joel Melendez and  Chrissy Gardner, make their appearances as characters in the video. Stacey Kigner of Soviet Bloc Party adds mood with her acrobatics.

Daily Nutmeg 5-4-12

A Hall for All
Written and photographed by Christopher Arnott | May 04, 2012 | Daily Nutmeg

Connecticut Magazine june 2011

Celluloid Dreams
by Cathy P. Ross | June 2011 | Connecticut Magazine