“This is just the beginning of a new era.”
Lady Gaga, Young Actors at Strasberg alumna
Lady Gaga, an alumna of the Young Actors at Strasberg program, announced her residency at the MGM Park Theatre on August 9 via her Instagram. Lady Gaga: Enigma will feature the pulse-pounding, uptempo jams which propelled Gaga into stardom. Four of the shows, however, will be entitled Lady Gaga: Jazz & Piano and will feature a stripped back version of Gaga first introduced to the world through Cheek to Cheek, her joint album with Tony Bennett. Amid the excitement of Lady Gaga’s time in Las Vegas, she has also recently wrapped filming A Star is Born, the third remake of the 1937 film of the same name.
“We’re creating a show unlike anything I’ve done before,” Gaga said of Enigma. According to PAPER Magazine, Enigma will harken back to the avant-garde era of the early days of Lady Gaga’s career. “[Her] poster look is a luminescent day-glo color story,” Matt Moen writes. “Gaga’s return to form evokes a couture Electric Daisy Carnival.” While Enigma is set to give fans the exuberant showgirl they love, Jazz & Piano will give Gaga the chance to show fans a gentler side and pour her heart into the music. Lady Gaga’s last stripped-down concert was held in 2015 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which may give fans a clue into what the Jazz & Piano experience might be. Neil McCormick of The Telegraph writes, “She really got to break loose, liberated from the production constraints of her own highly processed pop and exulting in her rich, deep, supple vocals and extraordinary musical command and charisma.”
Following in the footsteps of Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, and Barbara Streisand, Lady Gaga has left her mark on the iconic story that is A Star is Born. Gaga stars as Ally, an unknown singer who bursts onto the scene after being noticed by Jackson Maine, played by Bradley Cooper. W Magazine reports that reactions from an early screening of the film were of astonishment and amazement. “One major theatre owner predicted Oscar nominations across the board including Picture, Director, Actor and Actress,” Kyle Munzenrieder writes. The film’s trailer showcases Gaga’s powerhouse vocals while highlighting the insecurity and vulnerability she brings to Ally. “Almost everybody has told me they liked the way I sounded, but they didn’t like the way I looked,” she tells Cooper’s Jackson before her voice soars into the lyric “Watch as I dive in; I’ll never meet the ground.” It will undoubtedly be exciting to watch two method actors starring opposite each other on screen; Bradley Cooper is an alumnus of the MFA program at the Actors Studio Drama School.
The coming months will be an exciting time for Gaga as she ascends to new heights in her career. She is in an enviable position in her career to have Oscar buzz floating in the air whilst preparing to blow audiences away in Las Vegas. “I was made for this town,” Gaga says. “This is just the beginning of a new era.” Lady Gaga is a six-time Grammy Award winner, and she previously won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in American Horror Story: Hotel. She headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2017 and has sold out arenas across the globe during her six world tours. She is a fierce advocate for LGBT rights, and founded the Born This Way Foundation in support of queer youth in 2011. Lady Gaga is one of the bestselling artists of all time, with sales in excess of 27 million records. She is also a proud alumna of The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.
Tickets for Lady Gaga’s Las Vegas residency go on sale to the public on August 13 at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 PST, and performances begin at the MGM Park Theatre on December 28. A Star is Born is set to premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31 and will be released in theaters worldwide on October 5.
LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 28: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Lady Gaga performs during her ‘ENIGMA’ residency at Park Theater at Park MGM on December 28, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Park MGM Las Vegas)
Alumni News is written by NYU Tisch at Strasberg alumnus Will Brockman. If you are an alum and have a story you think should be featured, please email [email protected].