Michael Lawrence Quintos is a quiet, mild-mannered Art Director by day. But as night falls, he regularly performs on various stages everywhere as a Counter-Tenor soloist, actor, and dancer for The Men Alive Chorus since 2002. He's sung everything from Broadway, Jazz, R&B, Classical, Gospel and Pop. His musical theater roots started early, performing in various school musical productions and a couple of nationally-televised programs. The performing bug eventually brought him a brief championship run in the Philippines' version of "Star Search" before moving to Las Vegas at age 11. College brought him out to Orange County, California, where he earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in Film Screenwriting. He has spent several years as a designer and art director for various entertainment company clients, while spending his free time watching or performing in shows.
Follow Michael on Twitter at: twitter.com/cre8iveMLQ.
 Free Movie Mondays Return to Segerstrom Center for the Arts, July-Aug 2013
May 22, 2013
What has become an annual favorite outdoor arts series in Orange County, Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Free Movie Mondays---returning for its seventh summer---will continue the popular summer pastime of providing great entertainment on the Arts Plaza for OC audiences to enjoy. The five films in this year's line-up include: The Wedding Singer, Buena Vista Social Club, Disney's The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera, and Evita.
 BWW Reviews: FLASHDANCE Splashes Down on the OC
May 18, 2013
Despite having a cast of incredible triple threats, overall, FLASHDANCE: THE MUSICAL---the new, Broadway-bound stage musical based on the popular 80's-era movie of the same name---seems like a well-meant endeavor that needs a serious overhaul in its disjointed execution. The national tour company continues its Costa Mesa stop at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts through May 19.
 BWW Interviews: Tony Winner Betty Buckley Talks Upcoming OC Cabaret
May 16, 2013
Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Betty Buckley---who has been called 'The Voice of Broadway'---will be headlining a series of concerts as part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Cabaret Series from May 16 - 18 at the Samueli Theater. Called 'Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway,' the show will feature the living legend giving her own inimitable spin on classic Broadway tunes that have traditionally been written for male characters (the show also has a companion CD with a similar title). Buckley will be accompanied on stage by Grammy and two-time Emmy winner John McDaniel. Before she took her male-centric cabaret concert to Orange County, the 2012 Theater Hall of Fame inductee fielded questions from BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos.
 BWW Interviews: Jillian Mueller of FLASHDANCE National Tour Answers Our Silly Query
May 14, 2013
After spending time on Broadway and on tour, triple-threat actress Jillian Mueller can now be seen dancing up a (ha ha) storm in the National Tour production of FLASHDANCE, in which she plays leading lady Alex Owens---yes, the sexy steel mill worker who moonlights as a maniac, maniac, on the floor. The stage incarnation of the hit movie of the same name continues performances through May 19 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. While settling into her final week of shows here in Orange County, Ms. Mueller agreed to some of our silly questions. Thankfully, she played along!
 BWW Reviews: Delany and Weber Star in SCR's Witty World Premiere of THE PARISIAN WOMAN
May 3, 2013
In South Coast Repertory's amusingly naughty World Premiere production of Beau Willimon's THE PARISIAN WOMAN (now playing through May 5), 'Body of Proof' star Dana Delany plays Chloe, a morally ambiguous but undeniably tenacious Washington DC housewife with high political aspirations, especially for her husband (Steven Weber) who's seeking to be the next Attorney General. Armed with wit and sexuality, Chloe seduces her way through the intoxicating pursuit of power.
 BWW Reviews: SCR Stages World Premiere of SMOKEFALL
April 28, 2013
This year's main-stage attraction of SCR's annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, SMOKEFALL---a co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre directed by Anne Kauffman---starts off initially intriguing, as if first unveiling itself as a dark dramedy that follows three generations of an eccentric family living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the tolls that the passage of time imposes on their lives. But instead, what actually transpires through the course of its three acts is an uneven play that ultimately gets too bogged down in its own randomly structured quirkiness.
 BWW Interviews: Janet Dickinson, On the Road with BILLY ELLIOT
April 23, 2013
Each night---and sometimes even twice in a single day---actress Janet Dickinson gets to pretend to be a sassy, chain-smoking Brit in charge of a bunch of rowdy, screech-happy pre-teens at a community center ballet class in the current national tour production of BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL, now playing through April 28 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Before the tour's arrival in Orange County, Dickinson answered a few silly questions from BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos while on the road...
 BWW Reviews: Orange County Welcomes BILLY ELLIOT Back to So. California
April 23, 2013
I first reviewed the national tour of BILLY ELLIOT - THE MUSICAL during its triumphant five-week stop at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre a year ago (which you can read HERE) and found it to be quite an entertaining, well-executed show. Now an entire year has passed and the show has finally returned to Southern California, this time playing at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through April 28. Does it still hold up? In a special guest column, Robert Neale offers 'A Second Opinion' Review.
 BWW Reviews: OC Hosts Tony-winning Legend Barbara Cook's 85th Birthday Concert
April 16, 2013
Billed as Barbara Cook's Special 85th Birthday Concert, the Tony Award-winning soprano's one-woman concert of musical theatre songs, rare selections, and jazz standards at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa was met with well-earned---and well-deserved---adoring cheers throughout the evening. And if the concert was Cook's master class in musical performance, her latter interview with ASCAP's Michael Kerker was a symposium on how to be the best entertainer one can be.
 BWW Reviews: SCR Stages Emotionally-Gripping Play THE WHALE
March 29, 2013
Beautifully acted and heartbreakingly stirring, Samuel D. Hunter's excellent, emotionally-gripping play THE WHALE, plays at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through March 31. The play follows the story of Charlie (Matthew Arkin, in a truly transformative performance that many will remember for decades to come), a 600-pound online writing teacher whose health problems are coupled with deep-rooted emotional heartache.
 BWW Reviews: Charmingly Flawed CATCH ME IF YOU CAN Lands in L.A.
March 22, 2013
While certainly a fun, buoyant little show---featuring some enjoyable music from HAIRSPRAY composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as a very likable, extremely talented young actor, Stephen Anthony, at the center of its semi-autobiographical tale of successful grifting---CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: THE MUSICAL focuses much of its creative raison d'etre on its eye-catching razzle dazzle, and not enough on the fascinating story that's bubbling underneath. The non-Equity touring version of the short-lived 2011 four-time Tony nominated show, is now on a two-week layover at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles through March 24.
 BWW Interview: WICKED's Cliffton Hall Describes A Life in the Theater
March 5, 2013
Actor Cliffton Hall, who currently plays the role of Fiyero in the long-running First National Tour production of the blockbuster hit WICKED continues to have a very healthy, enviable career on the stage. Before Hall once again departs the role after WICKED's 4-Week Engagement in Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts comes to an end on March 17, the talented triple-threat chatted with BroadwayWorld about his life in the world of musical theater.
 BWW Interview: Tony-winning Legend Ben Vereen Joins OC's MenAlive for ACADEMY AFFAIR
February 21, 2013
Tony Award-winning stage and screen legend Ben Vereen is this year's Special Guest Star at ACADEMY AFFAIR 2013, the Annual Benefit and Community Awards Gala presented by MenAlive, the Orange County Gay Men's Chorus. The event takes place at the posh Center Club, located at the Garden Level of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Before Mr. Vereen arrived in Orange County to perform at the Benefit, he spoke with West Coast Contributing Editor Michael Lawrence Quintos about his blessed life and expansive career in the theater.
 BWW Reviews: Revamped Broadway-Bound JEKYLL & HYDE Makes Hollywood Debut
February 20, 2013
Now in the final stretches of its 25-week national tour before ultimately making its sit-down Broadway transfer later this Spring, the brand-new, revamped revival of JEKYLL & HYDE - THE MUSICAL has finally returned to Southern California for the next few weeks, this time playing performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood through March 3. Although this loud, Vegas-style reboot's changes are swathed in good intentions, very little---not even its trio of impressively talented lead singers---can truly eradicate the show's laughably grandiose histrionics, its weak book, and that inescapable cheese-factor.
 BWW Reviews: Hwang's Hilarious CHINGLISH Gets Translated for SCR
February 18, 2013
Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang's immensely funny CHINGLISH, a recent hit on Broadway, is now playing at South Coast Repertory through February 24. A co-production with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre -- and featuring almost the exact same cast from that Fall 2012 West Coast Premiere -- this witty, thoroughly engaging play examines the misunderstandings between two very diverse cultures that go well beyond a mere language barrier. Emerging from all the boisterous laughter is a play that truly illustrates the idea that for different cultures to really understand each other, they have to also really get each other, too.
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