Alan Jay Lerner News

For its 22nd annual Spring Gala, the Kennedy Center will salute the more than 13 year tenure of Kennedy Center president Michael M. Kaiser with Camelot in Concert on Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. The famed 1960 musical features book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner with music by Frederick Loewe and this semi-staged concert version will be adapted, directed and choreographed by Tony Award® nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge. The concert staging will be accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director James Moore. With this concert, Camelot makes its Kennedy Center debut. One of the co-chairs of the 2014 Spring Gala will be Laysha Ward, President, Target Community Relations.

The 5th Avenue Theatre will present a concert version of Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning musical, GIGI, May 16 through the 18th, 2014. The musical, which has been announced for a Broadway opening in 2015, will be performed in a glamorous concert setting, complete with a revised book.

There have been oodles of books written about public speaking, among them Dale Carnegie's timeless masterpieces, yet this one is unlike any other. Because, while also covering the basics, it features unusual techniques found nowhere else that bring speeches and presentations to riveting life, and enable speakers to mine fear to their advantage.

The Daily Mail has debuted a newly-uncovered video of an 11-year-old Kate Middleton starring in her 1993 school production of MY FAIR LADY as Eliza Doolittle. Check out snippets of scenes from the performance below!

The Cleveland POPS Orchestra with Carl Topilow pays tribute to the musical genius of Marvin Hamlisch in a special concert at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, February 21st in Severance Hall. The concert will feature three of the performers who worked with Hamlisch and knew him well. Broadway legends Donna McKechnie, Jodi Benson, Doug LaBrecque, along with POPS conductor Topilow, will share behind-the-scenes experiences and personal conversations they had with Marvin.

The question of who determines a child's fate amidst drug addiction, religion and child custody laws takes center stage in Rebecca Gilman's newest work, Luna Gale, directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls.

Goodman Theatre introduces a new subscription package for 2014, 'Great Women at Play,' featuring works written and directed by a handful of the most popular female playwrights working in the American theater today. This special package for women-and men-includes five plays for the price of four, a complimentary visit to the exclusive Goodman Lounge and the opportunity to win a $100 gift certificate from the Goodman's preferred restaurant partner, Petterino's. Visit GoodmanTheatre.org/GreatWomen for more information, and check out a video of the artists involved below!

On Monday, January 20, the company of Broadway's Tony Award-winning musical smash Chicago is pleased to welcome back Olivier Award nominee Brent Barrett in a new return engagement to the starring role of 'that silver-tongued Prince of the Courtroom,' Billy Flynn.

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is celebrating 10 years of Broadway POPS! with a concert starring Michael Feinstein, master of The Great American Songbook, on Saturday, February 8, at 8 pm at Richardson Auditorium on Princeton University Campus. The concert continues a tradition of quality pops programming featuring top Broadway artists accompanied by the PSO, and will be conducted by Sam Kriger.

Muny Executive Producer Mike Isaacson announced today the directors, choreographers and music directors for the Muny's 2014 Season, which opens on June 16 with Billy Elliot The Musical. "We're so happy these exciting artists are creating our 2014 season," said Isaacson. "This is a challenging season, one with incredible variety and power. We're fortunate that such extraordinary talents will be creating our 'Muny Magic.'"

Stage and screen legend Julie Andrews returns for the fifth time to host the festive annual New Year's celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim from Vienna's Musikverein.

Follow Lyrics & Lyricists over the rainbow to the West Coast and the glory days of MGM. On January 11, 12and 13 Tony Award® winner Kathleen Marshall makes her L&L debut as guest artistic director for Going Hollywood, a singing, dancing, Technicolor celebration of the silver screen's greatest musicals, featuring Cameron Adams, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Joshua Henry, Jeremy Jordan, Rob McClure and Rachel York.

A new crop of local talent joins Goodman Theatre's artistic team for the 2013/2014 Season. The four Chicago-based writers named to the fourth season of the Playwrights Unit-a year-long residency program designed to support and develop new works-include Andrew Hinderaker, Gift Theatre ensemble member; Mickle Maher, cofounder of Theater Oobleck; Anne Garcia-Romero, a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists; and Laura Schellhardt, who oversees undergraduate playwriting at Northwestern University. A partnership with Chicago Dramatists, the Playwrights Unit meets twice per month with members of the Goodman's artistic team to discuss their plays-in-progress and provide feedback for one another. The program includes readings of the playwrights' works-in-progress at Chicago Dramatists in early 2014, and culminates in summer 2014 with staged readings of their completed works at the Goodman. Playwrights Unit alumni include Greg Allen, Alice Austen, Ike Holter and Christopher Oscar Peña (2012/2013 Season); Philip Dawkins, Nambi E. Kelley, Elaine Romero and Martin Zimmerman (2011/2012 Season); and Seth Bockley, Lisa Dillman, Laura Jacqmin and Rohina Malik (2010/2011 Season).

Now in its 10th year, Goodman Theatre's 2013 New Stages festival features five FREE new plays-two fully staged workshop productions performed in repertory plus three staged readings-in the Owen Theatre, today, December 7 - 22.

Stage and screen legend Julie Andrews returns for the fifth time to host the festive annual New Year's celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim from Vienna's Musikverein.

New Repertory Theatre's revival of Lerner and Loewe's 1961 Tony Award-winning musical places the emphasis where it belongs, on the passions of the star-crossed lovers. It evokes an era of youth, hope, and possibility that was embodied in the administration of President John F. Kennedy, whose assassination fifty years ago provides a somber backdrop to the production at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown.

The Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to present film great Leslie Caron (An American In Paris, Gigi, Fanny) in a comic and heartfelt valentine to the human condition, SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS, written by Richard Alfieri and directed by Michael Arabian (Waiting for Godot). Additional exciting casting news to be announced shortly! SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS will begin previews tonight, November 26 and will open on Saturday, December 7 at 7:30pm and run through Sunday, December 29, 2013 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

In March 2013, Bebe Neuwirth made her 54 BELOW debut with her one-woman cabaret STORIES WITH PIANO #4. Broadway Records preserved her cabaret by beautifully recording her Thursday, March 21 performance. Now, her ebullient and spirited cabaret has been made into a charming album entitled STORIES… IN NYC - Live at 54 BELOW. On the album, audiences are treated to Bebe Neuwirth's indefatigable Broadway belt, charismatic performances, and delightful personality as she delivers her brand of indefatigable star quality.

The Sydney season of the devilishly cheeky, fun-filled Broadway musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels will end on December 8, it was announced today by producer George Youakim from James Anthony Productions. The season had already been extended due to popular demand and wide-spread critical acclaim; however all good things must come to an end, with the final performance on Sunday December 8 at the Theatre Royal.

The most wonderful time of the year is underway as rehearsals begin this week for Goodman Theatre's A Christmas Carol, 'a joyous present for the entire family' (Chicago Sun-Times), in its 36th annual production. Directing the holiday favorite for the first time, Henry Wishcamper's production features all-new on stage magic-set elements, special effects and more. The cast of 27 (below, includes 14 new and 13 returning cast members) stars Larry Yando, who most recently appeared in Mary Zimmerman's production of The Jungle Book as Shere Khan, in his sixth turn as Ebenezer Scrooge and 8-year-old Matthew Abraham as Tiny Tim for the second year. A Christmas Carol runs tonight, November 16 - December 28 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre.