Anna Karen News

The League of Chicago Theatres announces the Theatre Today event line-up for the 2017-2018 Chicago theatre season, featuring one World Premiere per month. The Theatre Today events include works created and performed by a diverse range of playwrights and artists at theatres located in nine Chicago neighborhoods.

Olivier Award and KAIROS Prize-winning choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has joined the creative team of the musical adaptation of Alanis Morrisette's album Jagged Little Pill. American Repertory Theater artistic director Diane Paulus will helm the production, which will feature a book by Diablo Cody (Academy Award winner for her screenplay of Juno) and songs from Morrisette's Grammy-winning album, co-written by Glen Ballard.

The League of Chicago Theatres announces the Theatre Thursday event line-up for the 2017-2018 Chicago theatre season, featuring one World Premiere per month. The Theatre Thursday events include works created and performed by a diverse range of playwrights and artists at theatres located in nine Chicago neighborhoods.

Capital Stage will launch its 2017-18 Season: Future Tense with the Obie Award Winner and Sacramento Premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacob-Jenkins.

Bay Street Theater's Bay Street Under the Stars series presents FREE concert readings of plays and musicals in Mashashimuet Park every summer. This year, Bay Street will present Kiss Me, Kate with a book by Bella and Sam Spewack and music and lyrics by Cole Porter, tonight and tomorrow, August 25 & 26 at 7pm.

The Old Vic today announced full casting for Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, which returns to The Old Vic stage for a limited run opening on Tuesday 24 October, with previews from Sunday 15 October 2017, prior to international dates in Canada and the USA.

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, in association with Cecilia Lin and Hu Guo, has announced the cast and creative team of the New York premiere of the musical Desperate Measures, with book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg (Anna Karenina) and music by David Friedman (Scandalous). 

The Australian Ballet has just announced that it has partnered with Chicago's Joffrey Ballet to create a new joint production of Tolstoy's timeless masterpiece, Anna Karenina. In an all-Russian partnership, prolific and award-winning Russian choreographer, Yuri Possokhov will collaborate with award-winning Russian composer, Ilya Demutsky who has been commissioned to create a new score for this production.

Thinking himself worldly and experienced, Don Alfonso decides to relieve his young friends, Ferrando and Gugliemo, of their faith in sexual fidelity. He challenges them to a bet, promising that within 24 hours their fiancees will prove unfaithful. Outraged, they accept, but find the challenge too painfully revealing and too difficult to withstand. Dressed in clown's clothes, these young men break their own hearts and the hearts of their fiancees. A comedy that is a tragedy underneath is the perfect stuff for the uncanny genius of Mozart, so clearly revealed in this dazzling score.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the publication of the two-play volume Moliere, or The Cabal of Hypocrites and Don Quixote by audacious Russian political writer Mikhail Bulgakov.

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, in association with Cecilia Lin and Hu Guo, has announced the first mainstage production of the 2017-2018 season: the New York premiere of the musical Desperate Measures.

Capital Stage will launch its 2017-18 Season: Future Tense with the Obie Award Winner and Sacramento Premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacob-Jenkins. This poignant adaptation of a 19th century anti-slavery melodrama will be directed by star of stage and screen, and UCLA's professor of Theatre, Film and Television, Judith Moreland. An Octoroon will be the first production of Capital Stage's 13th Season, and will run from August 30 - October 1, 2017 with a Press Opening on Saturday, September 2, 2017 at 8pm.

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie today announced casting for three productions in his inaugural season - Of Kith and Kin, Desire Under the Elms and Uncle Vanya.

Producer Mark Cortale's acclaimed Broadway @ The Art House series in Provincetown, MA, will feature Melissa Errico, Broadway star of Finian's Rainbow, High Society, Anna Karenina, and a Tony nominee as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, starring on July 28 & 29, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host.

Shattered Globe Theatre has announced its 2017-18 Season, featuring three Chicago premiere productions!

Ellen McDougall today announced the full cast for The Unknown Island, her inaugural production of Artistic Director of Gate Theatre.  She directs Jon Foster, Hannah Ringham, Thalissa Teixera and Zubin Varla in the adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's short story which opens on 18 September, with previews from 11 September, running until 7 October. 

While the new musical MONEY TALKS isn't of Broadway caliber, there's a lot to like about both the book by Tony-nominated Peter Kellogg (ANNA KARENINA) and the score by Kellogg and David Friedman.

Tony Award nominee Melissa Errico has penned her second column in Cristina Cuomo's new magazine The Purist (in the current July issue). For her column 'Stories' in the June issue of this glossy wellness publication, Melissa wrote a piece on mindfulness and second thoughts, in which she next tackles the pursuit of pleasure.

Producer Mark Cortale's acclaimed Broadway @ The Art House series in Provincetown, MA, will feature Melissa Errico, Broadway star of Finian's Rainbow, High Society, Anna Karenina, and a Tony nominee as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, starring on July 28 & 29, with Seth Rudetsky as pianist and host.

CinemaLive and Shakespeare's Globe have just announced the first live cinema broadcast from this iconic, open-air theatre.