Arizona Theatre Company News

An all-star cast will take the stage at The 5th Avenue Theatre this fall in the celebrated organization's 15th new musical, Secondhand Lions. Based on the beloved film starring Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, Secondhand Lions springs to musical life in Seattle with a superbly talented cast of Broadway stars and Seattle musical theater actors. Lead by Tony Award nominees Gregg Edelman and Mark Jacoby, this adventure story also features Jason Danieley, Jenny Powers, Kevin Earley,Jared Michael Brown, Kendra Kassebaum, Sophia Anne Caruso, and Justin Huertas. Johnny Rabe, star of Broadway's A Christmas Story, takes center stage as Walter.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) is pleased to announce the hire of a new Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Porto. Porto joins STC from Entertainment Marketing in New York City, where he served as the President of a performing arts consulting company specializing in professional theatre and dance. Porto's duties at STC, which began Monday, July 8, 2013, include a leadership role in creating a new overall marketing strategy during the 2013-2014 Season.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater announced casting today for Ragtime, the sweeping musical which will kick off The Rep's 2013/14 60th Anniversary Season in the Quadracci Powerhouse theater.

American Stage Theatre Company announces the second play of our 2012-2013 Summer Series on our Mainstage: MY NAME IS ASHER LEV a new play by Aaron Posner, adapted from the best-selling novel by Chaim Potok. This production is an area premiere and winner of the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award for 'Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play'. Previews tonight, July 17 and the 18th. Opening Night is July 19 and the production runs through August 25.

Eighty-Eight Entertainment announces that the Chicago Premiere of THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE, starring internationally-acclaimed storyteller and pianist, Mona Golabek, is extending through July 7 due to popular demand at The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street . The production is adapted and directed by Hershey Felder and based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Golabek and Lee Cohen. The Chicago premiere has received rave reviews and follows successful productions in Los Angeles and Boston.

American Stage Theatre Company announces the second play of our 2012-2013 Summer Series on our Mainstage: MY NAME IS ASHER LEV a new play by Aaron Posner, adapted from the best-selling novel by Chaim Potok. This production is an area premiere and winner of the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award for 'Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play'. Previews July 17 & 18. Opening Night is July 19 and the production runs through August 25.

The poignant and provocative new musical, A Minister's Wife, makes its West Coast premiere at San Jose Rep today, June 20 - July 14, 2013. Based on George Bernard Shaw's well-known play Candida, this musical soars with its emotive and dazzling score by the award-winning composer of Adding Machine, Joshua Schmidt, and its beautiful lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen. The smart script by Austin Pendleton, a Tony-nominated director, actor and playwright, and graceful directing by the originator and award-winning director, Michael Halberstam, shape this musical into an adventurous evening of theatre. The Wall Street Journal says, 'This is the most important new musical since The Light in the Piazza ... to say that you mustn't miss it is to grossly understate the case.'

The beguiling thriller SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SUICIDE CLUB, a new script by Jeffrey Hatcher, takes the Park Square stage tonight for a week of previews before opening on June 14.

The poignant and provocative new musical, A Minister's Wife, makes its West Coast premiere at San Jose Rep June 20 - July 14, 2013.

Arizona Theatre Company announced today that David Ira Goldstein, ATC's Artistic Director since 1992, will be leaving the Company in December of 2013. In his 21 seasons as artistic director, Goldstein led the Company to unprecedented levels of attendance, critical acclaim, community support, educational outreach and national prominence. During his tenure, he produced over 200 plays, workshops, readings and presentations in Phoenix and Tucson, while personally directing more than 40 mainstage productions ranging from classics to new plays to musicals.

The Alley Theatre is currently presenting Jeffrey Hatcher's 2011 literary mash-up SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUICIDE CLUB. The play had its world premiere at The Arizona Theatre Company, and garnered mixed to positive reviews. In the play Jeffrey Hatcher attempts the tall order of mixing the literary genius and worlds of Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. The end result is a bland mystery with an entirely underwhelming climax.

The beguiling thriller SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SUICIDE CLUB, a new script by Jeffrey Hatcher, takes the Park Square stage next Friday for a week of previews before opening on June 14. A fast-paced mash-up of the unforgettable characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyleand The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson, this script has its roots in Park Square's last wildly popular homage to the great sleuth, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily (2010). "David Ira Goldstein (Artistic Director of the Arizona Theatre Company, former Artistic Director of Actor's Theatre of Saint Paul) and Jeff Hatcher were in the audience at that show," explains Park Square Artistic Director Richard Cook. "Jeff boasted he could write an even better Sherlock and David Ira said 'then I'll commission it.'" David Mann directs and Steve Hendrickson returns once again as the absurdly smart Holmes, this time in a thriller with multiple murders in which Holmes is either target or suspect. Three performances have been added to meet the demand for tickets.

The Laguna Playouse will present Hershey Felder's newest production, award-winning concert pianist Mona Golabek starring in the one-woman show, based on a true story, THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE. Adapted and directed by audience favorite Hershey Felder and based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Golabek and Lee Cohen, this music-filled evening recounts the personal story of Ms. Golabek's mother in Nazi-occupied Europe. THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE will perform for two weeks only beginning tonight, May 29 through Sunday, June 9 at the Laguna Playhouse, Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd. in Laguna Beach.

Eighty-Eight Entertainment announces that the Chicago Premiere of THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE, starring internationally-acclaimed storyteller and pianist, Mona Golabek, is extending through July 7 due to popular demand at The Royal George Theatre, 1641 North Halsted Street . The production is adapted and directed by Hershey Felder and based on the book The Children of Willesden Lane by Golabek and Lee Cohen. The Chicago premiere has received rave reviews and follows successful productions in Los Angeles and Boston.

Artists Rep is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's play Ten Chimneys from April 23 through May 26, 2013. This revealing comedy peers into the backstage lives of Broadway power-duo Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and summers spent at their legendary Wisconsin estate, Ten Chimneys.

The Department of Theater & Dance at UCSB continues its 2012-2013 season of drama and dance with the production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, directed by Irwin Appel. A Streetcar Named Desire performs tonight, May 10 - 19, 2013 in the A Streetcar Named Desire performs in the Performing Arts Theater on the UCSB campus.

Seattle Repertory Theatre's full 2013-2014 season was announced today by Artistic Director Jerry Manning. The new season features three world premieres by Northwest writers, two Broadway hits, and the addition of an American classic into the theatre's repertoire. The season will run from September 2013-June 2014.