Ars Nova News

Come celebrate this New Year's Eve in luxury at New York City's opulent Russian supper club, Kazino (45th Street between Times Square and 8thAvenue) with food, drink, music, dancing and Tolstoy's hottest young lovers. Enjoy a 4-course Russian feast and a performance of one of Time Magazine's Top 10 Musicals of 2013, NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, followed by a New Year's Eve party with a DJ and open bar until 2am.

Theatre at St. Clement's will host the World Premiere of The Clearing, written by Jake Jeppson (Jerome Fellowship recipient) and directed by Josh Hecht (Drama Desk Award winner for Christine Jorgensen Reveals). The Clearing runs Off-Broadway from January 15 - February 9, 2014. Previews begin January 15 for a January 19 opening. Theatre at St. Clement's is located at 423 West 46th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in New York City. Click below to go behind the scenes with the cast and creative team!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, December 22, 2013 - Sunday, December 22, 2013.

Nestled in the heart of New York City's Theater District, a slice of Russian literature has been making waves. At an opulent Supper Club housed within custom pop-up tent called Kazino, located at 259 West 45th Street, Dave Malloy's NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, a musical adaptation of Volume 2, Part 5 of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, is enjoying a well-received revival, which is set to close on January 19, 2014. The musical premiered at Ars Nova in 2012, and has been consistently praised for its catchy original score, which enthusiastically blends both Russian folk and classical music with indie rock and electronic dance music. Now, this unforgettable score is preserved on Ghostlight Record's NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 (Original Cast Recording).

Ars Nova kicks off 2014 with Game Play, this year's incarnation of Ars Nova's annual Play Group production. Game Play, set to play 10 performances from January 29 - February 8, features original short plays and live music inspired by classic board game titles.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as 'rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable' by The Wall Street Journal, 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice - has moved to 54 BELOW for a six month run after four sell-out seasons in New York's West Village. The next show will be today, December 18 at 9:30 PM. Justin Sayre and The Meeting*, known for a signature blend of outrageous comedy, politics, culture and everything in between, were named one of the Top 10 nightclub shows of 2011 by Time Out New York, received the 2012 Bistro Award for 'Comedy Artistry' and a 2011 MAC Award nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Theatre at St. Clement's will host the World Premiere of The Clearing, written by Jake Jeppson (Jerome Fellowship recipient) and directed by Josh Hecht (Drama Desk Award winner for Christine Jorgensen Reveals). The Clearing runs Off-Broadway from January 15 - February 9, 2014. Previews begin January 15 for a January 19 opening. Theatre at St. Clement's is located at 423 West 46th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in New York City.

NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 - which concluded a hit summer engagement downtown - is now playing at the opulent custom venue Kazino in the Broadway Theater District, on West 45th Street between Times Square and 8th Avenue, for a 14-week limited run. NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 began performances on Friday, September 27 and was previously scheduled to run through Sunday, January 5. BroadwayWorld has just learned that the show has extended through Sunday, January 19th, 2014 at Kazino.

Joe's Pub has announced performances for this week (Dec. 16-22,) including BASQUIAT, 5TH ANNUAL NEW YORK CITY CHRISTMAS: A CONCERT TO BENEFIT ASTEP, MIKE ERRICO HOLIDAY SHOW, ETHAN LIPTON & HIS ORCHESTRA, JACKIE HOFFMAN: HEBE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, THE HOT SARDINES, THE ANNA COPA CABANNA SHOW, STARSKY + COX: YULE LIVE, LEA DELARIA: F*#K! IT'S CHRISTMAS!, REVEREND BILLY & THE STOP SHOPPING CHOIR, and JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND AND FRIENDS: LET IT SHOW!.

On Her Shoulders presents a staged reading of A Bold Stroke for a Wife by Susanna Centlivre, directed by Rebecca Patterson and edited by Tasha Gordon Solomon, tonight, December 16, 2013. The Play in Context, a special component contextualizing the script in its historical time and place, will be delivered at the top of the evening. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 6:45pm curtain; tickets are free to the public. The performance is at the New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street. R.S.V.P to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com.

Ars Nova 54: A New Year's Eve Spectacular is set for December 31 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Prices: $150 - $300.

The Imaginary Menagerie, the cabaret stage show, concludes its yearlong residency at The McKittrick Hotel with a grand cabaret on Wednesday, December 18th at 10:30PM in The McKittrick's clubroom, The Heath.

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its holiday highlights (Dec. 15 - 31), featuring performances by JOHN ROBERTS, 5TH ANNUAL NEW YORK CITY CHRISTMAS, MIKE ERRICO, JACKIE HOFFMAN, THE HOT SARDINES, STARSKY + COX, LEA DELARIA, JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND, BABY DEE & LITTLE ANNIE, and SANDRA BERNHARD.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Other Desert Cities. A riveting new play by Pulitzer Prize nominee and creator of TV's hit drama Brothers & Sisters, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities was named the Outstanding Play by the Outer Critics Circle and called 'the best new play on Broadway' by The New York Times. Jackson Gay returns to direct this new production after helming the Alley Theatre's productions of August: Osage County, Red andIntelligence-Slave.

The world premiere of Laura Jacqmin's DO-GOODER opens 16th Street Theater's Season Seven performing January 16 - February 22, 2014 at 6420 16th Street in Berwyn, with a press opening of Thursday, January 23 at 7:30 PM. Directed by Artistic Director Ann Filmer, Do-Gooder is the first show in 16th Street's Season Seven 2014: How to Be Good.

When they made their anticipated London debut this fall, BBC Radio host Jo Good called Well-Strung 'absolutely amazing' after their on-air performance and interview for her show. In the States, they've also recently been called the 'hottest thing with a bow since Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games' by the New York Daily News. Well-Strung: the Singing String Quartet will make their West Coast debut with a series of concerts in four cities over the holiday season. The quartet will appear at Feinstein's in San Francisco on December 27 at 8pm and December 28 at 7pm; at Rockwell Table & Stage in Los Angeles on December 30 at 8pm; at Martini's Above Fourth in San Diego on New Year's Eve, December 31 at 7pm; and at The Copa in Palm Springs on January 3 and 4 at 8pm. The group has been on a hot streak: in addition to their recent London debut, they've just wrapped a three-month run at the prestigious Art House in Provincetown, two recent hit New York productions Off-Broadway in the past year, their first album just released in spring, and a new music video that has caught the eye of the national press. The new show will feature new arrangements of songs by Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift and Third Eye Blind among others as well as new material written by Jeffery Roberson (aka Varla Jean Merman). For tickets please visit www.well-strung.com.

Buzz22 Chicago has announced the casting for the World Premiere production of Laura Jacqmin's 'GHOST BIKE,' directed by Co-Artistic Director Sara Sawicki, February 27 - March 30, 2014 at Red Tape Theatre, 621 W Belmont Ave. Combining elements of Greek, African, and Chinese mythology, 'GHOST BIKE' depicts two best friends navigating the ultimate challenge to a friendship through an underworld beneath their home city of Chicago. 'GHOST BIKE' is Buzz22 Chicago's next production after their sold out and highly acclaimed production of 'She Kills Monsters' at the Steppenwolf Garage in Feb-April 2013.

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, now through December 22. All five plays celebrate Latino playwrights: The Upstairs Concierge, a contemporary farce about celebrity and baseball by Pulitzer Prize finalist (for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) Kristoffer Diaz; and The Solid Sand Below, an examination of the intoxicating nature of war which Martin Zimmerman developed during his time as a member of the Goodman's Playwrights Unit, and which was selected for the 2013 National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the workshop productions below!

54 BELOW presents Ali Stroker in 'Finding Glee' tonight, December 10, 2013 at 7pm. 'Finding Glee' tells the story of Ali Stroker's unexpected journey to the FOX hit show GLEE, with all of the road bumps and successes along the way. Ali belts out musical theatre classics and radio hits as she shares these hilarious and heartwarming stories.

Barnes & Noble will celebrate the release of the new Ghostlight Records cast recording NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 with a special in-st0re performance and CD signing today, December 10, the CD release date.