Audra McDonald News

The Saint Mary's College Department of Communication Studies, Dance, and Theatre is proud to welcome writer, comedian, and actress Casey Whitaker to campus as this year's Margaret M. Hill Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence. Whitaker is a member of Second City improvisational troupe, who spent a week on campus in March 2015 as part of the Margaret M. Hill Endowed Visiting Artist series. Whitaker is directing Saint Mary's theatre students in the spring production, a play titled Lucky, Liar, Loser, which she wrote herself. The play will run April 27-30 in Little Theatre.

Full casting details for the smash summer musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story have been announced prior to runs at both Bucks County Playhouse and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

On Friday, May 19, 2017 at 9:30 pm at Feinstein's/54 Below, 'Central Park & Other Dreams,' under the musical direction of Marty Ashby, the GRAMMY Award Executive Producer of MCG Jazz, will celebrate the sights and sounds of the Big Apple with performances by the jazz world's coolest musicians, featuring multi-award winning artist Vivian Reed (Bubbling Brown Sugar) and internationally acclaimed vocalist and guitarist Allan Harris.

An invitation-only reading of the new musical Temple will take place on Friday, April 28th at 3pm at Signature Theatre (rehearsal studio - 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036).  Temple features a book and lyrics by Silvia Peto, music by Norman Durkee, additional music by Constantine Kitsopoulos, and will be directed by Gabriel Barre.

???????Bay Area Cabaret celebrates their season finale with Tony and Grammy Award-winner Billy Porter performing Broadway and Soul. Entertainment weekly says, 'Billy Porter is remarkable in a star-making turn." As the irrepressible Lola in the musical Kinky Boots, Billy made an indelible mark on Broadway when his electrifying performance earned him the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critic Circle Awards.

Emelin Theatre has announced the lineup of May 2017 events. See the full schedule below!

Tony and Grammy Award winner Billy Porter will be teaching a master class to students from Kean University's Theatre Conservatory on Thursday, April 27. It is his way of paying it forward to the next generation of stage performers.

New Amsterdam Singers (NAS), led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, will present its final concert of the season titled "Life Is But a Dream," featuring premieres of works by American composers Robert Paterson, Ronald Perera, and Ben Moore inspired by poetry and folk melodies, and a World-Premiere Commission based on Shakespeare texts by Matthew Harris in honor of the chorus's upcoming 50th anniversary. The concert will take place Thursday, June 1, 2017, at 8:00 p.m., at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, 554 West End Avenue (at 87th Street).

The Public Theater will kick off the 2017-18 season in September with a free Public Works musical adaptation of AS YOU LIKE IT, adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Directed by Laurie Woolery, AS YOU LIKE IT will once again feature over 200 actors and community members alongside equity actors. Now in its fifth season, this unforgettable Public Works musical adaptation about chance encounters and self-discovery, will run for five nights for free, September 1-5, at the Delacorte Theater.

In a not-too-distant future where no one dies, a family navigates life's big questions during an annual road trip in Zack Zadek's new musical Deathless.

Third Street Music School Settlement, the nation's longest running community school, has announced that this year's Spring Gala will honor Grammy-Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots, Clarfeld Financial Advisors, and Beverly Harper, Third Street Safety Director of nearly two decades.

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald graces the cover of Variety's 'Power of Women' issue. The Broadway alum is being recognized by the magazine for her work with Covenant House, an organization that helps homeless teens in 30 cities across six countries.

Tony Award-winners Patina Miller (Pippin) and Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago) will announce the 2017 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award later this morning, April 19, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. at Sardi's (234 West 44th Street, 2nd Floor).

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), closes its 75th anniversary season with Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland on April 27, 2017 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall (57th Street and 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019). The production will be conducted and directed by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling and will feature Kelli O'Hara (Contrary Mary), Bill Irwin (Master Toymaker), Christopher Fitzgerald (Alan), Lauren Worsham (Jane), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Tom Tom), Jonathan Freeman (Uncle Barnaby), Chris Sullivan (Gonzorgo), Jeffrey Schecter (Roderigo), Michael Kostroff (Chief Inspector Marmaduke), and Blair Brown (The Narrator), with the 130 singers of MasterVoices and Orchestra of St. Luke's. Musical Staging by Andrew Palermo, Costume Consulting by Tracy Christensen, and Concert Adaptation by Joe Keenan and Ted Sperling.

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director, Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) has announced today that Broadway husband-and-wife royalty -- 6-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) and Tony Award nominee Will Swenson (Hair) -- will host the upcoming 83rd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon.

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The Actors Fund announced today a partnership with the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) on a new ongoing film series, 'Life on the Stage: Conversation and Film.' The series will focus on the stories, work, and lives of people in the performing arts.

Six-time Tony winner and reigning Queen of Broadway - plus 'Olivier Award presenter', jokes partner-in-crime Seth Rudetsky in his introduction (though surely that's just a matter of time, with her Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill coming to Wyndham's this summer) - lauded actress and singer Audra McDonald is the consummate pro. If further proof were needed, she's currently at Leicester Square Theatre offering a veritable master class in cabaret.