Brian Crawley News

The winners of the 2020 Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater were announced today by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the Green by Grace McLean AND The Loophole by Jay Adana and Zeniba Now Each musical received a Staged Reading Award.

TheatreSquared (T2) Artistic Director Robert Ford and Executive Director Martin Miller today announced the 2020/21 TheatreSquared Season, the acclaimed company's first eight-play lineup for its fifteenth anniversary. Season packages are on sale today, with packages starting at $131 available by phone at (479) 777-7477 or online at theatre2.org/subscribe.

A single-act show, it could use an occasional shot in the arm. Some of the songs drag and none are especially memorable. As bus stories goes, the pacing is a long, long way from Speed. The central love triangle between Violet and two boys on the bus (military officers Monty and Flick) feels all too familiar, and its engagement with the theme of interracial romance (Flick is African-American, Monty and Violet are white) feels underserved in a show that is ultimately about self-shame and misguided faith. Still, the show...

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, announces its 66th season. The company's 2020/21 season will feature the sixth play in August Wilson's American Century Cycle, Two Trains Running, directed by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson; the Americana musical Violet, with book and lyrics by Brian Crawley and music by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Charles Newell; the culmination of Court's Oedipus Trilogy with the Sophocles classic Antigone, directed by Seret Scott; Caryl Churchill's Fen, directed by Vanessa Stalling; and a new production of Shakespeare's Othello, starring Kelvin Roston, Jr. and Timothy Edward Kane, adapted and directed by Charles Newell.

ABC has shared a first look at this Thursday's episode of A Million Little Things, featuring guest star Sutton Foster. 

According to TVLine, Broadway legend Sutton Foster will guest star on ABC's 'A Million Little Things.'

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today that it is now accepting submissions for the 2020 National Music Theater Conference. Writers may submit new musicals through the O'Neill's Open Submissions process through Friday, November 1, 2019. 

The musical A Little Princess by Andrew Lippa and Brian Crawley, is based on the 1905 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It first appeared on stage in Mountain View, California in 2004 and premiered in London in 2018. The story opens with Sara Crewe in her room at her school in London. She tells Becky, a maid at the school, about her life growing up in Africa and how she came to be in London. The musical takes the audience on a journey filled with memories, wild flights of imagination, magic, heartbreak, friendship, and love.

The Drama League has announced that award-winning actor, singer and dancer Sutton Foster is the Honoree at the 36th Annual Drama League Benefit Gala.

Updated September 2023: Finding your best audition song is crucial - especially as a young performer. Check out some great audition song options for kids of all ages and find out how to pick the perfect audition song if you're a kid or teenager!

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announces casting and creative teams for the summer season of new musicals and plays selected for development at the National Music Theater Conference and National Playwrights Conference.

This past week, two-time Tony Award winner and Broadway's next Marian the Librarian, Sutton Foster, received an honorary doctorate of music from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and spoke at the school's commencement ceremony for the graduating class of 2019. Check out the full video below!

Founding Executive Director Kathy Evans announced the 27 writers of nine new musicals for Rhinebeck Writers Retreat's summer weeklong residencies. This year's artists include Obie-winner Heather Christian, Kleban-winner Brian Crawley, TV and film writers Bekah Brunstetter (THIS IS US) and Cinco Paul (DESPICABLE ME), inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award winner Oliver Houser, and ASCAP Foundation scholarship winner Khiyon Hursey. The musicals cover a wide range of subjects. Four have LGBTQ themes: a historical look at Florida in the 1950s (IN A SUNSHINE STATE), a Palestinian/Israeli love story (BORDERS), a modern coming of age of a young black man (SEAN'S STORY PART I | THE AWAKENING), and a fantasy queer rock musical celebrating lady love (TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX). Two are darkly comedic historical musicals: one featuring Mary Magdelene (A.D. 16) and the second a WWII plot to foil Hitler (OPERATION MINCEMEAT). Other subjects include the opioid crisis (ALMOST HEAVEN), the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (THE GOLDEN SPIKE), and a mystery involving a woman with a sleep disorder (NARCOLEPSY).

Updated September 2023: Here are the best ideas for altos of songs to audition with and shows which should be familiar to your casting director but that they won't have heard twenty times already that day - be it your local community musical theatre, high school, college, or that big Broadway audition.

Town Hall Theatre Company (THT) is thrilled to announce four compelling plays and musicals for its milestone 75th 2019/20 Season, entitled TRANSFORMATIONS. Town Hall's TRANSFORMATIONS Season opens with Matthew Lopez's fabulously sassy comedy The Legend of Georgia McBride; continues with the West Coast premiere of an enchanting original new take on the classic Brothers Grimm story Cinderella: A Fairytale; followed by Anton Chekhov's final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard; and closes with the stirring Tony-nominated musical Violet. Subscription package sales are now available.

Vanguard Theater Company will present 'A Little Princess' for four performances in New York at the TBG Studio Theatre. Performances are May 10 - 12, with shows on Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2PM and 8PM, and Sunday at 2PM.

Two-time Tony-winning actress, singer and dancer Sutton Foster extends her Cafe Carlyle run, June 25-29. She'll also be performing June 11-22. At Cafe Carlyle, she'll perform Broadway favorites and original recordings, focusing on selections from her new album, Take Me to the World, and stories of how being a mother of a two-year-old has informed her work and changed her life.

The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans is officially in residence at Loyola University New Orleans! Based in the city that Williams called his home and his inspiration, the Tennessee William Theatre Company is the only professional theatre company in the U.S. committed solely to producing plays with a major focus on the works of America's greatest playwright.

Yesterday, BroadwayWorld exclusively broke the news that the two-time Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Emmy Award-winning star Hugh Jackman will make his highly anticipated return to Broadway in one of the most iconic roles in the musical theater canon, Professor Harold Hill, in Meredith Willson's beloved classic, THE MUSIC MAN.

VIOLET, music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics/book by Brian Crawley, opened on Broadway in 2014.  It is the story of Violet, a young woman with a disfigured face, on a quest for a miracle to heal her scars and therefore, solve all of her problems.  On the way, she learns that outward appearances are not always what they seem and to find true happiness, you have to look beyond what you see.