Brian Crawley News

Several years ago, I remember watching the Tony Awards and seeing Broadway power couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker presenting the award for Best Score and getting all giddy and nerdy over it because "NEW SONGS!" Well that's how I feel every summer at Village Theatre's Festival of New Musicals. I get to see what's out there up and coming and maybe get to walk away seeing a new gem. And this year was no exception with a couple of shows blowing me away. Now, of course, these are workshops and staged readings of shows, so we cannot really review them, but I can at least tell you what they offered us.

With one week left until The 18th Annual Festival of New Musicals, Village Theatre is excited to announce this summer's casting and creative teams! Tony Award-winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza) will direct Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Gu?nter, a hilarious family adventure of what happens after Hansel and Gretl escape. Village Theatre's new artistic director Jerry Dixon (If/Then, Once on this Island) will direct the kick-off show Elysium: An American Fable, the moving story of a family dying under the weight of their own secrets; and associate artistic director Brandon Ivie (Jasper in Deadland) will direct The Passage, a coming-of-age mystery about a boy battling a monster holding his father captive. Joining them will be music directors Jason Hart (American Psycho), Rona Siddiqui (Bella: An American Tall Tale), R.J. Tancioco (Here Lies Love), and resident music director Tim Symons (Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion), among others.

The full cast and creative team have been assembled for Ozark Actors Theatre's upcoming production of the Jeanine Tesori musical Violet.

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is excited to announce the fourth show in its 20th Anniversary Season ... Big Fish. Written by John August with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed by Oanh Nguyen, choreographed by Kelly Todd, and musically directed by Robyn Manion, Big Fish will preview from June 29 through July 6; regular performances will begin July 7 and continue through July 29 at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage.

Village Theatre is excited to announce the lineup for The 18th Annual Festival of New Musicals, a series of five staged readings of musicals currently in development. The Festival will take place in Issaquah on August 10-12, 2018.

The Actors Co-op Theatre Company's LA TIMES Critic's Choice and Ovation Recommended production of the Tony nominated musical VIOLET, with music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, directed by Richard Israel, produced by Thomas Chavira, with musical direction by Taylor Stephenson, The show runs through June 17. Fridays and Todays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. There are no performances June 22, 23 and 24. Two additional shows have been added, Friday - June 29 at 8pm and Today - June 30 at 8:00 pm, extending the run through June 30, at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Actors Co-op Theatre Company's LA TIMES Critic's Choice and Ovation Recommended production of the Tony nominated musical VIOLET, with music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, directed by Richard Israel, produced by Thomas Chavira, with musical direction by Taylor Stephenson, The show runs through June 17. Fridays and Todays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. Special added matinee Today - June 16 at 2:30 pm. There are no performances June 22, 23 and 24. Two additional shows have been added, Friday - June 29 at 8:00 pm and Today - June 30 at 8:00 pm, extending the run through June 30, at Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is excited to announce the fourth show in its 20th Anniversary Season ... Big Fish. Written by John August with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed by Oanh Nguyen, choreographed by Kelly Todd, and musically directed by Robyn Manion, Big Fish will preview from June 29 through July 6; regular performances will begin July 7 and continue through July 29 at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage.

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.

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is excited to announce the fourth show in its 20th Anniversary Season ... Big Fish. Written by John August with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed by Oanh Nguyen, choreographed by Kelly Todd, and musically directed by Robyn Manion, Big Fish will preview from June 29 through July 6; regular performances will begin July 7 and continue through July 29 at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage.

The Actors Co-op Theatre Company's LA TIMES Critic's Choice and Ovation Recommended production of the Tony nominated musical VIOLET, with music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, directed by Richard Israel, produced by Thomas Chavira, with musical direction by Taylor Stephenson, The show runs through June 17. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. There are no performances June 22, 23 and 24. Two additional shows have been added, Friday - June 29 at 8pm and Saturday - June 30 at 8:00 pm, extending the run through June 30, at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Actors Co-op Theatre Company's LA TIMES Critic's Choice and Ovation Recommended production of the Tony nominated musical VIOLET, with music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, directed by Richard Israel, produced by Thomas Chavira, with musical direction by Taylor Stephenson, The show runs through June 17. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. Special added matinee Saturday - June 16 at 2:30 pm. There are no performances June 22, 23 and 24. Two additional shows have been added, Friday - June 29 at 8:00 pm and Saturday - June 30 at 8:00 pm, extending the run through June 30, at Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Queensbury Theatre is proud to announce the 2018/19 Mainstage Season at CityCentre. As Houston's only professional theatre outside of the loop, Queensbury Theatre is marking a new chapter with the 2018/19 Mainstage Season featuring a world premiere and a show-stopping holiday favorite.

The Actors Co-op Theatre Company's LA TIMES Critic's Choice and Ovation Recommended production of the Tony nominated musical VIOLET, with music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, based on the short story 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, directed by Richard Israel, produced by Thomas Chavira, with musical direction by Taylor Stephenson, adds two additional Saturday 2:30 matinees to its run, June 2 and June 16. The well-received production of Violet runs through Sunday, June 17 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower Street, 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Claire Adams stars as a young North Carolina woman seeking a miracle - to heal her disfigured face caused by a farm accident from when she was young. Embarking on a Greyhound bus bound for Tulsa just after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was implemented, Violet deals with race, guilt, and shame in her quest to get an Oklahoma faith healer to make her inner and outer scars vanish.

Previews begin this Friday, June 1 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) world premiere production of LOG CABIN, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison (Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at Playwrights; "Orange Is the New Black").  Directed by Tony Award and Obie Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park, The Qualms at Playwrights; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Parisian Woman), LOG CABIN is the sixth and final production of the theater company's current 2017/2018 Season.  

The concert of A Little Princess at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall was a lovely production with lots of great talent of a musical that still feels a bit messy. Rebecca Trehearn, Danny Mac, and Alexia Khadime all lent their amazing voices to the show and the young girls playing Sara, Becky, Lottie, and their friends were simply incredible. However, the show itself, with book and lyrics by Brian Crawley and music by Andrew Lippa, felt rather lacking in cohesion and proper pacing.

Bay Area Musicals (Matthew McCoy, Founder & Artistic Director, and AeJay Mitchell, Managing Director) has announced the show titles for its upcoming fourth season.

Sharing scenes and memories with her younger self during the entire musical is 25-year old Violet, portrayed with both great innocence and insightful common sense by Claire Adams, whom we meet as she is setting off on a journey of hope and discovery aboard a Greyhound bus bound for Tulsa, Oklahoma ('On My Way') where she hopes a TV evangelist can create a miracle and cure her disfigurement. And just how disfigured is Violet that people react to her appearance with so much shock? That is left to your imagination since her scar is often described but never seen, almost as if the real scar is unseen on her soul rather than a physical deformity on her face.