Brian Murray News

Meet the cast and company of the York Theatre Company's Fall 2014 Musicals in Mufti presentation of A Time for Singing, with book and lyrics by Gerald Freedman and John Morris, and music by John Morris, based on the novel "How Green Was My Valley" by Richard Llewellyn. Check out photos below!

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, continues the Fall 2014 Musicals in Mufti Series with A Time for Singing, with book and lyrics by Gerald Freedman and John Morris, and music by John Morris, based on the novel 'How Green Was My Valley' by Richard Llewellyn.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this week, Tony winner and premier actress of the American stage Marian Seldes, 86, died peacefully at her home Monday after an extended illness. Her brother Timothy Seldes made the announcement. Below, BroadwayWorld remembers the legend with a selection of photos from throughout her life.

Academy, Emmy and TONY Award winner Ellen Burstyn (Picnic, 'Requiem for a Dream'), TONY Award winner Jefferson Mays (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, I Am My Own Wife), TONY Award nominee Jessica Hecht (King Lear, A View from the Bridge), and New York favorites Tracee Chimo (Lips Together Teeth Apart, Bad Jews) and Steven Boyer (King Lear, Hand to God) have all been photographed for The Creative Faces Project. The weekly release of their individual entries will mark the project's official launch this fall. Current featured artists are listed below.

Just in time for All Hallows' Eve, the world premiere of playwright Sarah Lawrence's ESCAPE FROM CIRCLE 8 - an immersive new play that draws inspiration from Dante's 'Inferno' set in Tijuana's hottest cantina - directed by Todd Conner and presented Off-Broadway at the Huron Club at Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) in Manhattan.

Classic Stage Company has announced that Dave Quay, who appeared in the company's recent production of David Ives' The Heir Apparent, is this year's recipient of the Rosemarie Tichler Fund grant.

Seriously Coward. Coward seriously.

Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2014 Season with Noel Coward's witty and poignant tale, 'A Song at Twilight,' directed by Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos, tonight, April 29 - May 17, a co-production with Hartford Stage where it ran earlier this year. Broadway veterans Mia Dillon, Brian Murray and Gordana Rashovich will headline; also in the cast is Yale School of Drama graduate Nicholas Carriere. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2014 Season with Noel Coward's witty and poignant tale, 'A Song at Twilight,' directed by Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos, tonight, April 29 - May 17, a co-production with Hartford Stage where it ran earlier this year.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, announced today that its acclaimed production of David Ives' THE HEIR APPARENT, adapted from the play by Jean-Francois Regnard, will extend through Sunday, May 11 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). Directed by John Rando, THE HEIR APPARENT features Suzanne Bertish (Madame Argante), Carson Elrod (Crispin), Claire Karpen (Lisette), Amelia Pedlow (Isabelle), David Pittu (Scruple), Dave Quay (Eraste) and Paxton Whitehead (Geronte).

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this fun-filled children's show and found myself laughing throughout from the adult humor sprinkled in the script.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its popular First Look Festival, a series of one-night only staged readings, this year focusing on the remarkable work of playwright Caryl Churchill, whose plays have provoked, captivated and astounded audiences since she burst onto the scene in the late 1960s.

Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2014 Season with Noel Coward's witty and poignant tale, 'A Song at Twilight,' directed by Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos, April 29 - May 17, a co-production with Hartford Stage where it ran earlier this year. Celebrating its 84th season, Westport Country Playhouse was recently named Theater Company of the Year by The Wall Street Journal.

Michael Frayn's outrageously funny three-act play NOISES OFF is now playing at Repertory Philippines (Rep), the country's premier English-language theater company behind recent hits 'August: Osage County' and 'Wait Until Dark.'

Michael Frayn's outrageously funny three-act play NOISES OFF is next on the agenda of Repertory Philippines (Rep), the country's premier English-language theater company behind recent hits "August: Osage County" and "Wait Until Dark."

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its 2014 Annual Gala, MUSICAL MASTERWORKS, Monday evening, May 12 at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel (145 West 44th Street). Tony Award-winner and CSC Associate Director John Doyle will helm an evening of memorable numbers from iconic American musicals-a rich and vital heritage that CSC has begun to explore with last season's critically-acclaimed production of Passion and the upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro.

Gingold Theatrical Group, under the leadership of David Staller, honored philanthropist Anita Jaffe and playwright/actor Charles Busch at its Annual Golden Shamrock Gala, earlier this week at Manhattan Penthouse (80 Fifth Ave at 14th Street). The GTG Golden Shamrock Award is given annually for artistic contribution to society. Past honorees include Terrence McNally, Judith Ivey, Brian Murray, and Robert Osborne. BroadwayWorld was there for the special night abd you can check out photo coverage below!

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, today announced plans for its 2014/2015 Season. The upcoming season for the esteemed off-Broadway company begins in October with Rodgers & Hammerstein's ALLEGRO, directed by Tony Award-winner and CSC Associate Director John Doyle. ALLEGRO marks the second installment of CSC's Musical Theater Initiative, which launched last year with the company's hugely-successful production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, directed by Doyle. Considered one of Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein II's most personal and groundbreaking works, ALLEGRO was their third collaboration and first premiered on Broadway in 1947.

In Noel Coward's time, and when one of his last plays, A SONG AT TWILIGHT was written in 1966, it must have been shocking to have the possible outing of a closeted gay man be the driving force of a plot. In 2014, when such a play is just one of a plethora of stories written by men, featuring male characters and very often, gay men's issues, we have to wonder why two of Connecticut's theaters have chosen to include a revival of it on their stages this season (currently it's at Hartford stage through March 16. It moves to Westport Country Playhouse April 29), especially when there are so many other great plays out there just begging to be produced.