Brian Yorkey News

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) announced today the establishment of The Donna Perret Rosen Award, an annual cash prize to be awarded to a promising composer/lyricist. The $10,000 award was established at the off-Broadway company's annual gala to honor Second Stage Theatre trustee Donna Perret Rosen in recognition of her long-standing commitment to young artists and new works. The award will be chosen by Tony Award-winners James Lapine, Susan Stroman, and Jack Viertel. The first 'Donna Award' will be awarded in 2012.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater's (CST) premiere comedy Murder for Two-A Killer Musical will close on July 31, 2011.

I'm not always the biggest fan of transplanting established shows to another time or place. "Hamlet" doesn't need to be set in space and "Our Town" without that old time Grover's Corners feel would just be wrong. And don't even get me started on the thought of moving "Oklahoma". But sometimes, when it's well thought out and well executed, it works. Such is the case for the modern reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera, "Jesus Christ Superstar" currently at Village Theatre. But while I appreciated the concept and approach, some of the cast left me wanting.

The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL will end its national tour on July 30 at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto.

On July 18, the Next To Normal tour pulled into Toronto, where it will play through July 30. Alice Ripley, who received the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Next to Normal, reprises her acclaimed performance in the musical's 36-week multi-city North American tour. Below, we bring you photo coverage of Next To Normal onstage in Toronto!

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announced today a second extension of its celebrated premiere comedy Murder for Two-A Killer Musical. Due to popular demand, the production will play an additional five weeks through September 4, 2011, Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare.

Neil Berg's new cabaret show, RISE UP: The Theater Songs of Neil Berg, comes to Feinstein's, hosted by Rob Evan, and featuring a star-studded cast, including current Wicked star Mandy Gonzalez, and special guest, Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham, and others!

Judy McLane, starring in MAMMA MIA! at the Winter Garden Theater, will head to Salt Lake City to headline Pioneer Theatre's regional production of NEXT TO NORMAL.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine, and 'an invaluable New York institution' by The New York Post, continues its Summer 2011 season with the return engagement of NEIL BERG and his show 'Broadway And Berg: Broadway Show Stoppers and the Theater Songs of Neil Berg' from July 4 to July 16. Berg and friends will recreate well-known Broadway show stoppers along with songs from Mr. Berg's musicals of the past, present, and future (Off-Broadway's The Prince and the Pauper, the upcoming Grumpy Old Men, The Twelve, The Man Who Would Be King). The evening will feature performances by Rob Evan (Jekyll and Hyde, The Prince and the Pauper), Luba Mason (The Capeman, Chicago), Rita Harvey (Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof), Lawrence Clayton (Les Miserables, Dreamgirls) and William Michals (South Pacific, Beauty & the Beast), as well nightly special guests. All shows are at the Loews Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street).

Uptown Players will present the final performance of Next To Normal on July 3, 2011, at the historic Kalita Humphreys Theater. Uptown Players is the first regional theater in the United States to produce Next To Normal, following its long Broadway run, which ended on January 16, 2011, after 21 previews and 733 regular performances.

Tony-winner Alice Ripley is obviously having vocal problems

Following a critically acclaimed season which included the World Premiere of Lynn Nottage's hit comedy, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Second Stage Theatre has announced three of the four mainstage productions in the company's upcoming 33rd season.