Charles Strouse News

Fountain Hills Theater has announced its exciting 2012-13 Season. In what may be the most ambitious season yet presented, FHT brings six great Mainstage shows, four shows mounted in the all-new Mainstage Too, four productions in the Youth Theater and two special engagements. Note that Mainstage Too is brand new this season - when the Youth Theater is dark, FHT will be presenting smaller comedies, plays and musicals in this venue. See full details below.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 21st season opens Friday with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and features William Michals and Dee Roscioli, two Broadway actors, as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett respectively.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 21st season opens Friday with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and features William Michals and Dee Roscioli, two Broadway actors, as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett respectively.

Beck Center for the Arts has announced its 2012/2013 Professional Theater season including five locally produced premieres and an eclectic mix of outrageous comedies, award-winning musicals and inspiring dramas that Northeast Ohio audiences have come to expect from Beck Center.

Looking for a quick roundup of this week's events in the theatre world? Look no further - here are some of the best articles the week had to offer!

Happy Birthday, Charles Strouse! Strouse's first Broadway musical was the 1960 hit Bye Bye Birdie, with lyrics by Lee Adams, who would become his long time collaborator. Following this was Golden Boy (1964, also with Adams), starring Sammy Davis, Jr. and It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman (1966, based on the popular comic strip) which introduced the song 'You've Got Possibilities' sung by Linda Lavin. In 1970, Applause (starring Lauren Bacall, with book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and lyrics by Adams) won Strouse his second Tony Award. In 1977, Strouse adapted another comic strip for the stage, creating the hit Annie, which garnered him his third Tony Award and two Grammy Awards. Other Strouse musicals include Charlie and Algernon (1979), Dance a Little Closer (1983, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner), Rags (1986), Nick & Nora (1993), and An American Tragedy (1995, with lyrics by David Shaber).

ANNIE, the new production of the classic Tony Award®-winning musical, goes on sale today to American Express cardholders. For tickets, call 877-250-2929 or visit Ticketmaster.com. Tickets will be available to the general public on Monday, June 25. ANNIE will star two-time Tony Award® winner Katie Finneran as Miss Hannigan, Australian star Anthony Warlow making his Broadway debut as Daddy Warbucks and 11-year-old Lilla Crawford as Annie, with Brynn O'Malley (Wicked, Hairspray) as Grace Farrell, Daddy Warbucks' devoted personal secretary, Clarke Thorell (Hairspray, Mamma Mia!) as Rooster Hannigan, Miss Hannigan's ne'er-do-well brother and J. Elaine Marcos (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, A Chorus Line) as Lily St. Regis, Rooster's floozy girlfriend. The orphans are Madi Rae DiPietro as July, Georgi James as Pepper, Junah Jang as Tessie, Tyrah Skye Odoms as Kate, Taylor Richardson as Duffy, Emily Rosenfeld as Molly and Jaidyn Young as standby for the roles of Annie, Pepper, Duffy and July. The production also features Ashley Blanchet, Jane Blass, Jeremy Davis, Merwin Foard, Joel Hatch, Amanda Lea LaVergne, Gavin Lodge, Liz McCartney, Desi Oakley, David Rossetti, Sarah Solie, Dennis Stowe and Ryan VanDenBoom.

Valenti (playing Rose Alvarez, Albert's girl Friday/girlfriend) and Fair (as his overbearing mother, Mae Peterson) pretty much dominate the action as they deliver perfectly-timed, expertly crafted performances as the two women in feckless Albert's life, ensuring that a good time will be had by all in the fast-moving, quick-paced and altogether entertaining show. Directed and choreographed by Bryan J. Wlas (who celebrated a birthday during the show's first weekend of shows) with musical direction by Nathan W. Brown, Bye Bye Birdie offers a delightfully nostalgic look back at the beginnings of rock-star idolatry and the evolving manners and social mores of the early 1960s.

Australia's preeminent musical theatre and opera star Anthony Warlow will make his Broadway debut as billionaire Daddy Warbucks in the new production of ANNIE, the Tony Award-winning classic musical. ANNIE opens November 8 at the Palace Theatre (1567 Broadway at 47th Street). Previews begin October 3. Warlow stars opposite two-time Tony Award-winner Katie Finneran as Miss Hannigan and 11-year-old Lilla Crawford (Billy Elliot) as Annie.

Bye Bye Birdie-conjuring up memories of Elvis Presley and the fan fervor that greeted a lot of musical acts in the 1950s and '60s-takes center stage at Dickson's Renaissance Center in June as the Renaissance Players present the musical theater classic tonight, June 1 through June 17.

Nick Jonas - the popular singer/songwriter who was most recently seen in the Tony-nominated How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying - will serve as master of ceremonies as hundreds of students from middle and intermediate New York City Public Schools in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan make their Broadway debut on stage at the Shubert Theatre (225 W. 44 St.) today at 10:30 a.m., the culminating event of the 7th annual Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway JR. Student Program.

According to a report by MSN Music News, Jay-Z will head musical direction for the soundtrack of the new Annie film starring Willow Smith.

Two-time Tony Award® winner Katie Finneran (Promises, Promises, Noises Off) will star as Miss Hannigan in the new production of ANNIE, the Tony Award-winning classic musical. ANNIE opens November 8 at the Palace Theatre (1567 Broadway at 47th Street). Previews begin October 3.

The phenomenally successful 1977 Broadway musical Annie took America by storm and has been filmed twice. After 35 years, and especially now during our country's - what seems to be unending - economic slump, its Depression era optimism holds up better than ever, and in GCT's current well-staged production, there's much to savor.

ANNIE, the new production of the Tony Award-winning classic musical, will play the legendary Palace Theatre (1567 Broadway at 47th Street) on Broadway. ANNIE will begin previews Wednesday, October 3 and will open Thursday, November 8, 2012.

The 20th Anniversary season of New York City Center's Tony Award-winning Encores! series will open on January 30, 2013 with Fiorello!, the show that launched the series in 1994. The season will continue with It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, followed by On Your Toes. A Gala Encores! at 20 Celebration on November 12, 2012 will star Tony Award nominees and Encores! alumni Rauil Esparza and Kelli O'Hara.

Bye Bye Birdie-conjuring up memories of Elvis Presley and the fan fervor that greeted a lot of musical acts in the 1950s and '60s-takes center stage at Dickson's Renaissance Center in June as the Renaissance Players present the musical theater classic June 1-17.