City Center News

The Broadway and television star reveals her selection if she got to choose a musical for the long-running concert series.

Each year Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater generously dedicates one night of its New York City Center (131 West 55th Street) season (Dec 2 - Jan 3) to benefit Dancers Responding to AIDS. Join us Thursday, December 17, when a portion of all ticket sales benefit Dancers Responding to AIDS.

?WeDo (pronounced wee-doo) is the newly named West Downtown Cultural District in Minneapolis that resulted from a collaborative, long-term planning process. This place, brand and destination defines a unique arts and culture district. Spanning 1.7 miles with Hennepin Avenue at its center, WeDo runs from the Walker Art Center to the Mississippi River, and between First Avenue and Nicollet Mall.

Arlene Shuler, New York City Center President & CEO, today announced that City Center will partner with The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC to expand the reach of the Tony-honored Encores! series with a new live-streamed series of conversations and performances about the glorious, complicated legacy of the Broadway musical. City Center Encores! Unscripted at The Greene Space at WNYC will go beyond the "talkback"-and beyond nostalgia-for a smart, unsentimental look at how musicals have reflected and shaped American life.

Luminaries of the Great White Way Donna McKechnie and Jerry Mitchell will serve as the co-chairs for Broadway Dance Lab (BDL)'s major fall fundraiser at the historic Judson Church, downtown Manhattan tonight, Nov. 17 at 7pm.

Miro Magloire presents his New Chamber Ballet in an evening of works by Magloire, including the world premiere of a Magloire work to music by Beat Furrer, and the company's resident choreographer Constantine Baecher.    Music goes hand in hand with the dance in concerts by Magloire, who is also a composer/pianist, and the November program features ballets to music by Bach, Mozart, Richard Carrick, Friedrich Cerha, and a new score by Furrer.

A solitary tree, withered and skeletal, lit by a spotlight and ominous percussion. Suddenly, she appeared, crawling rapidly in a storm and fervently circling said tree over and over again. This arresting display is how Life in Progress commenced opening night at the lush New York City Center, kicking off Sylvie Guillem's final world tour after a celebrated 39-year dance career.

L.A. Dance Project (LADP) announced that its annual benefit, will be held on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, and will feature a one-night-only performance by Founding Director, Benjamin Millepied with former New York City Ballet (NYCB) Principal Dancer Janie Taylor.

Renowned dancers and choreographers will teach master classes at the Ailey Extension in conjunction with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's New York City Center season (December 2 – January 3).

IMPORTANT HATS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, the new comedy by Emmy Award nominee Nick Jones, directed by Tony Award nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is now in previews and opens Monday, November 23, 2015 at The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center - Stage II (131 West 55th Street). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

White Plains Performing Arts Center Conservatory Theatre presents Little Shop of Horrors, this weekend, November 13-15. A gleefully gruesome musical spoof of the 1960 Roger Corman Film, this monster musical is about a hapless florist shop worker, Seymour, who offers his tender love and care to a plant that feeds on human blood. This plant, Audrey II, named after Seymour's secret love, quickly becomes a fascinating attraction in neighborhood called Skid Row. The score, composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman, (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin) follows the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown.

This year's New York City Center Encores! production of LADY, BE GOOD!, featuring Tommy Tune and more, is out in stores and online today, November 13, 2015. To order the CD, visit www.sh-k-boom.com/ladybegood.

Following the highly successful 2014 “The Rant is Due Tour”; Lewis Black's all new 2015 The Rant is Due: Part Deux comes to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall tonight, November 13, 2015.

A friendly reminder! Previews begin this Saturday, November 21st at 8 PM for the Nora's Playhouse production of Laurence Leamer's solo play about Rose Kennedy, ROSE, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, NYC. 

They were the brand name on every woman's lips. Goodman Theatre announces it will produce the world premiere of War Paint, a new musical that charts the ascent and arch-rivalry of cosmetics entrepreneurs Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. Patti LuPone, who 'generates more raw excitement than any other performer on Broadway' (The New York Times), and Christine Ebersole, a 'first-class, revitalizing master of period style' (The New York Times), respectively star as Rubinstein and Arden, the brilliant innovators with humble roots who shrewdly navigated the 1930s male-dominated business world to forever change the business of beauty. Directed by Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal, If/Then, Grey Gardens), War Paint reunites Scott Frankel and Michael Korie-the acclaimed composer and lyricist team of Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven-with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (Grey Gardens, I Am My Own Wife, The Little Mermaid). The musical is inspired by the book, War Paint, by Lindy Woodhead and the documentary film, The Powder & the Glory, by Ann Carol Grossman and Arnie Reisman.  

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley celebrates the holidays - and the 200th anniversary of the novel's publication - with a limited return engagement of Jane Austen's Emma, the musical adaption which originated at TheatreWorks and became the most popular show in the company's 46 year history.

On December 2nd, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will kick off a five-week holiday season with a star-studded gala benefit including a performance at New York City Center and party at the New York Hilton Midtown Grand Ballroom. This year's gala will honor BNY Mellon for its major support of The Ailey Organization since 2007 and Agnes & Gerald Hassell will accept on the institution's behalf. Early confirmed celebrity guests include Tituss Burgess (pictured, left), Savion Glover, Lance Gross, Tamron Hall, Janet Mock, Joe Morton and Phylicia Rashad.

The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) and INTAR continue their acclaimed partnership with THE 4TH ANNUAL INTAR ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL, with part of the proceeds to benefit UNIT 52, INTAR's training program for emerging artists.