City Center News

Local playwright and actor Jason Lindner tells the story of a deteriorating former Manhattan Project physicist who has discovered that radioactive material can be extruded from his memory. Visits from his colorful colleagues and lost love will determine his fate and perhaps the fate of us all. The Half-Life of Memory, produced by Cold Basement Dramatics in association with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and directed by Co-Artistic Director Sophie Blumberg, will run from June 4 through June 29 at the Storefront Theater (66 E Randolph St) in The Loop.

On Wednesday afternoon, friends and family of Tony-nominated actress Kelli O'Hara gathered for an intimate luncheon at Lidia Bastianich's famed New York restaurant Becco. Jason Robert Brown, Steven Pasquale, Greg Naughton, and Lidia Bastianich herself raised a glass to O'Hara and her achievements this season in Bridges of Madison County. Check out photos from the luncheon yesterday, below!

Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove have announced casting for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming world premiere of LOST LAKE, the new play by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan. The play will feature Oscar nominee John Hawkes (The Sessions, Winter's Bone) and Tracie Thoms (Rent, "Cold Case").

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, beloved as one of the world's most popular dance companies, will return to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with four different programs for a 15-performance engagement at the David H. Koch Theater June 11 - 22, 2014.

Minneapolis Musical Theatre's (MMT) new 2014-15 season will feature the area premieres of Eating Raoul, Calvin Berger and Happy Days-A New Musical at Hennepin Theatre Trust's New Century Theatre. Eating Raoul, based on the 1982 cult classic, black comedy film about a twisted take on the American dream, runs October 3-26, 2014. Calvin Berger, inspired by the classic French play Cyrano de Bergerac, runs January 23-February 15, 2015. TV's favorite family, the Cunninghams join The Fonz to save their favorite malt shop from demolition in Happy Days-A New Musical, running April 24-May 17, 2015. Three-show season subscription packages are just $66 and go on sale Friday, June 6 at 11 a.m. by calling 612.455.9501 or in person at the New Century Theatre Box Office (street level of City Center in downtown Minneapolis). Please visit HennepinTheatreTrust.org/mmt for complete ordering information. Individual tickets will go on sale at a later date.

Broadway Entertainment Group in association with New Adventures are delighted to announce that one of the most popular dance productions ever staged, MATTHEW BOURNE'S multi award-winning hit 'SWAN LAKE', will extend its current UK tour internationally from September 2014. The show will visit the Tokyo Theatre Orb, Shanghai Cultural Square, Singapore Esplanade, the Regent Theatre, Melbourne and the Theatre Royal, Sydney. Further venues will be announced shortly.

The original cast recording for the new Broadway production of musical drama VIOLET starring Sutton Foster is now available to order on iTunes.

Today, Pepsi announced a partnership with CMA Entertainer of the Year Blake Shelton to kick-off summer 2014 in a big way

Summer in New York is traditionally a quiet time for Broadway, although the now-previewing Tupac Shakur musical, Holler If Ya Hear Me is certainly creating quite a buzz. Perennials like Shakespeare In The Park and the New York International Fringe Festival always draw mobs of playgoers looking for a great time, but everywhere you turn in this arts-crazy city there's somebody putting on a show.

The Hollywood Bowl's upcoming production of Hair, the American Tribal Love-Rock musical, which won the Tony and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical in 2009, will star Kristen Bell as Sheila, Hunter Parrish as Claude, Amber Riley as Dionne, Jenna Ushkowitz as Jeanie and Beverly D'Angelo as Mom. Adam Shankman will direct and choreograph. Hair will be conducted by Lon Hoyt. Zach Woodlee will serve as associate director and associate choreographer. Additional casting is to be announced.

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of When We Were Young and Unafraid, the new play by Sarah Treem ('House of Cards,' 'In Treatment'), directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clybourne Park), is currently in previews at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I, ahead of an official opening night on Tuesday, June 17. Tickets for the production are currently on sale through Sunday, August 10. Check out a first look below!

Made Here, downtown Minneapolis' new urban walking gallery, today announced that some 40 storefront window 'Showcases' will be installed throughout this June 2014 as part of the largest storefront window initiative in the country. Encompassing 15 venues and covering nearly15 city blocks, Made Here features work by more than 50 individual artists and 11 artist collaborations. On Friday, July 11 at 7 p.m. there will be a Made Here Launch Celebration free to the general public in downtown Minneapolis. Details will be released shortly.

Today in 1954, Carousel opened at City Center, where it ran for 79 performances. Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics). The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He attempts a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; when it goes wrong, he has a chance to make things right.

Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre of Russia's adaptation of Pushkin's verse novel is broadly theatrical.

Disney's On the Record, a musical revue and theatrical celebration of 75 years of Disney music, will have its tri-state regional premiere on the White Plains Performing Arts Center's main stage June 20 - 29. This show-stopping musical from Disney is set in a contemporary recording studio that sparkles with 64 of the most beloved songs ever written, from some of the most popular films ever made over the past 75 years.

Ensemble 212 presents its Season Finale & Young Artist Showcase Concert tonight, May 31st at 8:30pm at Merkin Concert Hall featuring the Grand Prize Winners of the 2013-14 Young Artist Competition and the world premiere of Ke-Chia Chen's Wind Dance for String Orchestra!written especially for and commissioned by Ensemble 212 for its 10th anniversary. Two exceptionally talented young musicians will have a chance to perform with the orchestra: Grand Prize Winner of the 2013-14 Young Artist Competition, violinist Alice Ivy- Pemberton and cellist Derek Louie, 2nd Prize Winner. The concert opens and closes with exuberant classical works, Mozart's Impresario Overture and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. A silent auction featuring unique artwork by local artists will be held in the lobby.

Grab the umbrellas! Audiences will be delighted by Pittsburgh CLO's production of Singin' in the Rain, May 30-June 8 at the Benedum Center. A talented cast of Broadway's best and Pittsburgh CLO veterans will take this feel-good movie-musical off the silver screen and on to the Benedum Center stage.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the return of dance superstars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in just four performances from July 25 - 27. The program, titled Solo for Two, includes a world premiere commissioned for them by the Center and two works new to their repertoires and never seen before in the United States. Osipova and Vasiliev have enthralled audiences with their incomparable talent and irresistible personalities, capturing the admiration and imaginations of dance audiences around the world. At the Center, they have appeared in Don Quixote with the Bolshoi Ballet in 2010, in the 2009 Tour de Force dance gala and Reflections in 2011. In 2012, Osipova returned to the Center, starring in the world premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's production of Firebird for American Ballet Theatre. In 2011, Vasiliev danced in the second Kings of the Dance.

Today, Emerson chats exclusively with BWW about working with her biggest idol, Sutton Foster and why her Broadway debut experience has been 'truly indescribable!'