Clarence Derwent News

Transport Group, the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award, has announced that its 2009 Gimme A Break! benefit will honor playwright Terrence McNally and director Joe Mantello on Monday, December 7 at 6:30pm, at Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

Downstage @ New Rep is reviving David Sedaris' hilarious autobiographical show, The Santaland Diaries. This one-man comedy that satirizes everything we love to hate about the holidays opens for the press on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 7:30pm and plays through Sunday, January 3, 2010 in the Black Box Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

Sesame Street, the world's largest informal children's educator, celebrates its 40th birthday on November 10, 2009, the exact day the series debuted on television four decades ago, with everything you love about Sesame Street and more: new block format, new show open, new nature curriculum and our new First Lady Michelle Obama! Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the 2008 Tony Award winning musical In The Heights will also guest on the series this season too! You can watch a sneak peek of his new character right here on STAGE TUBE!

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

In the Heights mastermind and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda and longtime girlfriend Vanessa Nadal who grew up with Lin-Manuel in the Heights, got engaged on October 30 at the Plaza de la Paja while vacationing in Madrid. The pair have been dating since 2005.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is thrilled to host the US premiere of A BRITISH SUBJECT, written by Nichola McAuliffe, at the 2009 Brits Off Broadway festival.

Finally appearing together again after their Tony Award® winning performances in Evita, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin bring their critically acclaimed theatre concert to The Royal Alexandra Theatre for 6 performances only, from February 9 through 14. Tickets are now on sale.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the 2008 Tony Award winning musical In The Heights, was a special guest as President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the first ever White House Poetry Jam.

Aaron Tveit is reprising his Gossip Girl role as Nate's wealthy cousin, Tripp Vanderbilt, this November for at least six episodes. The politically minded Tripp will announce that he's running for office and Nate will get involved with his campaign. 'Gossip Girl' airs at 8:00p.m. on The CW (channel 11 in NYC).

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Actress Collin Wilcox, four-time Broadway star and cast member of the film 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' died of brain cancer at her home in Highlands, North Carolina last week. She was 74-years old.

Tonya Pinkins and Erika Rolfsrud officially open Washington D.C.'s Ford Theatre season tonight with Black Pearl Sings!, writen by Frank Higgins and directed by Jennifer L. Nelson. The show began previews on September 25 and will run through October 18, 2009.

The Ford's Theatre 2009-2010 season opens with 'Black Pearl Sings!' by Frank Higgins, September 25-October 18, 2009. Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins makes her Ford's Theatre debut in the title role with Erika Rolfsrud as Susannah. Jennifer L. Nelson returns to direct for the first time since her critically acclaimed production of 'Jitney.'

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) announces complete casting and the creative team for the world premiere of POP!, a new musical with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs, directed by Mark Brokaw. POP! will play for 22 performances only, November 27-December 19. Opening Night is Thursday, December 3.

Second Stage Theatre is pleased to announce that the critically acclaimed production of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY, has extended four weeks, through December 6. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY opened on Wednesday, October 7 and was originally scheduled to run through November 8.

PETER GALLAGHER, DON'T GIVE UP ON ME is a new musical play by stage and screen star Peter Gallagher. Featuring great American song selections from 'Pal Joey,' 'Guys and Dolls,' and songs by Cy Coleman, Bart Howard, Lyle Lovett, Leon Russell, Burt Bacharach, Dan Penn and others, this new musical play is the story of an actor's apprenticeships with the legends he admires: James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, Peter O'Toole, Stubby Kaye and more and the journey he takes with them.

Broadway's perfectly magical musical MARY POPPINS is pleased to welcome the West End's original ‘Mary', Olivier Award winner LAURA MICHELLE KELLY, and Tony® Award nominee CHRISTIAN BORLE (Broadway's Legally Blonde) beginning Monday, October 12 at 7pm. Produced by Thomas Schumacher of Disney Theatrical Productions and Cameron Mackintosh, MARY POPPINS will celebrate its three-year anniversary at the New Amsterdam Theatre (214 West 42nd Street) on Monday, November 16.

Broadway's perfectly magical musical MARY POPPINS is pleased to welcome the West End's original ‘Mary', Olivier Award winner LAURA MICHELLE KELLY, and Tony® Award nominee CHRISTIAN BORLE (Broadway's Legally Blonde) beginning Monday, October 12 at 7pm. Produced by Thomas Schumacher of Disney Theatrical Productions and Cameron Mackintosh, MARY POPPINS will celebrate its three-year anniversary at the New Amsterdam Theatre (214 West 42nd Street) on Monday, November 16.