Classic Stage Company News

Oakland, CA, December 10, 2015—Music Director Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony continue their annual exploration of world orchestral music traditions this season with Notes from Vietnam, Today, February 12, 2016, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre. Featured will be Emmy Award-winning composer performer Vân-Ánh Võ, who will give the world premiere of her Lullaby for a Country, performing on the ?àn tranh (Vietnamese zither), ?àn B?u (monochord), and vocals. In addition, TV and Broadway star and filmmaker Michael Urie (Ugly Betty, Modern Family) will narrate Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Completing the program will be Dvo?ák's Carnival Overture. The Symphony's Notes from . . . series has become a popular mainstay of the Bay Area music scene and annually explores symphonic music both new and traditional from cultures that may be less well known to audiences. Past Notes from . . . programs have focused on music from Mexico, Persia, the Philippines, China and the Middle East, among others. Free lobby entertainment, no-host drinks and pre-concert talk begin at 7 pm. And the concert is sponsored in part by California Waste Solutions. Tickets are priced $20-$75 and may be purchased at www.OaklandSymphony.org.

With a professional theater season full of premieres and award winning women playwrights, Centenary Stage Company keeps the ball rolling with the bitingly hilarious BECKY SHAW, running February 19 through March 6 in the Lackland Center. 

North Carolina Theatre, the region's premiere nonprofit professional regional theatre producing Broadway musical revivals, is ready to electrify audiences this February with the world's favorite musical, Grease! Leading the cast is Broadway star John Arthur Greene who hails from Raleigh stepping into the role of teenage heartthrob, Danny Zuko.  John Arthur joins Broadway couple Hunter Foster and Jennifer Cody, who will direct and choreograph the perennial favorite at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh, February 9-14, 2016. Check out a first look below!

This American Blonde Actress and Mississippi Mud Productions announce the first dates of the 2016 tour of SHARON TATE IN HEAVEN, beginning in Los Angeles for a return engagement, and with additional tour dates to follow in Florida, New York City and Long Island, NY, coinciding with the worldwide release of a film for new media version. It will play on the West Coast today and tomorrow, February 5th and 6th, for two shows only at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute on the the James Dean Soundstage, an 'environmental' TV studio setting.

The Old Globe presents the West Coast premiere of THE METROMANIACS by supremely clever playwright David Ives (All in the Timing, Time Flies). This uproarious new 'translaptation' of a classic French farce, Alexis Piron's La Metromanie, will be directed by one of America's most renowned stage directors, Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company.

?Abingdon Theatre Company, in collaboration with The Muse Project, will present STET, a new play inspired by true events, written by Kim Davies and conceived by Kim Davies, Jocelyn Kuritsky and Artistic Director Tony Speciale. A limited Off-Broadway engagement will begin previews in June, as part of Abingdon's 2015-2016 Season. Tony Speciale is set to direct the world-premiere production, which marks his inaugural programming as Artistic Director.

Modern conveniences like smart phones and GPS often make us forget that the journey of life is full of the unexpected. For its 2016 theater season, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater celebrates these unexpected moments: the realization of first love; a town bonded by a bullied teenager; a family finding common ground through music; the censorship of a fictional marriage between two rabbits; the beauty behind the darkness of Edgar Allan Poe; love lost then found again.

Some of Broadway's most talented musical leading ladies will come together in The Ladies Who Sing Sondheim, a gala benefit for Off-Broadway's esteemed Classic Stage Company on Monday, March 14 at Alice Tully Hall (1941 Broadway) helmed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, who will become the company's new Artistic Director in July. The evening will include performances from Sondheim's canon by Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Joaquina Kalukango(The Color Purple), Judy Kuhn (Fun Home, CSC's Passion), Marin Mazzie (Kiss Me, Kate) and Alexandra Silber (Fiddler on the Roof). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of THE METROMANIACS by supremely clever playwright David Ives (All in the Timing, Time Flies). This uproarious new 'translaptation' of a classic French farce, Alexis Piron's La Metromanie, will be directed by one of America's most renowned stage directors, Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Berkeley Rep presents Shakespeare's dark and violent tragedy on the Roda Stage. This classic exploration of the ominous side of ambition tells the story of a couple bound together in their thirst for the Scottish throne. Driven by an evil prophesy and his scheming wife, Macbeth kills the king and claims his crown, thus beginning a moral descent into a reign of terror.

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Elizabeth A. Davis in WILD & FREE, Today, January 27th and Thursday, January 28th.Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Elizabeth A. Davis in WILD & FREE, tonight, January 27th and tomorrow, January 28th.

THEBAN PLAYS is a contemporary performance based on Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle. The performance focuses on the themes embodied by three characters in the ancient dramas -- Oedipus, Jocasta, and Antigone.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop, Producing Artistic Director) has announced the casting of a succession of Kings to star this spring in its Tony Award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING AND I, directed by Bartlett Sher, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Hoon Lee, who is currently starring as the King of Siam, will play his final performance in the role on Sunday, February 28.

Classic Stage Company's MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN officially opens tonight, January 19, starring Kecia Lewis in the title role after Tony winner Tonya Pinkins' departure during previews. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Elizabeth A. Davis in WILD & FREE, Wednesday, January 27th and Thursday, January 28th.

Updated this week! Check out upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, January 17, 2016 for both productions in your area and around the country including what/when/where and how to audition!

? Todd Logan's highly acclaimed and emotionally poignant stage play Botanic Garden will be performed at the Ware Center on Friday, February 12, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. The play, starring real-life married partners Carmen Roman as Kate and James Leaming as her deceased husband Jake, offers a funny and refreshingly unsentimental look at love and loss, questioning our collective belief that "moving on" is the best medicine. Roman and Leaming are acclaimed actors both on-stage and on-camera, appearing in shows such as "Law and Order" and "Prison Break." The Ware Center is located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster.

The Old Globe presents the Third Annual New Voices Festival, featuring readings of new American plays by professional playwrights this weekend, January 15 - 17, 2016.

AMERICAN PSYCHO, the American premiere of a new musical based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis -- which celebrates the 25th anniversary of its publication this March -- will begin performances on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.