David Loud News

The Actors Fund announced today that the music of the Tony Award-winning Ragtime will once again be heard on Broadway in a one-night only benefit concert on Monday, April 27, 2020, at the Minskoff Theatre (200 West 45th St.). This celebratory benefit concert will star original cast members, with six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald ('Sarah') and two-time Tony Award-winner, Brian Stokes Mitchell ('Coalhouse Walker, Jr.') scheduled to appear. Further casting will be announced and tickets will go on sale at a later date. All proceeds from this one-night only benefit concert will support The Actors Fund.

Lyrics & Lyricists opens its new season with a salute to Yip Harburg, who appeared on the 92nd Street Y stage for L&L's first show in December 1970. Harburg was a master lyricist, poet, and book writer who worked with more than 40 composers in writing over 600 songs, including such classics as 'April in Paris,' 'Old Devil Moon,' 'Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,' 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,' 'Paper Moon,' and, of course, 'Over the Rainbow.' Mikaela Bennett, Clifton Duncan, Desi Oakley, Megan Sikora and Nick Spangler bring Harburg's story to life-from his Lower East Side childhood to being blacklisted by HUAC. Matt Kunkel's direction, with musical direction by Paul Masse and a script by Jon Marans, weaves together Harburg's comedic and political sides.

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell S. Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presented the fifteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Angela Sclafani & Benjamin Velez. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, was presented by Kate Baldwin on Monday, December 2nd from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

With college theatre program auditions just around the corner, we're highlighting some of the country's most prestigious theatre programs and chatting with the schools' faculty about everything from from the audition process to life after graduation and more. Today we're looking at how twenty-five different major universities help give their theatre students real world experiences. Check out answers from AMDA, University of Michigan, and many more!

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell S. Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the fifteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Angela Sclafani & Benjamin Velez. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Kate Baldwin on Monday, December 2nd from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

92Y announces Lyrics & Lyricists 2020, the new season of the country's preeminent American Songbook series. L&L features artists from theater and beyonda?"including Andy Einhorn, Matt Kunkel, David Loud, Paul Masse, and Stephen Schwartza?"presenting original revues with award-winning Broadway and cabaret performers.

To help get students ready for college theatre program auditions, we're taking a closer look at some of the country's most prestigious theatre programs! We're chatting with faculty members from each school to get a better understanding of everything from audition advice to real world experience and more. Today, we're highlighting the Department of Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College. Find out more about the school and see their answers about their program!

Television through the years: shared musical memories through a magical box. Lyrics & Lyricists closes its 2019 season with a loving look at the songs written for or introduced on the small screen that shaped our culture and connected us all. The set we watched together in the den gave us songs by great musical theater writers such as Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter, specials by Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, nights with Ed Sullivan and theme songs whose lyrics have a permanent place in our hearts. Live and In Living Color  includes songs such as "Love and Marriage", Steve Allen's "This Could Be the Start of Something", songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and a medley of beloved TV theme songs.

There's an unfortunate guffaw in the otherwise well-calibrated British thriller of '46, 'Dead of Night,' when Mervyn Johns (Glynis' dad), sensing he's sinking into insanity, brings a shaky hand to his forehead and says, 'I've got to get to a mental specialist.'

5th Avenue Theatre presents Marie: A New Musical. Tony Award-winning authors Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once On This Island), five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact), and acclaimed New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck. Check out a full gallery of photos from the production below!

5th Avenue Theatre presents Marie: A New Musical. Tony Award-winning authors Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once On This Island), five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact), and acclaimed New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck.

Peck and Louise Pitre play Marie  - young and adult, respectively. We sat down with Pitre to talk about creating the role of Adult Marie in the 5th Avenue Theatre production during early previews.

Though Stephen Sondheim has written both music and lyrics for some of the finest scores of the 20th century Lyrics & Lyricists puts Sondheim's lyrics in the spotlight for its next production Sondheim: Wordplay.

Manhattan School of Music, one of the world's foremost independent music conservatories and one of just two such institutions in the U.S. offering a Musical Theatre degree, this month presents a mainstage production of the Kander & Ebb classic, Cabaret.

"We'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy," wrote Lorenz Hart in 1919, at the beginning of his partnership with Richard Rodgers. Now 100 years later Lyrics and Lyricists begins its 49th season with We'll Have Manhattan: Rodgers and Hart in New York, celebrating the team who brought us such enduring classics as "My Funny Valentine," "Isn't It Romantic?," "I Could Write A Book," "It Never Entered My Mind" and over 600 others.

After opening night, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along closed after just 16 performances, ending an epic era of Harold Prince/Sondheim collaborations that changed Broadway forever.  It was a short run, but a beloved cult classic was born.

Now in its 18thyear, the Broadway Teachers Workshop has connected thousands of theatre teachers from around the world with Broadway's most prominent artists. Past guest speakers include Lin Manuel Miranda Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Bobby Lopez, Chita Rivera, Michael Mayer, Jerry Mitchell, Michael Grief, Jason Robert Brown, Alex Timbers, Kathleen Marshall, Roger Rees, Harvey Fierstein, Charles Strouse, Marsha Norman, Chris Gattelli, Jeanine Tesori, Stephen Flaherty, Walter Bobby, Matthew Warchus, Ken Billington, William Ivey Long, Susan Stroman, and many more.

92Y announces more cast names and new creative team members for Lyrics & Lyricists 2019. Under the helm of L&L producer Ted Chapin, the series brings artists from theater and beyond to present original revues featuring award-winning Broadway and cabaret performers illuminating the American Songbook.

92Y announces more cast names and new creative team members for Lyrics & Lyricists 2019. Under the helm of L&L producer Ted Chapin, the series brings artists from theater and beyond to present original revues featuring award-winning Broadway and cabaret performers illuminating the American Songbook.

The Fred Ebb Foundation in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company will present the fourteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Will Reynolds and Eric Price. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Alan Cumming on Monday, November 26th from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.