David Thompson News

The Center for the Arts at George Mason University continues the 2019/20 season this November and December with an array of dance, theater, opera, and music from around the world through programs from Great Performances at Mason, the Family Series, as well as signature events from Mason's College of Visual and Performing Arts.

With the new Tom Patterson Theatre taking shape on the banks of the Avon River, the Stratford Festival is thrilled to announce key casting as it builds the acting company for its monumental 2020 season.

Following the critically acclaimed season at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester earlier this year, Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Joseph Houston and William Whelton for Hope Mill Theatre are delighted to announce the transfer of their production of Stephen Schwartz's RAGS The Musical to Park Theatre, London, for a limited season from 9 January to 8 February 2020, with a press night on 14 January.

When you open a program to find a page recommending ways that people can take action after seeing a musical (like registering to vote and supporting groups like the ACLU), you know that you're going to see something special. Theatre Raleigh's last show of their 2019 Summer Season, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, is a daring musical about the Scottsboro Boys trials in the 1930s in Alabama. It has a company of all African-American performers, except one, and takes inspiration from minstrel shows. The show is directed and brilliantly choreographed by Gerry McIntyre who manages to make it very impactful, without feeling overdone.

HBO presents, in association with Sky, the four-part limited series CATHERINE THE GREAT, debuting MONDAY, OCT. 21 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT).

San Jose Stage Company has announced the titles for its upcoming 37th Season.

In The Company of Harold Prince opens September 18, 2019 in the Library's Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery.

Vintage Theatre Productions announces 12 shows for the 2020 season. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St. in Aurora. Early bird season tickets are currently on sale. Single ticket will go on sale October 1. Call 303-856-7830 or purchase online at www.vintagetheatre.org.

As BroadwayWorld sadly reported last week, legendary Broadway director and producer Hal Prince passed away at 91 years of age after a brief illness, in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Broadway's Golden Age of Theatre comes alive next month when New York's Feinstein's/54 Below presents legendary two-time Tony Award winning actor John Cullum in his first ever one man show, John Cullum: An Accidental Star.  Performances will be Sept. 2 nd and Sept. 4th through 7th, at the 254 W. 54th St. supper club, each night at 7.

This very week, eighty years ago, preview showings of the film a?oeThe Wizard of Oza?? opened on silver screens in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Audiences were wowed. The new a?oeTheatre In The Parka?? production of Dorothy and Toto's big adventure is every bit as spectacular and fun as the 1939 filmed version.

Join Theatre in the Park for a fabulous trip over the rainbow during the final production of its 50th OUTDOOR season with the classic musical THE WIZARD OF OZ!  Packed with some of the most memorable songs in musical theatre, 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' and of course, “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!' THE WIZARD OF OZ is a colorful adventure full of magic, the meaning of friendship and family, dancing jitterbugs, and of course, flying monkeys!

As the theatre community mourns the loss of the legendary producer and director Harold Prince, we're looking back at the opening night of Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of Prince of Broadway, which celebrated his career spanning seven decades. Check out the video to see Hal alongside the show's stars Tony Yazbeck, Brandon Uranowitz, Emily Skinner, Chuck Cooper, and more on the special night.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Theatre in the Park as it celebrates the final production of its 50th OUTDOOR season with the classic musical THE WIZARD OF OZ!

Jørgen Pedersen makes his musical directorial debut with Chicago (High School Edition) featuring the talented youth at Ignite Theatre Company, and here's something fun: it features an all-female cast! The fine performers at Ignite (whose mission involves inclusion of performers from all walks of life a?' yay!) deliver a sassy and entertaining production, and despite one's assumption that a high school edition of Chicago might be watered-down...

George Mason University's School of Theater and School of Music will collaborate this fall to present the newest adaptation of the American musical Rags, a heart-warming story of loss and hope surrounding a group of Jewish immigrants as they arrive to start a new life in America at the turn of the 20th century. The D.C.-area premiere of the new version of Rags will run October 31 to November 3, 2019 in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall (4373 Mason Pond Dr., Fairfax, VA).

Live theatre creates a connection with the audience in a way unlike any other medium. Sometimes this connection builds excitement, sometimes it sparks compassion, and on other occasions, it forces you to confront something uncomfortable or difficult to create greater awareness and understanding. The creative team of John Kander and Fred Ebb did this with many of their musicals over their career together. In CABARET they illustrated the rise of Nazi Germany, and in CHICAGO brought attention to the role the media plays in sensationalizing criminals. But in one of their last collaborations together, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, Kander and Ebb not only approached a difficult subject matter (9 young African-American men in Alabama falsely accused of rape in the 1930's), but they did so using one of the most distasteful artforms in American history, the minstrel show. So, it is a bold move for West Hartford's Playhouse on Park to offer this difficult production as the final performance in its tenth season.

Theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) has announced the award-winning musical The Scottsboro Boys is now available for licensing.

Two-time Tony Award winner and member of the Theater Hall of Fame, John Cullum, celebrates his 57th year as a Broadway star with his first ever one man show, 'An Accidental Star,' at Feinstein's54 Below this September 2-7 at 7PM.

Beck Center for the Arts is pleased to announce its 2019-2020 Professional Theater Season filled with signature eclectic and diverse titles that include modern classics, regional premieres, and the ninth annual collaboration with Baldwin Wallace University Musical Theatre program.