Donna Murphy News

New York City Center will reopen following a historic renovation and modernization with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and star-studded gala on Tuesday, October 25 at New York City Center. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will conduct The Encores! Orchestra in the opening number (as a nod to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who conducted the New York Philharmonic when City Center opened as a performing arts center in 1943).

J.D.'s varied career has encompassed Broadway, opera, concert work and 17 Encores! shows.

Landmark on Main Street proudly opens its Main Street Cabaret Series with Tony Award winner and star of NBC's new show 'The Playboy Club' on Saturday, October 22 at 8 PM.

New York City Center will reopen following a historic renovation and modernization with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and star-studded gala on Tuesday, October 25 at New York City Center.

New York City Center will reopen following a historic renovation and modernization with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and star-studded gala on Tuesday, October 25 at New York City Center. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will conduct the Encores! Orchestra in the opening number (as a nod to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who conducted the New York Philharmonic when City Center opened as a performing arts center in 1943).

The producers of the new musical BONNIE & CLYDE announced the complete cast of the show. Previously announced stars Laura Osnes (2011 Drama Desk nominee, Anything Goes) and Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, West Side Story) will be joined on stage by Melissa van der Schyff (Big River) as Blanche Barrow, Claybourne Elder (Road Show) as Buck Barrow, Joe Hart (The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public) as Sheriff Schmid and Louis Hobson (Next to Normal) as Ted Hinton.

New York City Center will reopen following a historic renovation and modernization with a star-studded gala on October 25. The event will kick off a celebratory season of new and expanded programming, festivals, exhibits, a special commission, and performances by world-class dance and theater companies. The renovation, designed by Ennead Architects, LLP (formerly Polshek Partnership), has transformed the landmark building into a contemporary cultural center complete with modern amenities and enhanced historic details, from the mezzanine lobby's painted ceiling and murals to the auditorium's arabesque dome. City Center is located on 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

A powerhouse of a performer like Sutton Foster comes along only once a generation or so - the last of her likes on these shores was undoubtedly grande dame EVITA diva Patti LuPone and, across the pond, original EVITA and CATS headliner and current FOLLIES revival star, Elaine Paige - and in her debut lead performance in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE more than ten years ago Ms. Foster set Broadway babies' hearts aflutter and tongues a-wagging with her steam train take on the title role and nabbed a well-earned Best Actress Tony Award for her considerable efforts. After that, starring roles in LITTLE WOMEN, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and SHREK followed - as well as a stupendous turn in the Encores! ANYONE CAN WHISTLE opposite Raul Esparza and Donna Murphy - but it was not until this very last season on Broadway that Sutton Foster truly received her shot to tap, strut, belt and, well, blow, in the old big Broadway Diva fashion. Make that even more to the point - in true Ethel Merman fashion. The new Tony on her mantle bespeaks Sutton's power in the theater, yet what about on the fresh new 2011 Broadway revival recording out this week on PS CLASSICS? And, what about her co-stars like Oscar-winner Joel Grey, Broadway stalwarts John McMartin and Adam Godley and the newer generation of Broadway hoofers like Colin Donnell, Jessica Stone and Laura Osnes? Come on aboard the S.S. Broadway World and find out for yourself!

A.R.T. American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) will present The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, opening the A.R.T.'s 2011-2 season on August 117 at the Loeb Drama Center. The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, is adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray, and directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus.

Over Labor Day weekend, Blythe Danner will join Judy Carmichael at the 2011 Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox, MA to sing and talk about jazz. The program will be recorded for Carmichael's NPR show "Jazz Inspired" to be aired at a later date.

According to Black Star News, Nicole Ari Parker will star opposite Blair Underwood in the upcoming Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Emily Mann. Parker will play Blanche Du Bois in the production, which is set to open in the spring of 2012.

Vera Farmiga's directorial debut, HIGHER GROUND, is a coming-of-age drama in which Farmiga delivers a subtle, nuanced performance completely from the gut, with equally strong and compelling supporting characters. Set against the backdrop of the Sixties, when feminism reached its zenith, the film expertly depicts the landscape of a tight-knit spiritual community. Inspired by the resonant memoir from Carolyn Briggs (who also wrote the screenplay) the film is an exquisite study of one woman's internal struggle with the primary love relationships in her life. John Hawkes, Donna Murphy, Bill Irwin, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Joshua Leonard round out the cast, along with Farmiga's younger sister Taissa, who proves herself to be an extraordinary new talent as Young Corinne.

On August 7 the ghosts come out to sing and dance and reminisce a bit when one of the most legendary musicals of all time returns to the Great White Way and previews begin for a sparkling new production of FOLLIES, directed by Eric Schaeffer, based on the recent Kennedy Center mounting of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's haunting and thrilling nostalgia cornucopia. While the various productions of FOLLIES over the decades have a lion's share of unforgettable star turns and show-stopping moments to treasure, the brand new Broadway revival could very well be the ghostly musical's true total resurrection for a 21st century audience. After all, this is the show which coined the term Broadway Baby! Speaking of which, with a cast boasting Broadway heavyweights Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Elaine Paige and Danny Burstein, along with upcoming InDepth InterView participant Ron Raines, along with the glories of Sondheim's masterful score and the moody magic that this musical can singularly conjure, this production is evidently poised to present FOLLIES as perfectly as potentially possible for a modern audience - so, while taking a look at this particular production and the past performances of the stars of the show we shall parse the looks, lives, love and lore that makes up FOLLIES - and a couple laughs, too - and also consider why it is one of the most important musicals of the twentieth century.

The Manhattan Theatre Club's new Broadway production of MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally, directed by Stephen Wadsworth, began previews on Tuesday, June 14 and opened last night, July 7, to praise at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the starry arrivals and brings you photo coverage below!