Goodman Theatre News

The Warner Theatre has just announced the screening of CineFugitivo's award winning Indie Film,Tiger Lily Road which will take place in the theatre's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre today, March 15 at 7:30pm.

Lifeline Theatre presents 'YOU-NITE' for its 2014 Annual Gala Benefit. It's a benefit all about Lifeline's supporters and their favorite memories from our 31-year history. The Lifeline ensemble will perform adaptations of stories - submitted by its audience - of moments when Lifeline touched their lives. There will be a hearty buffet of inventive foods, fine wines, craft beers, and our signature drink: the YouNiversal. Also: an exciting live auction (featuring a trip to Nashville including VIP tickets to the Gand Ole Opry) and a cash raffle with a first prize of $2,000. It's an evening of fun that starts with YOU, all for a very good cause. More information at www.lifelinetheatre.com/2014benefit.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts has now added a third and final week of performances for the world premiere of THE TEMPEST, which will now play April 6-27, with special preview performances April 1-4. The opening night celebration will take place on Saturday, April 5. Produced in association with the American Reparatory Theater (A.R.T.), THE TEMPEST is adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and Teller from the play by William Shakespeare, with magic by Teller, music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and movement by Matt Kent of Pilobolus. THE TEMPEST will perform at The Smith Center's Donald W. Reynolds Symphony Park in a 500-seat climate-controlled tent. Tickets start at $35 for regular performances and $25 for preview performances. Tickets for the opening night celebration are $150 and include an exclusive post-show reception. All tickets are on sale now at The Smith Center box office, online at www.TheSmithCenter.com or by phone at (702) 749-2000.

Strawdog Theatre Company and Interim Artistic Director Hank Boland and Crip Slam, part of Victory Gardens Access Project, announce a fully accessible performance of the world premiere of Philip Dawkins' Miss Marx: or The Involuntary Side Effect of Living directed by Megan Shuchman, Thursday, March 13 at 8 p.m. at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, in the Prince Charitable Trust Rehearsal Room, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. This performance will be fully wheelchair accessible. Audio description, open captioning and a touch tour of elements from the production will also be provided. Immediately following that night's performance there will be a post show talk back with the playwright and director. This performance is pay what you can at the door with reservations requested. Reservations may be made at boxoffice@strawdog.org or 773.528.9696. In addition to the Victory Garden performance, an ASL performance is scheduled for Saturday, March 16 at 4 p.m. at Strawdog Theatre. The performance schedule for the production running through April 5 at Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway St., is Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. Single Tickets are $28 and are currently on sale. Subscriptions, group, senior and student discounts are also available. Tickets may be ordered online at strawdog.org or by calling OvationTix toll-free: 866.811.4111.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Diane Paulus, Artistic Director and William Russo, Managing Director; announced today the company for the last production of its 2013/14 Season, THE TEMPEST, adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and Teller from the play by William Shakespeare, with magic by Teller, music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, and movement by Matt Kent of Pilobolus.

Chicago's most established resident theater presents a 90th anniversary "season to celebrate," a line-up of new and contemporary works on its two stages-the 856-seat Albert Theatre and 400-seat flexible Owen Theatre. Today, Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer announced six plays (of eight)-half of which were developed by commission and/or workshop in the Goodman's new play development programs-that comprise the 2014/2015 Season, plus co-productions with Chicago's off-Loop theaters. Remarked Falls, "We are proud to present this Season in the same spirit that launched the Goodman in 1925: 'an array of dramatic fare, from classics to noteworthy contemporary works, innovative and oft controversial, embracing genres from farces to searing social dramas.' We hope to give our audiences compelling, relevant experiences from a range of culturally and aesthetically diverse artists, from bold new talents to acclaimed local and national voices." For a limited time, Subscriptions start at $90 in honor of the milestone season; call 312.443.3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org. Individual tickets go on sale in August. Two Albert plays are TBA.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced three world premiere productions for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2014-2015 theatrical season.

The new musical ROCKY, starring Andy Karl and Margo Seibert, opens tomorrow, March 13, at Broadway's historic Winter Garden Theatre. Scroll down to learn more about the full company, plus watch footage of Sylvester Stallone's speech following the first preview of Rocky on Broadway!

Smokey Joe's Cafe-The Songs of Leiber and Stoller transports audiences to the golden age of rock, rhythm and blues this spring at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Director Randy Johnson returns to Arena Stage following the success of A Night with Janis Joplin (which enjoyed two runs at Arena Stage followed by a subsequent run on Broadway) to helm this Grammy Award-winning tribute to legendary songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, which originally opened on Broadway in 1995 and became the longest running musical revue, topping 2,000 performances. Bursting with hit tunes including 'Hound Dog,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' 'Stand by Me,' 'Love Potion #9' and 'On Broadway,' Smokey Joe's Cafe showcases choreography by Parker Esse (Arena Stage's The Music Man, Oklahoma!) and music direction by Victor Simonson (Center Stage's A Civil War Christmas, Arena Stage's 3 Mo' Divas) and runs April 25-June 8, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

The Goodman Theatre presents Rufus Collins (Broadway's To Be or Not To Be and The Royal Family) and Amanda Drinkall (Strawdog Theatre Company's Great Expectations and Measure for Measure at the Goodman) Venus in Fur, helmed by Joanie Schultz. As previously announced, Venus in Fur runs March 8 - April 13 in the Albert Theatre (opening night is Tuesday, March 18). BroadwayWorld brings you highlights below!

Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N Southport Ave., announces that The Hypocrites' production INTO THE WOODS, directed by Geoff Button* with Musical Direction by Matt Deitchman, has been extended through Saturday, April 5. The production was selected as a Critics' Pick by Time Out Chicago and has hailed as 'Beautiful' (Chicago Tribune) and 'A wonder! Terrific! Excellent! Perfectly charming.' (Newcity)

Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis has announced that Lauren Gunderson's I and You, which premiered at Marin Theatre Company in October with support from the National New Play Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund, and Martín Zimmerman's Seven Spots on the Sun, which won MTC's 2012 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize and received a public staged reading at MTC in June 2013, have been selected as finalists for the 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.

To bring a second life to an undiscovered gem, Termination Productions LLC will present 'The Head Hunter,' a dramatic encounter between a screenwriter and his mobster cousin, at The Producers Club Theaters April 11 to May 4, 2014. The play is written by Mark Borkowski, a New York-based playwright, screenwriter and actor who is now best known for playing Paul Sagorsky in the third and fourth seasons of HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Richard Hymes-Esposito (www.richardhymes.com) directs. It is the first revival of a horrific yet hilarious two-hander that Backstage (Elias Stimac) labeled 'one of the best plays of 2000' when it debuted that year.

This just in! New York City Center's acclaimed Encores! Off-Center series, under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori, will return this summer for a second season of landmark Off-Broadway musicals. The season opens with Jonathan Larson's tick, tick… BOOM!, June 25 - 28, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo, directed by Oliver Butler, and continues with a one-night only performance of Randy Newman'sFaust: The Concert, with Randy Newman as the Devil, directed by Thomas Kail, on July 1. Pump Boys and Dinettes, withbook, music and lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann , directed by Lear deBessonet and choreographed by Danny Mefford, wraps up the season, running July 16 - 19. Chris Fenwick is the Encores! Off-Center music director.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

'In love as in politics, one partner must rule. One of them must be the hammer, the other the anvil.' Venus in Fur, Chicago native playwright David Ives' 'smart, sexy, sinister comedy' (Vogue), makes its premiere tonight, March 8, at Goodman Theatre, helmed by Joanie Schultz.

Previews begin tomorrow night, Saturday, March 8, for the return to Broadway of Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, starring as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. This new production begins previews nearly 55 years to the day that A RAISIN IN THE SUN had its Broadway premiere (March 11, 1959) at the same theatre, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the cast!

Writers Theatre presents The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, in a new version by Conor McPherson and directed by Henry Wishcamper. The production runs April 1 - July 20, 2014 at 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The press openings are April 9 and 10, 2014 at 7:30pm.

Written in 1978, Deathtrap still holds the record for longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. Sidney Bruhl is a playwright desperately in need of a hit. Just in time, a former student sends him the manuscript of his first play, a murder mystery called Deathtrap. Sidney smells a hit, but he's never been that fond of sharing credit. TIME Magazine said, 'If you care to assassinate yourself with laughter, try Deathtrap.'

Broadway stars might boast the biggest fan-bases, but without their directors, the vehicle driving their talents could easily swerve off the tracks. Keeping the runaway train at bay are season's bold Broadway 'conductors'. Scroll down to learn more about this season's intrepid and imaginative leaders!