Hal Prince News

A touch of Broadway is coming to the Manatee Players to bring us an extended holiday season! The high-energy song and tap duo "Two On Tap" will return to the Manatee Players just in time to celebrate the New Year. "Two On Tap" are Melissa Giattino and Ron DeStefano.

The Night of 1000 Stars, the annual, star-studded event celebrating musical theatre at the Royal Albert Hall, is to take place on Spring Bank Holiday Sunday May 5, 2013 and will be in support of cancer charity The Caron Keating Foundation.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, features award-winning Broadway stars Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley in performance for its Fourth Annual Valentine's Gala on Friday, February 8, 2013, at 6:00 pm at Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY continues its Fall 2012 season with the return engagement of film, television, and theatre star PETER GALLAGHER. For his one-man show, "How'd All You People Get In My Room?," Gallagher shares real-life stories from his early days starting out as a young actor in New York, to working with legends like Jack Lemmon, Tom Stoppard, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Peter O'Toole and more. Joined by his four-piece band, Gallagher brings his experiences to life with songs ranging from Broadway, to music from the hit television show "The OC," to classics from Sammy Cahn, Jules Styne, Burt Bacharach and Van Morrison. When Gallagher debuted at the club in 2007, The New York Times raved that "he inhabits a song so comfortably that it flows directly out, a fusion of his own personality and the character he is playing." His new show will run through November 17 at the Loews Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street). Check out photos from his first concert below!

On Sunday, November 11 at 6:00pm, The New Group offers the first presentation in this season's continuing series Dark Nights at The New Group: "WOMEN in 3-D: Creating Complex, Sexual Female Characters" with playwrights Francine Volpe, Julia Jordan and Marsha Norman.

Today we are thrilled to be talking to a nine-time Tony Award-winning performer/director/choreographer all about his illustrious career onstage and behind the scenes working on classic musicals such as THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, NINE, GRAND HOTEL, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES and many more as well as all about his new solo piece premiering at Feinstein's At Loews Regency this weekend - the one and only Tommy Tune. Taking a look back at his near-peerless legacy as the top director of the 1980s and 1990s on Broadway, Tune imparts his candid insights about show business and reflects upon many aspects of the aforementioned hit shows - from their inception and creation to their critical and public reception and their ultimate legacy - as well as shares stories about his time as a performer, both then and now, with the star-studded tales cumulatively involving such legendary luminaries as Gene Kelly, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bennett, Hal Prince, Maury Yeston, Ken Russell, Jane Krakowski, Sutton Foster and many more. Plus, Tune gives us an enticing glimpse of his new Feintein's At The Regency showcase, TAPS, TUNES AND TALL TALES, playing November 18-26, and casts his sights on the future, near and far, and discusses the types of projects he would like to tackle next - including, first up, finding the perfect NYC location for his environmental new theatre piece, 54. All of that, tons of taps, top hats and tails and much, much more!

On April 15, 2013, Virginia's renowned Signature Theatre will honor the multiple Tony Award®-winning Broadway producer and director Harold "Hal" Prince with the company's fourth Stephen Sondheim Award. The award, established in 2009 in honor of America's most influential musical theatre writer and composer, will be presented at a black-tie Gala Benefit at the Embassy of Italy. The Sondheim Award Gala will benefit Signature Theatre's artistic, education, and community programs.

At the University of Utah production, director David Schmidt eschews the celebrated operatic-scale production of Hal Prince's original for Doyle's insane asylum framework storytelling. And "Sweeney Todd" becomes a deliciously macabre nightmare.

The critically acclaimed first Off-Broadway revival of the of Closer Than Ever, with lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire, will end its extended run with its 150th performance on Sunday evening, November 4, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at The York Theatre at Saint Peter's (Entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue) where performances began June 5, 2012.

Following up on BWW's exclusive scoop on a presentation of the show, Michael Riedel reports this morning that the show has indeed been picked up by Tom Viertel and Richard Frankel who are aiming to bring the show to New York next fall.

Zelda at the Oasis, a new play by P. H. Lin, directed by Andy Sandberg (The Last Smoker in America), will celebrate its New York Premiere on Friday, November 16th when it begins previews at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street, in the heart of Times Square. The official opening is Tuesday, December 4th at 7 PM. Zelda at the Oasis, which features Edwin Cahill and Gardner Reed, is an open-ended engagement.

Happy Birthday, Beth Leavel! Beth received Tony, Drama Desk, NY Outer Critics Circle and L.A. Drama Critics Awards for her performance as the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone. Beth also received a Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nomination for her role as Florence Greenberg in Baby It's You. She recently performed the roles of Sally Adams in Call Me Madam at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias at the North Carolina Theatre and the much put upon maid, Berthe, in Boeing-Boeing at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Other Broadway roles Emily in Elf, Donna in Mamma Mia!, Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, Dorothy Brock in the revival of 42nd Street, Tess in the original company of Crazy For You, Mrs. Bixby in The Civil War,Ellie in Hal Prince's Showboat, and Anytime Annie (her Broadway debut) in 42nd Street.

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel welcomes back the acclaimed husband-and-wife team John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey to the legendary Café Carlyle. Mr. Pizzarelli and Ms. Molaskey will play a month-long engagement from tonight, October 30 to November 24th

In 1962, the original production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum was struggling in its off broadway try out. Audiences were not turning up and so producer Hal Prince hired director Jerome Robbins to come in and offer some advice to the creative team. Robbins biggest influence in the piece was to scrap the opening number 'Love is in the Air' and commission Stephen Sondheim to write a new uptempo tune that introduced the piece as a wild bawdy comedy. 'Comedy tonight'was born and so to the show which went on to win a number of Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Check out the recently released commercial for the show below and meet the cast with videos of them from past productions and roles!

The Diva and the Baritone, stars Metropolitan Opera baritone Theodore Lambrinos and soprano Hallie Neill. Elliot Finkel, a concert pianist with the chops of a Broadway musical director wrote the arrangements to showcase the couple's amazing vocal talents in a surprising mix of Broadway, opera and the best of the Great American songbook.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY will continue its Fall 2012 season with the return engagement of film, television, and theatre star PETER GALLAGHER. For his one-man show, "How'd All You People Get In My Room?," Gallagher will share real-life stories from his early days starting out as a young actor in New York, to working with legends like Jack Lemmon, Tom Stoppard, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Peter O'Toole and more. Joined by his four-piece band, Gallagher brings his experiences to life with songs ranging from Broadway, to music from the hit television show "The OC," to classics from Sammy Cahn, Jules Styne, Burt Bacharach and Van Morrison. When Gallagher debuted at the club in 2007, The New York Times raved that "he inhabits a song so comfortably that it flows directly out, a fusion of his own personality and the character he is playing." His new show will run from November 13 to 17 at the Loews Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street).