Howell Binkley News

This holiday season, America's #1 Christmas movie comes to life on stage as a hilarious holiday musical.

MEMPHIS, the most anticipated musical production of the 2011-2012 Broadway Season and the winner of four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical will launch its international tour at The Orpheum Theatre on October 14-23, 2011.

The tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre (151 W. Randolph St.) July 19 - August 14, 2011.

La Jolla Playhouse has announced that the acclaimed Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Playhouse Director Emeritus and Stratford Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Des McAnuff, will replace the previously-announced musical Finding Neverland. This thrilling revival will run in the Mandell Weiss Theatre November 18 - December 31, 2011.

West Side Story, the new hit Broadway revival of the groundbreaking Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical, will close at Hennepin Theatre Trust's Orpheum Theatre on July 17, 2011.

The Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons closes in Cleveland at PlayhouseSquare on July 17.

A slew of Daniel Radcliffe's fellow 'Harry Potter' stars have been visiting him on Broadway to watch his performance in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. In the video below, Tom Felton, Rupert Grint, and Matthew Lewis all give Radcliffe glowing reviews.

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director and Stephen Eich, Executive Director) announced a special 'Pasadena Day' offer to all persons who either reside or work in Pasadena.

The tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Tempe. WEST SIDE STORY will open at ASU Gammage on September 27 and runs through October 2, 2011. Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction will be recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

West Side Story, the new hit Broadway revival of the groundbreaking Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical, will play Hennepin Theatre Trust's Orpheum Theatre, July 12-17, 2011. This 2009 Tony-nominated and 2010 Grammy Award-winning production features a score considered to be one of Broadway's finest, with such classics of American musical theatre as 'Something's Coming,' 'Tonight,' 'I Feel Pretty' and 'Somewhere.'

The Tony Award winning musical, Avenue Q, will welcome two new leads to the cast, the production has announced today. On July 9 Adam Kantor (who made his Broadway debut as Mark Cohen in the closing cast of RENT on Broadway) will join AVENUE Q in the roles of Princeton and Rod. On July 20, Veronica J. Kuehn (last seen on Broadway in MAMMA MIA) will assume the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut.

The producers of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET are thrilled to announce that original cast members Eddie Clendening (Elvis Presley), Lance Guest (Johnny Cash), and Robert Britton Lyons (Carl Perkins) will be joining the cast of the hit musical when it resumes performances at its new home at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) on Thursday, July 28. They will be joined by MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET alums David Abeles (Jerry Lee Lewis), Victoria Matlock (Dyanne), and James Moye (Sam Phillips).

Inspired by the true story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who in the late 1950's took the male-dominated music industry by storm, BABY IT'S YOU! is a new Broadway musical conceived by Floyd Mutrux, directed by Floyd Mutrux and Sheldon Epps, and written by Tony nominated book writers Mutrux and Colin Escott, the team behind Broadway's Million Dollar Quartet. BABY IT'S YOU! stars 2011 Tony Award nominee Beth Leavel, Allan Louis and Geno Henderson in a cast of 12 that features Erica Ash, Kelli Barrett, Kyra Da Costa, Erica Dorfler, Jahi A. Kearse, Barry Pearl, Christina Sajous, Crystal Starr and Brandon Uranowitz. In the video below, the ladies who play the Shirelles celebrate the Fourth of July with a cover of Katy Perry's 'Firework.'

Tickets are now on sale for MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, the 2010 Tony nominated Best Musical, at its new home at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). The production will resume performances Thursday, July 28.

The Pasadena Playhouse just opened the west coast premiere of the new musical TWIST - An American Musical by William F. Brown and Tina Tippit (book), Tena Clark (lyrics and music) and Gary Prim (music). Golden Globe and multi-Emmy Award-winner Debbie Allen directs a cast of 31 performers led by Tamyra Gray ('American Idol,' Rent and Bombay Dreams) and Cleavant Derricks (Tony Award-winner, Dreamgirls). The five-week limited engagement performs June 14 - July 17, 2011 with the official press opening on June 26, 2011 at The Pasadena Playhouse (39 S. El Molino Avenue).

A Christmas Story, The Musical!, prepares to launch a five-city national tour for the 2011 holiday season, the show's producers, including Peter Billingsley, who starred as Ralphie in the original 1983 film, have announced that they will begin their search for young actors at an open audition for children between the ages of 8-13 at the Chicago Theatre Downstairs (enter just south of the main venue), 175 N. State Street, Chicago, Monday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.