James Lapine News

Long Wharf Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Ray Cullom, will present the beloved musical The Fantasticks, directed by Amanda Dehnert, from October 7 through November 1, 2009, on the Mainstage.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) has announced that the culmination of the union's 50th anniversary year is a gala celebration on Sunday, November 8 at the Tribeca Rooftop.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of THIS, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]).

Tonight, Monday, October 26, 2009 musical theater's living legend, Stephen Sondheim, will make this first momentous journey to Seattle; and will hold what promises to be an enormously entertaining and informative onstage conversation with his friend and respected New York Times columnist Frank Rich. In advance of this once-in-a-lifetime event Rich spoke to famed writer Dan Savage about Sondheim, the current state of Broadway and the ever evolving business of news coverage in this modern age.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will welcome back Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine to Studio 54 with Sondheim on Sondheim, a new original Broadway musical starring Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Michael Arden & Leslie Kritzer. Music & lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, conceived & directed by James Lapine.

Sundance White Oak Lab has announced principal casting for the production of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. The cast will include Broadway veterans Craig Bierko, Dick Latessa and Sherie Rene Scott. The musical is being adapted by theater vets William Finn and James Lapine. Sundance will also premiere the musical adaptation of 'Like Water for Chocolate' by Laura Esquivel.

It's hard to believe that in 79 years, and countless hours tinkering on this nation's greatest stages, Stephen Sondheim has never worked in this wonderful theater town. On October 26, 2009 musical theater's living legend, Stephen Sondheim, will make this first momentous journey to Seattle; and will hold what promises to be an enormously entertaining and informative onstage conversation with his friend and respected New York Times columnist Frank Rich.

NEW YORK THEATRE EXPERIMENT PRESENTS THE WASP WOMAN A ONE NIGHT ONLY STAGED READING OF A NEW MUSICAL COMEDY By Blake Hackler & Phillip Chernyak Directed by Darren Katz Produced by Rori Bergman & Laura Gale

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that I Got Sick Then I Got Better, written and performed by Jenny Allen, and directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz, will play one additional Monday-October 19-at 8pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, before beginning a regular run at NYTW's 4th Street Theatre, 83 E 4th Street, on Friday October 23.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced world premieres by Roger Guenveur Smith and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for the 2009-2010 Public LAB season.

NEW YORK THEATRE EXPERIMENT PRESENTS THE WASP WOMAN A ONE NIGHT ONLY STAGED READING OF A NEW MUSICAL COMEDY By Blake Hackler & Phillip Chernyak Directed by Darren Katz Produced by Rori Bergman & Laura Gale

Eli Wallach, Sherie Rene Scott, Sandy Faison join moderator, Tom Stewart to talk about their training at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the role it played in their careers on November 8th at 2:30PM. All are Playhouse alumni.

KVPAC's Encore Players, Katy's only adult community theater group, proudly presents this year's fall musical, Into the Woods.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that I Got Sick Then I Got Better, written and performed by Jenny Allen, and directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz, will play one additional Monday-October 19-at 8pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, before beginning a regular run at NYTW's 4th Street Theatre, 83 E 4th Street, on Friday October 23.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that I Got Sick Then I Got Better, written and performed by Jenny Allen, and directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz, will play one additional Monday-October 12-at 8pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery.

As announced by Producer Jeffrey Finn, previews began onTuesday, September 29, 2009 for the first ever Broadway production of OLEANNA, the provocative drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. Starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt), the play is a gripping account of a power struggle between a male university professor and one of his female students. The Broadway production has an Opening Night set for tonight Sunday, October 11 at 6:30 PM at The Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street).

For five performances only, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's ‘Sunday in the Park With George' will come alive at the hands of the Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton, Florida.

Due to the unprecedented demand for tickets, the Landor Theatre is delighted to announce the addition of two matinee performances for 15th anniversary production of ?Into the Woods'.

South Coast Repertory kicks off the 2009-10 Season with Putting It Together, a compilation of Stephen Sondheim songs, that the composer put together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, creating a narrative set at a cocktail party in an elegant Manhattan condo. The non-traditional musical, led by Broadway and television star Harry Groener, has a cast of five (a glamorous but slightly jaded couple, a starry-eyed younger couple and a savvy observer) who sing more than 30 songs that reflect their lives, lifestyles and moods of the moment. Some of the songs will be familiar, some less so, a few were even cut from their original musical scores, but they are all sophisticated, smart and drop-dead droll. All, in other words, Sondheim.