Joe Mantello News

If you're allergic to shopping malls, excessive commercialism or egg nog, Who Wants Cake? has the perfect solution to restore a smile to your overburdened holidays.

New York Stage and Film (SAF) celebrates its 25th anniversary with its annual winter gala on December 13th at 7:00pm at The Plaza Hotel (770 Fifth Avenue). Julianna Margulies and Marc Platt will be honored for their extraordinary achievements in theater, film and television, as well as their ongoing commitment to live performance and support of New York Stage and Film.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater continues its 15th anniversary season with the world premiere of Post No Bills, a Tex-Mex play with music by Mando Alvarado. Directed by Michael Ray Escamilla, performances begin Thursday, November 11th, 2009. Opening night is Thursday, November 19th at 7pm. The show is scheduled to run through Sunday, December 13th, 2009.

Transport Group, the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award, has announced that its 2009 Gimme A Break! benefit will honor playwright Terrence McNally and director Joe Mantello on Monday, December 7 at 6:30pm, at Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street.

In celebration of WICKED's return to PlayhouseSquare tonight, November 18, the venue will be hosting a Young Professionals Night on Friday, December 4. Professionals ages 21 - 40 are invited to enjoy free valet parking, compliments of Lexus, at the Wyndham Cleveland hotel and a pre-show cocktail in the Wyndham's Blue Bar before watching the evening performance. After the show, the group is invited to come back to the Wyndham for the exclusive, limited access 'Defying Gravity' post-show party, sponsored by Seagram's escapes, with WICKED cast members in the 14th floor presidential suite. The post show party also includes complimentary cocktails and appetizers.

A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of orchestra seats will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from November 18 - December 13 at the State Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.

One of Cleveland's most popular musicals, WICKED, will return to PlayhouseSquare November 18 - December 13, 2009 as part of the U.S. Bank Star Performance Series at PlayhouseSquare. Tickets for the return engagement go on sale to the public Friday, August 21.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award-winner in years is coming to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Sonnet Repertory Theatre (SRT) has announced its scheduled line-up for 'Sonnet Sings the Bard' concert, which takes place on November 16 at the 92YTribeca. Contributing composers to this one-night-only benefit event include: Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Drama Desk Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated composers and lyricists Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman (Hairspray, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Patti LuPone on Broadway), Tony, Grammy and Emmy-nominated and Academy Award-winning composer David Shire (Baby, Closer Than Ever, Big, Saturday Night Fever), Georgia Stitt (This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt with Sara Ramirez, Kelli O'Hara, Faith Prince, and many more), Ray Leslee (Avenue X, Educating Rita, Standup Shakespeare), Karl Mansfield (conductor and keyboardist for Broadway's Xanadu, La Boheme, 13, Dracula, Corum Boy, Sweet Charity, and Off-Broadway's Grey Gardens, Toxic Avenger, Shafrika the White Girl and Alter Boyz), and Wade McCollum (composer and lyricist for ONE, and award-winning performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch).

Profiles Theatre opens its 21st Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of the drama The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus. The production runs September 25- November 15, 2009, at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway. The press opening is Thursday, October 1, 2009, at 8:00 p.m.

Broadway stars Chita Rivera, Rosie Perez and Martha Plimpton are set for the Transport Group Gala, 'Gimme a Break' to be held December 7th at Asia Society and Museum. The event will honor Broadway veterans Joe Mantello and Terrence McNally. The night will be hosted by Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen of [title of show]. The night will also feature performances by Marian Seldes, Stephanie J. Block and Brooks Ashmanskas.

New York Stage and Film (SAF) is pleased to announce that Nicki Genovese has been named the new Managing Director of the 25 year old theater company.

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) congratulates author Alexi Kaye Campbell on his recent Charles Wintour Award nomination for Most Promising Playwright.

Downstage @ New Rep is reviving David Sedaris' hilarious autobiographical show, The Santaland Diaries. This one-man comedy that satirizes everything we love to hate about the holidays opens for the press on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 7:30pm and plays through Sunday, January 3, 2010 in the Black Box Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

GLEE star Chris Colfer is featured singing WICKED's famous anthem 'Defying Gravity' in a new solo cut from the hit Fox series. You can check out the audio right here on STAGE TUBE!

GLEE star Lea Michele is featured singing WICKED's powerful anthem 'Defying Gravity' in a new solo cut from the hit Fox series. You can check it out right here on STAGE TUBE!

A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of orchestra seats will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from November 18 - December 13 at the State Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.

Cast members from the Denver company of the Broadway blockbuster musical, Wicked, will be on hand tonight, November 9 to perform the National Anthem for the Broncos vs. Steelers game. Wicked is currently playing the Buell Theatre at the Denver Center for the Arts, back by popular demand. The production, which opened on October 7, runs through November 15.

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.

Award-winning musical announces extra Christmas dates