Julie Andrews News

The Drayton Festival Theatre has launched its 2012 Season with one of the most popular musicals in theatre history. The Sound of Music, described as 'a timeless masterpiece about the power of love and music,' opens the theatre's 22nd Season on a high note.

Due to high demand from a wider age range of Eastside teens, Studio East will change its summer musical offering from Legally Blonde the Musical to the Tony award-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Producers Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman have announced that EVER AFTER, a new musical based on the 20th Century Fox Film, will open on Broadway in the 2013-2014 season following a pre-Broadway engagement to be announced. The production will be directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. EVER AFTER features music by Zina Goldrich and book & lyrics by Marcy Heisler, who recently won the 2012 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for most promising musical theatre lyricist. The music director is Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

NEW DRAMATISTS, Tony Honor recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, today announced that two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters will be honored with their 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 63rd Annual Spring Luncheon tribute, to be held Thursday, May 24th at the New York Marriott Marquis. Among those on the program offering tributes will be Emmy Award-winner Mary Tyler Moore, Peters' Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music co-star Elaine Stritch, and New Dramatists Artistic Director Todd London. Tony and Academy Award-winner Joel Grey and Peters' Tony-nominated Gypsy co-star John Dossett will offer musical tributes.

The Drayton Festival Theatre launches its 2012 Season with the timeless classic, The Sound of Music. This beloved musical masterpiece plays eight shows a week tonight, May 15 through June 9.

It's difficult when you have an iconic show to work with such as "The Producers" currently playing at Village Theatre. The Mel Brooks classic movie turned Mel Brooks mega hit stage musical turned Mel Brooks movie musical is definitely a big piece of musical theater history. Add in huge stars like Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane to that history and the result of subsequent productions can vary from bland imitation to just plain not in the same league to the other end of the spectrum with spot on awesome, but you'll always kind of compare with the original. Well, luckily the Village production is on that latter end of the spectrum. With their couldn't-be-better-if-they-tried cast they manage an amazing show and even a few departures along the way that only made it stronger.

There was no prohibition on Carole J. Bufford's talent during her break-out performance in 'speak easy.' a 16-song homage to the music of an era when only people imbibing in a secret club could spare a dime.

The 68th annual Theatre World Awards will be held Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at a theatre TBA. The 2 pm by-invitation-only ceremony will also include presentation of the 4th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence.

Broadway at Birdland today announced a partnership with multi-Grammy and Tony nominated composer Frank Wildhorn for a monthly concert series called "Frank & Friends." The series of one-night-only concerts will feature the songs and performers from the composer's range of work in popular, theatrical and classical music. All profits will go to The Actors Fund, a nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals in the performing arts and entertainment.

Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music returns to Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre for three performances, Friday 20 & Saturday 21 July, 2012 7:30pm and a family friendly Matinee on Saturday 21 July at 1pm. The effervescent Chelsea Plumley returns to hosting duties to guide the audience through an interactive experience and tribute to the very unique film The Sound of Music.

This week the 2012 Tony Awards Nominations were announced! I always get up early to watch the nominations on NY1; but my favorite part of the noms is the day after, when the nominees meet the press. Here are excerpts from my favorite nominee reactions in recent years.

The Drayton Festival Theatre will launch its 2012 Season with the timeless classic, The Sound of Music. This beloved musical masterpiece plays eight shows a week May 15 through June 9.

Full of biting wit and hilarious parodies of various popular Broadway shows--and the famous actors that star in them--Musical Theatre West's cabaret-style send-up FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: GREATEST HITS, VOLUME 2 plays its final, laugh-filled set of performances this weekend ending April 29 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.

Today we are talking to a Broadway superstar beloved from the time of her breakthrough performance in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's PASSION nearly twenty years ago all the way to two tremendous revivals in the early 00s - KISS ME, KATE and MAN OF LA MANCHA - to her most recent trio of roles on Broadway, first appearing in the straight drama ENRON, then as the troubled lead character of Diana in the Pulitzer Prize-winning NEXT TO NORMAL, and, most recently, as the tortured Margaret White in the long-awaited New York return of CARRIE - the one and only Marin Mazzie. Recalling many memories of working on the original productions of such seminal musicals as INTO THE WOODS, PASSION, RAGTIME, SPAMALOT and NEXT TO NORMAL with some of Broadway's best and brightest talents, Mazzie expresses her sincere appreciation for the unforgettable shows she has been associated with and opens up about her experiences as both an originator of a role, as in the cases of PASSION and RAGTIME, and also as a replacement star and the challenges that that position poses for a performer. Additionally, Mazzie shares her enthusiasm for the words and music of the Tony Award-winning RAGTIME creators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, whom she will be saluting alongside a starry assortment of notables on Monday at the NY Pops JOURNEY ON Gala at Carnegie Hall. Plus, Mazzie clues us in on all aspects of her journey with the recent New York reworking and reappraisal of CARRIE and gives us first news on recording the cast album, which is set for a Fall release, as well as news on her second duets album with husband, Jason Danieley and solo album thoughts. All of that and much, much more!

Today we are talking to one of the busiest choreographers on Broadway who was recently represented by four shows running on the Great White Way simultaneously (a new record) - the long-running hit JERSEY BOYS, Pulitzer Prize-winner NEXT TO NORMAL, multi-Tony Award-winning MEMPHIS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY. His most recent Broadway credit is the new Alan Menken/Glenn Slater musical adaptation of the 90s hit Steve Martin comedy LEAP OF FAITH featuring Broadway superstar Raul Esparza in the lead. In addition to discussing the unique demands of his involvement with the aforementioned new musicals with a pronounced focus on his current project, Trujillo opens up about the process of collaborating with a director and what musical staging is all about at its core, as well as outlining his experiences working with a number of notable names on his impressive assortment of projects so far and taking a look back at his own career as a performer, having previously appeared in GUYS & DOLLS, FOSSE and the film version of CHICAGO among other illustrious resume entries. Plus, Trujillo shares his infectious enthusiasm and passionate dedication to his art and reveals what he will be taking on next after LEAP OF FAITH's opening night, which is tonight - a tryout tour of a screen-to-stage adaptation of the iconic 80s hit FLASHDANCE and an original dramatic musical included. All of that and much, much more!

Get ready for a heat wave of hot tunes at The Norma Terris Theatre this summer! Goodspeed Musicals, the first two-time Tony Award-winning theatre in the country, announced today on Facebook and Twitter that the fab new musical The Bikinis will round out their three-show season. Destined to be a summer smash, this fun-loving, finger-snappin' blast-from-the-past is chock-full of hit tunes from the 60s and 70s. Don't miss The Bikinis August 9 through September 2, 2012; it'll be a gas!

Stage and screen star Julie Andrews recently stoppped by 'The Colbert Report,' where she chatted about her book series 'The Very Fairy Princess.'

Emmy Award winning actress Jane Lynch will host this year's Backstage at the Geffen fundraiser, which recognizes leadership in the theater community while raising support for the theater's artistic and outreach initiatives, honoring Hollywood legend Carol Burnett and Chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment Jim Gianopulos. Ms. Burnett will receive the Distinction in Theater Award and Mr. Gianopulos will be presented with the Distinction in Service Award by entertainment icon and longtime colleague Warren Beatty. The star-studded event will be co-chaired by Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company Robert A. Iger and his wife, journalist Willow Bay. This irreverent evening of laughter, music and stories, which is sponsored by City National Bank, will be held on Monday June 4, 2012 at the Geffen Playhouse.

Se estrenará en México en noviembre y estará protagonizado por Bianca Marroquín (Chicago, The Pajama Game, In the Heights)

Legendary actress, author and singer Julie Andrews will celebrate 'National Princess Week' when she appears on tonight's April 24th episode of CBS's THE TALK.