Ken Billington News

Yesterday, Sunday May 9 Rafael Pi Roman sat down with Broadway's Barbara Cook to reflect on her career and talk about all things SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. Click below to see the heartfelt segment.

On Thursday, May 13th, tune in to watch Barbara Cook & Vanessa Williams perform on ABC's 'The View' on channel 7 between 11:00-12:00PM. Vanessa Williams will also be a guest co-host on Thursday.

CHICAGO, the winner of six 1997 Tony AwardsŽ including Best Musical Revival which is now celebrating its eleventh year touring the United States, returns to the Pantages Theatre for a strictly limited three week engagement April 20th through May 9th.

The Princeton Packet features an article a look back with Sondheim On Sondheim conceiver and director James Lapine.

USA Today featured an article titled 'Singing 'Sondheim' Praises by Elysa Gardner. The article begins: Don't get theater and cabaret veteran Barbara Cook started on the physical attributes of singer/actress Vanessa Williams, her co-star in Sondheim on Sondheim, the new Broadway musical at Studio 54.

It's just been announced that today's matinee performance of Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54 has been canceled.

Now celebrating 13 glorious years of girls, glitz, and glamour on the Great White Way, CHICAGO, the record-breaking, smash hit musical and sixth longest-running production in Broadway history, will make a stop in Columbus at the Palace Theatre as part of its national tour.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) announces a two-week extension of Sondheim on Sondheim through Sunday, June 27th, 2010.

The American Theatre Wing has announced that their Annual Spring Gala, to be held on Monday, June 7, 2010 at Cipriani 42nd Street (110 East 42nd Street), will celebrate the centennial of Academy and Tony Award-winning composer Frank Loesser.

McCarter Theatre has announced the complete casting and creative team for the American premiere of Take Flight, a new musical by Richard Maltby Jr, David Shire and John Weidman that blends fact and fiction to tell the interweaving stories of three pioneers of aeronautics: the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.

To celebrate DREAMGIRLS' upcoming visit to the Center, Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza is creating a special 'Get the Look' boutique inspired by the stunning costumes from the sensational new stage production direct from Harlem's world-famous Apollo Theater in New York City.

To enhance Orange County theater-going when the national tour of the smash hit musical DREAMGIRLS visits April 21 - May 2, the Center has scheduled two post-performance talkbacks with cast members on April 22 and 29. During the talkbacks, which will follow the performances in Segerstrom Hall, audience members can speak to the cast and ask questions. The talkbacks are free, but tickets to the April 22 and 29 performances of DREAMGIRLS are required.

Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers covering New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway publicly announced the nominees for the 2009-10 season on Monday, April 26th at the historic Algonquin Hotel. Outer Critics Circle posted award nominations in 23 categories and are the first major Broadway/Off-Broadway award nominees of the New York theater season. BrpadwayWorld was there to capture real-life siblings, Broadway stars Hunter and Sutton Foster make the announcements.

This fresh, entertaining reboot of the Tony® Award-winning stage musical DREAMGIRLS (now playing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through May 2) is exquisitely vintage, yet surprisingly modern all at the same time. It's a reverent homage to the soulful musical roots of pop music, displayed with a knowing wink and a contemporary eye that aims to be enthralling to both longtime fans of the original stage production and to new fans that have discovered it recently, thanks to Bill Condon's splashy Oscar®-lauded 2006 film adaptation. The iconic, memorable score that accompanies its all-too-familiar story, performed by truly gifted actor-singers within a vividly-conceived backdrop, all mesh together to make this new DREAMGIRLS quite a satisfying revamp.

Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers covering New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway publicly announced the nominees for the 2009-10 season on Monday, April 26th (11AM) at the historic Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street). Outer Critics Circle posted award nominations in 23 categories and are the first major Broadway/Off-Broadway award nominees of the New York theater season.

Sondheim on Sondheim's Euan Morton will be featured on WNYC's 'Soundcheck' on Thursday, April 22nd from 2:00-2:30PM on 93.9FM and AM 820.

Roundabout Theatre Company's (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) Sondheim on Sondheim opens officially on Broadway tomorrow Thursday, April 22nd at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street).

To enhance Orange County theater-going when the national tour of the smash hit musical DREAMGIRLS visits April 21 - May 2, the Center has scheduled two post-performance talkbacks with cast members on April 22 and 29. During the talkbacks, which will follow the performances in Segerstrom Hall, audience members can speak to the cast and ask questions. The talkbacks are free, but tickets to the April 22 and 29 performances of DREAMGIRLS are required.

Today, Vanessa Williams performed Sondheim on Sondheim on ABC's 'LIVE! With Regis & Kelly' on channel 7.

During what was called 'Andrew Lloyd Webber week' of the seventh season of the hit TV talent competition American Idol, Webber predicted to an audience of millions that Syesha Mercado will 'bring the house down' with a sexy, splashy take on one of his many musical hits. And that, she did. Then 21, she eventually lasted on the show to become the second runner-up. Fast forward two years later, and she is now in the midst of a multi-city national tour of the rebooted DREAMGIRLS stage musical, where she nightly plays Deena Jones, the beautiful and eventual front-woman of the semi-fictional musical group The Dreams. Before she takes the stage of The Orange County Performing Arts Center (April 21-May 2), Mercado spoke with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos about life on the road, her American Idol roots, and what it takes to become Deena Jones night after night.