Langston Hughes News

The Music Box Theatre box office (239 West 45th Street) opens Monday, February 1st at 10am for tickets to SHUFFLE ALONG Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a new production that presents both the 1921 musical itself, and additionally details the events that catalyzed the songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, and librettists F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles to create this ground-breaking work. SHUFFLE ALONG will star six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, Tony Award-winners Brian Stokes Mitchell and Billy Porter, and Tony Award-nominees Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua Henry.

Ambition can be a dangerous thing, whether you are a guitar-playing drifter in early Twentieth Century Orlando, or a playwright attempting to recontextualize an outdated work. In SPUNK AND THE HARLEM LITERATI, running through January 31st, UCF Theatre professor Be Boyd attempts to take an existing play by author and playwright Zora Neale Hurston, and ham-handedly shoehorn it into a framing device that seeks to admirably put the works of Hurston and her African-American contemporaries into proper cultural context. Unfortunately, the lack of connection between the framing scenes, set on a Harlem rooftop, and those of the play proper, set in rural Eatonville, Florida, robs both of any greater significance.

In honor of David Ives's poetry-infused comedy THE METROMANIACS, the Globe brings together a dynamic mix of poets and performers for a Free Weekend of Poetry, featuring two free public events to celebrate the power and artistry of San Diego poetry.

Multi Ethnic Theater returns to the Gough Street Playhouse with a two-part program celebrating true love and Black History Month. A Shakespeare Valentine and The Harlem Renaissance features eight actors, four women and four men, with the words of 47 of The Bard's Sonnets to present stories of five couples.

A friendly reminder! Rehearsals begin on Monday, January 18th for Shuffle Along Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a new production that presents both the 1921 musical itself, and additionally details the events that catalyzed the songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, and librettists F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles to create this ground-breaking work. SHUFFLE ALONG will star six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, Tony Award-winners Brian Stokes Mitchell and Billy Porter, and Tony Award-nominees Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua Henry.

Theater for the New City presents Speakeasy: John and Jane's Adventures in the Wonderland, a fantastical musical of Prohibition-era NYC queer life written and composed by Danny Ashkenasi.

With a handful of new pieces set to bow before the Tony Awards deadline in April, BroadwayWorld brings you a look at those currently set to bow on the Great White Way this year!

On the next UNDAY MORNING on CBS, correspondent Maurice DuBois goes behind the scenes of the new Broadway production SHUFFLE ALONG, a reimagining of the classic 1921 musical

Dominion Entertainment Group is proud to present BLACK NATIVITY: A GOSPEL CHRISTMAS MUSICAL EXPERIENCE. The show is directed by Robert John Connor, with musical direction by Keith Wilson, and choreographed by Dawn Axam.

In a time when the very foundation of the African-American community has been rocked by police brutality and racism renewed with a vengeance, we need something to uplift and inspire us. This holiday season, that something is Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's 45th annual residency at New York City Center.

Dominion Entertainment Group is proud to announce that due to popular demand two additional performances of its hit holiday musical, BLACK NATIVITY: A GOSPEL CHRISTMAS MUSICAL EXPERIENCE, has been added to the schedule.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Shuffle Along Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed has shifted its spring performance schedule. Instead of opening on April 21, 2016, the show will now open on April 28, with previews beginning on March 15.

Featuring a host of home-grown talent from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University, Black Nativity drinks deeply of the Christmas season's true spirit, the sorrow as well as the joy, and can fill your heart in ways that few holiday offerings can.  This isn't just a feel-good show, this is also a show for those who feel the pain of loss keenly this time of year, and it offers a balm for what ails us.

Friends, it's been a rough week. With devastating news here at home (the Children's Theatre lawsuit) and around the country (yet another senseless and horrific mass shooting, this time in San Bernadino, CA), on top of all the other painful things we've been dealing with lately, it's almost more than anyone can take. It was under this cloud that I saw Penumbra Theatre's annual production of BLACK NATIVITY for the first time. Yes, even though this is their 28th year, I've never seen BLACK NATIVITY before. I'm not sure how that happened, but this was the perfect time to first experience this truly joyful celebration. The story, the music, the dancing, the feeling of joy and faith and togetherness in that room, was a balm to my soul and did much to restore my faith in humanity. Maybe in times like this, the first and best response is to 'be the light,' and let that light lead us into appropriate action to heal the wounds of society and prevent things like what happened this week from happening again (and again and again) in the future.

The creative team of Speakeasy: John and Jane Allison in the Wonderland, a fantastical musical of Prohibition-era NYC queer life written and composed by Danny Ashkenasi, has announced a free public reading to be held on Monday, December 7th at 7pm as part of Theater for the New City's 'New City, New Blood' Reading Series. Lissa Moira directs a cast of 14, including Camille Atkinson, Torian Brackett, Anne Bragg, Tim Connell*, Chris D'Amico, Darcy Dunn, Rosalie Graziano*, Bevin Bell Hall, Brian Michael Henry*, Brian C. Jones, Rebecca Marquardt, Bri Molloy, Allie Radice*, and Zach Wachter. Music direction by Jonathan Fox Powers. The reading will be held at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets) in New York City's East Village. For reservations and more information on the free reading, visit TNC. *Member, AEA.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'The Wiz Live!' has arrived, as have the casts of three tours to the Loop. 'Bridges' is in Iowa, though. The Marriott takes on 'Spring Awakening,' and the Piccolo Theatre, Congo Square and Theo Ubique do December in their own ways. The Second City opens another revue, and in Milwaukee, 'My Fair Lady!'

The six time Tony winner is also a tireless advocate for New York City's children.

The Exalted, written by the celebrated poet and performer Carl Hancock Rux is told in the spirit of German expressionism, centering on the anarchist German-Jewish writer Carl Einstein, today considered a founding voice in the evolution of seminal Modernist art movements.

With the holidays right around the corner, Cleopatra Blues will be releasing a Louisiana-flavored Christmas album from New Orleans blues singer/guitarist, Kenny Neal titled “I'll Be Home For Christmas.”