Langston Hughes News

Studio East and StoryBook Theater have four marvelous, family-friendly productions this spring. The youngest audiences, and their parents, will enjoy a touring production of StoryBook Theater's 55-minute musical The Ugly Duckling. Elementary and middle school kids will love Studio East's spooky and kooky production of the musical The Addams Family. Older tweens and teens can experience the hilarity of Shakespeare's As You Like It, and all ages will love the quirky and colorful compilation of Dr. Seuss's works, Seussical the Musical.

Next spring, Tony Award winners Audra McDonald, George C. Wolfe, and Savion Glover will team up to collaborate on SHUFFLE ALONG, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a musical about the events that led to the creation of the groundbreaking Eubie Blake-Noble Sissle musical Shuffle Along. Starring Audra McDonald as the 1920's star Lottie Gee, directed by George C. Wolfe -- with a book written by Wolfe -- and choreographed by Savion Glover, the musical marks the first time that the writer/director and choreographer will have worked together since their 1996 hit Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. Previews will begin Monday, March 14, 2016. Opening night is Thursday, April 21, 2016 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street).

Today we are revisiting a groundbreaking play that premiered this week in 1959.

This season's mainstage production, John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, directed by Red Bull Artistic Director Jesse Berger, will begin a limited Off-Broadway engagement April 14th at The Duke on 42nd Street. Opening Night is set for Sunday April 26th. Performances continue through May 16th.

Proteus Spann celebrates the 20th Anniversary of New York Times best-selling author E. Lynn Harris' classic American love story INVISIBLE LIFE. This explosive new musical adaptation addresses the conflicts of sexuality, religion, HIV/AIDS and family in America.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents Writer-Producer Speed Date (The Art of the Pitch) on Sunday March 29, 2015 at 5:30pm and 6:30pmat The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor.

From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill made its journey to the Kansas City theater scene with the opening Saturday night February 14 at the White Theatre located at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park. The White Theatre celebrates two first on their stage with Paul Hough directing the debut of From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill and the first time the musical appeared at the theater. Hough directed the play in Los Angeles in 1985, winning the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Production and Direction. Hough was Director of Production for the American Heartland Theatre from 1996 until it closed its doors in 2013.

The New Black Fest, a theater organization celebrating provocative storytelling, music and discussion from the African Diaspora, is proud to announce The New Black Fest at The Lark.

Director Donald Alsedek and a uniformly fine cast bring Lorraine Hansberry's classic to vibrant life at Open Stage.

The Xoregos Performing Company is proud to present Harlem Remembered: A Tribute to the Harlem Renaissance, a series of free performances throughout Black History Month spotlighting the drama, music and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, at various venues in New York City and Westchester and Orange counties. The program features theatrical events as well as music, dance, storytelling and poetry. BroadwayWorld has a look at the cast below!

The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes' kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite titled, Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz. The poem is Hughes' homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.

Two of New York's finest stage actors -- Aaron Clifton Moten and John Douglas Thompson -- star in the premiere of Young Man Langston, a dramatic reading from the letters of Langston Hughes that looks at the poet's formative years, from the publication of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' and The Weary Blues, to his travels through the American South, to his life as an artist among artists in 1920s Harlem.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre kicks off its 46th season with 'The Amira Baraka Project' - featuring a revival of his early acclaimed play Dutchman from 1964 and the world premiere of his final play, Most Dangerous Man In America (W. E. B. Du Bois), written fifty years later. Dutchman, directed by Woodie King Jr., will begin performances tonight, February 5th, with opening night set for February 20th at the Castillo Theater (543 West 42nd Street). This limited Off-Broadway engagement will continue through March 8th only. Most Dangerous Man In America (W. E. B. Du Bois) follows in May.

The Andy Warhol Museum announces its latest exhibition, Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent, opening to the public today, January 31, 2015.

Luna Stage will present a special screening of REFLECTIONS OF A BLESSED SOUL: Tribute To Our Beloved Dr. Maya Angelou, a forty-five minute documentary based on an exclusive interview with Dr. Angelou at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Award-winning Director Hafiz Farid & Shelley Grodner Seidenstein, both Award-winning Producers & Co-writers.

Geva Theatre Center's 2015 Fielding Studio Series begins with the world premiere of Katherine's Colored Lieutenant by Nora Cole and is directed by David Schweizer. The production begins performances on February 5 and runs in the Fielding Nextstage through February 22.

The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes' kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite titled, Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz. The poem is Hughes' homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.

Studio East and StoryBook Theater have three shows sure to delight a variety of theater goers this spring.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre kicks off its 46th season with 'The Amira Baraka Project' - featuring a revival of his early acclaimed play Dutchman from 1964 and the world premiere of his final play, Most Dangerous Man In America (W. E. B. Du Bois), written fifty years later. Dutchman, directed by Woodie King Jr., will begin performances February 5th, with opening night set for February 20th at the Castillo Theater (543 West 42nd Street). This limited Off-Broadway engagement will continue through March 8th only.

VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert enters the new year with Kurt Weill's STREET SCENE, an unblinking look at tenement life in New York City circa 1946, based on Elmer Rice's play of the same name, with lyrics by Langston Hughes. This production marks the Canadian Premiere of Weill's landmark American Opera and continues the company's exploration of operatic social comment in the 20th Century, begun so memorably in November with de Falla's LA VIDA BREVE starring Isabel Bayrakdarian.