Leslie Uggams News

The Development Wing which has dedicated itself to nurturing new musicals via partnerships with regional, not for profit theaters will hold its exclusive, intimate one-night-only benefit concert featuring Broadway stars singing songs from several new musicals at the historic Tewksbury, New Jersey home of Cherie King, President, The Development Wing and her husband composer, lyricist and book writer, Jonathan Brielle, Artistic Director of The Development Wing and Vice Chairman, The Johnny Mercer Foundation.

The acclaimed playwright is being celebrated in staged readings through Sept. 28 at The Greene Performance Space in Lower Manhattan.

While 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' is generating Oscar buzz for its chronicle of several decades of African- American political life, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson masterfully documented a full century of the African-American experience in the 10 plays the make up the American Century Cycle. These works, nine of which have been staged on Broadway with stars including Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, among many others, showed the suffering, joys, and triumphs of African-Americans through searing, poetic and personal stories of everyday people in Pittsburgh, PA.

August WilsonFor the very first time, the Estate of August Wilson has granted an organization the rights to record all 10 of these works. Kicking off on Monday, August 26 with 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' The Greene Space - the performance venue of public radio stations WNYC and WQXR -- will stage these readings before live audiences, and will make them present them as live video webcasts for viewers everywhere at www.thegreenespace.org. Ruben Santiago-Hudson, one of the leading interpreters of Wilson's work, is Artistic Director. The series has assembled a formidable group of 'Wilson Warriors' including Phylicia Rashad, S. Epatha Merkerson, Kenny Leon, Leslie Uggams, Anthony Chisholm and many others, along with Wilson first-timers including Taraji P. Hensonand Jesse L. Martin. Click below to watch interviews with the directors!

While 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' is generating Oscar buzz for its chronicle of several decades of African- American political life, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson masterfully documented a full century of the African-American experience in the 10 plays the make up the American Century Cycle. These works, nine of which have been staged on Broadway with stars including Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Charles Dutton, among many others, showed the suffering, joys, and triumphs of African-Americans through searing, poetic and personal stories of everyday people in Pittsburgh, PA.

Infinity Theatre Company (Anna Roberts Ostroff & Alan Ostroff) and Perry Street Theatricals (Martin Platt & David Elliott) have just announced that the first Broadway production of DAMES AT SEA will set sail on Broadway in 2014. With a book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, music by Jim Wise, and musical direction byRob Berman (The Pajama Game, Finian's Rainbow), DAMES AT SEA will be directed and choreographed by three time Tony Award nominee Randy Skinner (42nd Street, Irving Berlin's White Christmas). Design team, casting, production dates and Broadway theatre to be announced at a later date.

The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC and WQXR, the state-of-the-art venue of the nation's most listened-to news/talk and classical public radio stations, will make history this fall when it creates, for the first time, exclusive recordings of all 10 of August Wilson's American Century Cycle Plays.

Eric Millegan will perform tonight, July 13th at 8pm at the Wildish Theater, 630 Main St, Springfield, Oregon. Featuring world renowned musicians Tracy Stark, David Sillman, and Matt Wigton; guest starring local Eugene actress Peg Major and Oregon born TV/Film actor Josh Daugherty with a special cameo by Bill Furtick.

Eric Millegan will perform on Saturday, July 13th at 8pm at the Wildish Theater, 630 Main St, Springfield, Oregon. Featuring world renowned musicians Tracy Stark, David Sillman, and Matt Wigton; guest starring local Eugene actress Peg Major and Oregon born TV/Film actor Josh Daugherty with a special cameo by Bill Furtick.

The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC and WQXR, the state-of-the-art venue of the nation's most listened-to news/talk and classical public radio stations, will make history this fall when it creates, for the first time, exclusive recordings of all 10 of August Wilson's American Century Cycle Plays.

Today, June 23, 2013 at 3pm The Just A Piano Concert Series presents one of the greatest performers of all time in tribute to one of the greatest performers of all time, the legendary Adam Wade in Nat 'King' Cole Remembered, featuring Musical Director & Arranger Frank Owens on piano.

Last night, June 17, stars of Broadway, TV and Film in celebrated the 100th anniversary of Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the oldest performing arts union representing 49,000 professional stage actors and stage managers working on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally across the US. BroadwayWorld was there for the special celebration, and you can check out photos from inside the event below!

On Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 3pm The Just A Piano Concert Series presents one of the greatest performers of all time in tribute to one of the greatest performers of all time, the legendary Adam Wade in Nat 'King' Cole Remembered, featuring Musical Director & Arranger Frank Owens on piano.

The Deer Valley Music Festival, summer home of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, is celebrating ten years of music in the mountains with a festival lineup that highlights the diversity of the orchestra and its audience. The 2013 Festival features seventeen performances from June 29 to August 10 at venues in Park City, Utah, including ten performances at Deer Valley Resort's Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheatre which was recently highlighted by CNN as one of eight 'amazing' outdoor concert venues. The first three Festival events will take place on June 29, July 5 and July 6.

A dazzling new production of the long-running Broadway revival CHICAGO directed and choreographed by Broadway veteran Gerry McIntyre opens Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston's 45th anniversary season tonight, June 13-23. Starring Broadway's Angie Schworer as Roxie Hart, Sara Gettelfinger as Velma Kelly, and Rick Pessagno as Billy Flynn, CHICAGO gets Reagle's spectacular summer season off to a bang with all-new staging and exciting choreography in the style of Bob Fosse.

In honor of the 1st of June, watch Leslie Uggams perform 'June is Bustin' Out All Over' from CAROUSEL, then check out an interview in which the singer reveals how she almost had to 'invent a new language to cover the 'slipped' lyrics' in the now You-Tube famous performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune. Click below!

Happy Birthday Leslie Uggams! Uggams starred in Hallelujah, Baby!, which premiered on Broadway in 1967, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical. She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004 and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005. In 2001 she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II, receiving a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.