Lillian Hellman News

The opening fanfare of one of the most exhilarating overtures ever to hit Broadway signals the joyous return of New York City Opera. After financial woes threatened to pull down the curtain for good in 2013, the company that was christened in 1943 as 'the people's opera' by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia has returned with a new home and an old friend, director Harold Prince's rollicking production of Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche and Hugh Wheeler's CANDIDE.

When I saw that New York City Opera was doing Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE at the same time as New York's Prototype Festival--with Missy Mazzoli's BREAKING THE WAVES opening the festival of opera-theatre and music-theatre on the same night—I thought that it was great counter-programming. After all, what could be further from Mazzoli's brilliant but grim gem than Bernstein's comic masterpiece--proving there's more than one way to skin a music theatre piece?

Arena Stage's upcoming production Watch on the Rhine hosted a meet & greet on the first day of rehearsal today, January 3. BroadwayWorld has a peek at the cast and creative team below! Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman runs February 3-March 5, 2017 at Arena Stage. It is directed by Jackie Maxwell and stars four-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason.

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

Chicago's Eclipse Theatre Company, the only theatre company in the Midwest to focus on a single playwright each season, announces contemporary American playwright Kia Corthron as the featured playwright for its 2017 Season.

Arena Stage announces full casting for Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, winner of the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

Mx Justin Vivian Bond is a force of nature with more than a quarter century onstage under v's (Bond's preferred pronoun) belt. A singular performer with an endless supply of bon mots, Bond has been celebrated with an Obie Award, a Bessie, a Tony nod, and the Ethyl Eichelberger Award, among other accolades. Fresh off a year-long career retrospective culminating in September's THE GOLDEN AGE OF JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND, v returns to Joe's Pub on December 12 at 9:30pm with a new holiday show, THE BIPOLAR EXPRESS. Ahead of the first show, we spoke over the phone about the show, v's enduring career, and the holidays themselves.

Need some last minute gift ideas for the Broadway lover in your life? Fear not! There may be only a few short weeks left before the holidays, but we've got plenty of ideas to add to your shopping list!

The Children's Hour, Lillian Hellman's startingly relevant Depression-era play  opens at The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) on January 12. Director Rachel Walshe (Grizzly Mama, Marie Antoinette) directs a cast of Gamm veteran actors and newcomers, including local high school students, in an emotional journey exploring the power of a lie and the nature of public shaming.

Los Angeles 1914 - a place where modern world reality meets 19th Century bigotry.  A time when law enforcement agencies are on a collision course with the clandestine and illicit gay community.

Following its hugely acclaimed premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, Cautionary Tales for Daughters brings its "razor-sharp satirical song writing"  (The Stage) and "gut-punching" (The Times) lyricism to Jermyn Street Theatre this January.

The Public Theater presents the New York Premiere of PARTY PEOPLE by UNIVERSES (Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz a.k.a Ninja). Developed and directed by Liesl Tommy with choreography by Millicent Johnnie, PARTY PEOPLE began performances on November 1 and runs through Sunday, December 4, with an official press opening tonight, November 15.

In honor of this historic Presidential race, McCasland recently debuted a piece inspired by the life of suffragette Alice Paul. Just in time for Election Day, actress Kristen Gehling has brought the monologue to life.

Arena Stage announces the 2016/17 programming for Actors Arena, a membership-based forum for professional D.C.-area actors.

Tickets for Manhattan Theatre Club's new Broadway production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, starring Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon, directed by Daniel Sullivan, are available to purchase exclusively to American Express Card Members tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1 at 10AM.

Asolo Repertory Theatre proudly announces that it is the recipient of a $70,000 Arts Appreciation Grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

It is announced today that the Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor Sophie Okonedo will join Damian Lewis in a new production of Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?  Directed by Ian Rickson, the production will play a strictly limited 12 week season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 24th March to 24th June 2017.

Penobscot Theatre Company is thrilled to announce the itinerary of its Seventh Annual Weekend Trip to New York City, April 7-9, 2017, featuring Bette Midler's return to Broadway for the revival of Hello, Dolly! also starring David Hyde Pierce (Curtains, Frasier). 'Described as the most breathlessly anticipated event of the season,' said Executive Director Mary Budd, 'this show shattered Broadway box office records when tickets finally became available, so we feel very lucky to be able to share this opportunity with local theatre lovers.' On its second night in the Big Apple, the group will see Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes.

There are people who eat and there are those who get eaten. This fall, Arena Stage serves up Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, a delicious drama about family greed and betrayal. Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger, known for her 12 seasons as Catherine Willows on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, stars as Regina Giddens under veteran director Kyle Donnelly, who has directed more than 20 productions at Arena Stage.

Lately, it seems that no matter where you turn you are assaulted with frightening news, disheartening images, and arguing politicians. It's gotten so upsetting that no one would fault you for thinking that this is the worst of all possible worlds. However, if you are tired of thinking the worst of society and your fellow man, there is no better antidote than the Orlando Philharmonic's joyous and playful production of Leonard Bernstein's light opera CANDIDE, running through Sunday, October 16th at Plaza Live Orlando.