Lincoln Center Theater News

Live From Lincoln Center - the pioneering, award-winning performing arts series - continues its 40th anniversary season with two outstanding concerts form Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, featuringBilly Porter (April 3) and Norm Lewis (April 10). Six-time Tony Award-winning actress and singer Audra McDonald will host each broadcast. Details follow below.

Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the Inaugural Season in the company's new theatre center, to include a season kick-off at Books on Vernon with Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison, directed by Kimberly Senior, followed by the Grand Opening of the state-of-the-art facility, designed by Jeanne Gang and Studio Gang Architects. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam will be the inaugural production in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre. A new collaboration with Chicago's The Second City entitled Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf-A Parody, by Tim Sniffen, with additional material by Tim Ryder, directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Stuart Carden, will open the Gillian Theatre. Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, directed by William Brown with musical direction by Tom Vendafreddo, will follow Arcadia in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre.

Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago, has announced the cast and design team for its Chicago premiere of Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews, a smart, savage comedy about the holy and holier-than-thou, which closes Wit's 2014-15 season April 24-June 7, 2015.

Good News Musical Theatre Fans! BroadwayWorld.com has confirmed Lincoln Center Theater's THE KING AND I, which features a cast led by Kelli O'Hara (as Anna Leonowens) and Ken Watanabe (as the King of Siam) will receive a cast recording this summer on the the Decca Broadway / Universal Music Classics label, produced by David Lai David Caddick and Bruce Pomahac. Of note, the the production features the musical's original 1951 orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett with dance and incidental music arranged by Trude Rittmann. Music director Ted Sperling conducts a 29-piece orchestra which will be heard on the album as well.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak has promoted Elizabeth Williamson, currently Senior Dramaturg and Director of New Play Development for the Tony Award-winning theatre, to the position of Associate Artistic Director. She replaces Maxwell Williams, now Artistic Director of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans.

Today we are celebrating this week's hot news of Audra McDonald's big Broadway return next season!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents the World Premiere production of Five Presidents. Broadway and television veterans Mark Jacoby, Martin L'Herault, Steve Sheridan, Jeff Steitzer, and Brit Whittle, along with Rep Associate Artist Reese Madigan, make up the cast of Five Presidents from Emmy Award-winning writer Rick Cleveland (The West Wing, House of Cards, Mad Men, and Six Feet Under). Directed by Milwaukee Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements, the production opens tonight, March 13, 2015 and runs through April 5, 2015.

Laura Linney (The Big C, The Savages) and Seth Numrich (AMC's TURN, Broadway: War Horse) will perform in the Geffen Playhouse production of Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith (The Female of the Species, The Gift). This co-world premiere with Sydney Theatre Company will be directed by Mark Brokaw (Broadway: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, The Lyons) in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse now through April 19, 2015. Opening night is tonight, March 13.

On April 27, at 7:00 p.m., a cabaret performance entitled Songs of Our Youth: Samantha Blaire Cutler and Sam Poon, will be performed at Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, New York, NY. The show will feature Sam Poon ( The King and I, Macbeth, Billy Elliot, Les Miserables) and Samantha Blaire Cutler ( Billy Elliot, Orange is the New Black, Sisters). Special guests joining Sam and Sam will be friends from stage and television and the Professional Performing Arts School including: Jibreel Mawry ( Motown the Musical), Brionna Trilling ( Billy Elliot), Ella Watts ( The Sound of Music Live), Saoirse Dempsey and Katya Urban.

Lincoln Center Theater's THE KING AND I, which features a cast led by Kelli O'Hara (as Anna Leonowens) and Ken Watanabe (as the King of Siam), is directed by Bartlett Sher, begins previews tonight, March 12, and opens on Thursday, April 16 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street).

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment announce their first-ever World Premiere musical and the fourth show of their 2014-2015 season, the runaway hit of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, JANE AUSTEN'S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE A Musical, with music, lyrics and book by Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs, based on the novel 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen, with music direction by Timothy Splain, choreography by Jeffry Denman, and directed by Igor Goldin. JANE AUSTEN'S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE A Musical will preview on Friday, April 17, 2015 (with a press opening on Saturday, April 18) and run through Sunday, May 10, 2015 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd in La Mirada.

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.

The national tour of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, will launch in Des Moines, IA at the Des Moines Performing Arts Civic Center with performances beginning Saturday, November 28th and an official opening on Tuesday, December 1st.

Artists Repertory Theatre is proud to present Portland audiences with The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, directed by former Artistic Director Allen Nause, beginning tonight, March 10, 2015.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater announced final casting for the upcoming World Premiere production of Five Presidents. Broadway and television veterans Mark Jacoby, Martin L'Herault, Steve Sheridan, Jeff Steitzer, and Brit Whittle, along with Rep Associate Artist Reese Madigan, make up the cast of Five Presidents from Emmy Award-winning writer Rick Cleveland (The West Wing, House of Cards, Mad Men, and Six Feet Under).

Lincoln Center, the world's largest performing arts center, announces a new program, Boro-Linc, which will offer special free family programs that aim to make the arts more accessible to underserved New Yorkers and increase family engagement in the arts. The new initiative will bring together constituents from across Lincoln Center to present a wide range of performances, workshops, activities and exhibits on Saturdays at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. from today, March 7 to June 13, with approximately 20 free family-friendly programs scheduled.

Now in its 52nd year of offering outstanding contemporary visual art inspired by Lincoln Center, the Vera List Art Project has just released its newest print, a limited edition work by Angel Otero, one of today's fastest-rising young painters. Otero's Untitled (SK-PH), 2015 is released in partnership with Artspace, the leading online marketplace for contemporary art, who will offer it for exclusive sale.

Academy Award winner Helen Mirren will return to Broadway this spring as Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's The Audience, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry. Opening Night is tonight, March 8, 2015; the limited engagement runs through June 28, 2015 at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Scroll down to learn more about the company!