Lucille Lortel News

The splash hit and multi Tony award-winning musical Urinetown directed by Jamie Lloyd has announced a special charity performance gala to support Water.org on Monday 20 October in London. In conjunction with Urinetown's West End transfer, the gala will introduce this new collaboration with Water.org to raise awareness of the global water crisis.

As BroadwayWorld reported last night, he Best Musical Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning global sensation Once will play its final Broadway performance on January 4, 2015. As of that date, the musical will have played 1,167 performances and 22 previews. Fans still have another three months to catch the show on Broadway before it's gone forever, and below, BroadwayWorld reminds you of the many reasons to travel back to the Jacobs Theatre with a special Broadway flashback!

The producers of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical have announced today that Shuler Hensley will star as the Grinch in the 2014 production at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The delightful family musical, which first won over Broadway audiences in 2006 and 2007, returns for a limited holiday engagement from Friday, December 5 to Sunday, December 28, 2014. Hensley will also star in the production in Chicago from Thursday, November 20 to Saturday, November 29 at the Chicago Theater.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this week, Tony winner and premier actress of the American stage Marian Seldes, 86, died peacefully at her home Monday after an extended illness. Her brother Timothy Seldes made the announcement. Below, BroadwayWorld remembers the legend with a selection of photos from throughout her life.

The Drama League (Executive Director Gabriel Shanks; Artistic Director Roger T. Danforth) announced today they will honor the legendary Emmy®, Grammy®, Oscar® and Tony® Award (EGOT) winner James Earl Jones at the 31st Annual Musical Celebration of Broadway, to be held onMonday evening, February 2, 2015 at the famed Pierre Hotel (2 East 61st Street). The black-tie gala, which features dozens of stars from Hollywood and Broadway in a one-night-only musical tribute inspired by Mr. Jones' career in theater, film and television, supports The Drama League's educational initiatives for promising young artists. Tickets are available by calling (212) 244-9494.

Opera Saratoga announces its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Best Musical Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning global sensation ONCE will play its final Broadway performance on January 4, 2015. As of that date, the musical will have played 1,167 performances and 22 previews.

The Laguna Playhouse Executive and Artistic Directors, Karen Wood and Ann E. Wareham are thrilled to present the second show of their 2014-2015 season, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion and directed by Jenny Sullivan (Steel Magnolias). 'To have Linda Purl on our stage with one of the more powerful pieces of theatre I have come across is just a triumph that our audiences and subscribers are going to treasure,' offers Wood. 'Jenny Sullivan is quite simply one of our best theatre directors working today and to have her bring her magic touch to the powerful words of Joan Didion is simply a dream realized,' adds Wareham. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING will begin previews tonight, October 8 and will open on Saturday, October 11 at 7:30pm and run through Sunday, November 2, 2014 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

American Theater Company (ATC), 1909 W. Byron Street, continues its 30th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of The Humans, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist and ATC signature playwright Stephen Karam and directed by ATC Artistic Director PJ Paparelli,November 14 - December 21; with an official opening night of Monday, November 17. The Humans is produced here under special arrangement with New York's Roundabout Theatre Company where it will premiere in New York next season.

Simon Paisley Day (Musketeers, Doctor Who, Titanic, Sherlock, Spartacus, Being Human) will be reprising his critically-acclaimed role as the tyrannical Caldwell B. Cladwell, the machiavellian Head of UGC (Urine Good Company) in the West End transfer of Jamie Lloyd's ground breaking, splash hit production of URINETOWN The Musical.

John Douglas Thompson will lead a company of 19 actors playing 60 roles in the first major New York production since Broadway 1956 of Christopher Marlowe's 1587 epic Tamburlaine, Parts I and II, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience, announced. Directed and edited by Olivier Award-winner Michael Boyd, former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Marlowe's two-part drama will be performed as one 3.5-hour play, plus a 30-minute intermission.

Westport Country Playhouse stages Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's 'Intimate Apparel,' a love story that confronts race and religion, directed by Mary B. Robinson, from today, October 7 through November 1. 'Intimate Apparel' is the recipient of the American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best Play.

Westport Country Playhouse will stage Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's 'Intimate Apparel,' a love story that confronts race and religion, directed by Mary B. Robinson, from today, October 7 through November 1. 'Intimate Apparel' is the recipient of the American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best Play.

Marin Theatre Company continues its 48th Season with the Bay Area premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale, which won MTC's 2011 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize and has gone on to become one of the most critically acclaimed new plays in America since its premiere in 2012.

The 2014 recipients of the Horton Foote Prize, named in honor of the legendary writer, to award excellence in American Theater, are presented biennially. The 2014 Prize for the 2012-13/2013-14 seasons' Outstanding New American Play is awarded to The Body of an American by Dan O'Brien. The 2014 Prize for Promising New American Play is awarded to Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks.

The Spinning Tree Theatre production of the musical Violet opens at the Off Broadway Theatre November 6. Michael Grayman and Andy Parkhurst co-direct the Kansas City premiere, which is one of the first regional theatres to secure the rights to the musical. Angie Benson provides the musical direction and leads a five-piece orchestra.

With the mantra 'Retro never sounded so now,' Under the Streetlamp harmoniously blends the diverse talents of Michael Cunio, Michael Ingersoll, Christopher Kale Jones, and Shonn Wiley to perform classic hits of the '50s, '60s and '70s with the perfect balance of tender ballads and uptempo classics, all done with the same signature harmonies and slick dance moves that have made them irresistible.

The Marsh announces the newest solo show by award-winning actor/playwright Dan Hoyle, EACH AND EVERY THING, will give its final performance tonight, October 4.

Four time Tony Award Winner Terrence McNally's IT'S ONLY A PLAY is opening on Thursday, October 9th at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. In anticipation of McNally's upcoming opening night, BroadwayWorld is taking a look at his legendary career over the past several decades.