Lucille Lortel News

Profiles Theatre opens its 26th Season with the Midwest Premiere of Reasons to Be Happy by Resident Artist Neil LaBute, directed by Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox. The production runs August 22 - October 12, 2014 at Profiles Theatre's The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway. The press opening is August 28, 2014 at 8pm.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado for the Orchestra's 12th- annual summer residency there, performing six concerts today, July 18-25, 2014.

Abingdon Theatre Company -- which has produced 83 new plays in its 21-year history -- launches its 2014-2015 Season with three new plays, beginning this fall with IT HAS TO BE YOU by Drama Desk nominee Catherine Butterfield (JOINED AT THE HEAD), set to begin previews October 3, at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Drama Desk nominee Stuart Ross (ENTER LAUGHING, FOREVER PLAID) is set to direct.

'Buyer & Cellar' starring Michael Urie had its official Los Angeles opening Sunday, July 13, 2014 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Center Theatre Group's Mark Taper Forum, and BWW TV Los Angeles Producer and Host Michael Sterling and Co-Producer/Videographer Jordan Santacana were on hand for the star-studded festivities. Click below to hear from the show's celebrity guests and get a sneak peek at Urie onstage!

Sixteen years after they swept San Francisco Bay Area audiences off their feet with the Tony Award-winning production Fool Moon, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) welcomes back Tony Award winners Bill Irwin and David Shiner in the West Coast premiere of the Signature Theatre production of Old Hats.

The 'Alley Theatre @ UH' season begins with Betty Buckley, Hallie Foote, Annalee Jefferies and Veanne Cox in award-winning Texas playwright Horton Foote's The Old Friends, a Southwestern premiere.

Off-Broadway's award-winning Irish Repertory Theatre announces THE PARTING GLASS, a series of special one-night only events celebrating Irish arts and culture. THE PARTING GLASS, which marks the end of the Irish Rep's 2013-2014 Season, will feature traditional Irish music, dance, poetry and storytelling. The series will take place on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage of the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

In an effort to bring a wider variety of entertainment to our patrons, several shows have been added to the Manatee Performing Arts schedule! Tickets to these added shows are $24 for adults and $12 for students under 18. Tickets to these and all the shows currently scheduled at the Manatee Performing Arts Center are available by calling the ticket office at 941-748-5875 or online at www.manateeplayers.com. Watch for more exciting shows to be announced soon! The Manatee Performing Arts Center is located at 502 3rd Avenue West in Bradenton, FL.

Pittsburgh CLO has announced the Pittsburgh Premiere of the Off-Broadway sensation Murder For Two, October 22-January 18 at the CLO Cabaret. Everyone is a suspect in this exciting production where classic musical comedy meets Agatha Christie. In this witty and winking musical homage to old-fashioned murder mysteries, TWO performers play THIRTEEN ROLES -- not to mention the piano.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its shows for the next two weeks, today, July 16 - July 27, 2014. Details below!

New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, this summer celebrating the 30th year of their Powerhouse Theater collaboration, previously announced that Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Kyra Sedgwick would lead the cast of Academy Award and Tony Award winner John Patrick Shanley's new play The Danish Widow, which premieres today, July 16, and continues through July 27, 2014 at Hallie Flanagan-Davis Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College. Shanley also directs the cast which also includes multitalented Broadway vets Craig Bierko and Matt McGrath, as well as stage and screen actress Annika Boras.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its shows for the next two weeks, July 16 - July 27, 2014. Details below!

The Peccadillo Theater Company presents Penguin Rep's production of DROP DEAD PERFECT, a new comedy starring the legendary Everett Quinton at the Theatre at St. Clements (423 W 46th St - between 9th and 10th Avenue) beginning tonight, July 15th, with opening set for Sunday, July 20th at 7PM.

The Peccadillo Theater Company presents Penguin Rep's production of DROP DEAD PERFECT, a new comedy starring the legendary Everett Quinton at the Theatre at St. Clements (423 W 46th St - between 9th and 10th Avenue), which begins previews Tuesday, July 15th. The comedy will open Sunday, July 20th at 7PM. Written by Erasmus Fenn and directed by Joe Brancato, DROP DEAD PERFECT is laced with double-entendres and allusions to 1950s television and Hollywood melodramas. With adult language and situations, this outlandish production is recommended for adults only -- particularly those with a slightly twisted sense of humor.

Off-Broadway's award-winning Irish Repertory Theatre announces THE PARTING GLASS, a series of special one-night only events celebrating Irish arts and culture. THE PARTING GLASS, which marks the end of the Irish Rep's 2013-2014 Season, will feature traditional Irish music, dance, poetry and storytelling. The series will take place on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage of the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

Last 2 weeks to see New York's longest-running, critically-acclaimed comedy, Buyer & Cellar, now starring Barrett Foa ("NCIS: Los Angeles"). Buyer & Cellar must play its final performance at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street) on Sunday, July 27, 2014, and will have played 8 preview performances and 458 regular performances during its Barrow Street engagement where it recouped its initial investment faster than any Off-Broadway show in recent history. To date, Buyer & Cellar has grossed over $4,000,000 in ticket sales.

Not since Carrie. A phrase that has haunted creators of musicals ever since Ken Mandelbaum's famous 1991 book that looks at 40 years of Broadway musical flops. The original Broadway production in 1988 was a disaster, partly due to the writing, but more to do with original director Terry Hands' disastrous approach and minimalist concept. Closing 5 performances after the official opening night, Carrie cleaned up its blood, but not its money and went on to become one of the most famous and financial flops (although a certain Bono-tuned superhero of recent memory has surpassed that).

Chance Theater has announced that it will be extending its production run of In The Heights through August 10 with six more performances. The show was originally scheduled to close on August 3. In The Heights is adding performances on Thursday, August 7 at 8pm, Friday, August 8 at 8pm, Saturday, August 9 at 3pm and 8pm, and Sunday, August 10 at 2pm and 7pm at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) just announced the U.S. premiere of the new musical, AMERICAN PSYCHO, featuring a book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (2ST's Good Boys and True, 'Glee,' Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark), music and lyrics by Grammy and Tony-Award Winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), directed by Rupert Goold (Broadway's Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, ENRON). AMERICAN PSYCHO is based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis.

Hailed by the New Yorker as "funny and touching, ceaselessly clever and scarily talented," Nellie McKay has recently finished an extended run in the off-Broadway hit Old Hats (winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue) and has written two acclaimed musical biographies, Silent Spring: It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature, an exploration of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, and I Want to Live!, the story of Barbara Graham, the third woman executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin. David Byrne tells the Wall Street Journal, "Her last two 'cabaret' shows I saw have been jaw-dropping. They both completely subverted the genre." Among Ms. McKay's charms, Mr. Byrne said, are the ways she playfully mixes what he called a "tragic noir vibe" with her "wicked sense of humor.'" Nellie will be performing at 54 Below (August 5-9) with her band members, Alexi David on bass, Cary Park on guitar, and Kenneth Salters on drums. Check out a sneak peek of her in action below!