Lucille Lortel News

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that following strong reviews, the New York premiere of The Few, written by Samuel D. Hunter (Backstage's 2014 Future Broadway Power List) and directed by Davis McCallum, will extend two weeks through Saturday, June 21 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place.

TOO MUCH SUN - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre(108 E. 15 St.). Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin(BROADWAY BOUND, 'Alice'), joined by Ken Barnett (WONDERFUL TOWN, AND BABY MAKES SEVEN), Richard Bekins (TARTUFFE, LOVE! VALOR! COMPASSION!), Matt Dellapina (OUTSIDE PEOPLE, DREAM OF THE BURNING BOY), Matt Dickson (WAR HORSE, COAST OF UTOPIA) andJennifer Westfeldt (THE LIBRARY, Kissing Jessica Stein). BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night theatre arrivals below!

TOO MUCH SUN - the newest play by Nicky Silver - plays through June 22 at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.). Mark Brokaw directs the cast starring the Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin (BROADWAY BOUND, 'Alice'), joined by Ken Barnett (WONDERFUL TOWN, AND BABY MAKES SEVEN), Richard Bekins (TARTUFFE, LOVE! VALOR! COMPASSION!), Matt Dellapina (OUTSIDE PEOPLE, DREAM OF THE BURNING BOY), Matt Dickson (WAR HORSE, COAST OF UTOPIA) and Jennifer Westfeldt (THE LIBRARY, Kissing Jessica Stein). BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the opening night curtain call below!

The Old Globe presents Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning farce Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which will include Candy Buckley as Masha, Marcia DeBonis as Sonia, Tyler Lansing Weaks as Spike, Allison Layman as Nina, Martin Moran as Vanya, and Haneefah Wood as Cassandra. Jessica Stone will direct, based on the Tony-nominated Broadway direction of Old Globe Associate Artist Nicholas Martin, whose loss on April 30 devastated the theatre world*. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run today, May 17 - June 22, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run tonight, May 17 through the 21st. Opening night is May 22 at 8:00 p.m.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 16th Not Your Typical Season with Collected Stories. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donald Margulies and directed by James O'Neil, Collected Stories is a two-person play featuring Susan Clark (Emmy Winner - "Babe Zaharias," "Webster," Shaw Festival and the Taper) as a brilliant, direct writing professor and Meghan Andrews (Frost/Nixon and The Grapes of Wrath on Broadway) as her eager-yet-talented student. Opening May 28th at 7:00 p.m., Collected Stories runs Wednesdays through Sundays until June 21st.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, presented its 2014 Annual Gala, MUSICAL MASTERWORKS, Monday evening, May 12 at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel (145 West 44th Street). Tony Award-winner and CSC Associate Director John Doyle helmed an evening of memorable numbers from iconic American musicals-a rich and vital heritage that CSC has begun to explore with last season's critically-acclaimed production of Passion and the upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro. Check out photos form insod ethe special event below!

The cast of Gerard Alessandrini's FORBIDDEN BROADWAY COMES OUT SWINGING! records the original cast CD for DRG Records today at Avatar Studios. Produced by Hugh Fordin, the release date is soon to be announced. This CD marks Forbidden Broadway's 12th cast recording with DRG Records. Featured on the original cast recording are cast members Carter Calvert, Scott Richard Foster, Mia Gentile and Marcus Stevens, with David Caldwell on piano. The show is currently playing at the Davenport Theatre (354 West 45th Street - between 8th and 9th Avenues). Tickets can be purchased by calling Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

Glenn Close, John Lithgow, Lindsay Duncan, Bob Balaban, Clare Higgins, and Martha Plimpton will star in a new Broadway production of Edward Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE this fall at the Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street). The production, which will be directed by Pam MacKinnon, begins previewsMonday, October 20 and plays an 18-week limited engagement through Sunday, February 22, 2015. Opening night is Thursday, November 20.

The Flea Theater has announced the extension of the World Premiere of THE MYSTERIES - a radical retelling of the Bible. Playwrights commissioned by Jim Simpson and Carol Ostrow including Tony Award and Academy Award winners and nominees David Henry Hwang, Craig Lucas, Billy Porter, Jose Rivera and Jeff Whitty; Flea alumni, Mallery Avidon, Trista Baldwin, Erin Courtney, Yussef El Guindi, Amy Freed, Sean Graney, Nick Jones, Qui Nguyen, and Jenny Schwartz; and a host of notable newcomers, Marc Acito, Johnna Adams, Liz Duffy Adams, Bill Cain, CollaborationTown, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Eisa Davis, Gabriel Jason Dean, Chris Dimond, Madeleine George, Kate Gersten, Sevan K. Greene, Kirsten Greenidge, Lillian Groag, Jordan Harrison, Lucas Hnath, Ann Marie Healy, Meghan Kennedy, Kimber Lee, Kenneth Lin, Laura Marks, Ellen McLaughlin, Michael Mitnick, Don Nguyen, Dael Orlandersmith, A. Rey Pamatmat, Max Posner, Kate Moira Ryan, Najla Said, Jordan Seavey, Matthew Stephen Smith, Lloyd Suh, Jason Williamson and Bess Wohl join together to tell the entire History of Man's Salvation in 52 episodes from The Fall of Lucifer through and including Judgment Day.

Casting has been announced for the 2014 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Gala 'One Acts for a Cause' set to take place on Sunday, June 22 at 7:30pm at the East 13th Street Theater (136 East 13th Street).The evening, which will benefit the non-profit NYC food services agency City Harvest, will feature Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter)?, three-time Tony Award nominee Mary Beth Hurt (Crimes of the Heart, films The World According to Garp & The Age of Innocence), Caissie Levy (currently starring as Fantine in LES MISERABLES), Phoebe Strole (Spring Awakening, Glee), Jonathan Walker (Rocky, The Assembled Parties), Eric Lenox Abrams (All The Way), Kellie Overbey (The Coast of Utopia) Tina Benko (Irena's Vow, Top Girls) & Andrew Garman (Salome with Al Pacino), Obie Award-winners Russell G. Jones (Ruined) & ?Eisa Davis (Sustained Excellence, Passing Strange), and Courtney Thomas (Eve Ensler's Emotional Creature), Jon Norman Schneider (The Architecture of Being) and Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Ruined, Chappelle's Show).

Over 400 guests including current and past New York City high school students, and the performing arts professional mentors who have participated in TDF's Open Doors, the theatre arts mentoring program that TDF founded in 1998 with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, will attend this year's graduation at 5:30pm on Monday, June 2 at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street, NYC). In 2012, TDF's Open Doors was the first arts education program to receive a special Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. This year, Open Doors had 27 mentors working with 24 groups of students from New York City high schools.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW)'s 2014 Spring Gala honored Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and President of The Dodgers Michael David on Monday night, May 12, at The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel. Both are founding partners of Dodger Properties, which is responsible for over 150 productions of some of the most successful theatre on Broadway (56 Tony Awards), Off-Broadway and internationally. Scroll down for photos from the evening's performances and more!

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW)'s 2014 Spring Gala honored Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and President of The Dodgers Michael David on Monday night, May 12, at The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel. Both are founding partners of Dodger Properties, which is responsible for over 150 productions of some of the most successful theatre on Broadway (56 Tony Awards), Off-Broadway and internationally. Scroll down for photos of the arrivals!

Jonathan Groff stopped by BUYER & CELLAR to visit star Christopher J Hanke on May 10. Hanke Tweeted: 'Me & my pal #JonathanGroff do some sensible reading backstage post @BuyerAndCellar' along with an adorable series of images. Check them out below!

RON RIFKIN, whose performance as Isaac Geldhart in the original production of The Substance of Fire earned him critical accolades as well as the Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama-Logue awards, will step into the role for five performances only, May 20 - 23, at Second Stage Theatre. The production's current star, JOHN NOBLE, is unable to perform those performances due to an unforeseen conflict with the filming schedule for his Fox series, Sleepy Hollow. Mr. Noble is scheduled to return for the final weekend of performances, May 24 and 25.

Point Park University's Playhouse Jr. closes its 65th season with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the hilarious Tony Award-winning musical that The New York Times called 'irresistible and entirely lovable.'

This summer, an award winning quartet of playwrights, Tony Glazer (In The Daylights, Film: Junction), John Pollono (Small Engine Repair, Lost and Found), Robin Rothstein (The Game Boy, On Deaf Ears), and Mark Jason Williams (Straight Faced Lies, Recovery), will join together for a night of one acts entitled Why Bother? directed by Andrew Block. Why Bother? Is being presented by Man Down Productions as part of the Planet Connections Festival. It begins performances tonight, May 14 and runs through June 1 at the Paradise Factory.

It's been rumored, talked about, discussed and we've been reporting on it for what feels like forever -- and now, it's official! Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that it will present Tony & Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth as 'Lily Garland' and Golden Globe & SAG Award winner & Tony nominee Peter Gallagher as 'Oscar Jaffe' in a new Broadway production of the classic musical ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY features music by Cy Coleman and book & lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green.

The seventh installment of BC Beat on Monday, May 19th highlights award winning choreographers and performers from television, film and Broadway who have created and performed in some of the year's most anticipated productions.