Marsha Norman News

The cast of MCC Theater's Submission, starring Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, 'Glee'), Will Rogers (When the Rain Stops Falling), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, HBO's 'How to Make It in America'), and Rutina Wesley ('True Blood,' The Vertical Hour) met the press today, August 8. The production will be directed by Tony Award-Winner Walter Bobbie (School for Lies, Chicago). Performances begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on September 8, 2011 and continue through October 22, 2011. An official opening is set for September 26, 2011. Check out a photo from the event below!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, August 7, 2011 - Sunday, August 7, 2011.

Today we are talking to DROP DEAD DIVA guest star Sharon Lawrence and discussing her long-awaited return to the series as Bobbie Dobkins in Sunday's "Mother's Day" episode as well as taking a look at her long and varied film and theater career with thoughts on everything from CABARET and CHICAGO onstage to DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, LAW & ORDER: SVU, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM on the small screen and the new Theresa Rebeck play she stars in opening next month at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, POOR BEHAVIOR and much, much more! Over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to be taking an extensive look at the sights and sounds both onscreen and onset of the hit TV dramedy series DROP DEAD DIVA - new episodes airing Sunday nights at 9 PM on Lifetime - featuring exclusive interviews with the leading lady divas and dashing supporting men on the LA-based supernatural legal series. Featuring a memorable collection of musical performances and Broadway guest stars over the years - Paula Abdul, Rosie O'Donnell, Delta Burke and many more included - DROP DEAD DIVA is the quintessential TV series for Broadway babies looking for some laughs and levity - the latter available in many more ways than one, given the show's heavenly aspirations. DROP DEAD DIVA centers on a legal eagle named Jane whose body acts as the means for the indomitable spirit of a model, Deb, who loses her life, to make a second chance and how the girl inside must learn to adjust to looking like the woman on the outside that she is now. In other words, a model finds out what it means to look like everyone else, in a delightfully quirky twist of fate - and learns to be a lawyer, too. Season Three picks up with the cliffhanger car crash that closed last season in a dark and shocking way. What will Grayson remember of the conversation he had with Jane pre-crash? What will Jane do to save him? What about his engagement (to somebody else)? What will happen back at the office with Teri, Kim and Parker? What about Stacy and Fred? All these questions and many more will most assuredly be answered come Sunday night! Plus, there's always a musical number or two not too far off if you stay tuned - such as this week's BroadwayWorld exclusive world premiere of "Lean On Me" available here! Be sure to check back often because in the following weeks, we will also feature conversations with DROP DEAD DIVA stars Josh Henderson, Jackson Hurst, Ben Feldman and definitely stay tuned for next week's exclusive chat with featured guest star and Tony-winner, the one and only Faith Prince! Continuing the BRIDGING TV & THEATRE: DROP DEAD DIVA series, here is my extended conversation with DROP DEAD DIVA guest star Sharon Lawrence in which we discuss her many Broadway credits - CABARET, CHICAGO, ZORBA and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF included - as well as her extensive and varied theater career and acting alongside the likes of Cherry Jones, Marian Seldes and DROP DEAD DIVA guest star and fellow Broadway baby Faith Prince. Additionally, Ms. Lawrence shares her fascinating insights into the art of acting and the role of the actor in society as well as provides detailed insight into her own process and musical theatre versus straight drama - plus, comments on SMASH, GLEE, Weill, Brecht, feminism and much, much more!

Today we are talking to a singular literary talent who has written for Broadway, Hollywood, television and film, but, besides her Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway debut, ‘NIGHT MOTHER, which opened on Broadway in 1982, she is perhaps best known as the Tony-winning book-writer for two particularly beloved musicals of the last few decades: THE SECRET GARDEN and THE COLOR PURPLE. Generously covering her varied career writing for stage and screen, Ms. Norman and I discuss her process, her passions, her many projects old and new, and, most importantly, the two premieres she has looming large on the horizon in the next year, both coming after her highly successful collaboration with Jason Robert Brown on THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN symphonic suite (available now on PS Classics) and the recent world premiere of her new play, THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB, at the Guthrie Theater: in addition to writing the book for Jason Robert Brown's musical adaptation of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, we also discuss her newest project for Theater For Humans which is focused on international women's and children's issues and the manner in which she will tackle the hot button topics of human trafficking and enslavement in it. Additionally, we touch on the bumpy Broadway road of THE RED SHOES and working with Jule Styne, NY versus LA, musicals versus plays, GLEE, WEST SIDE STORY at the Hollywood Bowl, playwrighting pal Teresa Rebeck, as well as much, much more!

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Wood, a new play written by award-winning filmmaker Dan Klores.

David Henry Hwang, one of America's most dynamic and versatile playwrights, is the Honoree of the 31st Annual William Inge Theatre Festival, in Independence, Kansas, on the campus of Independence Community College.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater announced today that they will kick off their 2011/2012 season with the F*!@cking Good Plays (festival, II) - seven (7) days of new play readings by ten (10) of today's hottest playwrights. The festival, to be presented at Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place - off 7th Avenue South between West 11th & Perry Streets), will begin on Monday, August 1st and continue through Sunday, August 7th. Playwrights include: Trent Creswell, Jessica Dickey, Laura Eason, Kathryn Hathaway, Andrew Hinderaker, Bruce Kronenberg, James Lecesne, Florencia Lozano, Erica Schmidt, and Ken Urban. The readings will be directed by Jessica Blank, Denis Butkus, Evan Cabnet, Trip Cullman, Jill DeArmon, Michael Padden, Erica Schmidt, and Daniella Topol.

As previously reported, the musical revival of CARRIE, which recently finished up a development lab at MCC on June 7, will get at off-Broadway run at MCC next year. Directed byt Stafford Arima, choreographed by Matt Williams and musical directed by Mary Mitchell-Campell, preview performances will begin at MCC on January 31, 2012. Carrie will be led by the previously announced Tony Award nominee Marin Mazzie (Next to Normal, Kiss Me Kate) as Carrie's evangelical mother, Margaret White, and Molly Ranson (Jerusalem, August: Osage County) as the lonely, vengeful, yet fragile girl at the center of it all.

Casa Mañana's Apprentice Program presents The Secret Garden at Casa Mañana Theatre, July 29 - 31.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's work, THE SECRET GARDEN, was initially serialized before being published in 1911 and becoming a children's classic. Several attempts by Hollywood have tried to capitalize on it's dramatic and hope-filled story, with the 1949 MGM adaptation, starring Margaret O'Brien, wonderfully changing from black and white into full-blown technicolor as the garden is revealed in all it's splendor. However. most folks today will probably be more familiar with the the rather staid, but thoughtful motion picture made in 1993, which was fairly well mounted. This current stage adaptation is far more appealing in any number of ways, with stronger acting and a memorably performed score being among the many highlights that are attractive to an audience interested in the material.

Unlock the magic behind The Secret Garden,opening July 22 at STAGES ST. LOUIS.The Secret Garden continues through August 21 at the Robert G. Reim Theatre in Kirkwood.

According to the LA Times, stage and screen star Justin Bartha has signed on to star in Jesse Eisenberg's new off-Broadway play Asuncion. Bartha will play 'Vinny, a progressive academic and roommate of left-wing blogger Edgar (Eisenberg), who's thrown for a loop when a Filipino roommate moves in.' The duo last worked together in the 2010 independent film 'Holy Rollers.'

Arthur Miller's autobiographical play will be staged at the Ruskin Group Theatre for a limited time. The play elegantly, and hilariously at times, depicts the way a common experience can bond people together.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater announced today that they will kick off their 2011/2012 season with the F*!@cking Good Plays (festival, II) - seven (7) days of new play readings by ten (10) of today's hottest playwrights. The festival, to be presented at Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place - off 7th Avenue South between West 11th & Perry Streets), will begin on Monday, August 1st and continue through Sunday, August 7th. Playwrights include: Trent Creswell, Jessica Dickey, Laura Eason, Kathryn Hathaway, Andrew Hinderaker, Bruce Kronenberg, James Lecesne, Florencia Lozano, Erica Schmidt, and Ken Urban. The readings will be directed by Jessica Blank, Denis Butkus, Evan Cabnet, Trip Cullman, Jill DeArmon, Michael Padden, Erica Schmidt, and Daniella Topol.

The Made At Horse Trade Series will feature two works developed through Horse Trade Theater Group's The Fire This Time Festival, Yusef Miller's Breakfast and Kelley Nicole Girod's Ambrosia, playing as a double feature August 10-29 at The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery), Monday & Wednesday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets ($18/$15 students & seniors) are available online at www.horseTRADE.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Manhattan Theatre Club has just announced that Tony and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Nixon will return to MTC to star in the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. The limited engagement of WIT will begin previews Thursday, January 5, 2012 and open Thursday, January 26, 2012 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Marsha Norman's multi-award winning play ‘night, Mother has its first professional production in London at the Old Red Lion Theatre nearly three decades after it garnered the Pulitzer, Drama Desk and Susan Blackburn award for Best Play.

Casa Mañana's Apprentice Program presents The Secret Garden at Casa Mañana Theatre, July 29 - 31.