Michael Crawford News

25 Years of Phantom of the Opera will be celebrated in a new documentary featuring a set of never before seen interviews with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who reveals his musical inspirations, take on casting from reality TV shows and why he adores his greatest musical triumph The Phantom of the Opera.

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at the munchkins in rehearsal!

Stars of stage and screen will descend on London's legendary Cafe de Paris this weekend, for a bold fundraising event, which will see some of London's hottest performers get their kit off for charity.

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at Emily Tierneytransforming into Glinda- part 3!

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look atEmily Tierneytransforming into Glinda- part 2!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, August 21, 2011 - Sunday, August 21, 2011.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE WIZARD OF OZ, with new songs written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is now playing at The London Palladium. Joining Danielle Hope (BBC TV's Over the Rainbow winner) in the cast are Michael Crawford (Professor Marvel/The Wizard of Oz), Edward Baker-Duly (Hickory/Tin Man), David Ganly (Zeke/Cowardly Lion), Paul Keating (Hunk/Scarecrow), Emily Tierney (Glinda), and Hannah Waddingham (Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the West) will be joined by: Sophie Evans (Alternate Dorothy), Stephen Scott (Uncle Henry/Ensemble, first cover Professor Marvel/The Wizard of Oz), and Helen Walsh (Aunt Em/Munchkin Barrister/Ensemble).

Just in time for this week's international movie theater broadcast of the simply must-see Shakespeare's Globe Film Series production of HENRY IV: Part 2 on August 18, Vice President of NCM Fathom, Dan Diamond, was kind enough discuss with me the role his company plays in bringing major entertainment events to movie screens around the world - such as Shakespeare‘s Globe Film Series, Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY: IN CONCERT, the Tony-winning Best Musical MEMPHIS, the 25th Anniversary concert presentation of LES MISEABLES, Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, ballet, sports events like last year's WIMBELDON in 3D, as well as the August 31 re-release of the new HD print of Brian DePalma's SCARFACE - plus, most importantly, what the eminently exciting future holds for Fathom. Additionally, we touch on upcoming innovations coming to a movie theater near you courtesy of Fathom, such as 4D and lensless 3D technologies and the possibility they hold for capturing live theatre on film, as well as the ever-expanding company's goals for improving the local arts scene in communities large and small, world-wide. In the age of GLEE bringing theatre to a larger audience than ever before, the time is surely right for feature film presentations in the cinema of the best of Broadway and live performance - as well the plans to present all 37 of Shakespeare's plays - and Diamond's commitment and passion for his work comes through in this expansive conversation touching on virtually every aspect of what makes Fathom so fascinating and a formative, necessary element in the foundering and sustaining of a local and national arts scene connected by a network of movie theaters. If all that were not enough, Diamond also clues us in on some future showings such as the new Ozzy Osbourne documentary by his son, Jack, the upcoming Floyd Mayweather boxing match and, just maybe, the upcoming 25th Anniversary production of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA slated for October.

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at Emily Tierney transforming into Glinda!

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at Hannah Waddingham preparing for Act II- part 3!

Writers have been personifying the concept of Death for many ages. Geoffrey Chaucer made him a wizened old man who points some riotous characters to three bushels laden with gold in the story told by The Pardoner in THE CANTERBURY TALES. The antithesis of this is the presentation of Death in Maury Yeston's beguiling new musical DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY which is now on stage at the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre.

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at Hannah Waddingham preparing for Act II- part 2!

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. On Saturday, 16th July, Hope appeared on BBC1?s Tonight's the Night at 7.10pm, where she helped one young fan realise her ambition of singing ‘Over The Rainbow', as they performed together on the show. Click below to check out their performance!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, July 31, 2011 - Sunday, July 31, 2011.

It is one of the most highly anticipated shows of the twenty-first century, if only because the most successful composer of all-time - and the man behind not one, but both of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history - Andrew Lloyd Webber, has taken perhaps the most beloved American film of all, THE WIZARD OF OZ, to the London stage and has outfitted it with a number of new songs and musical sequences from his own hand and brazenly titledit ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER'S THE WIZARD OF OZ. Rumors of a Broadway opening ring out as the show sells out every night in London. And the show itself? Well, it certainly lives up to the title - and then some! But, what about the cast album? Re-teaming with his Oscar-winning collaborator on JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and EVITA, Sir Tim Rice - who wrote THE LION KING and AIDA with Elton John in the interim, among many other musicals - and securing the most celebrated star of the stage in the modern age and the original Phantom in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA himself, Michael Crawford, as the Wizard, Lloyd Webber proceeded to procure a Dorothy through the nouveau means of a 2010 reality TV casting competition, OVER THE RAINBOW: THE SEARCH FOR DOROTHY, and he certainly found a more than acceptable heir to the mantle left by Judy Garland in the 1939 film version in newcomer Danielle Hope. So, now, here we are, with the lushly produced West End cast album starring Hope, Crawford and Hannah Waddingham as the Witch glistening in its jewel case before us, so should we be joyously jumping over the rainbow or singing the red shoes blues?

According to the star's official website, Michael Crawford has just extended in the hit London production of THE WIZARD OF OZ through February 5, 2012. Audiences have been following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Crawford and Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, at The London Palladium where the show began previews in early February and opened in March to great reviews.

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for an inside look at Hannah Waddingham preparing for Act II- part 1!

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. Click below for a behind-the scenes look at the show, as stage manager Jo Miles gives us a look at the show from the wings- part 9!

Neil Berg's new cabaret show, RISE UP: The Theater Songs of Neil Berg, comes to Feinstein's, hosted by Rob Evan, and featuring a star-studded cast, including current Wicked star Mandy Gonzalez, and special guest, Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham, and others!

Audiences are following the yellow brick road over the rainbow to see Danielle Hope, winner of BBC TV's Over the Rainbow, play Dorothy at The London Palladium, the capital's home of the family musical. This Saturday, 16th July, Hope will appear on BBC1?s Tonight's the Night at 7.10pm, where she'll help one young fan realise her ambition of singing ‘Over The Rainbow', as they perform together on the show.