Michael Korie News

Playwrights Horizons announced the appointment of Liz Fallon Culp as the institution's new Director of Development. Ms. Culp joins the acclaimed theater company direct from New York Public Radio (WNYC/WQXR), where she served as the Senior Director of Major Gifts and Legacy Giving. She began with the theater company this month, leading its seven-person Development department.

Tonight, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance...Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser announce the launch of a musical theatre development program focusing on the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals: The Oscar Hammerstein Festival - named in honor of the master writer whose countless accomplishments during his illustrious career include having mentored a young Stephen Sondheim at Hammerstein's Bucks County farm -- is a year-long program that offers expert mentorship to early career composers and lyricists. The Oscar Hammerstein Festival will culminate in a weekend with musical theatre experts, artists, and enthusiasts and various events open to the general public. The Festival will launch this weekend, September 26 - 28, 2014.

Bucks County Playhouse is launching their first Oscar Hammerstein Festival this year. This festival was inspired by the mentorship Hammerstein offered Stephen Sondheim as a young man. One of the people teaching a workshop at the Hammerstein Festival is Michael Korie. Korie is a lyricist and librettist, who is known for writing the lyrics for the musical GREY GARDENS. I had a chance to speak with Korie about the Hammerstein festival as well as the importance of working with emerging artists.

Earlier this month, BroadwayWorld.com exclusively broke the news that Doctor Zhivago is headed to Broadway in early 2015. The show will likely replace RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA at the Broadway Theatre after that production closes on January 3, 2015.

On Thursday, October 2 at 12:30pm Senior Services of the Chatham's in Chatham, NJ welcomes Walter Newkirk, founder of Walter Newkirk Public Relations LLC and author of memoraBEALEia : A Private Scrapbook about Edie Beale of Grey Gardens for a lecture about Grey Gardens: the critically acclaimed documentary, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, and the Emmy and Golden Globe winning HBO film film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. A free screening of the HBO film will be presented followed by a Q&A session with Walter, an expert on all things Grey Gardens.

SpeakEasy Stage Company welcomes Boston actress Jennifer Ellis in the role of Cathy Whitaker in the company's upcoming New England Premiere production of FAR FROM HEAVEN, running tonight, September 12 to October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.

American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks present Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings tonight, September 10th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

On Monday, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance…Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.

BroadwayWorld.com has learned that Doctor Zhivago is headed to Broadway in 2015. The show will likely replace RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA at the Broadway Theatre after that production closes on January 3, 2015.

Due to popular demand, American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks have added a second performance of Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings Wednesday September 10th, 2014. The second performance will take place at 9:00 p.m., immediately after the initial 7:30 p.m. performance. Both performances will be held at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

Bucks County Playhouse Producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser announce the launch of a musical theatre development program focusing on the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals: The Oscar Hammerstein Festival - named in honor of the master writer whose countless accomplishments during his illustrious career include having mentored a young Stephen Sondheim at Hammerstein's Bucks County farm -- is a year-long program that offers expert mentorship to early career composers and lyricists. The Oscar Hammerstein Festival will culminate in a weekend with musical theatre experts, artists, and enthusiasts and various events open to the general public. The Festival will launch September 26 - 28, 2014.

From September 12 - October 11, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the Boston Premiere of FAR FROM HEAVEN, a lush new musical based on Todd Haynes' acclaimed 2002 film.

The national tour of ANYTHING GOES, the new Broadway revival of Cole Porter's timeless classic musical theatre masterpiece, will make its Houston premiere October 14-19 as part of the 2014-2015 Season of Broadway at the Hobby Center. Individual tickets will be on sale beginning Sunday, August 24 at 10:00 a.m.

Just as central character J. M. Barrie needs to find his true voice in order to break through the writer's block that is hampering his playwriting career, FINDING NEVERLAND, the new musical about the family that inspired the beleaguered author to create Peter Pan, needs to find its voice, too. Teetering abruptly between empty frivolousness and genuine pathos, FINDING NEVERLAND is an uneven adventure in its current pre-Broadway tryout at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.

After a national search, Playwrights Horizons announced today the appointment of Kyle Sircus as the institution's new Director of Marketing. Beginning Monday, September 22, Mr. Sircus will join the acclaimed theater company direct from Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, CA, where he currently serves as Marketing Manager, a position created especially for him in July 2012. Mr. Sircus will lead the theater company's seven-person Marketing Department.

American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks present Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings Wednesday September 10th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

Custom Made Theatre announces its 2014-2015 season. The award-winning company will stage six exciting works, opening with the Bay Area premiere of Eric Simonson's adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse- Five, or The Children's Crusade and closing the season with Grey Gardens: The Musical. Two of the shows are Bay Area Premieres and one, Plautus's The Braggart Soldier, or Major Blowhard, adapted and directed by Evren Odcikin, is a World Premiere.