Michael Williams News

After a traumatic few weeks for our nation and around the world, it was a delight to escape into the world of make believe watching Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID, presented by Red Mountain Theatre Company. I was thrilled to be able to forget the horrors of the real world for a couple of hours and see a show where good triumphs over evil, where families from different worlds can accept their differences, put them aside and focus on love, and where everyone lives happily ever after. THE LITTLE MERMAID runs through July 31. For more information and tickets go to www.redmountaintheatre.org or call 205-324-2424.

Andrew Kay & Associates Ltd in association with King's Head Theatre presents the London Premiere of The Book Club by Roger Hall,

It's guns, gangsters, flappers, and booze. BULLETS OVER BROADWAY takes the audience back to the 1920's with a rowdy performance that will have you laughing in your seat.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, has unveiled full casting for Gilbert & Sullivan's THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, which will star previously announced Will Swenson as 'The Pirate King.'

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre presents Henry V, now through 9 July 2016. Check out photos from opening night below!

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre presents HENRY V, starring Olivier Award-winning actress Michelle Terry in the title role. The production is now in previews, with press night tomorrow, and runs until 9 July.

The Colorado Theatre Guild's 11th Annual Henry Awards will take place Monday, July 18, 2016 at the PACE Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Avenue in Parker, Colorado. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with cocktails and the awards ceremony will begin at 7 p.m., followed by an after-party. Tickets are $23 for CTG members (limit 2 per person online with the code Henry2016), $30 non-members or $50 VIP. Tickets go on sale June 20 through the PACE Center website, parkerarts.org, or by calling the box office at 303-805-6800. 

Wednesday night Dallas theatergoers sipped their wine and slipped back to the salacious days of the roaring 20's. The National Tour of Bullets Over Broadway landed for its Dallas premiere June 14th and the audience couldn't have been more welcoming. Written by Woody Allen based on a screenplay by himself and Douglas McGrath, Bullets offers all the bells and whistles of a solid 20's era show-decked out with drop waist dresses, showgirls, booze, and mobsters.

Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera are delighted to present the return of MANDELA TRILOGY, opening at Wales Millennium Centre on 24 August 2016, followed by a UK and Ireland Tour, finishing on 24 September 2016.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre presents Henry V, now in rehearsal. Check out photos below!

The national tour of the new musical comedy BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, written by Woody Allen and based on the screenplay by Allen and Douglas McGrath for the 1994 film, will make its Dallas premiere June 14-26 at the Music Hall at Fair Park presented by Dallas Summer Musicals.

Going into any play, movie, television show, etc., there are certain expectations. And certain things that the audience will be asked to buy into, to embrace. If you're going to see a horror movie, expect blood and gore. If you're seeing a Tennessee Williams play, expect realism and southern drama. And if you are seeing the Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway at Providence Performing Arts Center, expect silliness, fun, little that's grounded in reality and some solid entertainment.

The lights come up, jazz age gangsters rush the stage and fire at the backdrop with their machine guns, and the words BULLETS OVER BROADWAY appears in lights--a perfect intro for a madcap caper. Let the fun begin!

Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera are delighted to present the return of Mandela Trilogy, opening at Wales Millennium Centre on 24 August 2016, followed by a UK and Ireland Tour, finishing on 24 September 2016.   BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at the trailer below!

Having just seen a beautiful production of THE SECRET GARDEN at Red Mountain Theatre Company two short weeks ago, I was surprised to turn my calendar and realize I was headed back there so soon for SISTER ACT. Once again, RMTC has outdone themselves with a stellar performance.

If you think about it, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is the perfect Woody Allen film to turn into a Broadway musical, especially since it pokes fun at the process of producing one. Add some particularly well drawn characters (book by Allen, based on the original screenplay written with Douglas McGrath) and a copious amount of humor, and combine that with a score that cherry-picks a wealth of classic period music, and you've got a winning combination. The current touring production, which is stopping briefly at The Peabody Opera House (one night only - May 5, 2016), is a hilariously engaging show, full of flashy song and dance numbers from a bygone era, that shouldn't be missed.

The Steppenwolf saga gets a new treatment in the world premiere of Steppenwolf - a musical retelling. Written and composed by 21-year-old Dutch protege Jochem le Cointre (class of 2016), The first ever staged adaptation of Hermann Hesse's classic novel, originally published in Germany in 1928, the show features a 15-piece chamber orchestra; an ensemble of students from The New School's College of Performing Arts; a cast of New York City actors and singers, including several from The New School's Mannes School of Music, School of Drama, and Lang Theater; and dancers from the renowned Martha Graham Dance Company. Choreography is by Tadej Brdnik, the former principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Two performances will be staged on May 11 & May 12, 2016 at 7pm at The Auditorium at The New School, 66 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011.  Tickets are free (first come, first seated) and can be reserved by visiting EventBrite.

Next week the Memphis Orpheum will teem with gun-toting lugs in pinstripes and leggy Jazz Age chorines as BULLETS OVER BROADWAY takes the stage. This roaring twenties crime comedy, based on Woody Allen's 1994 film by the same title was transformed for the stage with Susan Stroman's guidance. In Allen's film, the lead character, David Shayne, was played by John Cusack. In this stage version, a young actor named Michael Williams inhabits the role.

Woody Allen's film is promising source material for a musical. This is what we got.