Michal Daniel News

Two River Theater kicks off their exciting series of benefit play readings with 'Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine' on Sunday, July 26 at 7:00pm EDT. The show originally premiered at Two River in 2015. This reading will feature an updated script by Tony-Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing Merritt Janson about her career and the highly anticipated reading.

YOUR BLUES AIN'T SWEET LIKE MINE began its three-week run April 17 at the Two River Theater in Red Bank by focusing on the important issue of race in America. Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson's script and direction produced a realistic and meaningful production that reinforced the concept that more than home is where the heart is - it's where you are as well - and asked many poignant questions whose answers appear at different points in the performance.

Two River Theater (Artistic Director John Dias, Managing Director Michael Hurst) presents the world premiere of Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine, written and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The press opening is Friday, April 17 at 8pm and performances will continue through Sunday, May 3 in Two River's Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, Red Bank, NJ. Tickets are available from 732.345.1400 or tworivertheater.org.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its exhilarating 57th season with the Kansas City premiere of composer Kevin Puts' 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Silent Night, February 21, 25 and 27 and March 1 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in English, German, French, Italian and Latin with English titles.

ON GOLDEN POND at the Jungle Theater is a quiet, sweet play that shines the spotlight on two theater veterans and the relationship of the elderly lovers who are realizing the changes they're beginning to face in their sunset years.

Vampires, werewolves, Egyptian mummies, English moors, haunted portraits, a sophisticated Lord and Lady, an Irish maid, a Scottish stable hand, and a euphonium. Mix it all up and you have the ridiculous and hugely entertaining farce that is THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP. This 2010 Jungle hit is back again this year with the same director/scenic designer, Joel Sass, and one of its stars, Bradley Greenwald (proving once again there truly is nothing he can't do). The role(s) previously played by Stephen Epp is played by another Stephen, Cartmell, and he brings his own kind of brilliance to the show. Watching these two actors fully commit to the distinct outrageousness of multiple characters is a joy.

A few weeks ago I wrote that the Guthrie's My Fair Lady is the must-see summer musical. Correction: it's one of two. Mu Performing Arts' production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music should also be on your must-see list; it's every bit as good as My Fair Lady. The songs might not be as 'hummable and quotable,' but they're clever and beautifully complex in a way that only a Sondheim score can be. The music sounds gorgeous, the costumes are luscious, the show is funny but a little sad too, and the cast is fantastic (and by the way, they also happen to be Asian-American). It's another gorgeous production of a classic.

Last weekend I saw the classic play The Heiress, about Catherine, a wealthy heiress lacking in social graces with a stern father and an unexpected suitor. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the play until I had a sudden revelation the next morning - Catherine is Mad Men's Peggy. The Heiress is all about Catherine reclaiming her power, even if it comes at the expense of her own happiness.

Upon her return to Davenport's in Chicago, the theater & cabaret star talks about her voice and how she almost lost it.

'Third' is an entertaining, thought provoking play that should not be missed by area audiences. Directed by Michael Cumpsty and starring Annette O'Toole, it is now at Two Rivers Theater in Red Bank through June 22nd.

Two River Theater presents Wendy Wasserstein's THIRD, directed by Michael Cumpsty. The opening night is tonight, June 6 at 8pm in Two River's Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, Red Bank; performances continue through Sunday, June 22. Below, BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage!

Two River Theater presents Wendy Wasserstein's THIRD, directed by Michael Cumpsty. The opening night is Friday, June 6 at 8pm in Two River's Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, Red Bank; performances continue through Sunday, June 22. Below, BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage!

Minnesota Opera presents its co-production of a dynamic and engaging staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute with LA Opera. Mozart's masterful comedy about love, truth and the pursuit of enlightenment is richly reimagined in this boundary-busting production. Connecting the tale's enduring meaning with modern metaphor, this extraordinary staging combines live performance and film animation to delve deeply into the opera's surreal magic, odd characters and crazy love. Check out a sneak peek below!

Theresa Rebeck is having her work produced at the Alley Theatre for the fifth time. She made her Broadway debut with MAURITIUS, and recently had her plays SEMINAR and DEAD ACCOUNTS produced on Broadway. However, I wouldn't expect to see FOOL playing the Great White Way in the near future. The script has it's own brand of light-hearted charm, and it makes for a decent comedy; yet, when the play is over, it just doesn't stick with you.

Minnesota Opera is pleased to announce its first production of 2014. Verdi's dark-hued Macbeth examines the corrosive consequences of tyranny. At the urging of his wife, Macbeth murders the king to claim the crown. His desperate and deadly reign of terror devastates his country and hastens his doom in this masterwork based upon Shakespeare's classic thriller. The Show Premieres Saturday, January 25th, and runs through February 2nd at Ordway, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102. The show is sung in Italian with English surtitles projected above the stage.

A collaboration by Theatre Latte Da and Hennepin Theatre Trust, as a part of the Broadway Re-Imagined series, has high production values, top local talent and a story that retains relevance more than 40 years after it first premiered.

Yale Repertory Theatre presents ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST, the explosive political farce by Nobel Prize winning Italian playwright Dario Fo, adapted by Gavin Richards from a translation by Gillian Hanna. Directed byChristopher Bayes (The Servant of Two Masters, A Doctor in Spite of Himself), ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST plays November 30-December 21 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Friday, December 6. Check out a sneak peek below!

Minnesota Opera presents ARABELLA, by composer Richard Strauss, Sung in German with English translations projected above the stage at the Ordway, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102, opening tomorrow, November 9, and running through November 12. Check out a first look below!

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) presents FIDDLER ON THE ROOF on the Main Stage for the first time in 20 years. FIDDLER ON THE ROOF last graced the Main Stage in 1993 to mark Chanhassen's 25th anniversary. This time around, the theatres' most widely requested show will mark CDT's 45th anniversary. The production will run September 27th, 2013 through January 25, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

Could you make the decision to bid farewell to your family and homeland with the prospect of a better life in the New World? Not knowing if or when you would see them again? That is the tough choice millions of immigrants to America faced from 1840-1924 during the golden age of immigration to America. Steerage Song created by Peter Rothstein and Dan Chouinard of Theater Latte Da gorgeously tells of the struggles European immigrants to America during this time faced.