Natasha Katz News

It is Theatre Development Fund's belief that future audiences are built by engaging students, first-hand, in the vital and exciting activity of the creative process, as well as providing opportunities to see live performances of great theatre. To that end, 1,500 New York City public high school and middle school students from 20 schools (and one school from East Orange, NJ), who are participating in TDF's Stage Doors Program, will be attending a special matinee performance of Broadway's smash hit, MOTOWN THE MUSICAL on Thursday, April 3 at 1pm at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street, NYC).

Whoopi Goldberg, Stage Entertainment y El Terrat serán los productores del musical, para el que esta semana se realizarán audiciones en Barcelona y Madrid.

BroadwayWorld was there for all of the magical opening night festivities, and below you can check out full photo coverage from the theatre arrivals!

BroadwayWorld was there for all of the magical opening night festivities, and below you can check out full photo coverage from the curtain call!

The laughs are plentiful, the songs are bright and jazzy and there's not an actor dressed as an animal or inanimate object in sight .

Disney's Aladdin, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award-winning animated film, opens on Broadway tonight, March 20th, 2014, at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Let's see what the critics had to say...

ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, will play The Smith Center for a limited engagement May 20-25. Tickets for ONCE will go on sale Friday, March 28 at 10 a.m. and prices start at $26. Purchases can be made at The Smith Center box office located at 361 Symphony Park Avenue, by phone at 702-749-2000 or 808-326-6868 (TTY) and online at www.TheSmithCenter.com. For preferred seating and special rates for groups of 10 or more, contact 702-749-2348.

The 2013/2014 National Tour of the new musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY, based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, will make its Jacksonville premiere on Friday, May 2nd at 8PM at the Times-Union Center's Moran Theater!

Last night (17 March 20134) the six-time Olivier award nominated musical Once celebrated its first birthday in the West End, joining forces with the charity Oxfam specifically fundraising for their Mother Appeal. Also celebrating St Patrick's Day, the production welcomed their new cast led by Arthur Darvill, who joins the London production having played the role on Broadway. Darvill plays opposite Zrinka Cviteši? as Girl. Check out the photos below!

Casey Nicholaw, the Tony Award-winning director and choreographer of Disney's ALADDIN, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award-winning animated film, is featured in the April 2014 issue of Vanity Fair. Renowned photographer Max Abadian shot Nicholaw along with ALADDIN's beautiful ladies Tia Altinay, Daisy Hobbs, Nikki Long, Rhea Patterson, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Ariel Reid, and Marisha Wallace. Check out a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot below!

As previously announced, Clifton Oliver and Allison Semmes will star in the leading roles of Berry Gordy and Diana Ross. Portraying groundbreaking Motown artists, Nicholas Christopher will play Smokey Robinson and Jarran Muse will play Marvin Gaye. Leon Outlaw, Jr. and Reed L. Shannon will portray Berry Gordy's boyhood counterpart and the roles of young stars Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.

The 2013/2014 National Tour of the musical The Addams Family, based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, will make its McCallum Theatre premiere, as part of the Rabobank Broadway Blockbuster Series, for five performances, tonight, March 14, through Sunday, March 16. The Addams Family, which began performances on Broadway in March 2010 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and ran through December 2011, immediately became one of Broadway's biggest hits. Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune described the production as 'classic, full-tilt, fast paced, old-fashioned musical comedy!' and John Simon of Bloomberg News called it 'Uproarious! A glitzy-gloomy musical entirely worthy of the macabre drawings by Charles Addams.'

Once, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, makes its Minneapolis premiere at Hennepin Theatre Trust's Orpheum Theatre, April 1-6, 2014. Tickets for Once are on sale now. Once is presented by Hennepin Theatre Trust as part of its Broadway Season. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit HennepinTheatreTrust.org or call 1.800.982.2787.

American Ballet Theatre's 2014 season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 12-July 5, will be highlighted by the Company Premiere of Frederick Ashton's Cinderella and a Shakespeare Celebration to include Ashton's The Dream and Alexei Ratmansky's The Tempest. Season revivals include Leonide Massine's Gaite Parisienne and Kenneth MacMillan's Manon. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on Sunday, March 30 at Noon.

NETworks production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast , the award-winning worldwide smash hit Broadway musical, is returning to Fox Cities Performing Arts Center April 11-13 for five performances only.

ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, will play the Benedum Center for a limited engagement from today, March 11 through Sunday, March 16, 2014. ONCE is part of the PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh series, presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Broadway Across America and Pittsburgh Symphony.

Producers Kevin McCollum, Doug Morris and Berry Gordy have announced that Clifton Oliver and Allison Semmes have been cast in the leading roles of Berry Gordy and Diana Ross in MOTOWN THE MUSICAL. The First National Tour begins performances April 22, 2014 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago before continuing to cities across the country.

Brandon O'Neill, currently starring in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway as one of the title character's sidekicks Kassim, will perform the national anthem tonight when the New York Knicks take on the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden. Tip off is at 7:30pm.

Today, 10 March 2014, Once was nominated for six prestigious 2014 Olivier Awards. The critically-acclaimed show has been nominated for Mastercard Best New Musical, Zrinka Cviteši? for Best Actress In A Musical, Steven Hoggett for Best Theatre Choreographer, Martin Lowe, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for Autograph Sound Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music, Bob Crowley for XL Video Award for Best Set Design and Clive Goodwin for Best Sound Design.

ONCE, the multi award-winning stage musical that has captivated audiences in London, New York and Dublin, will soon make its Australian premiere, opening at Melbourne's Princess Theatre on 4 October 2014.