Richard Wilbur News

The opening fanfare of one of the most exhilarating overtures ever to hit Broadway signals the joyous return of New York City Opera. After financial woes threatened to pull down the curtain for good in 2013, the company that was christened in 1943 as 'the people's opera' by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia has returned with a new home and an old friend, director Harold Prince's rollicking production of Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche and Hugh Wheeler's CANDIDE.

Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE has had more lives than that proverbial cat--the latest being New York City Opera's new take on it, opening on January 6 for a ten-performance run at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theatre. It is, once again, helmed by director Hal Prince and choreographer Pat Birch, who were responsible--with librettist Hugh Wheeler and conductor John Mauceri--for the resuscitation and renovation of the once-considered unproducible work, more than 40 years ago.

This January, the legendary Broadway visionary Harold Prince returns to New York City Opera to direct a new production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. The production, choreographed by Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated choreographer Patricia Birch, brings together a versatile cast of Broadway veterans and rising opera stars to tell the story of Candide's adventures and tribulations in the "best of all possible worlds."

Sedos, the City of London's premier amateur theatre company, stages Candide in London this winter, in a revival which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the show's Broadway premiere, on 1 December 1956.

Lately, it seems that no matter where you turn you are assaulted with frightening news, disheartening images, and arguing politicians. It's gotten so upsetting that no one would fault you for thinking that this is the worst of all possible worlds. However, if you are tired of thinking the worst of society and your fellow man, there is no better antidote than the Orlando Philharmonic's joyous and playful production of Leonard Bernstein's light opera CANDIDE, running through Sunday, October 16th at Plaza Live Orlando.

Red Bull Theater presents their 2016-'17 Season kick-off, a special benefit reading and party, tonight, October 10th (7:30pm) at Symphony Space: Moliere's Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by Marc Vietor (who directed last season's acclaimed The School for Scandal), and starring Bill Camp, Julie Halston, Dana Ivey, Reg Rogers, Derek Smith, and Michael Urie, along with Christian DeMarais, Gretchen Hall, Naomi Lorrain, and Ben Mehl.

Light Opera Works will become Music Theater Works in 2017, opening with CANDIDE  (June 3-11), followed by GYPSY (August 19-27), DUKE ELLINGTON'S GREATEST HITS (October 6-15), and PETER PAN (December 23-January 1, 2018).

The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities will open its 2016 - 2017 Black Box season with Tartuffe directed by Lynne Collins, on Friday, September 30, 2016. Tartuffe is written by Moliere, the French master of comedy, and translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur. It is Moliere's most famous theatrical comedies, a biting satire about frauds and the power they can wield that is as relevant today as when it was written.

Red Bull Theater today announced the complete cast for their 2016-'17 Season kick-off, a special benefit reading and party on Monday, October 10th (7:30pm) at Symphony Space: Moliere's Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by Marc Vietor (who directed last season's acclaimed The School for Scandal), and starring Bill Camp, Julie Halston, Dana Ivey, Reg Rogers, Derek Smith, and Michael Urie, along with Christian DeMarais, Gretchen Hall, Naomi Lorrain, and Ben Mehl.

Red Bull Theater today announced their 2016-'17 Season will include William Shakespeare's Coriolanus; a new version of Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector; as well as an all new season of their acclaimed Revelation Readings featuring Kristine Nielsen (Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike), Matthew Rauch ('Banshee'), Derek Smith (Green Bird, Lion King), Christian DeMarais, Gretchen Hall, Ryan Garbayo (Loot), Ben Mehl, Amelia Pedlow ('Tis Pity She's A Whore), Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher), and more. 

On  Friday, July 8, The Sherman Playhouse will premiere Moliere's 17th-century comedic farce, Tartuffe. The curtain rises at 8:00 p.m. on a four-week run. 

The Arvada Center has announced its 2016-17 season, a diverse line-up of plays and musicals. The three musical and four play season includes a world premiere musical over the Christmas holiday along with a regional premiere play in Spring 2017.

Terryl Hallquist directs Moliere's The Misanthrope, with a setting in modern-day Nashville, as Vanderbilt University Theatre takes a creative leap with its April 7-10 production.

The Theatre School at DePaul University is pleased to present The Misanthrope by Moliere, translated by Richard Wilbur, and directed by Brian Balcom (MFA Directing, Class of 2016) on the Fullerton Stage at The Theatre School at DePaul University. The production opens on Friday, April 15, and runs through Sunday, April 24, 2016. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. Previews are on April 13 and 14 at 7:30 PM.

Called 'Vincent' all her life, Edna St. Vincent Millay was the mercurial goddess of a fast and fatal Greenwich Village scene in the 1920s. 'She was one of those women,' said Edmund Wilson, 'whose features are not perfect, but who, excited by the blood of the spirit, becomes almost supernaturally beautiful.'

Called 'Vincent' all her life, Edna St. Vincent Millay was the mercurial goddess of a fast and fatal Greenwich Village scene in the 1920s. 'She was one of those women,' said Edmund Wilson, 'whose features are not perfect, but who, excited by the blood of the spirit, becomes almost supernaturally beautiful.'

Called 'Vincent' all her life, Edna St. Vincent Millay was the mercurial goddess of a fast and fatal Greenwich Village scene in the 1920s. 'She was one of those women,' said Edmund Wilson, 'whose features are not perfect, but who, excited by the blood of the spirit, becomes almost supernaturally beautiful.'

Sometimes a flop Broadway show is better appreciated after closing, and may even return as a hit!

What if instead of encouraging Jay Gatsby to find the greatness in his true self, Nick Carraway had led his rich friend down a path of phony-spiritualism that brought him to the brink of bankruptcy? That is the premise behind the Jazz Age-inspired production of Moliere's TARTUFFE running at Rollins College's Annie Russell Theatre through November 21st. Directed by John Christopher Jones, a veteran of 15 Broadway shows, including the 1990 revival of Moliere's THE MISER, the production makes great use of a uniformly delightful cast to create a whimsical evening of classic theatrical farce, even if it they never seem to get the most out of the more than 350-year-old text.