Roald Dahl News

Upcoming MTI Shows - 6/05 for Paris

Upcoming MTI Shows - 6/05 for Toronto

Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Tony-nominated How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying and the beloved Harry Potter films, will serve as master of ceremonies as hundreds of students from middle and intermediate New York City Public Schools in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan get their Broadway debut at the Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway JR. Student Celebration at the Majestic Theatre (245 West 44th Street) on Monday, June 6th from 10:30 AM to noon. Each school will perform a song from their production of a student version of a classic musical, including Annie JR., Once on this Island JR., Seussical JR., Disney's Aladdin JR. and Guys and Dolls JR. A list of schools participating in the June 6th celebration follows.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/29 for Paris

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/29 for Toronto

Crown Center Schedule of Events June 2011- August 2012

This holiday season, America's #1 Christmas movie comes to life on stage as a hilarious holiday musical. A Christmas Story, The Musical! features a bright holiday score by composer/lyricist team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Joseph Robinette based on the writings of radio humorist Jean Shepherd and the 1983 holiday film favorite. Acclaimed director/choreographer Warren Carlyle (Broadway's Finian's Rainbow, Follies at The Kennedy Center, An Evening With Hugh Jackman) will helm the production. Peter Billingsley, who starred as Ralphie in the original 1983 film, serves as a producer for the holiday tour.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's world premiere production of Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical will transfer to London's Cambridge Theatre on Tuesday 18 October. Check out a preview of the show below!

The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre completes its 21st season with 'Broadway Duets' - a cabaret performance celebrating some of the greatest duets ever written for the Broadway stage. Presenting classic songs by Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more will be four favorites of the Signature stage - Felicia Curry (Les Misérables), James Gardiner ([title of show]), Jake Odmark (Sunset Boulevard), and Bayla Whitten (Chess). Renowned duets from Wicked, Damn Yankees, Godspell, Hairspray, Hello, Dolly!, Aida, among others, will be featured by the talented foursome. Directed by Signature's Resident Director Matthew Gardiner (Side by Side by Sondheim, Art) in the intimacy of the 110-seat ARK Theatre, 'Broadway Duets' will be presented from June 7th through June 11th.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/22 for Paris

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/22 for Toronto

Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced earlier this week that American Lyric Theater has been recommended for a grant of $20,000 to support The Composer Librettist Development Program.

Matilda The Musical played to sold-out audiences at the RSC's The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for twelve weeks from November 2010 to January 2011. Roald Dahl's magical story about a girl with extraordinary powers has been a favourite novel for millions of people across the world since it was published in 1988.

Culled from as A-list a list as you are ever likely to acquire - Steven Spielberg, Robert Greenblatt, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Michael Mayer, Theresa Rebeck and Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman onwards - SMASH is the adult answer to riveting dramatic musical entertainment coming with heart, laughs, unforgettable characters and some of the biggest twists this side of the starry stages on the Great White Way. Oh, yeah, and those hallowed Broadway halls, too. Plus, SMASH provides a great new opportunity to showcase the unbelievable talent on display on the stages of Broadway and Off-Broadway and beyond, particularly given the fact that it is shot in New York and it is being cast by the biggest casting director on Broadway, Bernie Telsey. Consider the theatre-centric casting LAW & ORDER times seventy six (trombones). All of New York is the talent pool from which the stage of SMASH shall be set. And, what exactly is SMASH about, anyway? Well, SMASH is all about Broadway and what makes a musical tick - from the very inception of the show's idea by the songwriters, through writing, rehearsals and the road; all the way to the big Broadway opening where dreams are made - and nightmares born - on one magnificent, momentous night. As viewers, we are taken inside the ticking clock of the show and we experience each and every one of the multitude of machinations enacted by everyone from the stars - Marilyn Monroe, and the actress playing her, Ivy; and, more importantly, her alternative, Karen - to the overworked director (Derek), harried songwriters Tom and Julia, and the speculative and cutthroat producer behind it all, Eileen.

Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater (ALT), has announced that OPERA IN EDEN, an evening of one act operas written by Resident Artists from ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program, will return to the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011, at 7:00 PM.

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/15 for Paris

Upcoming MTI Shows - 5/15 for Toronto

Legends in their own time, ascending to the top ranks of the Hollywood and Broadway songwriting landscape, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman have accomplished and climbed to heights most of what many film fans, Broadway babies and general entertainment junkies only dream of witnessing and ascending to. Marc Shaiman's work with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT prompted Stephen Sondheim - as he told me himself - to cite it as one of the best musicals of the era. And, it is - as is their Tony-winning Best Musical HAIRSPRAY, based on the film by Pope of Trash John Waters. Featuring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah and an all-around-amazing cast of triple-threats, the stunning Craig Zadan/Neil Meron-produced film version of HAIRSPRAY may be the greatest cinematic Shaiman and/or Wittman accomplishment so far. Then, there is CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - one of the snappiest new scores on Broadway in a strangely strong season of original scores - boasting boss Sinatra blues and sizzling Shirelles riffs and everything else that's swingin' in between. Up next for the team - onstage and off - is a stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, in addition to what is perhaps the most exciting prospect on their impossibly cluttered horizon: the new Steven Speilberg/Craig Zadan/Neil Meron musical/comedy/drama series SMASH which has just been picked up for the Fall season on NBC! In this exclusive, extensive and exhaustive conversation we cover it all from HAIRSPRAY to CATCH ME to CHARLIE to all about SMASH and far, far beyond!