Robert Ari News

Music Theatre Wichita's 43 summer season finishes this weekend with the closing of "42nd Street," but plans are already underway for next summer, as the 2015 titles have just been announced.

Music Theatre Wichita's 43 summer season comes to a conclusion with "42nd Street," directed and choreographed by original cast member Jon Engstrom, and featuring Damon Kirsche as Julian Marsh, Tracy Lore as Dorothy Brock, Tessa Grady as Peggy Sawyer, and Shonn Wiley as Billy Lawlor. Patty Reeder appears as Maggie Jones, partnered by Robert Ariza as Bert Barry, with Timothy W. Robu as Abner Dillon and Ryan Vasquez as Pat Denning. Tapping their way into several major numbers are Amy Baker Schwiethale as "Anytime" Annie, Jacob Chancellor as dance director Andy Lee, Katie Wesler as Phyllis, Becca Petersen as Lorraine, and Emily Pirtleas Diane.

On Saturday night July 26, songwriters / co-creators Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman paid a visit to Wichita to see Music Theatre Wichita's all-new production of "Catch Me If You Can," and had many compliments for director / producer Wayne Bryan, choreographer Linda Goodrich, and all the cast members, including Thom Sesma ("The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Miss Saigon," "Sweeney Todd") as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, and Skyler Adams (Pippin understudy in the upcoming national tour of "Pippin") as Frank Jr. Special praise also went to Broadway veterans David Hess and Paula Leggett Chase as Frank's parents, and to Carolyn Anne Miller as love interest Brenda. Scroll down for photos of Shaiman and Wittman backstage, plus images from the production!

Fans and performers from around the world have gathered to honor the memory of Elaine Stritch. In a new video created and edited by Steven Carl McCasland, Artistic Director of Beautiful Soup Theater, over 25 participants have gathered to celebrate her most famous song, 'The Ladies Who Lunch'. Click below to check out appearances from Beth Leavel, Donna Lynne Champlin, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Elizabeth Stanley, Clyde Alves, Anne L. Nathan, Keala Settle, Nancy Shayne, and Lisa Brescia.

Music Theatre Wichita continues its 43rd summer season this week with the second of its five large-scale productions, the classic "West Side Story." The show opened Wednesday, June 25 and continues through June 29. Scroll down for an epic look at the cast in action!

Ben Edquist, of Houston, won the $15,000 First Prize in the finals of the 2014 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and held on April 12, 2014, in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Arlo Hill, of New York, won the Second Prize of $10,000, and the Third Prize of $7,500 was awarded to Natalie Ballenger, also of New York.

Fourteen exceptionally talented young singer-actors have been selected as finalists in the 2014 Lotte Lenya Competition. They will compete for top prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500 on Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Rochester, New York. Broadway conductor and Encores! music director Rob Berman, 2-time Tony Award winner Judy Kaye, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Artistic Director James Robinson will judge.

The Music Theatre of Wichita presents LEGALLY BLONDE, opening August 8 and running through August 12. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.

Twelve exceptionally talented young singer-actors have made it through two rounds of auditions for the 2012 Lotte Lenya Competition and will compete for top prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500 in the finals, to be held on April 21, 2012, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker, Broadway and Encores! music director Rob Berman, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President and American Theater Wing Chairman of the Board Theodore S. Chapin will serve as judges.

Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde) headed the cast of a one-night-only performance of The King Stag, written and directed by Jeremy Dobrish (adapted from the original Carlo Gozzi play) on Monday, March 24 with a 6PM reception and 7:30PM performance at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) to benefit Resonance Ensemble's 2008 season.

Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde) will head the cast of a one-night-only performance of The King Stag, written and directed by Jeremy Dobrish (adapted from the original Carlo Gozzi play) on Monday, March 24 with a 6PM reception and 7:30PM performance at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street) to benefit Resonance Ensemble's 2008 season.

Michael Dale takes at look at the Roundabout's revival of 'Pygmalion' and Charles Busch's 'Die Mommie Die!'

Jeff McCarthy will star in The Front Page, presented by the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, in April

Tyler Maynard, Nancy Anderson, Seth Rudetsky and others star in a concert production of The Great Big Radio Show at the York Theatre

The York Theatre Company, (James Morgan Producing Artistic Director), will present the American Premiere of The Great Big Radio Show!, a delightful 1930's style musical comedy by Philip Glassborow and Nick McIvor.

Lost Musicals presents a staged reading of Cole Porter's 1955 musical political satire

Songs from Cole Porter's Silk Stockings will be heard on XM 28 On Broadway Radio on August 28th a few weeks before a concert production is presented

Valerie Cutko, Liz Larsen, Daniel Gerroll and Wally Dunn will headline the cast of the semi-staged Lost Musicals presentation of Cole Porter's Silk Stockings, which will run from September 11th through October 3rd