Scott Frankel News

Playwrights Horizons and 92YTribeca have announced that they will present a panel discussion previewing the theater company's new season on Monday evening, September 12 at 7:30 PM at 92YTribeca (200 Hudson Street). Moderated by The New Yorker culture writer Michael Schulman, joined by Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director Tim Sanford, the panel discussion will feature all six writers from the theater company's 2011/2012 Season.

Playwrights Horizons and 92YTribeca have announced that they will present a panel discussion previewing the theater company's new season on Monday evening, September 12 at 7:30 PM at 92YTribeca (200 Hudson Street). Moderated by The New Yorker culture writer Michael Schulman, joined by Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director Tim Sanford, the panel discussion will feature all six writers from the theater company's 2011/2012 Season.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced it will once again present its popular, annual benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES. This year's event, set for Monday evening, October 17, will feature new works by seven of the theater's alumni writers: Tanya Barfield (Blue Door at PH), Bathsheba Doran (Kin at PH), Obie Award winner Daniel Goldfarb (The Retributionists at PH), Eric Overmyer (The Heliotrope Bouquet... at PH), Jonathan Marc Sherman (Sophistry at PH), Jeanine Tesori (Violet at PH) and Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy at PH). Each play will be performed in a different, unconventional space throughout all five stories of Playwrights Horizons' home at 416 West 42nd Street, and the entire evening will benefit the company's developmental programs and productions.

According to Baz Bamingboye in his Daily Mail UK column, the Weinstein Company is planning a four-week workshop of the new musical, Finding Neverland, this fall in New York. The workshop, directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford is said to star Julian Ovenden as J.M. Barrie and Kelli O'Hara as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Bamingboye writes that 'if it works - and Ovenden and O'Hara are available - the Weinsteins will launch a big production for Broadway.'

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is proud to announce the sixth and final production of its upcoming 2011/2012 Season. Completing the theater company's line-up is the New York premiere of MAPLE & VINE, a new play by Jordan Harrison (Doris to Darlene at Playwrights Horizons, Act a Lady, Amazons and Their Men), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (The Thugs, Stunning, Naked Angels' This Wide Night, Mr. Harrison's Act a Lady).

Grey Gardens the Musical makes it's regional premiers at the Vintage Theatre.

The hilarious and heartbreaking story of East Hampton's most notorious recluses, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced initial details for its 2011 special online Auction in connection with its annual Spring Gala Benefit. Bidding for the auction, which will feature an eclectic array of items and unique opportunities, begins tomorrow, Tuesday, April 26 at 8AM at www.biddingforgood/playwrightshorizons. Online bidding will continue for three weeks through Wednesday, May 18 (with items staggered to close at 8PM and 9PM).

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional details for a second round of major items for its 2011 special online Auction.

From her creation of the pivotal roles of Susan in Marvin Hamlisch & Craig Carnelia's simply smashing (if underappreciated) SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and Clara in Adam Guettel & Craig Lucas's five-time Tony-winning THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, to her effortless essaying of two of the most beloved female roles in the musical theater canon, opposite two of the biggest leading men on Broadway - THE PAJAMA GAME with Harry Connick, Jr. and SOUTH PACIFIC with Matthew Morrison (and Paulo Szot) - in addition to her work in Frank Wildhorn's JEKYLL & HYDE and DRACULA, Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, along with her stunning studio albums - all of these are just some of the reasons why Kelli O'Hara is in a very special class of performers. In this all-encompassing conversation we discuss all of the aforementioned shows, as well as working with all of her fabulous co-stars and collaborators, and we also take a look at her recording studio work with Harry Connick, Jr. and take a look ahead to her sophomore solo album, ALWAYS which will be released on June 3. Plus, we have first news on her new roles in the musical versions of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, written by Jason Robert Brown, and FINDING NEVERLAND by Scott Frankel. We even have dish on working with Liza Minnelli and shooting SEX & THE CITY 2! This is all coming in anticipation of the tribute to Bob Hope at the NY Pops gala on May 2, which will also feature performances by Tom Wopat and Aaron Lazar - both of whom we will continue our SPOTLIGHT ON NY POPS series with later on this weekend. Don't miss them or a special presentation by theatre legend Angela Lansbury! Further information about the NY POPS event - including tickets - is available here.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced initial details for its 2011 special online Auction in connection with its annual Spring Gala Benefit. Bidding for the auction, which will feature an eclectic array of items and unique opportunities, begins tomorrow, Tuesday, April 26 at 8AM at www.biddingforgood/playwrightshorizons. Online bidding will continue for three weeks through Wednesday, May 18 (with items staggered to close at 8PM and 9PM).

Grey Gardens, book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie runs March 25 - April 17, 2011 at The Circuit Playhouse

The Playwrights Horizons World Premiere production of GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE, a new play by five-time Obie Award winner David Greenspan (author/performer of She Stoops to Comedy, performer in The Wax and director of Kate's Diary, all at PH; Coraline; Some Men; The Argument; The Myopia; The Boys in the Band) is set to open Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 PM at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater

La Jolla Playhouse will present a reading of its commissioned musical Hands on a Hardbody, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner and 2011 Playhouse Gala Honoree Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), Amanda Green (High Fidelity) and Trey Anastasio of the popular band Phish. Directed by Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow) and choreographed by Benjamin Millipied (Black Swan), the Hands on a Hardbody reading will take place in New York on April 8th and 9th (by invitation).

La Jolla Playhouse will present a reading of its commissioned musical Hands on a Hardbody, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner and 2011 Playhouse Gala Honoree Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), Amanda Green (High Fidelity) and Trey Anastasio of the popular band Phish. Directed by Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow) and choreographed by Benjamin Millipied (Black Swan), the Hands on a Hardbody reading will take place in New York on April 8th and 9th (by invitation).

Rising Action Theatre presents the South Florida Premiere of the Tony Award-winning Grey Gardens, the Musical. Based on the highly acclaimed 1975 Maysles Brothers film documentary, it is the story of Jackie Kennedy's relatives 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter 'Little Edie' and the overgrown, crumbling East Hampton mansion they shared for decades.