Second Stage News

Aurora Theatre Company presents a "house" concert for the holidays with A DOWN HOME CHRISTMAS WITH NELL & JIM. Featured performers at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the Strawberry Music Festival, and the Kennedy Center, Nell Robinson and Jim Nunally write and record roots music reminiscent of classic country duos such as Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Filled with country and Christmas classics ("Christmas Time's a Comin," "If We Make It Through December," "Daddy Looked a Lot Like Santa"), as well as original numbers from Nell and Jim's new album House & Garden, A DOWN HOME CHRISTMAS re-creates that home for the holidays feeling with a joyous, intimate concert full of harmony and heart.

Ben Rimalower's PATTI ISSUES, written and performed by Ben Rimalower and directed by Aaron Mark, has been extended by popular demand at The Duplex through November 2012. Watch the trailer for the show below!

The Old Globe presents the San Diego Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, the award-winning play about class divisions in modern-day Boston. Directed by Paul Mullins, Good People runs now through Oct. 28, 2012 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Thursday, Oct. 4 at 8:00 p.m. Click on the video below and meet the cast!

The Old Globe presents the San Diego Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, the award-winning play about class divisions in modern-day Boston. Directed by Paul Mullins, Good People runs now through Oct. 28, 2012 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Thursday, Oct. 4 at 8:00 p.m. Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

Previews begin Friday, October 12 for the Playwrights Horizons' production of THE WHALE, the New York premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Samuel D. Hunter (A Bright New Boise). Directed by Davis McCallum (February House, A Bright New Boise, the upcoming Water By the Spoonful at Second Stage), the production has an Opening Night set for Monday, November 5 at 7PM at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

This holiday season, Berkeley Repertory Theatre welcomes back a beloved artist for an alluring and hypnotic world-premiere production. Mary Zimmerman is mesmerizing. From Metamorphoses to The Arabian Nights, audiences have embraced her enchanting adaptations of epic tales. Now the Tony Award-winning director casts a spell with The White Snake, a classic romance from Chinese legend. As she falls for a charming young man, a snake spirit discovers what it means to be human. But a monk objects, and the bride must unveil her magical powers to save their love.

Second Stage Theatre presents the world premiere comedy, MODERN TERRORISM, OR THEY WHO WANT TO KILL US AND HOW WE LEARN TO LOVE THEM. The company will feature Utkarsh Ambudkar (Second Stage's Animals Out of Paper and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety), Steven Boyer (Obie Award-winner for Hand to God), William Jackson Harper (Ruined), and Nitya Vidyasagar (The Glorious Ones, Leela on "Sesame Street"). Check out just-released production shots below!

Mondays in October, Broadway actress Lindsay Mendez (Dogfight, Godspell) and award-winning composer-lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver (35mm, Darling) will team-up for "ACTOR THERAPY," a series of master classes for performers looking to improve their auditions, build a better book, and expand their understanding of what it means to be an actor and song interpreter in New York today.

New City Stage Company presents the Philadelphia premiere of "RFK" by Jack Holmes this fall, October 3-21, 2012 at the Adrienne Theatre Second Stage and 2 additional benefit performances on November 4 & 5 at the Playground at the Adrienne. Just in time for election season!

The 6th season of the Bay Street Players Second Stage opens tonight, September 30 with God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. This play won both the Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award for Best New Play in 2009.

Stage and screen star Sanaa Lathan (A Raisin in the Sun, Contagion) returns to the title role in Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark for its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. Lathan, who originated the character of Vera Stark in the critically acclaimed New York run, once again takes the stage as the 1930's era maid turned movie star, reunited with original cast member Kimberly Hebert Gregory (Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer) reprising her role as fellow aspiring African American actress Lottie. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark opened at the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse on September 26, 2012. Check out photos of the stars at opening night below!

Goodman Theatre opens its 2012/2013 Season in the Owen Theatre with playwright, actor and poet Dael Orlandersmith's Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men, a co-commission with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Directed by Chay Yew, Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men is Orlandersmith's solo-performed examination of humanity's capacity for hope and survival, rendered through the eyes of five men ages 11 to 50.

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) begins previews today for the world premiere production of Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, who also directed Belber's play Geometry of Fire at the Rattlestick Theater.

Preview performances of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? begin this evening, Thursday, September 27, 2012, at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street). Opening night is set for Saturday, October 13, 2012, exactly 50 years to the day of the play's original Broadway opening on Saturday, October 13, 1962.

The Players Club of Swarthmore's Children's Theater Series kicks off its season with Bunnicula, a vampire themed story just in time for Halloween, opening October 5.

Beginning performances on Tuesday, October 16th, ALLI MAUZEY will return to the role of Glinda in the Broadway company of WICKED. Ms. Mauzey played the role of Glinda on Broadway in 2009 and returns to the Gershwin Theatre directly from WICKED'S National Tour.