Stephen Flaherty News

The passionate world of opera comes to life in Philadelphia Theatre Company's world premiere of Terrence McNally's Golden Age on January 22 - February 14.

The thrilling new Broadway production of RAGTIME at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52 Street) and officially opens today, Sunday, November 15, 2009.

As the thrilling new Broadway production of RAGTIME at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52 Street) plays its final performance on Sunday, January 10th, BroadwayWorld.com takes a look back at the show's officially opening on Sunday, November 15, 2009. BroadwayWorld and Broadway Beat were on hand to bring you electrifying highlights and interviews with the cast and creative!

Before the show closes however, it will be filmed for the Lincoln Center Archives on Friday night, January 8, 2010.

Whatsonstage.com is reporting that the award-winning off-Broadway Musical, A Man of o Importance created by the writers of Ragtime, will get West End treatment when The Union Theatre's celebrated fringe production transfers to the Arts Theatre next month. The production will run in a limited engagement from 9 February (preview) to 27 February 2010.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Audra McDonald in Concert for one performance only on Monday, February 1 at 8:30 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Audra McDonald is the latest in Reprise Theatre Company's tradition of presenting Broadway stars in concert, which have included Patti LuPone, Carol Burnett, Ben Vereen, Kristin Chenoweth, and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Celebrating its 88th season, Theatre Hopkins will present two musicals in the winter and summer of 2010 at the Swirnow Theater on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns on January 13th for its twelfth season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 16 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, country, rock, and show tunes, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic contemporary songwriting.

York Little Theatre is holding auditions on February 1 and 2, 2010, for their upcoming production of the Broadway musical Once on this Island which runs April 16 - 25, 2010.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, continues its 35th Season with Awake and Sing!, Clifford Odets' Tony Award-winning play, directed by Amy Morton.

Following critical acclaim and popular demand, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced a three-week extension for the World Premiere of THIS, the new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]). Directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as Artistic Director of Soho Rep), the production opened Wednesday, December 2. Originally set to run through Sunday, December 13, the limited engagement will now play through Sunday, January 3, 2010 at the theater company's Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). This date represents the latest extension possible for the show.

A look back at some of the most exciting curtain calls of 2009!

MUSICAL THEATRE WEST kicks off the new year with the Stephen Sondheim masterpiece, Sweeney Todd. Previewing on January 29, 2010, Sweeney Todd opens January 30 and runs through February 14 at the spectacular Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, is based on the 1973 play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond.

Following the closing announcement of Broadway's RAGTIME for January 3, the production was met with public dismay and a swell of strong ticket sales for the closing week. As previously reported, the producer's have responded to public sentiment by extending the show by a week. The critically acclaimed new production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Tony Award® winning musical RAGTIME will now play its final performance on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. following 28 preview and 65 regular performances.

Due to popular demand and a swell of strong ticket sales following an initial closing announcement yesterday, the critically acclaimed new production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Tony Award® winning musical RAGTIME will now play its final performance on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre one week later on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. following 28 preview and 65 regular performances.

For the seven Washington-Baltimore based members of the RAGTIME cast who originated the production at the Kennedy Center and remained a part of its transfer to Broadway, the show's closing is bittersweet. In a feature out in the Washington Post today, Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman), Dan Manning (Grandfather), Sumayya Ali (Ensemble), Tracy Lynn Olivera (Ensemble), Christopher Cox (Narrator), Ben Cook (Narrator Understudy), and Sarah Rosenthal (The Little Girl) weigh in on just what Ragtime, and making their Broadway debuts, has meant to them.

MUSICAL THEATRE WEST kicks off the new year with the Stephen Sondheim masterpiece, Sweeney Todd. Previewing on January 29, 2010, Sweeney Todd opens January 30 and runs through February 14 at the spectacular Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.

The critically acclaimed new production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Tony Award® winning musical RAGTIME will play its final performance on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52 Street) on Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. following 28 preview and 57 regular performances.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, continues its 35th Season with Awake and Sing!, Clifford Odets' Tony Award-winning play, directed by Amy Morton.

Earlier this month, various unconfirmed reports surfaced that the Broadway production of 'Ragtime' was scheduled to close in January. Actor Bobby Steggert who plays Mother's Younger Brother in the musical revival fields regular questions and messages of support from fans on the show's supposed demise. Yet despite slow ticket sales, no closing date has been posted and a marketing strategy is in place for January, as reported in the New York Times.