Stephen Schwartz News

The blockbuster musical WICKED is offering its fans access to 'Defy Gravity' in the WICKED hot air balloon with a donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

This summer, the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company opens its 19th season with a limited engagement of Rachel Calof, a solo theatrical tour de force starring Kate Fuglei. This debut production plays seven days only - August 15 through August 25 - at the intimate Hillcrest Center Theater; tickets now available. This special presentation has been adapted for the stage by Ken Lazebnik with music and lyrics by Leslie Steinweiss.

Happy Birthday Alan Menken! For Disney, Menken has scored The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas, each of which won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Enchanted, and Tangled. Menken has collaborated on several occasions with lyricists includingHoward Ashman,Tim RiceandStephen Schwartz. On Broadway, Menken has composed for The Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors, King David, Beauty and the Beast and, now, Sister Act.

Two-time Tony nominated Best Actress Laura Osnes visits Broadway Artists Alliance Junior. and Alumni Only Summer Intensives on July 16th. Osnes provided feedback to students as well as participated in a Q&A. Check out a look back at the event below!

Columbus' oldest community theater, Worthington Community Theatre seems the fitting arena to take on one of the most quintessential surely-you-have-seen-it musicals with Stephen Schwartz' 'Godspell'. However, it's a production that leaves many a theater group in a quandary- the songs are familiar and audiences eat them up, but the production has been done so many times, in so many ways, that a director must choose to do the show in its classic sense and risk boring repetitiveness, or develop some new, modernized interpretation that loses the classical appeal. WCT walks the midline with its choice, as Director Joe Cherubino elects to keep the show itself rather low-key and tame, not the neo-funk Broadway Revival tone at all, while retrofitting the setting to that of a toystore, with the cast of characters taking their personas from classic children's toys such as Barbie, Raggedy Ann, Crayola Crayons, cowboys, and puppets.

Midwest New Musicals presents NORTH SHORE B & B (BOATS AND BEACHES), the 2013 Mini-Musicals Project today, July 21, 3:00 PM at Light Opera Works Second Stage at McGaw YMCA Children's Center Auditorium, 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston.

Midwest New Musicals presents NORTH SHORE B & B (BOATS AND BEACHES), the 2013 Mini-Musicals Project today, July 21, 3:00 PM at Light Opera Works Second Stage at McGaw YMCA Children's Center Auditorium, 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston

Lincoln Amphitheatre and Evansville Civic Theatre partnered in producing another community production of a Broadway classic, the two-act musical play Godspell.

A video interview with Stephen Schwartz, PIPPIN's composer and lyricist, recently debuted on the revival's new cast recording, which is resting easy at the top of Billboard's Cast Album Chart. Check out what Schwartz had to say on the the history of PIPPIN, bringing the score to life in a modern recording studio, and more in the video below!

MORMON plays in DC until August 13, 2013

FROM BROADWAY WITH LOVE: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook, which took place on January 28, 2013, at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut, will be airing on select public television stations throughout the tri-state area. An hour-long version of the concert will premiere tonight, July 18 at 10 p.m on WLIW21, Friday, July 26 at 10 p.m. on THIRTEEN and CPTV, and Tuesday, July 30 at 10 p.m. on NJTV. 'From Broadway With Love' was a concert of healing for the Newtown community where composers, musicians and more than 100 stars of Broadway came together with over 300 students from several Newtown dance groups, the Sandy Hook Elementary School 3rd and 4th grades and the Newtown High School Chamber Choir.

The Actors Fund's Jock Duncan Celebri-TEE Golf & Tennis Outing on Monday, July 22 2013, at the historic Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly, New Jersey will include a day of golf and tennis with big names in entertainment, all joining together to raise funds for The Actors Fund's Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, NJ. The event, now in its third year, is named for The Actors Fund's former treasurer Jock Duncan, who served as a Fund trustee for 13 years.

Opening the season is the hilarious dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, a play that the New York Times called 'so funny that none of us will ever forget it.' Everyone who likes a good laugh has heard about the sweet maiden aunts who poison people and the brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. Arsenic and Old Lace is a comedy that will be remembered for many years to come, and A. D. Players proudly presents it this fall.

From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook', which took place on January 28, 2013, at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut, will soon be airing on select public television stations throughout the tri-state area. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights below!

The New York Musical Theater Festival presents a one-night-only staged concert featuring the music and lyrics of the 2013 Kleban Award-winning writer Daniel Mate tonight, July 15th, with performances at 6:30pm and 9:30pm.

Two southern Indiana theatres will partner in producing a summer musical in July. Lincoln Amphitheatre and Evansville Civic Theatre partnered in producing another Broadway classic, the two-act musical play Godspell. Get a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!

Legendary Broadway stars will be coming to Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center in an intimate cabaret setting starting tonight, July 13.

BroadwayWorld took time to talk to Alan Menken about vying for the fabled EGOT, writing for television, and the possibility of creating a new musical series for ABC. Plus, Menken discusses ALADDIN opening in Toronto and on Broadway, redeveloping THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME for the stage with Stephen Schwartz, and new projects with Douglas Carter Beane, David Zippel and Harvey Fierstein, as well as seeing his work spread across the globe.