Stephen Schwartz News

Tony Award-winning actress Bebe Neuwirth delighted students as their special surprise guest during the Broadway Artists Alliance 2010 Summer Intensive (Session One). Ms. Neuwirth (currently starring in The Addams Family) lent her talents for a surprise Q&A with the students of Broadway Artists Alliance, ages 10-21. The Q&A was led by the hilarious Seth Rudetsky.

Provision Theater Company, a multi-Jeff nominated Equity theater company, will kick off their 2010-2011 season with one of the most popular rock musicals of all time, GODSPELL. The groundbreaking, energetic production based on the Gospel of St. Matthew previews August 11, opens Saturday, August 14 at 8 p.m. and runs through September 26 at 1001 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago. Provision Theater Company Artistic Director Tim Gregory directs.

After breaking box office records and selling out its entire run in record time both in 2006 and 2008, Wicked, the smash hit musical, makes its much-anticipated return to Hennepin Theatre Trust's Orpheum Theatre, Wednesday, August 11-Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Happy Anniversary To 'The Showtune Mosh Pit,' 'Annie Get Your Gun,' 'Godspell,' 'La Tragedie de Carmen,' A Hate Crime and more....

A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of orchestra seats will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from July 14- August 8 at the Marcus Center. Each day, 2½ hours prior to show time people who present themselves at the Marcus Center Box Office will have their names placed in a lottery drum and then thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a limited number of orchestra seats at $25 each, cash only.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, continues its commitment to the creation and development of new works with the 2010 New Works Festival, sponsored by Microsoft. The ninth annual Festival, August 8-22 at TheatreWorks at Lucie Stern Theatre, features fifteen days of new works unveiled to the public, including new musicals, new plays, a cabaret concert, and a panel discussion. This year's festival will feature a developmental production of the funny and inspirational musical FLY BY NIGHT from Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael Mitnick. Additionally announced for this summer's lineup are staged readings of two musicals: GREAT WALL, a vibrant pop musical from Kevin Merritt and Kevin So (with Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang as a story consultant), and the moving gospel and jazz musical RED CLAY from Jeff Hughes and Scott Ethier. The festival will also feature readings of two plays: HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE, the latest piece from New Works Festival veteran Bill Cain (Equivocation) and VARIATIONS ON A THEME, a luminous drama by Anna Ziegler. Audience members are invited to a Meet the Artists Panel at 7:30pm on August 15. The panel discussion will give an inside look at what it's like to write for the stage. Festival composers, performers, and special guests will share a wealth of new songs and treasured favorites at Festival: Unplugged, Songs in the Key of New, a cabaret concert on Friday, August 20. For tickets (on sale July 16) and info, you may call the box office at (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

The bids come fast and furious as an off-the-wall family of professional auctioneers puts its heart, its heritage, and even its longest held secrets on the block in the uproarious world premiere of AUCTIONING THE AINSLEYS, by one of America's hottest young playwrights, Laura Schellhardt (The K of D), presented by TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theater of Silicon Valley.

The 2010 Summer Music Theatre Festival at the Theatre and Interpretation Center at Northwestern University kicks off in June with an overview.

A homely songbird seeks success as a superstar swan. Imagine American Idol with a zany animal characters and song contests and it's Lucky Duck, a new musical at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center June 22 to August 8.

Northwestern University has added a revised version of YOU'RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN to their Summer Music Theatre Festival. CHARLIE BROWN will be performed July 1 through August 8. As previously announced a musical tribute to Tony Award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz will be performed with vocalists Capathia Jenkins ('Caroline, Or Change') and Shoshana Bean ('Wicked'), Tony-nominated composer and lyricist Craig Carnelia, Grammy Award-nominated composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa, and Grammy Award-winning Nashville singer and songwriter Lari White.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced the line-up for its 2010-2011 season. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora announced a 41st season that will include three world premieres (bringing the company's total to 56); three regional premieres including the newest play by the author of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, Broadway's quirky hit musical about writers writing a quirky hit musical and a spell-binding mystery about a Japanese-American veteran charged with murder; and two Broadway favorites. The company will once again lead off with an extensive New Works Festival.

With 'a little bit of song and a whole lot of humor,' Stephen Schwartz, lyricist and composer of popular Broadway musicals such as 'Godspell,' 'Wicked,' and 'Pippin,' impressed an audience of 400 people at the Civic Theatre on Friday, according to an article from the Kalamazoo Gazette.

For the fifth year, the weeklong Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project returns to the Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC) at Northwestern University to celebrate America's acclaimed and emerging songwriters and singers. Presented by The Johnny Mercer Foundation and the American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University, this year's project will conclude with three special events, including the star-studded, one-night-only concert 'A Celebration of Stephen Schwartz' (Aug. 7), which will honor the Tony Award-nominated composer ('Wicked,' 'Pippen,' 'Godspell') for his mentorship of young songwriters in the tradition of the legendary Johnny Mercer.

This summer, Northwestern University will celebrate Johnny Mercer and the Great American Songbook with the help of some of Broadway's best, including Andrew Lippa, Stephen Schwartz, Soshana Bean and more, in a week-long project that includes special events and showcases as part of the 2010 season subscription.

What it's like to visit the East Room of the White House and watch a rehearsal of 'We Can't Stop the Beat'

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. The Stephen Sondheim concert at Ravinia, Northwestern's 'A Celebration of Stephen Schwartz,' 'Spring Awakening' and 'Come Fly Away' tours, Drury Lane Theatre's 2011 season, more....

The Wicked touring company and Hennepin Theatre Trust are pleased to announce that a lottery for a limited number of seats will be held daily for each performance of Wicked during the Minneapolis run August 11-September 19.

'Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord' Thus begins the exciting pop/rock musical GODSPEL, book by John Michael Tebelak, and Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

Following their sold out run of Richard II, Sonnet Repertory Theatre presents Twelfth Night at The Theatre at St. Clement's this July. Director Michael Lluberes brings a new vision of Twelfth Night to the Sonnet Rep stage. By turns sad and hilarious, this Twelfth Night is an exploration of love in all its forms: obsessive, beautiful, sexy, manic and mad.

Having put female audiences in Denver, Des Moines and Winnipeg in stitches over the past two years, the irrepressible comedy GIRLS ONLY will next debut in Charlotte, NC, playing the Stage Door Theater at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center May 7 through August 1, 2010. The Denver production of the show continues to play its regular schedule at Denver's Garner Galleria Theatre.