Steven Lutvak News

If you've been a regular reader of this particular reviewer's musings, you know that every year there are long stretches of time where I just haven't been able to critique all the shows I've seen that deserve commentary. So I end up playing what they call in sports, 'Catch-up ball,' and post a mash up of belated reviews from past shows. It's kind of like a critic's version of the song 'Six Months Out of Every Year,' from Damn Yankees. Give or take a month or two, that's usually the time period during which I store unpublished reviews in my fevered brain and then unload them all in one seemingly endless column-like this one is going to be. If my cabaret-show reviewing days will be over (as chronicled here), I might as well go out with a bang-and relieve my procrastination guilt during holiday season. Now I can scratch one New Year's resolution off the list.

Wrap up your holidays with a little merry murder alongside the D'Ysquiths!

The reigning Tony Award-winning Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, will welcome a new Monty Navarro when Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham takes a temporary leave of absence to co-star in the limited Broadway enagement of The Heidi Chronicles. Assuming the role of Monty beginning on Tuesday, January 20 will be original ensemble member and Monty understudy Jeff Kready, whose other Broadway credits include Billy Elliot: The Musical and the revivals of Sunday in the Park with George and Les Miserables.

Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV) is set for a special one-night-only presentation of their 2014 'Stories In The Key Of Me' outreach program to the seriously ill children and families at Ronald McDonald House New York on Thursday December 18th, 5pm. Joining the roster of Broadway composers/songwriters this year is 16-time Grammy award winner STING and Pulitzer Prize award recipient Brian Yorkey. STING is currently performing in his acclaimed new Broadway musical,'The Last Ship' at the Neil Simon Theatre for which he composed the music and lyrics and Brian Yorkey and John Logan penned the book.

ASCAP is now seeking new musicals for the annual ASCAP/DreamWorks Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles. Serving once more as artistic director for the workshop is Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose credits include hit Broadway shows Wicked, Godspell and Pippin, the Walt Disney films Enchanted, Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the DreamWorks film The Prince of Egypt.

The ASCAP Foundation Awards Ceremony was held at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Broadwayworld was there. This years recipient of the Masters Award was composer John Corigliano. Mr. Corigliano has also won fiver Grammy's a Pulitzer Prize the Grawemeyer Award and an Academy Award for his many scores and compositions. Rupert Holmes, Composer, Playwright, lyricist, mystery novelist, arranger-conductor, screenwriter, record producer and singer-songwriter received the Foundations George M. Cohan Award which is made possible by the Friars Foundation.

Nominations for the 57th GRAMMY AWARDS were announced today, December 5th. The music industry's premier event will take place live on Sunday, Feb, 8, 2015, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles

Earlier this week, New York Stage and Film 2014 Gala honored Tony Award winner Michael Mayer and veteran theatrical press agent Rick Miramontez at The Plaza Hotel. They were joined by celebrities and theater VIPs including Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka, Jon Hamm & Jennifer Westfeldt, John Slattery & Talia Balsam, Josh Radnor, Bill Pullman, Harvey Fierstein, Joel Grey, Ken Olin & Patricia Wettig, Carol Kane, Mark Linn-Baker, John Benjamin Hickey, Hunter Parrish, Billy Porter, Jessie Mueller, Sherie Rene Scott, Tommy Tune, Lena Hall, Stephen Trask, Matt Doyle, Bryce Pinkham, Steven Lutvak, Matt Doyle, Isabel & Ruben Toledo, Jon Tenney, Sakina Jaffrey and many more! BroadwayWorld brings you an inside look at the event below!

Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for its 2015 Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation. The 16th annual writing colony at the 20,000-acre working cattle ranch outside of Sheridan, WY takes place February 2-20. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Playwrights Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Ucross Foundation. The program is one of the 24 residency labs across many creative disciplines focusing on artistic process that Sundance Institute offers annually.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, bringing the grand total number of the times Jefferson Mays, who plays all eight doomed members of the D'Ysquith family, has died on stage in the hit musical comedy to a staggering and historic 3,336 (and counting).

Just last night, New York Stage and Film 2014 Gala honored Tony Award winner Michael Mayer and veteran theatrical press agent Rick Miramontez at The Plaza Hotel. They were joined by celebrities and theater VIPs including Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka, Jon Hamm & Jennifer Westfeldt, John Slattery & Talia Balsam, Josh Radnor, Bill Pullman, Harvey Fierstein, Joel Grey, Ken Olin & Patricia Wettig, Carol Kane, Mark Linn-Baker, John Benjamin Hickey, Hunter Parrish, Billy Porter, Jessie Mueller, Sherie Rene Scott, Tommy Tune, Lena Hall, Stephen Trask, Matt Doyle, Bryce Pinkham, Steven Lutvak, Matt Doyle, Isabel & Ruben Toledo, Jon Tenney, Sakina Jaffrey and many more! BroadwayWorld brings you photos from inside the special evening below!

Before Victoria Clark returns to Broadway next season as 'Mamita Alvarez' in Gigi, she heads back to school as the artist in residence at Pace University. Clark directs The Light in the Piazza, the show for which she picked up a Tony Award in 2005, running through November 8 at the Loretto Theatre at The Sheen Center. The Light in the Piazza, by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas, is based on the novella of the same name by Elizabeth Spencer. Taking place in Italy in the late summer of 1953, it is the story of an American woman Margaret Johnson, who travels to Florence with her daughter Clara, who falls in love with a young Florentine man. As details emerge about Clara's past, their trip turns out to be very much a romantic and psychological journey as Margaret must decide what is best for her daughter, her family, and for herself. The winner of six Tony Awards in 2005, The Light in the Piazza has become one of the great classics of the American Musical Theater, with its lush score and cliff-hanger story. Clark took the time out of her busy schedule to update BroadwayWorld on her adventures in directing, revisiting PIAZZA, preparing for GIGI and more. Check out the full interview below!

?LANDMARKids! loves presenting Theatreworks USA works because they have consistent high quality family programming. Their new musical revue featuring - Fly Guy and Other Stories that will appear on Sunday, November 23 at 2 PM is no exception.

The 25th New York Cabaret Convention first night titled 'I Love A Piano' was held at Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night and BroadwayWorld was there backstage and out front!

The National Music Theater Institute (NMTI) students have just returned to campus from two weeks training in New York City; scroll down for photos from the visit! NMTI is the newest credit-earning, semester-long intensive from the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Utilizing the O'Neill's 50-year experience in training young theater artists and history of developing new musicals (including Nine, Avenue Q, In The Heights, [title of show], and Violet), NMTI offers broad-based training in all areas of musical theater: acting, singing, directing, writing, dance, composition, and choreography. In addition to the semester's rigorous curriculum-classes 14 hours a day, 7 days a week with emphasis on collaboration and the creation of original work- two weeks of the semester are spent learning in the epicenter of American music theater.

It was announced today that Catherine Walker will take over the role of 'Phoebe D'Ysquith' in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical, beginning Tuesday, October 28.

Tonight, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance...Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.

On Monday, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance…Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.