Terrence McNally News

Theatres are usually dark on Monday nights, but several times each year Berkeley Repertory Theatre makes them glow with Page to Stage, a series of talks that engage brilliant guests in sparkling conversation

The holiday season is just around the corner and New Year's Eve will be here before you know it. And what better way to celebrate 2012 than to go back in time to the funkadelic 60's as Signature Theatre hosts their annual New Year's Eve party.

here! TV (www.heretv.com), the world's leading premium gay television network, proudly presents the original documentary 30 Years From Here, featuring real-life accounts from the decades-long war against AIDS. The special premieres November 25, 2011, exclusively on here! TV and here! Online, here! TV's premium online subscription video player found at http://premium.heretv.com/.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of HORSEDREAMS, a new play written by and featuring award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Dael Orlandersmith. The third production of the company's 17th season, performances of HORSEDREAMS will begin Wednesday, November 9th at Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place - off Seventh Avenue South, between Perry & West 11th Streets). The official opening night is set for Thursday, November 17th. The production is scheduled to run through December 11th. Gordon Edelstein directs.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has announced the complete cast for its upcoming production of the new musical THE BLUE FLOWER: Sebastian Arcelus (Buddy in Elf, Wicked, Jersey Boys), Marc Kudisch (Three-time Tony Award nominee for 9 to 5, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Meghan McGeary (The Blue Flower at A.R.T.), Joseph Medeiros (Irving Berlin's White Christmas), Julia Osborne (National Tour of South Pacific), Graham Rowat (Guys and Dolls), Aaron Serotsky (August: Osage County), and Teal Wicks (Elphaba in Wicked).

Theatre and Opera director Stephen Wadsworth's new production of Terrence McNally's Master Class starring Tyne Daly as the legendary opera soprano Maria Callas is to transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre following its critically acclaimed, sell-out run on Broadway. Master Class, produced in the West End by Max Cooper, Maberry Theatricals, the Marks-Moore-Turnbull Group, Ted Snowdon and Sonia Friedman Productions in association with the Manhattan Theatre Club, will run at the Vaudeville Theatre for 14 weeks only from 21 January to 28 April, with press night on 7 February 2012. Set design is by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting by David Lander and sound by Jon Gottlieb. Tickets are now on sale for Master Class and further casting will be announced shortly.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater announced today that its world premiere of Asuncion, the new comedy written by and starring Academy Award-nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), will extend its run at The Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street). Originally scheduled to close on November 27, Asuncion will now play an additional three weeks and conclude following the Sunday, December 18th performance.

Audra McDonald brings her luminous soprano and incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling to the Van Wezel on Sun. Nov. 6, 2011 @ 7:00 PM.

Join the party! Tease it up. Throw on your best A-line and go-go boots...or that shagadelic wide tie - and put on your dancin' shoes. On Saturday, November 5th at 8:00pm, Signature Theatre will be transforming their theater into a Hairspray-style dance party with ‘The Big Hair Ball.'

Theatre and Opera director Stephen Wadsworth's new production of Terrence McNally's Master Class starring Tyne Daly as the legendary opera soprano Maria Callas is to transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre following its critically acclaimed, sell-out run on Broadway.

Baz Bamingoye reports in today's UK Daily Mail that Tyne Daly, who led the Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning MASTER CLASS, directed by Stephen Wadsworth which closed on September 4 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) will bring her portrayal to London's West End in 2012.

Producers Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel announced that the American premiere of THE ANARCHIST, the new play about politics, money, religion and sex, written and directed by DAVID MAMET. The production will star two-time Tony Award winner PATTI LUPONE, who has previously appeared in Mamet's The Woods, All Men are Whores, The Blue Hour, The Water Engine, Edmond and The Old Neighborhood and three-time Emmy Award winner LAURIE METCALF, who was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for her performance in Mamet's November. THE ANARCHIST, which marks the sixth collaboration between Richards, Frankel and Mamet, will open on Broadway in Fall 2012.

Two-Time Tony Nominee Alison Fraser and Jill Shackner join previously announced actress Alysia Reiner in A CHARITY CASE. This new play about adoption by Australian playwright and director Wendy Beckett, will open Wednesday, November 2nd at Off Broadway's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th and 10th Avenues). The play, which is also directed by Ms. Beckett, begins previews Friday, October 28th. The play is produced by Peter Walters for Pascal Productions. A CHARITY CASE is third in a series of Ms. Beckett's plays that Pascal Productions will produce in New York.

Today we are completing BroadwayWorld's seven part analysis of Shakespeare's works, all with an eye towards the new movie ANONYMOUS - which questions the authorship of William Shakespeare - with a look at the greatest moments of deception in theatre taken from the last few decades. While deception and betrayal are both tried and true tactics of creating some tense, terse, taught drama by playwrights and filmmakers the world round - both onstage and onscreen - and it is certainly as much a hackneyed trope used today as it was used five hundred years ago in Shakespeare's time - the acts themselves that we will be focusing on today are the most surprising, effective and entertaining examples of them all. Analyzing moments from entities as diverse as SWEENEY TODD, CARRIE, WICKED, GYPSY, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, THE MUSIC MAN, SISTER ACT, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, HAMLET, ENRON and more - split into three categories: musical tragedies, musical comedies and straight plays - it becomes quite clear over the course of analyzing these double-crosses that Shakespeare was not the only dramatist who could make the drama's biggest twist also be the moment that stays with us long after the curtain has come down or the screen has gone black. Note: given the nature of today's topic, be forewarned that spoilers copiously abound from here on out!