The Public Theater News

The Central Park Five, the group of five young black and Latino youths falsely arrested and convicted in 1989 for the brutal beating and rape of a white woman in Central Park, will attend a performance of The Bullpen, the one-man - 18-character comedy written and performed by Joe Assadourian, (now playing through March 21) at The Playroom Theater (151 West 46th Street -- just east of Broadway) it was announced by producer Eric Krebs (in association with The Fortune Society).

Writers Theatre presents The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Kimberly Senior. The show runs February 24 - June 28, 2015 at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The Press Openings are Wednesday, March 4, and Thursday, March 5, 2015.

Today we are celebrating the incredibly accomplished multi-award-winning performer, composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda.

This week on PBS' SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED, Morgan Freeman and 'THE TAMING OF THE SHREW' and David Harewood and 'OTHELLO'. The episode airs tonight, February 6, 2015 AT 9PM & 10PM.

The Old Globe's West Coast Premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man by award-winning novelist Nathan Englander, directed by Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, will now play an extra week of performances -- through March 22 -- due to ticket demand for the originally announced run. Tony and Emmy Award winner Hal Linden ("Barney Miller," The Rothschilds) leads a cast of Broadway and Globe veterans including Ron Orbach, Robert Dorfman, Eli Gelb, James Shanklin, and Lowell Byers. The Twenty-seventh Man will run February 14 through March 22 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run February 14-18. Opening night is Thursday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Happy Birthday, John Guare! He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. Guare has also been involved with musical theatre. His libretto with Mel Shapiro for the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona was a success when it premiered in 1971 and was revived in 2005 at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. It won the two men the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He wrote the songs for Landscape of the Body. In 1999, he revised the book of the Cole Porter musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate for its Broadway revival. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success.

The Public Theater announced the return of PUBLIC STUDIO, which will present two new plays this spring by emerging and up-and-coming playwrights. The two plays will run in repertory from February 20 to March 1 in The Public's Shiva Theater and will be presented as pared-down productions with the low ticket price of only $10. Following in the footsteps of the acclaimed Public Lab series, PUBLIC STUDIO continues to build on The Public's mission to support new and emerging artists and to continue making new work accessible to all audiences.

Now in its 16th season, Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook continues to expand its scope in celebrating the best in American singing and songwriting. Just last night, three-time Tony Award nominee Judy Kuhn returned to American Songbook with a new show celebrating the work of three generations of this extraordinary songwriting family. Under the musical direction of Todd Almond, the evening included classic favorites as well as rarely-heard songs. Ms. Kuhn returns to the concert stage after a critically lauded year during which she starred as Fosca in the first New York revival of Passion at Classic Stage Company and in the Public Theater's new musical Fun Home. She will reprise her Lucille Lortel Award-winning Fun Home role on Broadway in the spring of 2015.

Following yesterday's reports that Lin-Manuel Miranda's new musical might be making the move to Broadway before the Tonys cut-off this season, The Public Theater has announced a third extension today for the world premiere production.

According to the New York Post, Lin-Manuel Miranda's new musical Hamilton, currently in an extended run through April 5 at the Public Theater, might cut its off-Broadway stay short in order to open on Broadway before April 23rd, the Tony Awards cutoff date.

Is it sexist or subversive? Morgan Freeman says he's always seen The Taming of the Shrew as a country tale, one that he feels is Shakespeare's most compelling comedy. In the next episode of Shakespeare Uncovered, Freeman takes a look at the play and explores that question, as well as what is at the heart of it all, love.

6-year-old theatre critic Iain Armitage from Arlington, Va. hasn't reviewed Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON at the Public Theater yet, but he has performed an excerpt of the opening song. Watch him rap it out below, and stay tuned for his review!

The next episodes of PBS' SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED features The Taming of the Shrew with Morgan Freeman (Friday, February 6, 2015 at 9 p.m.) and Othello with David Harewood (Friday, February 6, 2015 at 10 p.m.). Check out previews for the episodes below!

As part of New York Voices, the artist commissioning program of Joe's Pub at The Public, iconoclast singer-songwriter Martha Redbone brings forth an epic, unexpected and personal American journey in Bone Hill, a new musical theater work featuring original music by Redbone and Aaron Whitby, and co-written and directed by Roberta Uno. On February 11, 13 and 14, 2015 at 7:00PM, Redbone will perform a concert of songs from the work-in-progress at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette, NYC), with an all-star band in tow.

DALLAS (SMU) February 3, 2015 -- The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University has announced the recipients of its sixth annual Meadows Prize arts residency: the Detroit-based artist collective Complex Movements and Lear deBessonet, the director of The Public Theater's Public Works program in New York City. The Meadows Prize is awarded to pioneering artists and creative professionals who are active in one or more disciplines represented by the academic units within the Meadows School.

The Central Park Five, the group of five young black and Latino youths falsely arrested and convicted in 1989 for the brutal beating and rape of a white woman in Central Park, will attend a performance of The Bullpen, the one-man - 18-character comedy written and performed by Joe Assadourian, (now playing through March 21) at The Playroom Theater (151 West 46th Street -- just east of Broadway) it was announced today by producer Eric Krebs (in association with The Fortune Society).

Olney Theatre Center, a Mid-Atlantic destination for extraordinary theater performance and education, continues its 77th Anniversary season with George Brant's Grounded, directed by Derek Goldman, running February 25- March 22 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. Grounded is a co-production with Baltimore's Everyman Theatre, where it was seen last October. Grounded is the story of an ace fighter pilot who becomes pregnant and gets reassigned to operating drones from a windowless trailer on an Air Force base in the desert outside Las Vegas. Hunting terrorists by day and coming home to her family at night, the boundaries between reality and the screen - between the desert where she lives and the desert where she fights - blur until the pressure becomes impossible to bear.

The Public Theater announced initial casting today for the New York premiere of BUZZER, by Tracey Scott Wilson. Directed by Obie Award-winner Anne Kauffman, BUZZER marks the return of Wilson to The Public following her acclaimed The Good Negro in 2009 and The Story in 2003. BUZZER will begin previews in The Public's Martinson Theater on Tuesday, March 24 and will run through Sunday, April 26, with an official press opening on Wednesday, April 8.

On Twitter Watch, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote 'Just seen #Hamilton; it raises & changes the bar for musicals. Brilliant lyrics, staging, cast. Creator/lead @Lin_Manuel is special. ALW.