Theo Lencicki News

Fiddlehead Theatre Company's Boston premiere production of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT dazzles, and it's not just because of the millions of sequins used by Director/Costume Designer Stacey Stephens for the ab-fab fashions of the glamorous drag performers and their entourage. With over 300 costumes, eleven 3-foot wide head-dresses, more than two dozen musical numbers, and a life-size bus named Priscilla, the show offers a visual and aural smorgasbord to rival a midnight snack on a cruise ship.

?West Side Story, one of the greatest love stories of all time, returns to Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre almost 20 years since the company won South Florida regional theatre's Carbonell Award for "Best Production of a Musical". The show will run January 27 through February 21, 2016.

Fiddlehead Theatre Company, the resident theatre company of Boston's historic Strand Theatre, opens the company's 21st season with the classic WEST SIDE STORY, now through October 25, 2015. The finest talents direct from the Broadway revival and national and international tours of WEST SIDE STORY bring this masterwork to life on the Strand Stage. The production is costumed and directed by Stacey Stephens, with the original choreography recreated by Wendy Hall, and music director Charles Peltz directs a 22-piece orchestra bringing Bernstein's music to life. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

When the original West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957, it changed in many ways the concept of what constitutes a Broadway musical. Its creative team-writer Arthur Laurents, director Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim-took Romeo and Juliet and turned it into a pulsing, kinetic opera about rival gangs of Puerto Ricans and Poles on Manhattan's west side, and the tragic consequences of their violent hatred for each other to Tony and Maria (Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence), who have fallen in love.

When WEST SIDE STORY played the Pantages for five weeks in late 2010, it had Southern Californians clamoring for tickets to sold-out performances. Now, WEST SIDE STORY returns for a strictly-limited eight performance engagement, playing April 9 - 14, 2013.

West Side Story is widely considered to be one of the finest musicals ever written and it can be one of the most moving and emotionally-draining experiences one can have in the theatre. It has the capability of taking the audiences on a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows - from laughter to despair -- that, in capable hands, is so satisfying. However, I found the production last night at The McCallum to be less than satisfying. It was pretty. It was polished. But it was also pat and predictable and not the emotional journey that it could have been. This touring production wavered between 'soap opera' and 'sitcom' and never quite hit the mark on a dramatic level.

The tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Jacksonville! WEST SIDE STORY opens at the Times-Union Center's Moran Theater tonight, December 4th and runs through Sunday, December 9th for 8 performances only! Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction is recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

The tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY is coming to Jacksonville! WEST SIDE STORY opens at the Times-Union Center's Moran Theater on Tuesday, December 4th and runs through Sunday, December 9th for 8 performances only! Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction is recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

More than 50 years since the musical, West Side Story first appeared, it has been revived countless times and become a fundamental of musical theater companies of both professional and amateur standing. Although many productions are "attempted", it's very seldom that one is lucky enough to see a production that succeeds in the standards set forth by the original adaptation. Elements frequently missing are age-appropriate casting and the force to make the audience feel the danger within the plot.

Casting has been announced for Troika Entertainment's tour of WEST SIDE STORY, the breathtaking revival based on Arthur Laurent's Broadway direction. The tour kicks off at the Clemens Center in Elmira, NY tonight, October 29, 2012.

Casting has been announced for Troika Entertainment's tour of WEST SIDE STORY, the breathtaking revival based on Arthur Laurent's Broadway direction. The tour kicks off at the Clemens Center in Elmira, NY on October 29, 2012.

Maine State Music Theatre presents its third production of the 2012 season, SUNSET BOULEVARD. A grand musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film with a lush, Tony Award-winning score from Andrew Lloyd Webber and a Tony Award-winning book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, this elegant production is a haunting glimpse into the power of self-deception. Running at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick from tonight, July 18th to August 4th, tickets are an affordable $36 to $59 and can be purchased by calling the box office at (207) 725-8769 or by visiting www.msmt.org.

Maine State Music Theatre presents its third production of the 2012 season, SUNSET BOULEVARD. A grand musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film with a lush, Tony Award-winning score from Andrew Lloyd Webber and a Tony Award-winning book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, this elegant production is a haunting glimpse into the power of self-deception. Running at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick from July 18th to August 4th, tickets are an affordable $36 to $59 and can be purchased by calling the box office at (207) 725-8769 or by visiting www.msmt.org.

A Chorus Line, the powerful and emotion-filled musical about the trials and tribulations of forging a life in the theater, will play in Pittsburgh tonight, June 15 through June 24 at the Benedum Center. Directed and choreographed by original A Chorus Line cast member Baayork Lee, this bona fide Broadway hit features an incredible ensemble cast composed of exciting Broadway stars and Pittsburgh CLO veterans.

A Chorus Line, the powerful and emotion-filled musical about the trials and tribulations of forging a life in the theater, will play in Pittsburgh June 15-24 at the Benedum Center. Directed and choreographed by original A Chorus Line cast member Baayork Lee, this bona fide Broadway hit features an incredible ensemble cast composed of exciting Broadway stars and Pittsburgh CLO veterans.

Pittsburgh CLO has announced casting for its summer season, which includes six shows, featuring the national tours of Come Fly Away and The Addams Family, and CLO original productions of A Chorus Line, Annie, Fiddler on the Roof and Sunset Boulevard. Notably, A CHORUS LINE brings on board a slew of the show's national tour veterans, ANNIE stars Sally Struthers as Miss Hannigan, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF features Broadway's Lewis J. Stadlen, Susan Cella, Hunter Herdlicka, Joel Robertson, Emily Shoolin and Kay Walbye. Liz Callaway and Walter Charles are set to star in SUNSET BOULEVARD.

BWW Exclusive: After 7 years on the road, the National Tour of the Tony® Award-winning hit broadway musical HAIRSPRAY played its final show in Riverside, CA over the weekend of April 24-25, 2010. In a video exclusively produced for BroadwayWorld, cast member Kyle Kleiboeker (Fender) gives us an inside look backstage for a behind-the-scenes peek at how this cast prepares for the show. Kleiboeker previously produced a popular online video series when he was a cast member of the national touring company of THE WEDDING SINGER.