Tom Kitt News

Tonight is the night, FOX's first live musical telecast!  The buzz about GREASE: LIVE couldn't be bigger, with a star-studded cast lead by Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough and direction from HAMILTON director, Thomas Kail, and  DANCING WITH THE STARS vet, Alex Rudzinski. BroadwayWorld has you covered tonight with a live blog of the show! So, if you had to run and pay the delivery guy or aren't home to watch, don't worry, you'll have minute to minute updates so you won't miss out on what the rest of the country is talking about! 

Leave it to the network that reinvented television with AMERICAN IDOL and created SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, one of the most artistically significant shows in recent memory, to figure out the proper balance in merging musical theatre and live television. FOX's GREASE: LIVE learned from three years of live, middling musicals on NBC (the satisfying WIZ LIVE! notwithstanding) and produced the best, most thrilling live TV musical in half a century.

There's no doubt “Grease” will be the word of the nation tonight, as millions of people worldwide tune into FOX for the legendary GREASE: LIVE musical broadcast.  As previous broadcasts have shown us, everyone loves to live-tweet the big show, and Broadway's best and brightest are certainly no exception! (In most cases, perhaps, they're even more likely to tweet!) 

When IF/THEN debuted on Broadway in March 2014, it reunited original RENT stars Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp with RENT director Michael Grief. Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, whose 2008 rock musical NEXT TO NORMAL had received the Pulitzer Prize, wrote the much-anticipated show, and New York celebrated the team's brisk New York return. Although the show received mostly mixed-to-positive reviews, it lasted a mere 430 performances, despite mother-daughter duos flocking to see Menzel upon the icy heels of FROZEN's success.

Playwright Michael Hollinger's play is about love, family, and forgiveness.

Trace the evolution of Grease's score from Chicago to Broadway to Hollywood and back to Broadway.

Als Next to Normal 2008 am New Yorker Broadway uraufgefuhrt wurde, war die Sensation perfekt: Zwar ist auch in der Gattung Musical langst nicht mehr alles nur reine Unterhaltung, doch nie zuvor wurde das sensible und auch bei uns immer noch tabuisierte Thema der psychischen Erkrankungen so realistisch, einfuhlsam und intensiv auf der Musiktheater-Buhne gezeigt. Es war das erklarte Ziel der beiden Autoren Brian Yorkey und Tom Kitt, dass das Publikum nicht nur zuschauen, sondern auch mitfuhlen sollte. Dies ist ihnen gelungen durch ein gut recherchiertes, zuweilen irrwitziges Libretto, das Tom Kitt nahezu vollstandig durchkomponiert hat. Er verknupft dabei virtuos verschiedene Musikstile und sorgt dafur, dass man trotz der Ernsthaftigkeit des Stoffes immer mal wieder befreit lachen darf.

For its second season, Refuge Theatre Project will continue its mission of showcasing the work of a new generation of musical theater writers. Company co-founders Ross and Morgan Glynn Egan announced today that the season will open with High Fidelity -- the musical based on Nick Hornby's 1995 novel and on Stephen Frears' 2000 feature-film adaptation that starred Chicago natives John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Lili Taylor.

Original Broadway Cast member Jackie Burns (If/Then, Wicked, Hair), Tamyra Gray(American Idol Season One Finalist, Rent), and Matthew Hydzik (Side Show, West Side Story, Grease), will join Original Broadway Cast member Anthony Rapp (Rent, Six Degrees of Separation, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown) and the rest of the previously announced cast in the National Tour of IF/THEN, starting tomorrow,Wednesday, January 27 at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas.

Below, GREASE: LIVE! music supervisor Tom Kitt takes you behind-the-scenes of the iconic music from this Sunday's live broadcast on FOX.

As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, The SpongeBob Musical just announced casting for the Chicago engagement. Ethan Slater will make his Chicago debut in the role of the iconic SpongeBob Squarepants andLilli Cooper will play SpongeBob's close friend Sandy Cheeks. The cast will also feature Gaelen Gilliland, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, L'ogan J'ones, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Mark Ledbetter, Kelvin Moon Loh, Vasthy Mompoint, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Jason Michael Snow. The SpongeBob Musical will begin performances on Tuesday, June 7th at Broadway in Chicago's Oriental Theatre (24 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL). This is a limited engagement through Sunday, July 3, 2016. Check out the just-released artwork for the show below!

Playwright Lynn Nottage notches another feather in her cap of outstanding work.

The SpongeBob Musical just announced casting for the Chicago engagement. Ethan Slater will make his Chicago debut in the role of the iconic SpongeBob Squarepants and Lilli Cooper will play SpongeBob's close friend Sandy Cheeks. The cast will also feature Gaelen Gilliland, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, L'ogan J'ones, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Mark Ledbetter, Kelvin Moon Loh, Vasthy Mompoint, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Jason Michael Snow.

Republic Records, Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) and Paramount Television have announced exciting news about the release of the GREASE: LIVE Official Soundtrack Album.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: IF/THEN gets fresh faces on tour, three shows begin off-Broadway and more!

HAMILTON's Lin-Manuel Miranda will deliver the address at the 2016 University of Pennsylvania Commencement on Monday, May 16. Miranda will receive an honorary doctor of arts degree

Much like the opening night performance I experienced at the show's debut at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood last month, I was once again blown away by Menzel's incredible musical gifts with the show's opener at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa (which plays through January 24). Even better: she is still surrounded by the same equally astonishing support cast, particularly her original Broadway co-stars LaChanze, Anthony Rapp, and James Snyder. So how was the experience this time? While my initial reaction to the show itself hovered somewhere in the middle, I have to admit that I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed the show the second time around. Dare I say, I even think I *loved* it more.

Think you could rock a starfish or crab costume onstage? THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL is looking to fill two of its leading roles for its World Premiere engagement in Chicago this summer, and BroadwayWorld is excited to report auditions will be held this or next month in New York City and on January 29th in Orlando, Fla.

Even though Rydell High's easily excitable and enthusiastic head cheerleader, Patty Simcox, might not be the coolest kid in school, Elle McLemore, the equally as excited and enthusiastic actress who plays her in the upcoming GREASE LIVE!, is as sweet and likeable as can be. Most theatre fans know McLemore for playing less than loveable cheerleaders, first as the Machiavellian Eva in BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL, and then as the dim-witted Heather McNamara in HEATHERS THE MUSICAL. Despite some of her character's worst traits, McLemore is always disarmingly sweet and infectiously charming.