Walt Disney News

Updated this week! Check out upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, May 20, 2018 for both productions in your area and around the country including what/when/where and how to audition!

Angel City Chorale (ACC), the acclaimed Los Angeles choir led by Founder-Artistic Director Sue Fink, will celebrate its 25th birthday this year with an extraordinary spring concert event, One World, Many Voices II, during the first weekend in June. An exhilarating sequel to ACC's original 2009 production, One World, Many Voices, this concert will embrace the power of diversity that ACC is known for, with vibrant songs representing different cultures from around the world.

FROZEN is Disney's latest foray of into moving musicals from the screen to stage.  The story of sisterly love is currently melting frozen hearts on Broadway, joining its current counterparts ALADDIN and THE LION KING on the Great White Way (because of the snow, of course). Walt Disney Records also released the original cast recording digitally on May 11, and physical copies will be available on June 8.

The combined vocal force of over 900 high school students from 29 Southland schools can be heard at Walt Disney Concert Hall today, May 18 when the Los Angeles Master Chorale presents the 29th Annual High School Choir Festival. The Festival choir concert at 1 PM will be conducted by Grant Gershon, the Master Chorale's Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, and guest artist Dr. Edith A. Copley. The program for the concert includes works by Joseph Haydn, Astor Piazzolla, Paul Simon, and more. Eighty-five students have been selected by their choir directors for a prestigious Honor Choir that performs on stage during the concert.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is teaming up again with Los Angeles  magazine to present Center Stage:  Mapping the Ecology of Dance in Los Angeles, a dynamic discussion with both established and emerging leaders in LA's dance world on May 17, 2018 at 9:00 am. This two-part panel will explore the exciting and explosive growth of dance in Los Angeles in recent years and the influences that have made it possible. Admission is free, but reservations are required.This special event, taking place in advance of Dance USA's 10thAnnual Conference in Downtown Los Angeles, will also be available as a Facebook Live stream on The Wallis' Facebook page.  

Oscar-award nominated actress Angela Bassett will host The Music Center's 30th Annual Spotlight Grand Finale Performance at The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 5, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. This landmark event will showcase the 14 outstanding Southern California high school students, ages 15-18, who were recently named Grand Prize Finalists and will celebrate three decades of the vital scholarship and arts training program that has helped launch the careers of many of today's most renowned artists. The event culminates a year-long process where more than 1,400 Southern California students participated in the program.

Freeform President Tom Ascheim and Executive Vice President of Programming and Development Karey Burke unveiled today the new and returning projects for The Walt Disney Company's young adult cable network at the combined Disney|ABC Television's presentation for the national advertising community at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall. 

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association announced today details of the menus for the 2018 Hollywood Bowl Food + Wine season. Building on the success of last two summers with award-winning chef Suzanne Goin and business partner restaurateur Caroline Styne of The Lucques Group, and Sodexo Sports & Leisure, Hollywood Bowl Food + Wine promises exceptional dining for visitors to the iconic venue. Goin and Styne's culinary history has defined Los Angeles tastes since 1998 when they opened Lucques, their flagship restaurant. At the Hollywood Bowl, their California-inspired offerings, which include over 17 concepts, are created by four-time James Beard Foundation award-winner Suzanne Goin in tandem with the exceptional wine and beer programs curated by Caroline Styne, recent recipient of the Foundation's 2018 Outstanding Restaurateur of the Year award. Overseeing the broad range of dining options serving Hollywood Bowl Food + Wine's thousands of nightly guests is Sodexo Executive Chef Jeff Rogers.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association announced today the extension of Herbie Hancock's contract as the William Powers and Carolyn Powers Creative Chair for Jazz through the 2021 season at Hollywood Bowl and the 2020/21 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

It has just been announced that stars Ana Gasteyer as ("Miss Hannigan') and Megan Hilty ("Lily St. Regis.") have joined the cast of the upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of ANNIE, which will take place Friday, July 27, at 8 pm, Saturday, July 28, at 8 pm, and Sunday, July 29, at 7:30 pm. 

Live Nation Urban and TCG Entertainment today announced "4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince" will come to the Dr. Phillips Center on Sunday, October 7, 2018.  Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 18 at 10 am.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is an origin story about Han Solo, starring Alden Ehrenreich in the title role. The film is being produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, and will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film will be the second Star Wars anthology film, following the 2016 film Rogue One. A stand-alone installment, set prior to the events of the original 1977 film, it explores the adventures of a young Han Solo and Chewbacca, including meeting Lando Calrissian. Ehrenreich stars alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany.

Today BoxLunch announced the launch of a nationwide mall tour and exclusive merchandise in celebration of the opening of Toy Story Land in Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Slated to open on June 30, Toy Story Land is an immersive eleven-acre experience, recreating Andy's toy-filled backyard from the Disney•Pixar Toy Story films featuring Woody, Buzz, Jessie and all of their playtime pals. The Toy Story Land Mall Tour powered by BoxLunch brings a preview of Andy's backyard to your backyard with several surprises along the way.

FROZEN, the Tony-nominated Best Musical, will launch a North American tour in the Fall of 2019 and will officially open at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles during the 2019-20 season.

The Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony (AYWS), the premier honor wind ensemble for high school youth in the Atlanta metropolitan area, will perform a special concert on Sunday, June 3, 2018, at 4:00 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md.

Freeform President Tom Ascheim and Executive Vice President of Programming and Development Karey Burke will unveil today the new and returning projects for The Walt Disney Company's young adult cable network at the combined Disney|ABC Television's presentation for the national advertising community at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall.  

Who can you trust? Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents a suspense-driven spy drama RED SPARROW available on Digital and Movies Anywhere today.

RAGTIME is such an underrated piece of art. Although written in 1996 and staged for Broadway in 1998, it is almost prophetic in its reflection of the social unrest, racism and immigration sanctions prevalent in our world today. Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, RAGTIME is as relevant today as it was when first conceived. Its timelessness is a credit to its brilliant and perceptive writing, albeit a sad commentary of our present society which has not learned from its past and has not progressed much in civility or compassion.

A special program of DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International New York) 10th anniversary season, a popular producer of world-class classical choral concerts, is The Sacred and the Profane: Carmina Burana, featuring Carl Orff's Carmina Burana conducted by maestro Jonathan Griffith.  Also on the program is the New York premiere of Gospel Trinity, written by African American composer Rosephanye Powell and conducted by William Powell. The program juxtaposes the sacred in Powell's composition with the profane in Orff's masterpiece.