Walt Disney News

 On Saturday, October 8 at 8 p.m., the four Music Center theatres - Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Walt Disney Concert Hall - along with the Kirk Douglas Theatre, will dim their lights in honor of Gordon Davidson, Founding Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group. Gordon Davidson passed away Sunday, October 2, 2016. 

BroadwayWorld has teamed up with renowned caricature artist Ken Fallin, a life-long theater enthusiast, who has drawn many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Below, check out his latest illustration, featuring Harriet Harris, Rebecca Brooksher and Hallie Foote in Primary Stages' THE ROADS TO HOME.

Disney Channel has released the first trailer for TANGLED,  an animated series for kids, tween and families, based onWalt Disney Animation Studios' acclaimed feature film.

Producer Scott Rudin today announced that Lucas Hnath's new play, A Doll's House, Part 2, will come to Broadway next spring in a production directed by Tony Award®-winner Sam Gold. A wildly inventive new American play that picks up after Henrik Ibsen's most cherished work concludes, A Doll's House, Part 2 will boast an all-star cast that features three-time Emmy Award-winner and three-time Tony Award®-nominee Laurie Metcalf, Academy Award-winner Chris Cooper, Tony Award®-winner Jayne Houdyshelland two-time Tony Award®-nominee Condola Rashad. Beginning preview performances at Broadway's John Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street) on Saturday, April 1, 2017, this 16-week engagement will officially open on Thursday, April 27.

The Talent Managers Association (TMA) announces this year's nominees for the 14th Annual Heller Awards. Each year, the TMA honors colleagues in talent representation and casting with a live ceremony. Lifetime achievement honors will be presented to legendary agent Jack Gilardi from ICM Partners and casting director Craig Fincannon of Fincannon and Associates. Additionally, awards are presented to agents and casting directors for their work throughout the year, who've been nominated by the TMA members. The organization will host this year's event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday, November 10, 2016 from 6:30 PM to 11:00 PM.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst announce further details of their new production of Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande.  The impressionistic French opera, with its luminous and hypnotic score, is being presented at Severance Hall this coming spring, with performances May 2, 4, and 6, 2017.  The creative team for this brand-new, made-for-Cleveland production is being led by Director Yuval Sharon working with Set Designer Mimi Lien, Lighting and Projection Designer Jason Thompson, Choreographer Danielle Agami, and Costume Designer Ann Closs-Farley.

Amidst the backdrop of urban Latin hip hop music, rhyme, and choreography, Broken Promises reveals the shocking truth of how quickly and easily teens are ensnared in the world of sex trafficking.  Desperate for money, four teens living on the edge gamble their lives on internet porn and prostitution.  Before they know it, they are trapped in a life from which they cannot escape, or can they?    

Sara Jean Ford, who is currently playing Jellylorum in the Broadway production of Cats, and Kevin Kirkwood Smith, who is in Kinky Boots, will be joining rising musical theatre comedienne Rebecca Spigelman in Rebecca Spigelman: 16 GOING ON 70. at Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, tonight, October 6th, 2016.

Carnegie Hall opens its 2016-2017 season today, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. with a gala concert featuring exquisite dance music performed by the dynamic Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. The program features Ravel's La valse and Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps as well as selected dances from around the world.

Ocean State Theatre Company (OSTC), which recently opened its fifth season in its comfortable stadium-style theatre in Warwick, has announced the kick-off of this season's Piano Bar Series, which will be held following select Friday and Saturday evening performances of the company's current production of the ten-time Tony Award-winning musical, Billy Elliot: The Musical.

"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength."  Greenway Arts Alliance Presents: George Orwell's 1984, directed by Kate Jopson as the first production of their novel to stage program Greenway Reads. 300 Fairfax High School students are reading the novel and will attend matinee's of the theatrical production. The adaptation by Alan Lyddiard creates an interactive and engaging experience for audience members. Jopson said, "We're trying to create an immersive experience. The elements of the play and its themes are all around us in the real world. We try to emphasize that and as soon as you arrive at the theater there's not anywhere you're not in the set of 1984, even in the lobby and bathrooms."  

Chicago's historic Studebaker Theater will become the home of live opera with a contemporary adaptation of Henry Purcell's 1692 "The Fairy Queen," a reimagining of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" presented by Chicago Opera Theater (COT) beginning November 5. The California-based performance troupe Culture Clash and COT's Andreas Mitisek put a modernized spin on Purcell's adaptation of Shakespeare's classic with an edgy and hilarious examination of the messes mere mortals make of relationships. "The Fairy Queen" will be performed at Chicago's historicStudebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Ave). The press performance will be November 5 at 7:30 p.m.Subsequent performances will be November 11 at 7:30 p.m. and November 13 at 3 p.m.

Today, Variety reports that the project has now been fast-tracked and is expected to hit theaters on November 2nd 2018.

As part of Disney Vacation Club's 25th Anniversary, the Genie from Disney's hit Broadway musical, Aladdin, stepped outside his standard three-wish limit for some very brave children following an exclusive performance for Disney Vacation Club Members and their guests at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City on Sunday. Scroll down for photos!

Fans at New York Comic Con will have the opportunity to get their hands on a coveted new Marvel fashion collection created by Her Universe. T

Disney's new musical, Aladdin, which opened to critical acclaim in June 2016, has announced a new education programme. This consists of curriculum-linked education resources for Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils, workshops for pupils aged 7+ and a series of behind the scenes videos which include interviews with the multi award-winning creative team.

In tradition to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Hebler manifests the backstory of one of Dickens' most cherished characters in this literary 'spin-off' that preserves the original story's tones of spiritual fantasy and mystery. Synopsis: The Ghost of Christmas Past has had its flame extinguished. Lost souls cannot find their way to redemption without the Spirit's fire illuminating their shadowed memories. Guided by the Christmas Angel, the Ghost of Christmas Past must search for its missing flame within a mortal life it had long forgotten and brave witness to the troubled child it once had been. Author, Michael Hebler, is excited to take a brief hiatus from dark thrillers and his Chupacabra Series, for which volume one, Night of the Chupacabra, was honored by the National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA) as Best Horror in 2014. Hebler explains, 'Not all of my stories come from a morose imagination. I don't believe anyone creative can be pin-holed into a single genre or style. My first publication was a children's picture book, also Christmas themed. Christmas always has a special place in my heart.' Hebler continues about his new novella, 'I decided to write The Ghost of Christmas Past when, one day, I had asked myself, Aren't ghosts the lingering souls of someone who once lived? Then what kind of lives would the ghosts of A Christmas Carol, one of the most beloved stories ever written, have lived?' Once learning that no stories had yet to be written, Hebler began what would take him two decades to finish. The Ghost of Christmas Past is now available in both print and eBook formats. Get into the Christmas 'spirit' now! Contact Details Name: Michael Hebler Email: info@michaelhebler.com Website: www.michaelhebler.com Twitter: mhebler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelHeblerauthorpage/ About The Author Life wasn't always about the written page for Hebler. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Hebler had a career as an international film publicist, working on multiple titles for Walt Disney, Pixar, Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment, Warner Bros., Summit Entertainment, as well as the 2013 Academy Award Best Foreign Language film, 'La grande bellezza' (The Great Beauty). In his spare time, Hebler enjoys volunteering in his local community. Organizations he has supported include Meals on Wheels, Get On The Bus, as well as helping to control our animal population by aiding in the capture/spay/ neuter/release feral program. To date, Hebler's publications include the first four (of six) books in his Chupacabra Series, three eBook short stories, and his first publication, The Night After Christmas.

On the heels of a highly successful multi-city tour and run on Broadway, the world's best-selling touring magic show, The Illusionists - Live from Broadway will play the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in the Walt Disney Theater from October 4 - 9, 2016 as part of its current North American tour to more than 50 cities.

Sara Jean Ford, who is currently playing Jellylorum in the Broadway production of Cats, and Kevin Kirkwood Smith, who is in Kinky Boots, will be joining rising musical theatre comedienne Rebecca Spigelman in REBECCA SPIGELMAN: 16 GOING ON 70. at Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, on October 6th, 2016.