Walt Disney News

Fresh from Broadway, PCPA will be one of the first regional theatres in the nation to produce Mary Poppins, the magical high-flying family-musical that is perfect for this holiday season. It plays November 7 - December 22, 2013 in the newly renovated Marian Theatre.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are delighted to announce that Lucas Hnath's new play, The Christians, will receive its world premiere at Actors Theatre during the 38th Humana Festival of New American Plays. The Christians, which was commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville, will be directed by Les Waters and performed in the Pamela Brown Auditorium. The production will begin previews on March 4, open on March 6 and run through April 6, 2014.

Each year, the sights and sounds of the season ring throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall at the annual holiday concerts. Beginning December 10, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association presents eclectic and festive programming, including the very first Christmas concerts with Music Director Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, Grammy-winning artists The Blind Boys of Alabama, Judy Collins, Chanticleer and The Count Basie Orchestra, Oscar winner Julie Andrews, and two very special performances on New Year's Eve featuring Sergio Mendes and Sheila E.

Songwriter Tori Amos and playwright Samuel Adamson teamed up with director Marianne Elliot to bring a new musical to the stage. After five years, The Light Princess has come to the National Theatre. The musical opened last night, Oct 9, starring Rosalie Craig as Princess Athea. The Light Princess also stars Amy Booth-Steel as Piper, Nick Hendrix as Prince Digby, David Langham as Flowers, Hal Fowler as King Ignacio, Ben Thompson as Zephyrus, and Kane Oliver Parry as Llewelyn. The Light Princess was designed by Rae Smith, who also desgined War Horse.

Boston Baroque and its Founder/Music Director, Martin Pearlman, have chosen to acknowledge a monumental moment in their history with a monument of music: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the 'Choral' Symphony, which concludes with the uplifting Ode to Joy.

The annual Halloween haunt at Walt Disney Concert Hall features one of the most classic horror movies of the 1920's, The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney as Erik, the Phantom, in make-up he famously constructed for the role. The projection of the 1925 silent film will be accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by organist Clark Wilson on Halloween, Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 8:00 PM.

The LA Phil marks the 10th anniversary date of the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall with a special Green Umbrella program presenting the world premiere of 200 Motels by L.A.'s groundbreaking iconoclast composer Frank Zappa. Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the LA Phil, and is joined by L.A.-based director James Darrah and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Also joining Salonen and the LA Phil is a cast of renowned soloists and a band that includes Ian Underwood of Zappa's The Mothers of Invention, Scott Thunes, who also played with Frank Zappa, Zappa Family Trust 'Vaultmeister' Joe Travers, and Jamie Kime of Zappa Plays Zappa.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts opens its 2013-14 season of Composer Portraits with the work of Austrian composer and newly appointed Columbia University faculty member GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS on October 10, 2013.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today that The Walt Disney Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Iger, will be honored with the 2014 Milestone Award.

Perhaps the defining characteristic of Soho Rep, under the artistic direction of Sarah Benson, is the institution's commitment to artists creating surprisingly big theatrical events in its very small space on Walker Street. Soho Rep's 2013-14 season, announced today, provides ample evidence of that commitment, comprising two shows that are among the biggest the organization has ever produced: the New York premiere of David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette, directed by Rebecca Taichman and featuring Marin Ireland (Blasted); and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon, directed by Benson.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon, continues its year-long 50th anniversary season celebration with back-to-back performances of Orff's Carmina Burana, one of the most popular choral works of the 20th century, featuring Chorale member Timothy Gonzales, tenor, and noted guest artists Stacey Tappan, a "mellifluous" soprano (Wall St. Journal), Jose Adan Perez, a "glorious baritone" (Bach Track), and the ever-polished Los Angeles Children's Chorus on Saturday, November 2, 2013, 2 pm, and Sunday, November 3, 2013, 7 pm, at Disney Hall. Verdi's lush Te Deum, for double chorus and orchestra with roots in polyphony and Gregorian chant, opens the program.

Amphibian Stage Productions today announced the line-up of plays that will make up its 2014 season. The company will present four main stage productions, including one world premiere and one regional premiere, and three staged readings, as well as continue National Theatre Live screenings at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios revealed a new TV spot for Marvel's THOR: THE DARK WORLD - check it out below!

The Huntington Theatre Company's production of The Jungle Book will play its 100th performance on Tuesday, October 8 at 7:30pm. The Jungle Book is produced in association with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where the run began on Friday, June 21 and was extended by popular demand through August 18. The Boston run began Friday, September 7, has been extended twice by popular demand, and continues through Sunday, October 20. The Jungle Book is produced by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions.

For the first DG Conservatory event of the fall, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, today, October 8, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Dramatists Guild's New York office, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Suite 710. This free seminar is opening a limited number of seats to the public and reservations are required.

El Capitan Theatre moviegoers will kick off holiday celebrations early with an exclusive advance engagement of Walt Disney Animation Studios' 'Frozen,' beginning five days before the film's nationwide release. El Capitan is frozenover this holiday season, welcoming guests into a snow-covered wonderland-complete with ice-capped opera boxes and a flurry of snowflakes. 'Frozen' showings, which will run Nov. 22, 2013, toJan. 5, 2014, will be preceded by ice carving performance artists on stage, as well as 'Frozen' characters Anna and Elsa in their first live-on-stage appearances.

ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff will give a keynote address at Disney's first-ever 'Veterans Institute' workshop on November 14, 2013.

Fiona Apple performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight, Monday, October 7, 2013, making her debut performance at the iconic venue. This intimate, one-night-only performance will feature songs from throughout Apple's career. This performance is part of the recently announced North American tour.

Native Voices at the Autry continues its vital role as the country's only equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to developing the work of Native American playwrights with a free staged reading of Measure for Measure: An Indian Boarding School Comedy, a bawdy adaptation of Shakespeare's play set in the Old West by Randy Reinholz (Choctaw*), founder and producing artistic director of Native Voices at the Autry, on Thursday, October 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m., at the Wells Fargo Theater at The Autry National Center in Griffith Park. The reading, which is followed by an audience 'Talk-Back' with Reinholz, director Chris Anthony and dramaturg Robert Caisley, is part of Native Voices' signature FIRST LOOK SERIES: Plays in Process, which brings playwrights together with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors for a workshop and public presentation at the Autry, providing an important next step in the play's development.