Will Rogers News

Paper Mill Playhouse will open its 2011-2012 season with the premiere of a new Disney stage musical, Newsies. Featuring music by eight time Academy Award®-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act, The Little Mermaid), lyrics by Jack Feldman and a new book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy), Newsies is adapted for the stage from the live-action Disney feature film musical. The production will be directed at Paper Mill by Tony® nominee Jeff Calhoun (The Will Rogers Follies, Grey Gardens). The show begins performances on Thursday, September 15. The official press opening is scheduled for Sunday, September 25.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is will soon open CURTAINS, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter. Curtains will run at the Millburn theater from April 27 through May 22, 2011. Family Week is April 27 through May 1 and during this period, children 18 and under receive half off the regular ticket price (certain restrictions apply). In Additio to previously announced cast members, the show will also feature Daniel Marcus in the role of Sidney Bernstein.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes the Rubicon Theatre in California to Americas Off Broadway with their critically acclaimed production of THE BEST IS YET TO COME: THE MUSIC OF CY COLEMAN, devised and directed by David Zippel.

Roundabout Theatre Company announced the full company of the new musical Death Takes A Holiday, with a book by Peter Stone & Thomas Meehan, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, directed by Doug Hughes. The cast will include Linda Balgord (Contessa Danielli), Matt Cavenaugh (Eric Fenton), Mara Davi (Alice), Joy Hermalyn (Cora), Jay Jaski (Lorenzo), Simon Jones (Dr. Dario Albione), Rebecca Luker (Duchess Lamberti), Patricia Noonan (Sophia), Julian Ovenden (Prince Sirki / Death), Jill Paice (Grazia), Michael Siberry (Duke Lamberti), Alexandra Socha (Daisy Fenton), Don Stephenson (Fidele), Max Von Essen (Corrado Montelli).

The National Theatre is proud to announce that THE COLOR PURPLE, The Musical about Love, will return to D.C. for an Easter engagement thru April 24, and will feature special guest star Lil' Mo as the Church Soloist.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee- Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is proud to announce that New Season Subscriptions go on-sale Monday, May 2nd, for the 2011-2012 season.

Victory Gardens announces the 50 playwrights who will participate in The Chicago One-Minute Play Festival as a benefit for the Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed series. The event will be held in the Zacek-McVay Theater at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park on May 15 and 16, 2011, at 7:30pm.

The 2011 Tommy Tune Awards winners have been announced! To a crowd of more than 2,000 people, Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) declared the winners of TUTS' ninth annual Tommy Tune Awards on the evening of Wednesday, April 20, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is will soon open CURTAINS, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter. Curtains will run at the Millburn theater from April 27 through May 22, 2011. Family Week is April 27 through May 1 and during this period, children 18 and under receive half off the regular ticket price (certain restrictions apply). In Additio to previously announced cast members, the show will also feature Daniel Marcus in the role of Sidney Bernstein.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is will soon open CURTAINS, directed by Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter. Curtains will run at the Millburn theater from April 27 through May 22, 2011. Family Week is April 27 through May 1 and during this period, children 18 and under receive half off the regular ticket price (certain restrictions apply). In Additio to previously announced cast members, the show will also feature Daniel Marcus in the role of Sidney Bernstein.

CPCC Summer Theatre announces casting for another award winning season in our 38th year.

A cast of Broadway veterans will converge on a small Kansas town April 13 to perform a new musical comedy by Sheldon Harnick, co-creator of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Pittsburgh CLO's 2011 Summer Season will fill the Benedum Center with performances audiences will remember well into 2012. In addition to favorite local performers, this summer will be highlighted by talented Broadway stars, accomplished recording artists and veterans of the stage and screen.

THE COLOR PURPLE is based on the classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and the moving film by Steven Spielberg. It is the unforgettable and inspiring story of a woman named Celie, who finds the strength to triumph over adversity, and discover her unique voice in the world. With a joyous, GRAMMY®-nominated score featuring gospel, jazz, pop and the blues, THE COLOR PURPLE is about hope and the healing power of love.

Pittsburgh CLO's 2011 Summer Season will fill the Benedum Center with performances audiences will remember well into 2012. In addition to favorite local performers, this summer will be highlighted by talented Broadway stars, accomplished recording artists and veterans of the stage and screen.

The National Theatre is proud to announce that THE COLOR PURPLE, The Musical about Love, will return to D.C. for an Easter engagement April 12 to 24, and will feature special guest star Lil' Mo as the Church Soloist.

Tony Winner Sutton Foster has confirmed a May 9th ‘Live at Barnes & Noble' in-store performance and CD signing to celebrate Ghostlight Records' release of her 20-song tour de force ‘An Evening With Sutton Foster - Live at the Café Carlyle'. In a rave review, USA TODAY's Elysa Gardner praised the CD's ballads in particular as 'revelatory, showing a sense of grace and wonder,' adding that the live album 'offers delightful proof of a shier, wrier side' to Foster. This is a theme Foster herself reinforced in an interview with THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, emphasizing ‘it's a concert, not cabaret, but adds that whatever you call it, 'it's definitely quirky and weird -- and very much me.' Audio samples and more info, here: http://www.sh-k-boom.com/suttoncarlyle.shtml

On this very day in 1943, Michael DiFiglia was born in Buffalo, New York, and the world of Broadway would simply never be the same. Cutting his teeth with the accomplished choreography for A JOYFUL NOISE, PROMISES, PROMISES, SEESAW and COCO was merely the beginning of a career that would virtually rewrite and revolutionize the ways and means by which a director could yield ultimate control over a project. With COMPANY and FOLLIES, the later co-directing with Hal Prince, Bennett solidified himself as one of the most talented and brilliant choreographers of his generation and, shortly thereafter, proved with A CHORUS LINE that he was a master theatrical engineer with few, if any, peers. Worldwide success, Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize were just the gravy. Who else but Michael Bennett would then, or ever, receive - or should I say, earn - the credit "Entire Production Conceived, Produced and Directed by," besides him? While BALLROOM failed to live up to A CHORUS LINE in mostly every way, he soon after reinvented the wheel yet again with DREAMGIRLS in 1981. We never got to see his productions of CHESS and SCANDAL, both of which he was in the latter stages of developing at the time of his death in 1988. Broadway has never been the same since he's been gone. So, today, on the day following a glittering new production of COMPANY at Lincoln Center - with the complete dance sequence "Tick Tock" fully restored, now with five dancers - we take a tip of the top hat to the tops in taps, temerity and truthfulness onstage - the one and only Michael Bennett.

Olympia Entertainment is proud to announce that THE COLOR PURPLE, The Musical about Love, will play Detroit's Fox Theatre on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 for three performances only.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is proud to announce casting for Curtains. Directed by Mark S. Hoebee, with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, Curtains will run at the Millburn theater from April 27 through May 22, 2011. Family Week is April 27 through May 1 and during this period, children 18 and under receive half off the regular ticket price (certain restrictions apply). Curtains is generously supported by a gift from Allen and Joan Bildner. Curtains is a co-production with Theatre Under The Stars in Houston, Texas. Press opening is set for Sunday, May 1st at 7:00pm.