August Wilson Videos

On Sunday, January 15, 2017, Tony, Grammy & Olivier Award-Winning Best Musical Jersey Boys will end its record-breaking, 11-year run after 4,642 performances at the August Wilson Theatre. Who better to conclude the show's epic run than renaissance man Mark Ballas, who is making his Broadway debut as Frankie Valli. Below, watch as the 'Dancing with the Stars' superstar updates us on life at the August Wilson so far!

Fresh from London's Old Vic, Andy Karl is back in New York, getting ready to bring Phil Connors to Broadway. GROUNDHOG DAY will begin previews on Thursday, March 16, 2017 at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street) and open, as previously announced, on Monday, April 17.

On the heels of his debut on the Great White Way, Mark Ballas took to Facebook to share a video of himself and his co-stars warming up with an acoustic version of the famous Four Seasons tune, 'Sherry.' Check out the video below!

The first official trailer for FENCES, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis has arrived. Directed by Washington from a screenplay by August Wilson, the film is adapted from Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play

August Wilson's hard-hitting 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' opened September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/ Mark Taper Forum. 'Ma Rainey...' is part of Wilson's American Century Cycle of 10 plays chronicling African American experience in 20th Century USA. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights of the show below, along with behind the scenes with the cast and celebrities!

On last night's AMERICA'S GOT TALENT, New York crooner Sal Valentinetti joined the cast of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical JERSEY BOYS for a performance of 'Oh What a Night.'

Today, Mark Ballas spoke exclusively to ET about his casting in the lead role of JERSEY BOYS and shares, 'I've been a fan of this show since it came out.'

When Tony Award winners step up to the podium to give their acceptance speeches, along with parents and fellow collaborators, there is a group of people that seems to crop up in the list of 'thank yous' more than any other: educators. For most artists, they have a teacher, or professor, or mentor who they can trace back to the reason that they fell in love with the theatre in the first place. On May 16, 2016, a group of over 300 University of Michigan Alumni-led by Celia Keenan-Bolger and Gavin Creel-gathered together for a one-night-only, sold-out performance to honor the beloved long-time Musical Theatre Department Chair, Brent Wagner. 

Today in 1989, the first Broadway revival of Shenandoah opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 32 performances. Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah. The musical first opened at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1974 and then transferred to Broadway, opening on January 7, 1975. It ran on Broadway for a total of 1,050 performances, closing August 7, 1977. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won two, one for Best Actor in a Musical (John Cullum) and the other for Best Book of a Musical.

At this week's Saturday Night Scream, Jersey Boys and Jellicle Cats collided in a special Doo-Wop version of CATS' famous 11 o'clock number, 'Memory,' currently being belted eight times a week on Broadway by British singer, Leona Lewis.

At tonight's 70th Annual Tony Awards, SHUFFLE ALONG star Brian Stokes Mitchell was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Award. Check out what he had to say about representing the Actors Fund by receiving the award below!

Happy Birthday Leslie Uggams! Uggams starred in Hallelujah, Baby!, which premiered on Broadway in 1967, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical. She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004 and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005. In 2001 she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II, receiving a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Today in 1988, Carrie opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 5 performances. Carrie: The Musical is a musical with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. Adapted from Stephen King's novel Carrie, it focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother. When she is humiliated by her classmates at the high school prom, she wreaks havoc on everyone and everything in her path.

Today in 2000, The Wild Party opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 68 performances. The Wild Party is a musical with a book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe and music and lyrics by LaChiusa. It is based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March narrative poem of the same name. The Broadway production coincidentally opened during the same theatrical season (1999-2000) as an off-Broadway musical with the same title and source material. Its plot centers on a party - fueled by bathtub gin, cocaine, and uninhibited sexual behavior - hosted by Queenie and Burrs, whose relationship is disintegrating. The cast included Toni Collette (making her Broadway debut) as Queenie, Mandy Patinkin as Burrs, and Yancey Arias as Black.

Ebony Jo-Ann, a 'Blackgold' acclaimed Blues vocalist, multiple award winning Broadway, film and television actress, and social activist, is in residence during the month of April at Ashford & Simpson's Sugar Bar, 254 W. 72nd St. in New York, for the first time since 2011, to reprise Nuttin' But the Blues, the Sugar Bar's weekly Blues series, which she co-created with the late Nick Ashford. Check out a preview here!

HuntingtonThe Huntington Theatre Company presents the powerful memoir August Wilson's HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED, co-conceived and directed by Todd Kreidler (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner adapter at the Huntington) and featuring Eugene Lee (Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, and The Piano Lesson at the Huntington), both longtime Wilson collaborators. Performances continue now through April 3, 2016 in the BU Theatre / Avenue of the Arts. Click below to go behind the scenes with the company and watch a trailer for the show!

Today in 1995, Smokey Joe's Cafe opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre) where it ran for 2036 performances. Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The Original Broadway cast recording, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs Of Leiber And Stoller won a Grammy award in 1996. In revue format with no unifying theme the 39 songs are presented by various members of the cast in various combinations, with no dialogue. There are novelty songs ('Charlie Brown'), romantic ballads ('Spanish Harlem') and infectious melodies ('There Goes My Baby').

In this DEADPOOL special on Entertainment Weekly, Ryan Reynolds talks with the editorial director of People and EW and listens to a clip of legendary co-star and Broadway veteran Leslie Uggams forgetting lyrics and singing gibberish in one of the Internets first viral videos.

Below, watch DEADPOOL's official behind-the-scenes interview with Leslie Uggams as well as the film's official trailer featuring the legendary actress.

Today in 2005, Little Women opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 137 performances. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth - and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Intercut with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio. The Broadway cast included Sutton Foster, Maureen McGovern, Janet Carroll, Jenny Powers, Megan McGinnis, and Amy McAlexander.