High School Musical 2008 - Articles Page 21

The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye reports that pop music superstar and film actress Beyonce Knowles wants to star in a movie version of the current West End stage hit, Sister Act: The Musical.

Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray, High School Musical) will be the host and musical guest of the upcoming The 24 Hour Plays Off Broadway on July 13 at the Atlantic Theater. Laura Breckenridge ('Gossip Girl'), Joey Slotnick ('Nip/Tuck'), Julie Halston (Hairspray, 'Sex and the City'), Patrick Heusinger (Next Fall, 'Gossip Girl'), Max Casella ('The Sopranos'), and Russell Jones (Ruined) will join the At Play ensemble in this exciting Off Broadway theatrical event.

MTV reports that actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens doesn't want to appear in any more musicals. The 'High School Musical' star wants to stop singing for a spell to focus on sharpening her acting skills. The 'Bandslam' actress - who is currently filming her first non-musical role in 'Beastly' - also insisted to the music channel she has no plans to release any more albums.

Renowned choreographer and director, Jeffrey Hornaday ('Flashdance,' 'A Chorus Line', 'Shout'), will helm 'High School Musical East Meets West,' the fourth movie in the franchise that is a cultural sensation around the world. The announcement was made today by Gary Marsh, president, Entertainment, Disney Channels Worldwide.

The tap-happy Tony® Award winning spectacle of 42nd Street marks Theatre Under The Stars' (TUTS) 42nd summer of free performances at Miller Outdoor Theatre. 42nd Street brings the grand-scale dance numbers of 1930s Broadway to Miller Outdoor Theatre (100 Concert Drive) every evening July 9 - 14, 2009 at 8:15 p.m.

Student winners of the North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) 4th annual Spotlight Awards were announced at an exciting Tony® Award-style program on the NSMT main stage Tuesday, June 2, 2009. The NSMT Spotlight Awards program is designed to honor the accomplishments of high school students and teachers as well as encourage them to achieve the highest levels of excellence in musical theater. This year's program included 22 high schools and over 1,000 students vying for 15 awards, including the prestigious award for Best Overall Musical, and a chance to participate in the first National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York City.

SISTER ACT, the new musical comedy, opens tonight June 2nd at the London Palladium.

Based on the blockbuster movie, Troy, Gabriella and the rest of East High will come to life on the main stage in The Rose Theater's production of Disney's High School Musical, June 5-28, 2009.

On May 22, 2003, the State Theatre Center for the Arts made history by becoming the first performing arts center in the country to produce, along with broadcast partner WFMZ Channel 69, a three-hour, live television show to recognize and reward outstanding achievement in local high school musical theater. It was an extraordinary triumph for creator and executive producer Shelley Brown and her dedicated staff. Regional high schools from the Lehigh, Northampton and Warren County, NJ region now had their own TONY®'s - The FREDDY© Awards.

North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) announces the nominees for the 4th annual NSMT Spotlight Awards. The Tony® Award style program is designed to honor the accomplishments of high school students and teachers as well as encourage them to achieve the highest levels of excellence in musical theater. This year's program involves 22 high schools and over 1,000 students, and will culminate in an awards ceremony on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 7:30pm on the NSMT main stage. The event is open to the public and a donation of $10 per person will be requested at the door.

The Incredibly Innovative Innovators of Pittsburgh, a Pittsburgh CLO Gallery of Heroes production, kicked off its spring tour January 12, 2009, at Peabody High School. Originally developed to coincide with the Pittsburgh 250 celebration, this educational and entertaining production was extended for an additional tour by popular demand. The show is traveling to local schools, teaching students about the men, women and innovations from Pittsburgh that have helped to change the world during the last 250 years. The spring tour will run through May 15 at schools in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Green, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland Counties in Pennsylvania and in Weirton, West Virginia. The production is presented in partnership with the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Located on the Southwest coast of Florida nestled next to Lemon Bay and half way between Fort Myers and Tampa is a very small town with one high school and less than 1400 students. The town is a melting pot of transferred families, retirees, multi-generational 'locals,' working class, the extremely impoverished, and the exceptionally wealthy.

Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! The national tour of Happy Days - A New Musical will play at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts with Theatre Under The Stars May 12-24, 2009 for just two weeks.

Hennepin Theatre Trust today announced the Spring 2009 honorees from among 31 Minnesota high schools participating in the 2008-2009 SpotLight Musical Theatre Program. The SpotLight awards recognize accomplishments by school and artistic category for this Hennepin Theatre Trust program which supports the work of Twin Cities' high schools that present musical theatre-from classics including Fiddler on the Roof to a new school edition of Sweeney Todd. The musicals are made possible by the collaboration of over 2,500 students and are seen by nearly 50,000 audience members annually.

Eric McCormack, Emmy Award winner for 'Will & Grace,' will play El Gallo, Lucas Grabeel from 'High School Musical' will play Matt, and Broadway star and Tony nominee Harry Groener will play Bellomy in 'The Fantasticks,' which concludes the 2008-2009 Reprise Theatre Company at the Freud Playhouse May 5-May 17 (press opening May 6).

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) will present its tenth annual All-City Musical, A Decade of Dreams to crown the District's 2008-09 series of All-City Arts Programming. An unforgettable collection of inspired musical theater, A Decade of Dreams features the exceptional talents of over sixty CMSD students from across the District in beloved scenes from the last nine years of All-City Musicals including Little Shop of Horrors, Once On This Island, The Wiz, West Side Story, Carmen Jones, Hot Mikado, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls and Dreamgirls.

Eric McCormack, Emmy Award winner for 'Will & Grace,' will play El Gallo, Lucas Grabeel from 'High School Musical' will play Matt, and Broadway star and Tony nominee Harry Groener will play Bellomy in 'The Fantasticks,' which concludes the 2008-2009 Reprise Theatre Company at the Freud Playhouse May 5-May 17 (press opening May 6).

Starlight Theatre employees and volunteers surprised local high school theatre students and instructors today when they personally delivered and announced the nominations for the 2009 Blue Star Awards program.

The performers are a who's who of the best of Key West. David Black is comfortable moving between musical theater, comedy and drama, as reflected in his many appearances on Key West stages. This season he appeared at the Waterfront in the highly praised 'Doubt' as well as 'Reefer Madness' and 'The Red Head Dilemma.' Laurie Breakwell appeared this season in the Key West Pops concert of 'A Little Night Music' and 'The Wild Women of Planet Wongo' at the Red Barn. Last season she appeared in the Barn's 'Bark!' as well as the Pops' 'The Pajama Game.'

John C. Breckenridge, President and CEO of Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS), announced today the nominations for TUTS' seventh annual Tommy Tune Awards which will be held on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Developed by TUTS, the Tommy Tune Awards honor musical theatre excellence at the high school level. After reviewing and evaluating the 45 participating Houston-area high school productions during the 2008-2009 school year, a team of 29 Houston-based theatre professionals made 152 nominations in 15 categories.

Zac Efron, the 21-year-old star of the 'High School Musical' mega-hit series of films broke out and 'graduated' with a winning opening for his new film comedy '17 Again.' The comic high school time-swap feature, which costars Matthew Perry, earned $24.1 million, according to the studio estimates from box office tracking service Nielsen EDI.

Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! The national tour of Happy Days - A New Musical will play at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts with Theatre Under The Stars May 12-24, 2009 for just two weeks.

Kaitlin Hopkins, currently on tour with the pre-Broadway tour of Dirty Dancing, has been named Head of Musical Theatre at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas according to John Fleming, Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State. Her husband, Jim Price, will also be joining her on the faculty.

The pop culture phenomenon, Disney's 'High School Musical,' is about to take center stage at Mercer County Community College's Kelsey Theatre. Featuring some of the region's most talented young people, Cheng/Ferrara Productions presents this big, bubbly musical Thursday and Fridays, May 1, 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, May 2 and 9 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays, May 3 and 10 at 2 p.m.

Zac Efron, the star of Hairspray and the High School Musical trilogy hosted the Saturday April 11th episode of Saturday Night Live.