42nd Street Moon to Conclude 23rd Season with THE MOST HAPPY FELLA
by Tyler Peterson - Mar 15, 2016
42nd Street Moon concludes its 23rd season with Frank Loesser's glorious Napa Valley romance, the Tony Award-winning THE MOST HAPPY FELLA. This masterpiece with book, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business …, Where's Charley?) is an unconventional and sweepingly romantic love story set in the vineyards of Napa Valley. Considered one of Loesser's greatest works, the stunning score includes "The Most Happy Fella," "Standing on the Corner," "Joey, Joey, Joey," "Rosabella," "Big D," "My Heart Is So Full of You" and "Song of a Summer Night." Directed by Cindy Goldfield, with musical direction by Dave Dobrusky, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA will run April 27 - May 17, 2016 (Press opening: Saturday, April 30) at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco. For tickets ($25-$75) or more information, the public may call (415) 255-8207 or visit www.42ndstmoon.org.
Nikki Renee Daniels, Andre De Shields, John Larroquette & More Will Lead Starry Cast of Encores! 1776
by Tyler Peterson - Feb 29, 2016
Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel today announced casting for the Encores! production of 1776, the classic Tony Award-winning musical about how the founding fathers drafted the Declaration of Independence and gave birth to a new nation. 1776 will star Terence Archie, John Behlmann, Larry Bull, Nikki Renee Daniels, Andre De Shields, Macintyre Dixon, Santino Fontana, Alexander Gemignani, John Hickok, John Hillner, John Larroquette, Kevin Ligon, John-Michael Lyles, Laird Mackintosh, Michael McCormick, Michael Medeiros, Christiane Noll, Bryce Pinkham, Wayne Pretlow, Tom Alan Robbins, Robert Sella, Ric Stoneback, Jubilant Sykes, Vishal Vaidya, Nicholas Ward, and Jacob Keith Watson.
CABARET Begins Tonight at the Marcus Center
by BWW News Desk - Feb 23, 2016
As part of their 50th Anniversary Season, the critically acclaimed and award-winning Roundabout Theatre Company is proud to present, direct from Broadway, the national tour of SAM MENDES (Skyfall, American Beauty) and ROB MARSHALL's (Into the Woodsand Chicago, the films) Tony Award-winning production of CABARET, playing this weekend, February 23-28 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Associated Bank Broadway at the Marcus Center and Broadway Across America-Milwaukee series.
McLean Community Players to Stage Tony-Winning Musical 1776
by Tyler Peterson - Dec 7, 2015
?The McLean Community Players' production of the musical 1776, based on the events surrounding the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, opens Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, and runs weekends through Feb. 21 at McLean's Alden Theatre. With music by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone, 1776 became an improbable hit and won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 1969. Director Annie O'Neill Galvin leads an award-winning cast and crew for this production.
The Old Globe's 2016 Summer Season Will Include Steve Martin's METEOR SHOWER, Plus Kathleen Marshall-Helmed LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST
by Nora Dominick - Oct 23, 2015
The Old Globe today shared its 2016 Summer Season, which will feature new and familiar works directed by four major American stalwarts. The season features the welcome return of Steve Martin (Bright Star) with the World Premiere of his new play Meteor Shower, an adult comedy, directed by Gordon Edelstein, in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre, where he serves as Artistic Director. Paul Gordon's musical Sense and Sensibility will have its West Coast premiere, presented in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it had its world premiere in February 2015, directed by CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. The Summer Shakespeare Festival will include Macbeth, directed by Brian Kulick, Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, and Love's Labor's Lost, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall.
Who Will Win the 2015 Tony Awards? We Compare Year By Year!
by BWW Special Coverage - Jun 6, 2015
The 69th Annual Tony Awards are this Sunday June 7th at 8/9c hosted by Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming. It's the biggest award show of the Broadway season and it closes out a long award season for Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals and plays. We can't help but wonder what chances this year's Best Musical and Best Play nominees have of taking home the ultimate prize.
Betty Buckley Brings New Show DARK BLUE-EYED BLUES to Joe's Pub This Weekend
by BWW News Desk - May 28, 2015
After her sold out engagement last fall, BETTY BUCKLEY returns at the end of May for seven performances with a new show tailored specifically for Joe's Pub at The Public called Dark Blue-Eyed Blues. Her new collection of songs - running tonight, May 28 through May 31 - will feature 'Musings of a Chanteuse' and will include standards and songs by contemporary writers for some glamour, torch and comedy. She will be joined by Christian Jacob on piano, Tony Marino on bass, Todd Isler on drums and Oz Noy on guitar. Terry Gabis provides sound design.
SOUND OFF Special Edition: 10 Biggest & Bloodiest Tony Awards Best Musical Battles
by Pat Cerasaro - May 20, 2015
Bloodshed is par for the course during Tony Awards season, especially as it reaches its peak in the last handful of weeks leading up the big annual ceremony feting theatre's best, so today we take a look back at some of the absolute most brutal and tight Tony Award races for Best Musical in history. Although comparing a group of musicals - alike as dissimilar as they may be - may be an unfair proposition in practice, there is only one way a winner is decided when the Tony Awards rolls around and it unfortunately always finds fan favorites, critical darlings and a few commercial hits vying for top honors. There can only be one Best Musical - well, except for 1960 when there were actually two mainstage entertainments given the prize; THE SOUND OF MUSIC and FIORELLO, with no less than GYPSY ending up an also-ran. Who will claim the trophy on June 7? Tune in then to see!
BWW Reviews: Solemn and Unusual: 1776 at Toby's
by Jack L. B. Gohn - May 18, 2015
There are times it's hard to credit that 1776 is even a musical. In this retelling of the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, there is some singing and some dancing, and even some laughs, but little effort to follow the tried-and-true path to rousing musical success. This is fundamentally a tale of a group of men sitting in a room debating, and Peter Stone, author of the book, gives us - a group of men sitting in a room debating. And yet the work has considerable power and appeal, and it is not strange either that it won the Tony for Best Musical in 1969, or that Toby's has revived it.
Betty Buckley Will Bring New Show DARK BLUE-EYED BLUES to Joe's Pub
by Tyler Peterson - Apr 15, 2015
After her sold out engagement last fall, BETTY BUCKLEY returns at the end of May for seven performances with a new show tailored specifically for Joe's Pub at The Public called Dark Blue-Eyed Blues. Her new collection of songs - running May 28 through May 31 - will feature 'Musings of a Chanteuse' and will include standards and songs by contemporary writers for some glamour, torch and comedy. She will be joined by Christian Jacob on piano, Tony Marino on bass, Todd Isler on drums and Oz Noy on guitar. Terry Gabis provides sound design.
STAGE TUBE: Betty Buckley Honored at Shubert New Haven's 100th Anniversary Gala
by Tyler Peterson - Mar 24, 2015
Betty Buckley recently accepted the 2015 Maurice Bailey Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre, at the Shubert Theatre's 100th Anniversary Gala Celebration on Saturday, March 21, 2015. Check out her acceptance speech below, where she shared some of her experiences in the world premiere of 1776!
STAGE TUBE: On This Day for 3/16/15- 1776
by Nicole Rosky - Mar 16, 2015
Today in 1969, 1776 opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers Theatre), where it ran for 1217 performances. 1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It focuses on, and partly fictionalizes, the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The production was nominated for five Tony Awards and won three, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical was made into a film of the same name in 1972 and was revived on Broadway in 1997.
THEATER TALK to Welcome Maslon, Maltby & Meehan This Week
by Anna Bencivengo - Feb 17, 2015
Audiences have long known their preferences for great American musicals and their respective songwriters, yet few know about the librettists whose narrative structures for musicals (known as 'books') hold the shows together.