Clue: The Musical 1997

The Prince is giving a ball! Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is nearing the end of its run at Sierra Repertory Theatre (SRT) in Sonora, and you don’t want to miss the party. Slightly different than its Disney counterpart, this Cinderella is the sophisticated sister. Full of humor, social causes, and beautiful gowns, it has everything needed to entertain the whole family. BroadwayWorld spoke to Christopher Michael, who plays endearing revolutionary Jean Michel, about Cinderella, Sierra Rep, and which coast is the best coast.

BroadwayWorld sat down for an interview with Summer Bohnenkamp, Chief Programming and Marketing Officer at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts following their 2023/2024 season announcement.

With deft direction that plumbs the depths of silliness in turning a Parker Brothers board game to farce, Jill Bloede weds the flimsiness of the 1985 film's plot with a divinely flimsy set populated by precision actors scurrying around amid flawless transitions and scene changes, lifting Sandy Rustin's stage adaptation to heights of delight, ridiculous story and all.

Audiences have a chance to get in on the action and help solve the murder with CLUE: The Musical. Based on the popular whodunnit board game, CLUE is an interactive mystery musical that's entertaining and fun for all audiences. Come ready to investigate, as the ending to this musical changes from night to night.

Hennepin Theatre Trust has announced the 2023-2024 Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin season, which will include a 15-week lineup of the newest and hottest touring productions featuring six Minnesota premieres and three returning favorites.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer and Director of the Ground Floor Madeleine Oldham announced the Residency Lab participants and the return to full capacity of the Residency Lab portion of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work.

This week (June 21-28) in live streaming: Kate Reinders, Amanda Kloots and Jennifer Nettles visit Backstage Live, Fredi Walker-Browne shares Ten Minute Tidbits, a Kerry Butler masterclass, Tovah Feldshuh in Becoming Dr. Ruth, and so much more!

Today's top stories: Dear Evan Hansen film has released its first official trailer and production photos, Paper Mill announces upcoming season, pre-Broadway engagement announced for Paradise Square, and more!

BroadwayWorld has learned details of Paper Mill's upcoming 2021-2022 season. Productions set include Jason Robert Brown's SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, a production titled 'A Jolly Holiday' in partnership with Disney on Broadway, CLUE - the 1997 off-Broadway Peter DePietro musical based on the popular Hasbro board game, the long awaited THE WANDERER based on the life and music of Dion, and the Broadway smash-hit SISTER ACT.

The history of show business is loaded with couples who work as well offstage as they do on. These twosomes have brought their offstage magic to the stages of the cabaret and concert world.

A spectacular small musical I adored, and a spectacular big one I missed.

Today (May 27) in live streaming: Chad Kimball visits Backstage Live, Debra Messing and Victoria Clark visit Stars in the House, and so much more!

Today (May 26) in live streaming: Star Trek Voyager reunites, a new episode of It's the Day of the Show Y'all, and so much more!

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the best TV episodes from the 1950's to 2020; see if your favorites made the list!

The first clue that ANASTASIA was going to be different than what I expected was a note on the title page reading, “Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.” Plural? A savvy journalist, I quickly asked Siri to bring up the imdb page for “Anastasia”. Turns out Fox made ANASTASIA twice, the 1997 animated off-brand Disney princess movie and a 1957 film that scored Ingrid Bergman's second Oscar and marked Helen Hayes' transition to the big screen. And it turns out the musical version has more in common with LES MISERABLES and RAGTIME than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Gone is the hell-wizard Rasputin, his talking fruit bat sidekick, and the singing demon caterpillars. At intermission, I asked my third grade niece, Adalyn, how she was liking it. “It's awesome…it's real people, like no Beast or anything. No animals.” We decide that Disney staged musicals are great but more it's more impressive when you can achieve the magic without a story that departs from reality. ANASTASIA is historical fiction hypothetical. It poses a “what if…?” that a daughter of the last czar of Russia (The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna) escaped when the czar's family was executed in 1918. Rumors persisted for decades that Anastasia did, in fact, escape. In 2007, DNA testing confirmed the remains of all four Grand Duchesses were in the Imperial grave. In this version, Terrence McNalley's book follows Anastasia's rediscovery of her identity after surviving the attack on her family and sustaining some plot enabling amnesia. Renamed “Anya” she grows up and makes a life in post-Revolution Russia. Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress (in a staggeringly moving performance by Joy Franz) has fled to France and offered a cash reward for anyone escorting the rumored alive Anastasia to Paris. The wily duo Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) pull a My Fair Lady style makeover on Anya to collect the Dowager's prize. They are pursued by Gleb (Jason Michael Evans). A Soviet officer drawn to Anya romantically but tasked with finding and eliminating the last Romanov. Anya's memory becomes somewhat coaxed back, but the Dowager has stopped seeing Anastasia claimants after too much heart-break from countless frauds. It sounds dark, but with high-tech digital scenery and inspired performances across the cast it is delightful. Stephen Flaherty (Music) and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics), responsible for bringing us RAGTIME, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, LUCKY STIFF, as well as the Oscar nominated songs carried over from the animated film. ANASTASIA is a perfect context for this pair. “Stay, I Pray You” (my favorite song of the evening) is evocative of RAGTIME's “New Music”. The two songs literally race my heart in a strangely specific way. My real test of a National Tour at Gammage is how fast I get the music playing in my car on the way home. At ANASTASIA I was already finding, “Stay, I Pray You” walking through the parking lot. The rest of the score is similarly haunting. Lila Coogan, as Anya/Anastasia, powers through the score with nuance, clarity, and passion. Tari Kelly, as Countess Lily, and Stadenmayer (Vlad) were Adalyn's favorite performances and I have to agree. This incredibly gifted pair take the “triple threat” designation (singer, dancer, actor) and go quadruple with the addition of flawless comic timing. The choreography by Peggy Hickey is masterful. It somehow combines inventive and traditional throughout and the ten-minute slice of “Swan Lake” infused into “Quartet at the Ballet” is the highlight of the second act. It's a fun-size version that gets an under-represented art form onto the plate. This kind of trope often means the plot putting the plot on hold. But here, it is the connective tissue between Anya, Dmitry, the Dowager, and Gleb as they each bring us up to speed heading into the show's climax. Ultimately, the show's success comes from applying a higher artistic standard to the “previously-animated-film-now-theatrically-staged” genre. It cashes in on the name draw of the 1997 film then gives the viewer something much more enriched than what they think they are coming to see.

Principals DJ Martin, Temah Higgins and Mollie Mann of Bond Theatrical Group, a fully independent booking, marketing and publicity company for live entertainment, announced today that industry marketing and press veteran Phillip Aleman will join the company effective immediately.

The Fred Ebb Foundation in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company will present the fourteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Will Reynolds and Eric Price. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Alan Cumming on Monday, November 26th from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

Hale Centre Theatre's season-opening production of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, directed by the inimitable Cambrian James ~ is two and a half hours of spirited story-telling, featuring a bravura performance by Austin Delp as the heroic Sir Percy Blakeney. Show runs through October 6th.

Disney's hit West End musicals Aladdin and The Lion King have today announced that a summer Pop-Up will open its doors to Disney fans old and new in Covent Garden throughout August. Located at 25 Long Acre in the heart of Theatreland, the Pop-Up will be open every day from Tuesday 31st July until Sunday 26th August with a host of free interactive experiences and special events to enjoy.

Lerner and Loewe created MY FAIR LADY from Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted the 1909 Ferenc Molnar play "Liliom" and transplanted the setting from Budapest to the coast of Maine in CAROUSEL. That's generally how musicals are birthed. Not so with THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, which makes its nascency the more intriguing and Broadway fanciful.

Leading Broadway producing company The Araca Group (Urinetown, SpongeBob SquarePants) has today announced they they've extended their arrangement with producer Michael Barra to lead their Media & Entertainment division.

The WTG is proud to present its 2017-2018 Main Stage Season of six shows. You can save money by purchasing a subscription or flex pass now. You can get all six shows or you can purchase a flex pass and see any four of the six shows. 

Leading Broadway producing company The Araca Group (Urinetown, Wicked, Disgraced) today announced plans to launch a collection of Hollywood-inspired stage plays to be licensed to professional and amateur theaters around the world. 

JAPAN CUTS, North America's premiere showcase for new Japanese cinema, returns for its 11th installment July 13-23 to serve up a slice of the best and boldest films from Japan never before seen in NYC with special guest filmmakers and stars, post-screening Q&As, parties and more. Boasting a thrilling slate of epic blockbusters, shoestring independents, radical documentaries, mind-bending avant-garde, newly-restored classics and breathtaking animation, Japan Society's renowned summer film festival promises a bounty of cinematic discoveries for film fans and pop culture enthusiasts alike.

Producers Work Light Productions (RENT, Mamma Mia!, Motown The Musical) and The Araca Group (Urinetown, Wicked), in association with Aged in Wood and Michael Barra, today announced that a stage production of the murder mystery comedy thriller CLUE will tour North America beginning in the fall of 2018.