V.I.P. Night on Broadway 1979

Center Theatre Group (CTG) announced today the North American premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, starring Bernadette Peters (Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun) and Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Here Lies Love), and directed by Sir Matthew Bourne (Swan Lake, My Fair Lady), playing at the Ahmanson Theatre from February 8—March 9, 2025. 

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is March 22, 2024 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours.

IAN MCKELLEN, TOHEEB JIMOH & RICHARD COYLE star in Robert Icke's production of PLAYER KINGS, adapted from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2.

The full cast has been revealed for the upcoming Broadway production of The Heart of Rock and Roll, the new musical inspired by the iconic songs written and performed by Huey Lewis and The News. Find out who is starring in the musical here!

Stephen Sondheim's Manhattan home has been sold to a Sondheim fan!

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that stage and screen actress Frances Sternhagen has died at age 93. Learn more about her life and career here.

As BroadwayWorld first reported in September, The Heart of Rock and Roll is coming to Broadway! Producers Hunter Arnold, Tyler Mitchell and Kayla Greenspan announced that the new musical inspired by the iconic songs of Huey Lewis and The News, will open on Broadway at The James Earl Jones Theatre.

The Perelman Performing Arts Center will present Is It Thursday Yet?, The March, and Motion/Matter: Street Dance Festival at the new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. 

Learn how Sondheim made Sweeney sing and how Mr. Todd made his mark on mass media in Part 2 of SWEENEY TODD, A History.

Since 1979, Stephen Sondheim’s take on the Victorian myth about an exiled barber who pairs up with a cunning pie maker to seek revenge on the men who wronged him has delighted and enthralled audiences with its thrilling score, pitch black humor, and chaotic plot, but what is the real story behind this penny dreadful turned musical delight? Was there a real Sweeney Todd? Where did the story come from? And, most pressingly of all, what inspired Sondheim to spin this nauseating nightmare into gothic musical comedy gold? The answers just might surprise you as we delve into the history of Sweeney Todd.

Stephen Sondheim's Manhattan home is now for sale. The 7 bedroom, 3 bath townhouse in East Midtown has been listed by Michael J. Franco at Compass for $7M. 

The Music Critics Association of North America has announced that its 2023 Award for BEST NEW OPERA—a major recognition for an opera introduced in North America during the previous calendar year—goes to composer Nicole Lizée and librettist Nicolas Billon for R.U.R. A TORRENT OF LIGHT, a Tapestry Opera production in collaboration with OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University. 

Performances begin in one week for the U.S. Premiere of the international comedy sensation and 2023 Olivier Award nominated ONE WOMAN SHOW, written and performed by Liz Kingsman, in her New York stage debut.

Have you ever wondered what was the most dramatic night in Broadway history? Well, boy, do I have a story for you! The year: 1980. The show: 42nd Street. I sat down with the show’s lead, the iconic and peerless Lee Roy Reams to get the true story straight from someone who was actually there that momentous evening.

Theatre for a New Audience will present the Off-Broadway premiere in English of the great Spanish author Lope de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna (1612), translated by the late British poet, novelist, and playwright Adrian Mitchell.

Pasadena Playhouse has announced the cast for the 50th anniversary production of A Little Night Music. See who is starring, and how to purchase tickets!

Next month, 54 BELOW will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

The internationally acclaimed American pianists Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal will perform in an Music Academy concert on Thursday evening, March 9, 2023, at 7 PM, PST, at Music Academy of the West's Hahn Hall (1070 Fairway Road Santa Barbara, CA 93108). This concert, entitled 'Lowenthal's Legend,' honors and celebrates the extraordinary pianist and preeminent pedagogue Jerome Lowenthal, who has served as a Music Academy teaching artist for half a century.

Whether it’s a musical, drama, horror, or comedy, BroadwayWorld is pulling back the curtain on some of the best movies about backstage stories!

Playwrights Horizons (Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has extended the New York premiere of Bruce Norris's provocative, critically lauded play Downstate, directed by Pam MacKinnon, a second and final time, to January 7, 2023.

Due to Covid cases within the company, Theatre for a New Audience is canceling five preview performances of the Off-Broadway premiere of iconic American writer Denis Johnson's Des Moines, directed by Arin Arbus and featuring Johanna Day, Arliss Howard, Hari Nef, Michael Shannon, and Heather Alicia Simms.

Michael Butler, famed producer of the musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, passed peacefully November 7, 2022 at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, CA.  He was born November 26, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois.

Theatre for a New Audience will present Denis Johnson’s Des Moines, the final play from the late author, and the first play by Johnson TFANA has staged, November 29, 2022–January 1, 2023, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

Discover the story behind one of the greatest musicals in history as we dive deep into the history of Broadway's longest-running American musical, John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse's, 'Chicago.'

The Hip Hop Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s 130-year-old ballet reimagined as a holiday dance spectacle, will travel to the Providence Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, December 7 at 7:30P this holiday season while celebrating the show’s 10th season.