WAKE UP with BWW 5/13/14 - Fantasia, THE PAJAMA GAME, Lea Michele and More!

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Fantasia returns to AFTER MIDNIGHT as its guest star tonight!

TODAY'S TOP ITEMS:

• Fantasia returns to AFTER MIDNIGHT tonight for a repeat guest-starring run through June 8!
• THE PAJAMA GAME opens tonight at the Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End.
• CHICAGO's long-time 'Roxie' Bianca Marroquin releases her debut album EL MUNDO ERA MIO today; while GLEE and Broadway vet Lea Michele's BRUNETTE AMBITION audio book hits stores!
• It's a day of releases! THEATRELAND, starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, is also out on DVD today.
• And finally, the new musical CHASING THE SONG kicks off a workshop production at La Jolla Playhouse tonight, starring Stephen Lee Anderson, Nick Blaemire, Kim Yu Blanck and more...

WHAT YOU MISSED YESTERDAY:

• GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and THE GLASS MENAGERIE lead the pack for this year's Outer Critics Circle Award winners! Also in awards season news, the 2014 Broadway League Awards were announced yesterday.
• Kelli O'Hara, Bryce Pinkham, Lena Hall, Tyne Daly and more will appear in the upcoming STARS IN THE ALLEY concert!
• NBC has been bitten by the live TV musical bug, and we couldn't be happier. A live broadcast of THE MUSIC MAN will air after the network's planned production of PETER PAN!
• National Asian Artists Project will stage OLIVER! with an all-Asian cast.
• Linda Lavin and Steve Bakunas will appear at Vineyard Theatre's PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST benefit next month!
• NYTW has added the New York debut of David Greig's THE EVENTS to its 2014-15 season...
• Theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh is the first Briton from showbusiness to land on the Sunday Times' "Super Rich List".
• We got a first look at Ruthie Henshall and more in BILLY ELLIOT in the West End!
• David Hyde Pierce, Trip Cullman and more will lead readings at Vassar's Powerhouse Theater this summer.
• ABC's ONCE UPON A TIME revealed a new character in its season finale over the weekend -- none other than 'Elsa' from Disney's FROZEN. The part hasn't been cast, but we can't wait to see who will play the powerful yet misunderstood queen!
• And if you missed episode 6 of SUBMISSIONS ONLY season 3, check it out here!

Broadway Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy this morning with showers in the evening. High of 68 degrees.

Quote of the Day: The play RED on discernment and significance...

"Everyone likes everything nowadays. They like the television and the phonograph and the shampoo and the soda pop and the Cracker Jack. Everything becomes everything else and it's all nice and pretty and LIKABLE. Everything is fun in the sun! Where's the discernment? Where's the arbitration that separates what I LIKE from what I RESPECT, what I deem WORTHY, what has... listen to me now... SIGNIFICANCE."
-- John Logan, Red (via Goodreads)

What we're listening to: Lea Michele's BRUNETTE AMBITION audio book. Sometimes it might be hard to separate Michele from her character on GLEE, but her new book is literally in her own voice. It's all about empowerment and beauty and is billed as "part memoir, part how-to, and part style guide". We're excited to check it out!