Jessica Lewis - Page 236

In celebration of its tenth anniversary, weSPARK, the cancer support center founded by actress Wendie Jo Sperber and serving the greater Los Angeles area with freeservices for cancer patients and their families, presents 'Broadway Tonight!' at the historic 2200-seat Alex Theatre Performing Arts and Entertainment Center in Glendale on October 4, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.

Signature Theatre Company will present the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning epic work, ANGELS IN AMERICA: A GAY FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES this fall. The production will be directed by Michael Greif. New rehearsal photos have been released and BroadwayWorld brings you a look below.

Six Degrees of Marvin Hamlisch - An All Star Celebration will be presented on Monday, October 4th at 7:30PM at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway @ 95th Street). Produced by Murphy Cross, Paul Kreppel and Bonnie Kole, the starry evening will benefit The Actors Fund and honor longtime Broadway Musical Director and keyboardist Fran Liebergall who is living with MS. Scheduled to appear with Mr. Hamlisch include Lucie Arnaz, Kelly Bishop, Liz Callaway, Victor Garber, Lesley Gore, Robert Klein, Priscilla Lopez, Robert LuPone, Donna McKechnie, Donna Murphy, Jack Noseworthy, Donald Pippin, Billy Stritch, Sammy Williams and many more! Ron Abel will serve as the evening's Musical Director. The evening will be directed by Ms. Cross & Mr. Kreppel.

He is one of the most admired and accomplished playwrites of all time. Edward Albee has given the theater canon such classics as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, The Goat or, and Three Tall Women. Now, more than 5 decades after the premiere of The Zoo Story, which put a 30 year-old Albee on the map, the playwright is still at it, with his latest (and 30th play), Me, Myself & I, opening at Playwrights Horizons on September 12, 2010. Previews began last night, August 24.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals this morning that Katie Holmes is in negotiations to join Al Pacino and Adam Sandler in Jack and Jill, a comedy produced by Sandler and partner Jack Giarraputo under their Happy Madison production banner, alongside Todd Garner. Dennis Dugan directs.

Piano man Billy Joel has revealed to Access Hollywood that he has offered GLEE use of his hall of fame music catalog. Stage vets Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Morrison performed Joel's 'Piano Man' last season on an episode in which Harris guest starred. Harris earend an Emmy nomination for his appearance.

The 2008 Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical In The Heights welcomed platinum recording artist and 2007 'American Idol' winner Jordin Sparks on August 19th, making her Broadway debut as Nina Rosario at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street). Sparks will play a limited 12 week engagement through Sunday, November 14, 2010. Today, the first production photos of Sparks in In The Heights have been released!

Summer may be winding down, but things are still heating up on Broadway, as the Tony Award-winning, international musical smash CHICAGO announces that stage and screen star John O'Hurley ('Seinfeld,' 'Dancing with the Stars,' Monty Python's Spamalot) has extended his limited engagement as Billy Flynn through Sunday, September 12.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, winner of three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, welcomes new cast members Allyce Beasley and Matt Anctil to the company. The production, starring five-time Emmy Award winner Kelsey Grammer and Tony and Olivier Award winner Douglas Hodge, is playing at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street).

Yesterday evening, August 23, the Times Talk hosted a Q&A and discussion with the ANYTHING GOES team, two-time Tony Award-winning director Kathleen Marshall and Tony-winning star Sutton Foster at The Times Center. Next Spring, Roundabout Theatre Company will present a new Broadway production of ANYTHING GOES, starring Foster as 'Reno Sweeney.' Directed & choreographed by Marshall, ANYTHING GOES will begin performances March 10th, 2011 and officially open on April 7th, 2011 on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

CHCI's 33rd Annual Awards Gala, the hallmark event of Hispanic Heritage Month will take place on Wednesday, September 15, 2010, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The 33rd Annual Awards Gala is hosted by Toyota. With the theme, 'Celebrating History, Heritage, and the American Dream,' CHCI will present Medallion of Excellence awards to actress Eva Longoria Parker and jazz legend Arturo Sandoval, and the CHCI Chair's Award to Broadway composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (In The Heights). CNN's Soledad O'Brien will serve as the celebrity host.

BroadwayWorld.com presents Twitter Watch, which brings you only the best and most interesting reports straight from the mouths of Broadway stars, shows and more on the hot social networking service - Twitter!

According to Deadline.com Chord Overstreet has been cast as a new member of New Directions on Glee.

It has been a banner year for PROMISES, PROMISES' Katie Finneran. Her critically acclaimed performance as Marge MacDougall in the smash hit musical comedy PROMISES, PROMISES swept the 2010 awards season winning her the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award. On Sunday, August 22, Ms. Finneran married long time companion Darren Goldstein (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson), and now the couple has announced that they are expecting a child this winter. It is with best wishes that the producers of PROMISES, PROMISES announced today that Tony Award winner Katie Finneran will play her final performance in the smash hit musical comedy on Sunday, October 10, 2010. This new production of PROMISES, PROMISES, directed and choreographed by Tony and Emmy Award winner Rob Ashford with Neil Simon's funny and touching book and Burt Bacharach and Hal David's hit-packed score, began previews at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway) Saturday, March 27, 2010, and opened on Sunday, April 25, 2010. Casting for Broadway's next Marge MacDougall will be announced shortly.

British stage vet Rhydian Roberts has revealed on BBC Radio that SONDHEIM ON SONDEHIM, which concluded its limited engagement on Broadway on June 27, 2010, will be playing the West End beginning in October. While visiting Richard Bacon's program last week to promote the new stage production of WAR OF THE WORLDS in which he will be appearing, Roberts explained: 'I'm due to go into a Sondheim show in the West End in October...SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. It's coming over from Broadway so I'll be going in there for a short stint.' Click here to hear the clip (begin at the 59min mark)! This news is allegedly confirmed by Maria Friedman, according to the official Stephen Sondheim Society website.

Many of everyone's Broadway and off-Broadway favorites, including Michael Urie, Wesley Taylor, Jennifer Damiano, Karen Olivo, Mitchell Jarvis and more have teamed up on the webisode project Billy Green. BroadwayWorld last brought you the third episode in the series, entitled 'The Agent' and today brings you the latest installment, 'The Mother' below, starring Jackie Hoffman, Wesley Taylor, Adam Dannheisser, and Mitchell Jarvis.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, stage vet Norm Lewis joined the West End production of Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre on July 5, 2010. See below for production stills of the show!

Deadline.com reports that Lionsgate TV and Stanley Tucci's Olive Productions (which he runs with steve Buscemi) are teaming up on a new cop-drama pilot for NBC, 87th Precinct. Amy Bloom (State of Mind) pens the script and will executive produce alongside Buscemi and Tucci.

As part of its upcoming season New York City Opera will launch an all-new concert series showcasing the non-operatic works of composers whose operas will be presented on its main stage. With the 2010-2011 season boasting an opera by Oscar and Grammy-winning composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, the New York City Opera will host a special concert, Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz, featuring many Broadway stars.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson), Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel announced the opening date today for the summer's biggest hit, Daniel Sullivan's critically acclaimed production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. Al Pacino will reprise his celebrated performance as Shylock on Broadway for 78 performances only, beginning Tuesday, October 19 at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 W. 44th Street) and running through Sunday, January 9. Opening Night will be Sunday, November 7 at 6:45 p.m.