Nicole Rosky - Page 1047

Today in 1955, Finian's Rainbow opened at City Center, where it ran for 15 performances. Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane. The 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances. Finian moves to the southern United States (the fictional state of Missitucky is a humorous combination of Mississippi and Kentucky) from Ireland with his daughter Sharon, to bury a stolen pot of gold near Fort Knox, in the mistaken belief that it will grow. A leprechaun follows them, desperate to recover his treasure before the loss of it turns him permanently human. Complications arise when a bigoted and corrupt U.S. Senator gets involved, and when wishes are made inadvertently over the hidden crock.

Today in 1985, Broadway book writer Abe Burrows passed away. Burrows wrote or directed such shows as Make a Wish, Two on the Aisle, Three Wishes for Jamie, Say, Darling, Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Cactus Flower, Four on a Garden, Can-Can, Silk Stockings, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Good News (1974 revival), and many others. With his collaborator Frank Loesser, Burrows won a Pulitzer Prize for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Academy Award winner Stephen Schwartz will be honored with Desert Ensemble Theatre Company's inaugural Melpomai Award at When You Believe: A Conversation With and Tribute To Stephen Schwartz May 19 in Palm Springs. The 8 PM event, which will be held in the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum, will feature a conversation with Schwartz as well as performances of his stage and movie musical hits. Check out a preview of the event below!

Khanisha Foster is a mixed race artist, the Associate Artistic Director of 2nd Story and an ensemble member of Teatro Vista. She was chosen for the Theatre Communication Groups's Young Leaders of Color 2009 and an artist exchange with the Citizen's Theatre of Scotland in Glasgow. She is a Sarah Siddon's Society Scholarship recipient and a finalist for the PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship. Her teaching artist work was honored by the White House this year. Her writing has been published with CellStories and Podcast through 2nd Story. She is the live event's Producer for Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival. She has performed with Teatro Vista, the Goodman Theatre, Steep Theater, and Collaboraction, among others. She can be seen in the film CHICAGO BORICUA, official selection the Tribeca Film Festival, the Chicago Latino Film Festivals, and closing night selection for the New York Latino International Film Festival.

Robert Falls' major revival of THE ICEMAN COMETH, O'Neill's towering portrait of hope and disillusionment, just opened on May 3 at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. The production is led by Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Nathan Lane as Theodore 'Hickey' Hickman, the quintessential purveyor and slayer of pipe dreams. The 18-member cast is one of the largest ensembles to take the Goodman stage in recent years. Tony Award-winner Brian Dennehy portrays one-time syndicalist-anarchist Larry Slade, joined by mix of local and out-of-town actors as the motley assortment of former soldiers of fortune, entrepreneurs, political dissidents and social outcasts in Harry Hope's saloon. BroadwayWorld brings you performance highlights below!

Next week on the season finale of GLEE, graduation is finally here, as McKinley High's class of 2012 looks to the past and present, all while contemplating the future in the all-new "Goodbye" season finale episode. Check out photos from the episode below!

Theatre Sheridan makes its downtown Toronto debut with the ground-breaking musical RENT at the Panasonic Theatre from May 15-June 3. Get a first look at the production in the photos below! 32 performers from the graduating class of Sheridan College's prestigious Music Theatre Performance Program take the stage as audiences are treated to the next generation of talented young artists who are going to take the theatre world by storm.

According to the BBC, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury will be making a return to the stage the West End production of WE WILL ROCK YOU- via hologram. Mercury, who passed away in 1991, will appear in an optical illusion for the show's upcoming 10th anniversary. Queen's Brian May told the BBC that the hologram 'is something we've looked at ourselves but I think probably for a show that runs eight shows a week it's not really quite practical.'

Following an acclaimed season which included the world premiere of Paul Weitz's Lonely, I'm Not and a critically lauded second staging of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winner, How I Learned To Drive, Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has just announced two of the four mainstage productions in the company's upcoming 34th season. For subscription or ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company's website, www.2ST.com. All productions are staged at Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street (just west of Eighth Avenue).

"THE TALK" just welcomed the legendary Liza Minnelli for the first time yesterday, May 15. While she was there, Minnelli chatted about her new CD Liza Minnelli Live At The Winter Garden which was recently released by Masterworks Broadway. Check out her full appearance below!

With the 2012 election coming up in November, political parodies are everywhere, and it's about time that some gave the race a Broadway twist. In the video below, Roy Zimmerman puts a different spin on SWEENEY TODD with 'Romney Mitt, the Demon Barber of Wallstreet.'

The new off-Broadway show OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES will begin performances on Tuesday May 1 and open on May 20 at The Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street). BroadwayWorld brings you production shots below!

Producers of the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's THE BEST MAN have announced that the critically-acclaimed production, which was originally scheduled to play through July 8, 2012, has been extended a second time, now through Sunday, September 9, 2012. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.

Creator Michael McElroy will lead The Broadway Inspirational Voices in their 2nd Annual Spring concert to create an evening of hope, joy, and inspiration. With members such as Norm Lewis (PORGY AND BESS), Montego Glover (MEMPHIS), Eden Espinosa (WICKED) and many more representing such shows a The Lion King, Wicked, Memphis, Godspell, Pricilla Queen of the Desert, Sister Act, Spiderman, Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Book of Mormon, Leap of Faith, and Evita, "Highest Praise" will include a wide array of inspirational repertoire, including a few original pieces by McElroy. Go inside rehearsal in the video below!

In an interview with Billboard, music legend Barry Manilow revealed that he still hopes HARMONY, a musical that was originally scheduled to be Broadway-bound in 2003, will still open on the Great White Way. Manilow told Billboard, 'Every pop songwriter thinks they can write a Broadway musical, but it's not true. You really have to know your way around it. But, that's where I come from. Living in Brooklyn, I loved the Broadway musical world, songs moving the story along. I just loved it when I was growing up. It's my dream to do one of those.'

NEWSIES is currently playing at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 W 41st St) for a strictly limited 101 performance run following its critically-hailed stint at Paper Mill Playhouse last fall. IN the video below, go inside the recording studio with Jeremy Jordan and the rest of the cast as they perform 'The World Will Know.'

THE ASTORIA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (APAC) reunites the creative team behind their The Human Comedy and Children of Eden with THE SECRET GARDEN, musical staging by Christine O'Grady, musical directed by Jeffrey Campos and directed by APAC Artistic Director Tom Wojtunik.

Signature Theatre presents the US premiere of TITLE AND DEED, a new play by Will Eno and directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett. The production, starring Conor Lovett, will run May 8 - June 17, 2012 with a May 20 opening night in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Company's new home The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). The production is presented in association with Gare St Lazare Players Ireland. Tickets for these additional performances will be $25, as part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. BroadwayWorld brings you production shots below!

The new musical comedy The Last Smoker in America will get its New York premiere this summer, it was announced today. The Last Smoker in America, with book and lyrics by Tony Award® Nominee Bill Russell (Side Show) and music by Drama Desk Nominee Peter Melnick (Adrift in Macao), will be directed by Tony Award-winning producer and director Andy Sandberg (Hair; Gore Vidal's The Best Man) and choreographed by Tony Award® nominee AC Ciulla (Footloose). Performances begin Wednesday, July 11, 2012 upstairs at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street), with an official Opening Night set for Thursday, August 2, 2012. Casting will be announced shortly.

Montblanc and Urban Arts Partnership announced today the highly anticipated return of THE 24 HOUR PLAYS BENEFIT, now in its second year in Los Angeles, on Saturday June 16, 2012.