Nicole Rosky - Page 1073

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: Easter Bonnet earns big money, FOLLIES preps for LA, six shows open, and so much more!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's production of MerEdith Wilson's The Music Man, helmed by Artistic Director Molly Smith, stars Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee for Broadway's Finian's Rainbow) as Marian the librarian, joined by Burke Moses (original Gaston in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Harold Hill. The Music Man runs May 11-July 22, 2012 in the Fichandler Stage. Go inside the show's photo shoot below!

The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye today reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has been offered a role in the musical version of FINDING NEVERLAND, which will play Leicester's Curve Theatre in September 2012. Paltrow would play 'Sylvia Llewelyn Davies', whose children inspired J.M. Barrie to write Peter Pan. Julian Overden is currently set to lead the production, which will be directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford.

Spring Awakening, a groundbreaking and multi-award winning show, is being produced all over the United States as well as in 28 countries around the world. Now, 13 years after Steven Sater first conceived the radical notion of creating a rock musical from Frank Wedekind's notorious symbolist drama Frühlings Erwachen, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books publishes Sater's notes on his famously evocative, poetic lyrics. In the video below, Sater chats with original stars Jonathan Groff and Lauren Pritchard aout what it was like in the beginning. Check it out below!

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick, presents Christina Ricci and two-time Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth in the company's upcoming production of William Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Directed by Tony Speciale, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM began performances Wednesday, March 28 and play a limited engagement through Sunday, May 6. BroadwayWorld brings you just-released production shots below!

Stage and screen star Matthew Broderick joined Kelly Ripa this morning as guest host on 'Live with Kelly.' While he was there he chatted about 'Nice Work If You Can Get It,' and welcomed Jenna Fischer, acclaimed director Garry Marshall and 'Dancing with the Stars' dance partners Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas. Click here to check out his appearance!

Tony winner Robert Lopez has written a song titled 'Enjoy it While You Can' that will be featured in an upcoming episode of 'The Simpsons.' Lopez wrote on Twitter: 'cool, my Simpsons song is out a few days early. I felt very validated by Marge's 'bravo!' at the end.' Check out the song below!

Atlantic Theater Company has just announced four of its 2012-2013 Season productions, featuring world premiere plays from Olivier and Tony Award® winner John Guare and Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson and New York premieres from Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens and Emmy Award® nominated writer Rolin Jones.

The Guthrie Theater today announced complete casting for the sparkling new musical Roman Holiday. This song-filled delight-based on the iconic 1953 Paramount Pictures film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck-includes timeless music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Paul Blake. The production will play from June 9 - August 19 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage and features soul-stirring Porter standards like "Easy to Love," "Just One of Those Things" and "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye." Guthrie Associate Artistic Director John Miller-Stephany (1776, God of Carnage and A Streetcar Named Desire) will direct.

Barrington Stage Company has just announced that Tony nominee Brad Oscar will take on the role of the beloved dairyman Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, running June 13 through July 14, kicking off the theater's 18th season in the Berkshires.

Marcus Gardley is a poet-playwright whose most recent play every tongue confess premiered at Arena Stage starring Phylicia Rashad and directed by Kenny Leon. It was nominated for the Steinberg New Play Award and the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play. His musical, ON THE LEVEE premiered last summer at Lincoln Center and was nominated for 11 Audelco Awards including outstanding playwright. Last Spring, his play AND JESUS MOONWALKS THE MISSISSIPPI was produced at the Cutting Ball Theater and received the SF Bay Area Theater Critics circle Award nomination for outstanding new play. He has had six plays produced including: DANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST at Yale Repertory Theatre (now under a Broadway option,) (L)IMITATIONS OF LIFE, at the Empty Space and LIKE SUN FALLIN' IN THE MOUTH at the National Black Theatre Festival. He is the recipient of the Hellen Merrill Award, a Kellsering Honoree, the Gerbode Emerging Playwright Award, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Award, the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Scholarship, and the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale Drama School and is a member of New Dramatists, The Dramatists Guild and the Lark Play Development Center.

Producers of the five-time Tony Award nominated hit musical ROCK OF AGES have announced that Ashley Spencer (Grease, Priscilla..) will star in the leading role of Sherrie - the "small town girl" who "took the midnight train goin' anywhere" - beginning Thursday, May 10 at Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre (220 W 44th Street). Emily Padgett, who has performed the role since November 2011, will play her final performance on Tuesday, May 1. During the interim week, the role will be covered alternately by Katie Webber and Tessa Alves.

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere production of THE COLUMNIST by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan currently opened last night, April 25, at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Leading man John Lithgow just visited 'CBS THis Morning' where he chatted about playing Alsop, as well as his previous career dreams, and more! Check out the full interview below!

The PBS Arts Summer Festival, will this year feature JOHN LEGUIZAMO'S TALES FROM A GHETTO KLOWN, on Friday, July 13, 2012, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET. The Summer Festivalbegins Friday, June 29, 2012 at 9p.m. ET. (Check local listings.)

Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Project is both a timeless benefit effort and a uniquely compelling multimedia experience. The project-which incorporates a 2-CD, 26-song set; a lavishly illustrated hardcover book of 17 songs from the album; a corresponding e-book encompassing the entire collection; and a documentary film and web series -gathers many of contemporary musical theatre's greatest composers and vocalists, as well as illustrators, all of whom have donated their talent to deliver an emotionally affecting set of new lullabies, some written specifically for this project. Proceeds from sales of the book and 2-CD set will benefit breast cancer research, support and education.

Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Damian Arnold, presents the Broadway premiere of Marc Camoletti's classic farce Don't Dress For Dinner, starring Ben Daniels as 'Robert,' Patricia Kalember as 'Jacqueline,' Adam James as 'Bernard,' David Aron Damane as 'George' and Jennifer Tilly as 'Suzanne' with Spencer Kayden as 'Suzette.' Don't Dress For Dinner is adapted by Robin Hawdon and directed by John Tillinger. Don't Dress For Dinner began previews on March 30 and opens tonight, April 26, 2012 at the American Airlines Theatre.

Performances for LEAP OF FAITH began on Tuesday, April 3, and the show officially opened tonight at The St. James Theatre. Four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza leads the company along with Jessica Phillips, Kendra Kassebaum, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Leslie Odom, Jr., Krystal Joy Brown and Talon Ackerman. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Today in 1996, Rent opened at the Nederlander Theatre, where it ran for 5123 performances. Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.On Broadway, Rent gained critical acclaim and won a Tony Award for Best Musical among other awards. The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008 after a 12-year run.

Today in 1988, Chess opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 68 performances. Chess is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes.

Today in 2000, the second Broadway revival of The Music Man openened at the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran for 699 performances. The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with the cash. In 1957, the show became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. The cast album won the first Grammy Award for 'Best Original Cast Album'. The show's success led to revivals and a popular 1962 film adaptation and a 2003 television remake.