Nicole Rosky - Page 499

ALADDIN star and Tony Award winner James Iglehart is set to return to ABC's THE VIEW to serve as co-host tomorrow, March 20th.

The first Broadway revival of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Wendy Wasserstein play The Heidi Chronicles officially opens tonight, March 19, 2015, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). Check out highlights of the cast in action below!

Sondheim is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as 'the greatest, and perhaps best-known artist working in musical theatre', his most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. Lloyd Webber has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. Several of his songs, notably 'The Music of the Night', 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' and 'You Must Love Me', 'Any Dream Will Do' and 'Memory' have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals.

Today in 2002, Oklahoma! opened at the Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for 388 performances. Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. The 2002 revival featured Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey, Shuler Hensley as Jud, Patrick Wilson as Curly and Andrea Martin as Aunt Eller.

Today in 2011, Priscilla Queen of the Desert opened at the Palace Theatre, wehre it is still running (currently 415 performances). Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score. Adapted from Elliott's 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the musical tells the story of two drag queens and a transsexual, who contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. The original Broadway cast includes Will Swenson as Tick (Mitzi), Tony Sheldon, again, reprising his role of Bernadette, and Nick Adams as Adam (Felicia).

Today in 1998, the second Broadway revival of Caberat opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (then renamed the Kit Kat Klub), where it ran for 2377 performances. Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show. The revival is currentlt back on Broadway, playing at Studio 54.

The highly anticipated musical, The Visit, will begin performances at the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street) on Thursday, March 26 with an Opening Night set for Thursday, April 23. The cast is led by Tony Award® Winners Chita Rivera as Claire Zachannassian and Roger Rees as Anton Schell. John Kander, who wrote the music for the show, just celebrated his 88th birthday, and the company treated him to a birthday surprise during a break in rehearsal. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there, and you can go inside the festivities below!

This week we are excited to feature composer Eric Dietz and his new musical, ALL THE WALLS, inspired by the powerful true story of Aron Ralston's escape from Blue John Canyon, Utah in 2003. After a falling boulder pins Aron's arm to the canyon wall, the adventurer's limits are put to the ultimate test. He finds strength in the memories of his friends and family, giving him the courage he needs to survive. In the title song, Aron's mother asks a police officer for assistance in her rescue efforts. When the officer declines her plea, she begs him to see the situation from her perspective. Here is the amazing Jessica Phillips (Next to Normal) performing the song at our 54 Below concert this past January.

Two-time Tony nominee Keith Carradine stars in the Encores! production of PAINT YOUR WAGON, opening tonight, March 18, alongside Alexandra Socha and Justin Guarini. The show, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California, is the story of a dreaming gold miner and his daughter whose world is changed when the daughter finds gold-and love-near their camp. BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you highlights below!

In addition to the new Special Edition Blu-ray and CD soundtrack, no less than four new books are being published in 2015 to coincide with the anniversary, focusing on the film. One of which, 'The Sound of Music Companion - 50th Anniversary Edition' (Laurence Maslon, Pavilion/Rizzoli), details every step in the evolution of this masterwork from real-life to page to stage to film to international phenomenon. BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you an exclusive preview of the new book below!

The Skivvies (the undie-rock comedy-pop duo of Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley) just kicked off their monthly residency at 42West with Splashdance- featuring an all-star line up of guest artists from the worlds of Broadway, Television and Film. The first concert took place last night, with guest stars James Carpinello (Rock of Ages), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Adam Kantor (Rent, Next to Normal) Jessica Vosk (The Bridges of Madison County), Nikka Graff Lanzarone (Chicago), Natalie Tenenbaum, Ephraim Sykes (Motown, Newsies, Memphis), Zak Resnick (Piece of my Heart, Mamma Mia!), Robyn Anderson, and many more. Check out highlights from the concert below!

Kerry Ellis has just joined the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's record-breaking musical Cats playing the role of Grizabella, and below, you can watch as she transforms into her character! Based on T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Cats returned to the West End last month with the original creative team - Director Trevor Nunn, Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Designer John Napier and Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber - reunited for the Palladium run.

Today in 2005, Spamalot opened at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for 1575 performances. Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy 'lovingly ripped off from' the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre. Eric Idle, a member of the Monty Python team, wrote the musical's book and lyrics and collaborated with John Du Prez on most of the music. The original 2005 Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004-2005 season and received 14 Tony Award nominations.

Today in 1969, 1776 opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers Theatre), where it ran for 1217 performances. 1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It focuses on, and partly fictionalizes, the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The production was nominated for five Tony Awards and won three, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical was made into a film of the same name in 1972 and was revived on Broadway in 1997.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

All Aboard! BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you a first look at highlights from ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY below! Check them out and then join us on Sunday night for our LIVE Review Roundup as the show officially opens for critics.

Derek McLane is one of the busiest men on Broadway. Not only did the scenic designer return to create the look of this year's Academy Awards, but he's also been hard at work on Fiasco Theatre's Into the Woods, Atlantic Theatre Company's Posterity, the West End transfer of Beautiful, and two new Broadway musicals- Gigi and Living on Love. McLane invited BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge into his studio for a look at his recent projects, and you can take a behind the scenes look below!

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of On the Twentieth Century now technically opens on Sunday, March 15, 2015, as a result of Peter Gallagher missing a week of performances due to a sinus infection. Sickness didn't stop the show however, and the company celebrated their opening on the originally planned March 12- last night! BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on the red carpet, and below, you can check out interviews with Laura Osnes, Santino Fontana, Vanessa Williams, Victor Garber, and more!

Princess Cruises just announced a first-of-its-kind cruise industry partnership with three-time Oscar winner and composer of Wicked, Pippin and Godspell Stephen Schwartz. The cruise line's new relationship with such a major creative talent from Broadway and Hollywood includes a multi-year agreement to oversee the creative development of four new musicals to debut across the fleet over the next several years. BroadwayWorld was there for the special announcement, and you can go inside the event with Schwartz and some special guests below!