Ben Simon

The Manhattan Theatre Club production of Prayer for the French Republic has officially opened on Broadway! The play opened last night, January 9, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. BroadwayWorld is taking you on the red carpet at the production's opening with Donna Murphy, Tyne Daly, LaChanze and more. Check out photos below!

A rapid follow-up to his 2022 NI Music Prize-nominated debut ‘Plaza’, it’s also a record that finds the prolific Belfast songwriter returning to his lo-fi roots. Turning a decisive corner on the shoegazey sheen of his previous work, Southern teases this future release with the lead single “Let Someone Else In”. 

The Duke's Theatre Company returns after their critically acclaimed adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. It promises to delight audiences with Shakespeare's most celebrated and comic fairy tale.

National Sawdust and Paola Prestini and Chelsea Factory have announced the first companies to take the stage in the organizations’ programmatic partnership. Grammy-winning composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrilland his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with special guest Emeline Michel take over the landmarked site June 16-17.

All new production images have been released for Wildcard Theatre’s brand-new production Tempest, running at Pleasance London from 11 March – 3 April.

The cast has been announced for Tempest, the highly anticipated new production from Wildcard Theatre, the multi award-winning company behind Electrolyte.  Applying their gig-theatre style to Shakespeare's final play, Wildcard heightens the narrative with incredible live music and breath-taking design to question what it means to be human. 

Twenty five years ago this month,, Shirley MacLaine and Richard Pryor shared a stage when they were inducted into the Comedy Hall Of Fame. Now, a quarter of a century later, Shirley MacLaine's daughter, Sachi Parker, and Richard Pryor Jr. will be sharing the stage at the Theater For The New City in NYC. Parker and Pryor Jr. will be playing Betty and Barney Hill, an inter-racial couple who were abducted by aliens from another planet and brought on board a UFO where they were examined.

Monumental Theatre Company will be adding two additional shows to its critically acclaimed production of Be More Chill a?"a?oeperformed as it was always meant to bea??a?"according to The Washington Post, extending its run through August 2, 2019. Extension shows will play on August 1st at 8pm and August 2nd at 10pm. The August 2nd show will be a a?oeLate Nighta?? engagement including a drinking game with alcoholic beverages available for purchase.

The viral hit musical Be More Chill, with a book by Joe Tracz and music and lyrics by Joe Iconis, will play July 11 through 29, 2019, at Monumental Theatre Company.

Flesh Mob is a performance collective which created this interdisciplinary dance-theater work about sexual education.  From their website:  'sex is funny, stupid, gross, elevated and base, and we'll never stop being titillated or uncomfortable about it.'  MISEDUCATED: an oral history of sexual (mis)education is based on interviews they conducted.  The performance is a combination of documentary theater, movement, humor, nudity and live music.

Wildcard have announced the international tour of their multi-award-winning production, Electrolyte. This is the company's first tour and sees them take in 31 venues across the UK and Ireland. This regional tour follows their award-winning run at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the company scooped the Mental Health Fringe Award and the Pleasance Best Newcomer Award.

The Alliance Theatre has assembled a diverse group of 21 students from metro Atlanta for the 17th Palefsky Collision Project, an annual program that gives high-school students a platform to tackle important social issues.  Guided by the Alliance's Mellon Playwright in Residence Pearl Cleage, director Patrick McColery, and assistant director Rodney Williams, participants are encouraged to find and claim their own voices within a judgment free zone of creativity and community. This innovative program challenges metro Atlanta teens to 'collide' with a classic text and make it their own.  This year's ensemble will explore Thornton Wilder's timeless play, Our Town, and ultimately create their own unique story of Atlanta through the beauty of daily life and human connection.

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra opens its 64th season with Strings Attached, a concert showcasing the expressive possibilities of the string sections of the orchestra. The performance, conducted by music director Ben Simon, includes Quartettsatz by Franz Schubert, J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major with soloist Robin Sharp, and Divertimento for Strings by Bela Bartok.

Back in the late 1970's Wildwood Summer Theater was producing a disco-themed West Side Story in the old Rockville Mall. In that production was a young high school kid named Michael Mayer who was dancing as a Jet. In 2007, that young kid won a Tony Award for directing the new Broadway Musical, Spring Awakening. Since 1965, WST has been producing shows that feature those between the ages of 14 and 25 in every single aspect. From director to orchestra to designer, every person involved is under 25.

Directed by Robert Devarona, Carrie the Musical will rise at the Hamilton Stage in Rahway, New Jersey starting this Friday. 

Following the critically acclaimed, sell-out world premiere at The Old Red Lion in 2015, Arthur Miller's first ever play, No Villain, transfers to the West End, playing at Trafalgar Studios 2 from 14 June - 9 July, with a press night on 20 June. Directed by Sean Turner, with design by Max Dorey, lighting design by Jack Weir and sound design by Richard Melkonian, the cast will include David Bromley as 'Abe Simon', Nesba Crenshaw as 'Esther Simon', Kenneth Jay as 'Grandpa Barnett', Stephen Omer as 'Roth/Dawson/Man', and George Turvey as 'Ben Simon'.

Following the critically acclaimed, sell-out world premiere at The Old Red Lion in 2015, Arthur Miller's first ever play, No Villain, transfers to the West End, playing at Trafalgar Studios 2 from 14 June - 9 July, with a press night on 20 June. Directed by Sean Turner, with design by Max Dorey, lighting design by Jack Weir and sound design by Richard Melkonian, the cast will include David Bromley as 'Abe Simon', Nesba Crenshaw as 'Esther Simon', Kenneth Jay as 'Grandpa Barnett', Stephen Omer as 'Roth/Dawson/Man', and George Turvey as 'Ben Simon'.

The Union County Performing Arts Center will present Celtic Pride, a craftily blended celebration of Irish culture told through stories, dance and song, on March 13 at 2 p.m. at the UCPAC Mainstage.

THE DOVEKEEPERS, a four-hour limited event series from executive producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, will be broadcast Tuesday, March 31 and Wednesday, April 1 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Winter storm alerts got you down? Lace up your culture boots and jump into a fresh pile of original theatre Feb. 2-8 at Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway as Fearless Productions presents the inaugural "Kicking & Swearing Festival of 1-Acts".