Kristin Ribble

No matter how much you know about the Titanic disaster, the musical grounds the story, humanizes it, and you leave the theatre an emotional wreck.

It is time for a little bit of magic as Manatee Performing Arts Center produces their next mainstage production of “Cinderella.” The theatre touts Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella as the new Broadway adaptation of the classic musical.

Newsies is Disney's fictional account of the actual Newsboys Strike of 1899 where paper New York hawkers, as they were called, banned together and formed their own so-called 'union' to strike in protest of their distribution centers whose publishers raised the cost of the newspapers they bought and sold in Manhattan in order to earn a living. The 1992 Disney film starring Christian Bale was not a commercial success although the film carried a large home base audience, making it a cult classic. The 2012 Broadway musical version, book by Harvey Fierstein and starring Jeremy Jordan met with more acclaim. Any ensemble attempting to produce this high energy, fast-paced, testosterone-packed production better have their act together in more ways than one. Manatee Performing Arts Center came prepared and delivered.

A Little Night Music opens Today, October 26th, at Manatee Performing Arts Center, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

A Little Night Music opens Thursday, October 26th, at Manatee Performing Arts Center, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Manatee Performing Arts Center opens their 2017 - 2018 Season with The Producers this Today, August 10! Bialystock and Bloom! Those names should strike terror and hysteria in anyone familiar with Mel Brooks' classic cult comedy film. Now as a big Broadway musical, The Producers once again sets the standard for modern, outrageous, in-your-face humor. It is a truly 'boffo' hit, winning a record twelve Tony Awards and wowing capacity crowds night after night. BroadwayWorld has an exclusive first look at the cast in action below!

A multiple Tony Award-winning theatrical tour-de-force, Assassins combines Sondheim's signature blend of intelligently stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic story of our nation's culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it, embodied by America's four successful and five would-be presidential assassins. Bold, original, disturbing and alarmingly funny, Assassins is perhaps the most controversial musical ever written. The show is currently running at Manatee Performing Arts Center, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Yank! tells the story of Stu, a Midwestern kid who gets drafted for World War II in 1943, and becomes a reporter for Yank Magazine, the journal 'for the servicemen, by the servicemen.' Yank! has a score that pays homage to the 1940s and explores what it means to be a man, and what it is to fall in love and struggle. Intelligent and impassioned, suffused with songs in swing, big band and boogie-woogie styles, the show explores the stories that don't get told in wartime, and how WWII became a great catalyst in bringing gay men and women together. Broadway World has an exclusive look into Manatee Performing Arts Center's opening night reception here.

The full schedule of classes and instructors has been announced for the new Conservatory of Performance and Technical Arts at Manatee Performing Arts Center.

Auditions for the Manatee Players' productions of SHOUT and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN are January 24 at 7p.m. Sunday's auditions will be at Saint Stephens Episcopal School Theater Room. Enter the parking lot at the intersection of 39th Street West and Manatee Avenue beside Mister Smoothie.

Auditions for the Manatee Players' productions of SHOUT and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN are January 23 & 24 at 7p.m. Sunday's auditions will be at Saint Stephens Episcopal School Theater Room.

Auditions for the Manatee Players' productions of SHOUT and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN are January 23 & 24 at 7p.m. Sunday's auditions will be at Saint Stephens Episcopal School Theater Room.

Manatee Players to hold auditions for the hit musical OLIVER. Auditions for the Manatee Players' production of OLIVER are October 2-4. Auditions will be at the Manatee Players, 102 Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton.

Manatee Players to hold auditions for the hit musical OLIVER. Auditions for the Manatee Players' production of OLIVER are October 2-4. Auditions will be at the Manatee Players, 102 Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton.