Aaron Rhyne News

The Kennedy Center presents the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder. The production makes its Washington, D.C. premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for three weeks from January 13-30, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. With book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak, A Gentlemen's Guide to Love & Murder features direction by Darko Tresnjak and choreography by Peggy Hickey. The press opening night is Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

The Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, will play the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis February 9th through the 14th, 2016 in its First National Tour, which launched September 2015.

The first of three world premieres scheduled in Merrimack Repertory Theatre's 2015-16 Season is set to open early next month. THE WHITE CHIP is a dark comedy about the science of addiction written by Sean Daniels, MRT's Artistic Director and is based on his own struggles with alcoholism and path to recovery. The autobiographical story will be produced with a creative team that features an impressive list of artists who have many Broadway credits and a total of seven Tony Award nominations and one win between them.

The critically acclaimed off-Broadway hit THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, written by and starring James Lecesne, the writer of the Academy Award-winning film Trevor, will have a limited 23 performance engagement at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Wednesday, January 13 to Sunday, January 31, 2016 (press opening Thursday January 14).

The Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, will play the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis February 9th through the 14th, 2016 in its First National Tour, which launched September 2015.

'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum' is a holiday treat for metropolitan area audiences. Directed by Jessica Stone with choreography by Denis Jones and musical direction by Gary Adler, the stellar all-male cast is brimming with talent.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues its 2015-16 season with the new emotional family drama AUBERGINE, written by Julia Cho and directed by Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone. This will be the first production presented on the newly renovated Thrust Stage and the second world premiere of the 2015 -16 season, following AMELIE, A NEW MUSICAL.

The 2015 CHRISTMAS CAROL, directed by Curt Columbus, is a solid production and quite enjoyable, though small elements keep it from being a fully immersive theatrical experience. While well done overall, the emotional punch of past Trinity CAROLS is lacking in this year's staging.

Two River Theater presents A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, the Tony Award-winning musical farce written by comedy giants Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with music and lyrics by theater legend Stephen Sondheim. The director is Jessica Stone, the choreographer is Denis Jones, and the musical director is Gary Adler. The press opening is Friday, November 20 at 8pm and performances will continue through Sunday, December 13 in Two River's Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, Red Bank, NJ. BroadwayWorld has a first official look at New York stage stars Christopher Fitzgerald and Michael Urie in action below!

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces the full cast and creative team for its production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the Tony Award-winning musical farce written by comedy giants Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with music and lyrics by theater legend Stephen Sondheim. The director is Jessica Stone (Absurd Person Singular), the choreographer is Denis Jones (Honeymoon in Vegas), and the musical director is Gary Adler (Avenue Q).

The producers of the critically-acclaimed new play THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY announced today that the play written by and starring James Lecesne will play a strictly limited three week engagement in Los Angeles from Wednesday, January 13, 2016 through Sunday, January 31, 2016 as a guest production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (9820 Washington Boulevard, Culver City).  The hit play ends its Off-Broadway engagement Sunday, October 18, 2015 at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43 Street).

To mark the occasion of Jefferson Mays' 6,000th death in the Tony Award-winning Best Musical A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, the production held a funeral procession down West 48th Street, as cast members and fans, all dressed in mourning attire, followed Mr. Mays, lying in state inside a glass-sided horse-drawn hearse, to the Walter Kerr Theatre stage door. Scroll down for photos!

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER National Tour at Durham Performing Arts Center

The Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, will play Cleveland's Playhouse Square, November 3 - 15, 2015 in its First National Tour, launching September 2015. Tickets to Gentleman's Guide, part of the Key Bank Broadway Series at Playhouse Square, are currently on sale, and are available at the Playhouse Square ticket office (1519 Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland), by calling 216-241-6000, or online at www.playhousesquare.org. Orders for groups of fifteen (15) or more may be placed by calling 216-640-8600.

It's a great week around our Broadway World!  In addition to featuring our Top 10 regional stories, we have now opened public nominations in over 40 regions so far for our annual BroadwayWorld Regional Awards, including: Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boise, Boston, Buffalo, Central Pennsylvania, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Connecticut, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Long Island, Los Angeles, Madison, Maine, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, WI, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Jersey, New Orleans, Omaha, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Philippines, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh, Rhode Island, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle, South Africa, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Toronto, Washington, DC, and Wichita.  Be sure to nominate your favorites through October 31st!  Look for more cities coming soon!

Robert Hartwell, of BroadwayWorld'sBroadway Quick Change, will soon help out Kristen Beth Williams, who plays Sibella on the First National Tour of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and while he's giving her dressing room a full make-over, he'll be asking her questions from her biggest fans. Submit questions in the comments section below for a chance to find out whatever you'd like to know about Kristen and life on the road!

Stage and screen vet Kevin Bacon visited A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER on Broadway last week - check out photos of him with the cast backstage below!

Equal parts Gilbert and Sullivan and Edward Gorey, the Tony award winning musical A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER finally hits Chicago for a limited engagement through Oct. 11 and it was worth the wait.

THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, the hit play written by and starring James Lecesne about an LGBT youth who chose to shine brighter than bullies, will lead the charge in the Broadway and Off-Broadway community to be #BrighterThanBullies in celebration of Stomp Out Bullying's Blue Shirt Day, the seventh annual World Day of Bully Prevention on Monday, October 5, 2015.