Alfred Drake News

The Tony Awards have announced the line-up for the 3rd Annual Tony Awards Film Series, which will take place on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at The Paley Center for Media. The Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, which are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall, on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 9, 2013.

A human ball of silver glitter hanging from a cord is lowered above what looks like a bungalow-sized muffin top.  (It's supposed to represent a turtle shell.)  Before the glitter ball makes its landing the cover is removed to reveal what looks like a tribe of humanish amphibians bouncing on trampolines and twirling on the muffin/turtle's frame.  Shortly after, a sleazy-looking clown in a tropical shirt tosses a condom to a woman in the front row and says, 'Call me!'  Yes, dear readers, Cirque du Soleil is back in town.

Love is the true center of this show, and that's what takes center stage, turning this production of South Pacific into a modern fairy tale.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, December 30, 2012 - Sunday, December 30, 2012.

Today in 1948, opened at the Shubert Theatre. Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. Kiss Me, Kate was a response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals, and it proved to be his biggest hit and the only one of his shows to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. It won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical, in 1949.

The Actors Fund presents a very special Musical Monday, an evening with five grand ladies of musical theatre in LADIES OF AN INDETERMINATE AGE tonight, December 10, 2012. Anne Jeffreys, Jane Kean, Pat Marshall, Patricia Morison and Charlotte Rae - join together on the same stage to sing songs from their careers, talk about their co-stars, directors and composers and stray into their wicked (or not-so-wicked) adventures in the great tradition of "No Business Like Show Business."

The Actors Fund presents a very special Musical Monday, an evening with five grand ladies of musical theatre in LADIES OF AN INDETERMINATE AGE on December 10, 2012. Anne Jeffreys, Jane Kean, Pat Marshall, Patricia Morison and Charlotte Rae - join together on the same stage to sing songs from their careers, talk about their co-stars, directors and composers and stray into their wicked (or not-so-wicked) adventures in the great tradition of "No Business Like Show Business."

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, October 7, 2012 - Sunday, October 7, 2012.

Happy Birthday, Alfred Drake! He is best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of Oklahoma!; Kiss Me, Kate; Kismet; and for playing Marshall Blackstone in the original production of Babes in Arms, (in which he sang the title song) and Hajj in Kismet, for which he received the Tony Award. His 1964 stage performance as Claudius in the Richard Burton Hamlet was filmed live on the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. His final stage appearance in a musical was in 1973 as Honore LaChaisse in Lerner and Loewe's Gigi. Two years later he starred in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth.

Joan Roberts, the stage and film actress who created the role of 'Laurey' in the original 1943 production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's OKLAHOMA!, died on Monday August 13, in Stamford, Connecticut. She was 95, and died of congestive heart failure, according to her son, John Donlon.

According to Baz Bamigboye for Daily Mail, Trevor Nunn's upcoming production of KISS ME KATE will transfer to the Old Vic after playing Chichester Festival Theatre this June. The production, which will star Hannah Waddingham, Alex Bourne and Adam Garcia, is set to open at CFT on June 18 and run through September 1. Possible transfer dates have not yet been announced.

Opera Idaho announces an all-Boise cast for its July performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! in Concert. Baritone Jason Detwiler and soprano Jena Carpenter will play the lead roles, Curly and Laurey, in performances July 13 and 15 at 7:00pm at the Idaho Botanical Garden.

Michael Riedel reports in today's New York Post that Lincoln Center Theater 'wants the Beaumont for its next big production - a revival of THE KING AND I starring Kelli O'Hara.' BroadwayWorld.com first reported back in 2011 that the theatre was considering a Bartlett Sher helmed revival of the classic show. O'Hara is currently starring opposite Matthew Broderick in NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT.

Today in 1948, opened at the Shubert Theatre. Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. Kiss Me, Kate was a response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals, and it proved to be his biggest hit and the only one of his shows to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. It won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical, in 1949.

According to Baz Bamigoye for Daily Mial, Trevor Nunn will direct a production of KISS ME KATE at Chichester Festival Theatre next year, which will likely make a West End transfer soon after. To read the full article, click here.

Wales has a proud musical heritage, not least in the realm of musical theatre, with many of the West End's current and recent hit musicals filled with Welsh talent in lead roles

William Atherton, Matt Cavenaugh, Lisa O'Hare, Millicent Martin and Jason Graae are the acclaimed film, Broadway and West End stars who will lead the cast of Reprise Theatre Company's second production of the 2010-2011 season, "Gigi", playing February 15 to February 27, 2011 (press opening February 16, 2011) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. The musical - with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe -- will be directed by veteran musical theatre director David Lee, with choreography by Peggy Hickey and musical direction by Steve Orich.

William Atherton, Matt Cavenaugh, Lisa O'Hare, Carol Lawrence, Millicent Martin and Jason Graae are the acclaimed film, Broadway and West End stars who will lead the cast of Reprise Theatre Company's second production of the 2010-2011 season, 'Gigi', playing February 15 to February 27, 2011 (press opening February 16, 2011) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. The musical - with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe -- will be directed by veteran musical theatre director David Lee, with choreography by Peggy Hickey and musical direction by Steve Orich.

William Atherton, Matt Cavenaugh, Lisa O'Hare, Carol Lawrence, Millicent Martin and Jason Graae are the acclaimed film, Broadway and West End stars who will lead the cast of Reprise Theatre Company's second production of the 2010-2011 season, 'Gigi', playing February 15 to February 27, 2011 (press opening February 16, 2011) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. The musical - with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe -- will be directed by veteran musical theatre director David Lee, with choreography by Peggy Hickey and musical direction by Steve Orich.