Alliance Theatre News

Producers Whoopi Goldberg, Stage Entertainment and Troika Entertainment have announced that the North American Tour of the five-time Tony Award nominated musical SISTER ACT will begin its second year of performances. The tour opened on October 2, 2012 at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre and is still rocking the rafters across the country. SISTER ACT opened to stellar reviews and continues to receive them across the country.

This holiday season Horizon Theatre Company turns 'ho ho ho' into 'ha ha ha' as it reprises its popular production of The Santaland Diaries by award-winning satirist David Sedaris. The perfect laughter-spiked antidote to the holiday blues, Creative Loafing calls this non-traditional adult-only Christmas comedy 'a fiendishly exhilarating, politically incorrect send-up of the holidays.' BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the show below!

The Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company -- one of the nation's leading theaters dedicated to developing and producing new and innovative plays by Asian American writers -- will celebrate its 25th anniversary season in 2013-14, beginning with the New York premiere of Bike America by Mike Lew, with its official opening night tonight, October 1 Off-Broadway at The Theater at St. Clement's (423 W. 46 St.) in Manhattan.

The Alliance Theatre has announced that Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, author of Choir Boy, has been named one of the 2013 MacArthur Fellows, chosen for his exploration into the use of drama in the portrayal of urban communities. The MacArthur Fellowship recognizes 24 exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for even more significant contributions in the future. Fellows will each receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000 paid out over five years. Without stipulations or reporting requirements, the Fellowship provides maximum freedom for recipients to follow their own creative vision.

Dr. Barbara Ann Teers's National Black Theatre (NBT) will open its 45th Season with the New York Premiere of The Last Saint On Sugar Hill, written by Keith Josef Adkins and directed by Seret Scottannounced NBT's Director of Theatre Arts Program, Jonathan McCrory. Preview performances begin Tuesday, October 29th at NBT, 2031 Fifth Avenue starting at 7:30pm. The opening night is set for Friday, November 1st at 7pm. The production will run through Sunday, November 24th.

The Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company -- one of the nation's leading theaters dedicated to developing and producing new and innovative plays by Asian American writers -- will celebrate its 25th anniversary season in 2013-14, beginning with the New York premiere of Bike America by Mike Lew, with previews tonight, September 24 prior to an official opening night on October 1 Off-Broadway at The Theater at St. Clement's (423 W. 46 St.) in Manhattan.

The world comes to a small Southern town in Horizon Theatre Company's World Premiere of Third Country by Suehyla El-Attar. The play, directed by Horizon Co-Artistic Director Lisa Adler, is inspired by the Clarkston, Georgia community where thousands of refugees have been resettled over the last decade. In addition to the production, Horizon is partnering with more than 20 local organizations to bring this story to life through post-show discussions, opportunities to meet the people who inspired the play, special events, and a marketplace for refugee-made goods.

The Alliance Theatre has announced the American premiere of CHOIR BOY, a modern coming of age story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, winner of the 2008 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for his play In The Red and Brown Water. The American premiere of CHOIR BOY is co-produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, where CHOIR BOY opened earlier this month to outstanding reviews. The New York production has been extended twice due to popular demand and will close August 11. CHOIR BOY will run on the Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theatre September 20 - October 13, 2013. Opening night is Wednesday, September 25, 2013.

On the heels of their record breaking production of LES MISERABLES, a new comedy with a very intriguing title opens Aurora Theatre's 2013-2014 Harvel Lab Series. Walter Cronkite is Dead which runs tonight, September 19 - October 6, 2013.

International film star Orlando Bloom makes his Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad, as Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers in a new Broadway production of the timeless love story Romeo and Juliet, directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux. The show opens on Broadway tonight, September 19, 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The production also stars two-time Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell as the Nurse and Tony Award nominee Joe Morton as Lord Capulet.

Barry Manilow and his lyrical partner Bruce Sussman are taking a swing at musicals again with Harmony. The show is based on a documentary that follows a Jewish actor in Berin that recruited five singers, 2 Jewish and 3 non-Jewish, to form a musical group that offered a very different and unprecedented live performance. They combined complex 6 part harmonies, vocal imitation of instruments, and even physical comedy onstage. The Comedian Harmonists, is what they called themselves, became a musical sensation in the late 1920s but coincidentally, their rise to fame coincided with Hitler's rise to power along with his restrictions against the Jewish artists in Germany.

On the heels of their record breaking production of LES MISERABLES, a new comedy with a very intriguing title opens Aurora Theatre's 2013-2014 Harvel Lab Series. Walter Cronkite is Dead, which runs September 19 - October 6, 2013. Get a first look at the cast below!

ALLIANCE THEATRE presents HARMONY - A NEW MUSICAL, with music by Barry Manilow and book & lyrics by Bruce Sussman, now playing through October 6, 2013. Click below to watch highlights from the show!

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Ragtime, the sweeping musical which will kick off The Rep's 2013/14 60th Anniversary Season in the Quadracci Powerhouse theater.

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