Always...Patsy Cline News

Company members of Peninsula Players Theatre, America's oldest professional resident summer theater, celebrated the announcement of Chicago's 2017 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations with the listing of several current and past company members. The Joseph Jefferson Awards are Chicago theaters' equivalent to Broadway's Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards. 

Stages Repertory Theatre has been monitoring the forecasted path of Hurricane Harvey and has made the decision to cancel all performances of both Always...Patsy Cline and Woody Sez...The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie from Friday, August 25 through Sunday, August 27. In addition, the Woody Sez 'Hootenanny' scheduled for this Sunday is also cancelled.

Inspired by Little Orphan Annie, the 1924 comic strip by Harold Gray, Annie is a heart-warming story, filled with adventure and laughs that defines what family truly means. One of the longest running shows in Broadway history and the winner of seven Tony Awards, Annie, returns to the WBT stage through September 10, 2017. Below, get a look behind the scenes at set designs for the show by Bottari & Case!

As I hear it, The Palace in Georgetown was due to produce Grease in the spot where LOVE ALWAYS, PATSY CLINE resides now. All I'll say about that is, thank goodness it worked out this way! This production is adorable and entertaining from start to finish. I smiled through most of the show, and even leaned into the fairly loose premise. Story line is not the intent of most jukebox musicals, but this one fared relatively well in the hands of its Director/Musical Director/Conductor/Bassist Lannie Hiboldt. Lannie also did the set design. Generally, this could be seen as overextending one's self, but it Lannie's case, it worked out nicely.

The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival (FLMTF) continues its 2017 season with the movie blockbuster turned musical-comedy, Ghost The Musical. The show runs August 30 through September 16 at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Emerson Park.

Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to announce the second show in the Laguna Playhouse 2017-2018 and 97th season with the Tony nominated rock and roll musical, A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN, in Association with the Estate of Janis Joplin and Jeffrey Jampol of JAM, Inc., with musical direction by Todd Olson and written and directed by Randy Johnson.

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC; David Ivers, Artistic Director; Billy Russo, Managing Director) is pleased to welcome back four-time Academy Award-nominee Marsha Mason, who will direct Neil Simon's autobiographical romantic comedy Chapter Two to open ATC's 51st season, Sept. 9-30 at the Temple of Music & Art, 333 S. Scott Ave. in Tucson, Oct. 5-22 at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe in Phoenix.

Artistic Director Jeffrey Cass and Executive Director Julie Ann Kornak have just announced BrightSide Theatre's 2017-2018 Season.

Remember The Marvelous Wonderettes and Life Could Be a Dream? Creator Roger Bean had two tremendous musical hits in these shows. The Marvelous Wonderettes featured four FBF, and Life... four guy pals. They both focused on living your dream to the fullest, and featured young teens aspiring to the max. Both had great background pop songs of the 50s, 60 and beyond. Wonderettes went beyond the teen years with two sequels Winter Wonderettes and Caps and Gowns, in which we saw the gals grow up and meet life's struggles head on. On the shelf since about 2005, Honky Tonk Laundry is Bean's two character musical a la Always Patsy Cline, where he took pop country music and let two ladies have their way with it. They become best friends in the process, compared to Thelma and Louise. Currently onstage at the Hudson in Hollywood, Honky Tonk Laundry is a big audience winner due to its dynamic stars Bets Malone and Misty Cotton, who sing and act the bejesus out of it. Some might call it overkill with anyone else, but these two uber talents keep the audience begging for more. In Roger Bean musicals, the plot is slight and overshadowed by the fun musical numbers and silly dia

The Johnny Cash jukebox musical comes with a sizzling stage band and over thirty Cash numbers you can sing along to.

Lord Arthur, a pillar of Victorian society, is about to marry the lovely Sybil Merton, his childhood sweetheart, and is deliriously happy at the start of Peninsula Players Theatre's forthcoming comedy, "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," by Constance Cox, based on a story by Oscar Wilde.  Laughter will fill the theater-in-a-garden August 16 through September 3 while Lord Arthur takes the stage with his muddled murder attempts.  

StageArt is thrilled to announce the cast for the Australasian premiere of the Tony award-winning Memphis the Musical, which will play at Prahran's Chapel off Chapel from 6 October 2017.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the rock 'n roll hit MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET for the first time, August 8 - 13 at the Benedum Center.

Sherrie's just a small-town girl living in a lonely world. She took a late night bus to Los Angeles with visions of stardom in her eyes. Rock of Ages is a mix-tape compilation musical of some of the most memorable songs of the 1980s, including Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," "We Built This City" by Starship, and Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," set to a story about pursuing dreams. Rock of Ages plays BDT Stage September 1 - November 11, with discounted preview performances August 25 - 31, 2017.

For the fourth show in their 46th annual summer season, Cortland Repertory Theatre presents the psychological thriller 'Appointment With Death' adapted by Agatha Christie from her novel. Performances will run from August 2nd - 12th with evening show times at 7:30 PM. Matinees are available on August 4th, 8th and 9th at 2:00 PM. Tickets may be purchased by calling 800-427-6160 or at the CRT Box Office at 24 Port Watson Street in Cortland. Tickets are also available for sale 24 hours a day through the CRT website at www.cortlandrep.org. CRT administration warns that this is the ONLY website that is approved to sell CRT tickets. Other third-party websites will charge up to four times the set ticket price; ticket buyers are encouraged to call or go directly to cortlandrep.org to purchase tickets.

Next up this summer at The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival (FLMTF) is The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The show runs August 2 through August 23 at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, N.Y.'s Emerson Park.

Theater with a View, Pottstown's professional site-specific theatre company, returns this July with a brand new production of David Linday-Abaire's award-winning drama Rabbit Hole. The production, which will be staged entirely outdoors at the Sycamore Hill estate (481 Ebelhare Road, Pottstown, PA), begins previews on Wednesday, July 12 and will run through Today, July 29.

'We are all there for each other,' Kevin Nietzel asserts, affirming the bond that is making Maine State Music Theatre's Grease so electric. 'It is very rewarding,' adds Neil Starkenberg, MSMT's Danny Zuko. Co-star Chelsea Williams, who plays Sandy to Starkenberg's Danny, continues the thought: 'Neil and I have had conversations about how we could do this show for a really long time. It is so much fun, and I think that must be obvious to the audience. The energy is so palpable that it is a special joy to work that hard every night. Everyone is having the time of his life!' These three actors together with principals Gerrianne Perez (Rizzo), Charis Leos (Miss Lynch), Costume Designer Travis M. Grant, and MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark all joined BWW's Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold for the third panel discussion in the theatre's Peek Behind the Curtain series held each summer at Curtis Memorial Library. In an especially lively and far-ranging conversation that highlighted not only the challenges but also the camaraderie of this ensemble, the panel and capacity audience explored the history, characters, and production process for MSMT's summer mega hit.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the rock 'n roll hit MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET for the first time, August 8 - 13 at the Benedum Center.

For the fourth show in their 46th annual summer season, Cortland Repertory Theatre presents the psychological thriller "Appointment With Death" adapted by Agatha Christie from her novel. Performances will run from August 2nd - 12th with evening show times at 7:30 PM.  Matinees are available on August 4th, 8th and 9th at 2:00 PM.  Tickets may be purchased by calling 800-427-6160 or at the CRT Box Office at 24 Port Watson Street in Cortland. Tickets are also available for sale 24 hours a day through the CRT website at www.cortlandrep.org.  CRT administration warns that this is the ONLY website that is approved to sell CRT tickets.  Other third-party websites will charge up to four times the set ticket price; ticket buyers are encouraged to call or go directly to cortlandrep.org to purchase tickets.