American Repertory Theater News

A joyous, toe-tapping, and moving theatrical concert event which celebrates the colorful life and rich musical legacy of America's greatest troubadour, Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie features more than 25 songs including classics like 'This Land is Your Land,' 'Pastures of Plenty' and 'The Ballad of Tom Joad.' The original folk hero, Woody Guthrie, and his infectious melodies defined an American era of political expression and transformed the folk ballad into a vehicle of social commentary and unity. The Rep is excited to kick off 2014 with a musical salute to this music icon in this award-winning production. Scroll down for a first look at the cast in action!

In the Buffalo, New York area we are rich with theater and the arts.

Gotham Chamber Opera presents Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, a co-production with Trinity Church, from tonight, January 1- January 5, 2014 at St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway and Fulton, NYC.

The hit revival of Stephen Schwartz's celebrated medieval musical PIPPIN has spread a little sunshine all over the interior of JFK Airport and a new social media image available to view depicts the magical mise en scene.

The most recent version of the famous and often controversial opera, PORGY AND BESS by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, re-titled as THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, is now playing at DC's National Theatre through Dec. 29, 2013. The opera, which has garnered scores of awards since its first performance in 1935, has been re-mounted by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge with a creative team including Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who adapted the book, and Dierdre L. Murray, who adapted the musical score. THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS opened on Broadway in 2011.

Winner of the 2012 TONY AWARD® FOR BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is hitting the road with award-winning members of the Broadway cast in this stunning and stirring new staging. Accompanied by a lush 23-piece orchestra, this re-envisioned Broadway production includes such legendary songs as 'Summertime,' 'It Ain't Necessarily So,' and 'I Got Plenty of Nothing.' Check out highlights of the production below!

Voting is now underway for Boston! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

UPDATE: A production spokesperson has confirmed to BroadwayWorld that former Pussycat Doll Nicole Sherzinger will not be joining Broadway's PIPPIN, as the New York Daily News reported earlier today.

Playwright David Farr, inspired by TWELFTH NIGHT, AS YOU LIKE IT, and his own two daughters, has written a nature-infused feminist version of the legend of Robin Hood. Icelandic Director Gisli Örn Gardarsson and his creative team have conjured up an athletic, revolutionary staging brought to life by an agile ensemble and accompanied by Connecticut roots band Poor Old Shine. THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD beats fast and takes you on an amazing journey.

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, the hysterically twisted, Chekhov-inspired 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play, continues Asolo Rep's 2013-14 season. Directed by Peter Amster, previews for this laugh-out-loud comedy will be held January 22-23, opening night will be on Friday, January 24 at 8pm, and the show will run through April 13.

With great regret, Pierre Boulez, the Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has informed the CSO that that he will not be able to come to Chicago to conduct in February 2014 due to health issues. With three young conductors hand-picked by Maestro Boulez to substitute for him, the CSO will proceed with the planned programs-during two subscription weeks, beginning on February 20 and ending on March 1, 2014-as a celebration of Boulez's innovative musicianship and mentorship.

Met Museum Presents and Gotham Chamber Opera presents a double bill co-produced with and staged at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, consisting of Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi, and a newly commissioned work, I Have No Stories to Tell You, by Gotham Chamber Opera Composer-In-Residence Lembit Beecher, on February 26 and February 27, 2014 at 7pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), NYC. Tickets, including admission to the museum, are $175, and can be purchased at http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/concerts-and-performances/gotham-opera-1.aspx?eid=4162.

Voting is now underway for Boston! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced last week that the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University (A.R.T.) is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The A.R.T. is recommended for $85,000 to support the world premiere production of Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews' world premiere musical Witness Uganda, directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, present the second production of the 2013/14 Season: David Farr's The Heart of Robin Hood, directed by Gisli Örn Gardarsson, now playing at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. The production runs through Sunday, January 19, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production shots below!

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, present the second production of the 2013/14 Season: David Farr's The Heart of Robin Hood, directed by Gisli Örn Gardarsson, now playing at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. The production runs through Sunday, January 19, 2014. Check out what the audiences had to say about opening night!

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, present the second production of the 2013/14 Season:David Farr's The Heart of Robin Hood, directed by Gisli Örn Gardarsson, now playing at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. The production runs through Sunday, January 19, 2014. Check out a first look at opening night below!

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Using the David Hare translation, the show fuses politics and satire to paint an unforgettable and provocative portrait of war, incorporating more than 10 pieces of original music composed in a rollicking, gypsy-punk style and performed by cast members doubling as musicians. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts presents the world premiere of THE TEMPEST, produced by the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at The Smith Center in Las Vegas April 5-13, 2014. The Smith Center's first ever co-production, THE TEMPEST is adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and Teller from the play by William Shakespeare, with magic by Teller, music by Tom Waits and movement by Matt Kent of Pilobolus.

Roger O. Hirson and Stephen Schwartz's Tony Award winning musical comedy Pippin, directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus, is currently playing at the Music Box Theatre. In the video below, the shows acrobats get a shining moment as they show what they've got to the Act 1 finale, 'Morning Glow.'