American Repertory Theater News

Producers Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Louise Gund are pleased to announce that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and American Repertory Theater production of ALL THE WAY, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan's new play that stars three-time Emmy Award-winning actor Bryan Cranston ('Breaking Bad') as President Lyndon B. Johnson, will play The Neil Simon Theatre (250 West 52nd Street) for a limited run only. The play will begin rehearsals on Tuesday, January 14, 2014, with previews beginning Monday, February 10, 2014 and an opening night set for Thursday, March 6, 2014. It is directed by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has been chosen by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) to receive a $1 million grant to aid the Festival as it adapts to changing conditions in the performing arts sector. OSF is among five arts organizations to receive a grant under this pilot project, which awards organizations with a strong track record of adaptability. American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA), On the Boards (Seattle, WA), Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts (Middletown, CT), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, D.C.) also received grants ranging from $300,000 to $1 million.

ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, begins a strictly limited engagement from tonight, November 26 - January 5 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Empirical Rogue has announced casting for Nikolai Erdman's Suicide!?, in a new adaptation written and directed by Empirical Rogue Artistic Director Tim Eliot. Performances begin January 4 at the Interart Theatre (500 West 52nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues).

Today we are talking to a terrifically talented and versatile stage and screen performer who has excelled in many arenas throughout her compellingly varied career - comedy, drama, stand-up, cabaret, jazz and beyond - the fiercely, fabulously idiosyncratic and ebulliently engaging Lea DeLaria. Espousing upon a wide range of topics and tracing her unique professional trajectory thus far, DeLaria sheds some light on a few of her most fondly remembered stage roles - revivals of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW and ON THE TOWN on Broadway, as well as Off-Broadway turns in LITTLE FISH and PROMETHEUS BOUND included - as well as recounts her experiences participating in a handful of feature films, new and old, as well - including the recent Hallmark original movie musical DEAR DUMB DIARY. Most importantly, DeLaria recounts her experiences starring on the Netflix mega-hit series ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK and offers a glimpse of the major impact that the pop culture lynchpin has had on her own life since its 2013 debut - while also preliminarily previewing what we can expect from Season Two, too. Plus, DeLaria reflects on her recording legacy, detailing the conception and production of some choice cuts from her many arresting albums - such as 'Broadway Baby', 'The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd', 'Puff' and 'Sleigh Ride' - as well as shares first news on her new album project, highlighting the music and lyrics of David Bowie. Additionally, DeLaria teases her upcoming scandalously titled series of holiday-themed shows at NYC cabaret hotspot 54 Below occurring in late December while also offering her candid perspective on favorite Christmas tunes and the season itself. All of that, FURTHER TALES OF THE CITY memories and much more in this engaging conversation with a true Broadway and Hollywood original.

The second production of the 2013-14 season presented by American Repertory of WNY is a story of the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson entitled LITTLE ROBERT, written by prolific and award winning local playwright Mark Humphrey (author of the acclaimed MR. BENNY and the one-act presented through ART/WNY's One Act showcase, MECHANICS).. Directed by Gail Golden (fresh from directing last season's uproarious MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS) features the talents of award winning actor Hugh Davis and Robert Ernie Insana. The show, originally set to close on Nov. 23, will play an additional performance on Nov. 29 at 7:30 pm.

Joe's Pub at The Public welcomes the faithful and the faithless this holiday season with a winter program that includes Yiddish lullabies, kvetching, yuletide cheer, anti-consumerist sermons, sports, jazz, storytelling and of course Sandra Bernhard's hilarious and entertaining end-of-year free for all.

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.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, ArtsBoston and Mayor Tom Menino invite you to kick-start your holiday cheer with some live entertainment as part of your evening commute. Starting promptly at 4:30pm on Friday, November 22, 2013, eight (8) MBTA stations will come alive with concurrent in-station performances lasting no more than 10 minutes by some of city's most popular productions this holiday season.

A fanciful assortment of new t-shirts promoting the current hit Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz's beloved musical PIPPIN are now available to purchase.

Labyrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble, announced today the New York Premiere of The Muscles in Our Toes by Labyrinth Company Member Stephen Belber, and directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will be produced in late Spring 2014 at Labyrinth's home in New York City's West Village, the Bank Street Theater (155 Bank Street).

ONCE, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, will play the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre for a limited one-week engagement, January 28 through February 2. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, November 22 at 10 a.m.

Gotham Chamber Opera presents Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, a co-production with Trinity Church, from January 1- January 5, 2014 at St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway and Fulton, NYC. Performances: Wednesday, January 1 and Friday, January 3 at 7pm; Sunday, January 5 at 5pm. Tickets are $15-$125 and are available atwww.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200. For more information visitwww.gothamchamberopera.org.

Since its founding in 1961, La MaMa Experimental Arts Club has been a hub for risk-taking theater artists from around the globe. La MaMa will celebrate their 2013 season of performances with a gala honoring two pillars of arts journalism: former Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, and publisher Patsy Tarr of 2wice. Throughout their long careers, these two individuals have carved out a voice for the arts, championing countless artists working across platforms.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research (formerly known as the Du Bois Institute), in conjunction with Hilton Als of The New Yorker, will present a staged reading of Alice Childress's Wedding Band: A Love-Hate Story in Black and White, co-directed by Hilton Als and A.R.T. Artistic Associate Shira Milikowsky. It takes place at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, starting at 7:30pm, and will be followed by a post-reading discussion.

The memorial will be held at 7:00pm tonight, Monday, November 18th in the theater of the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, and will be followed by a reception in the lobby of the theater. Doors will open at 6:15pm.

The colorful cast of characters comprising the company of the hit Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz's beloved medieval musical PIPPIN boasts performers of all shapes and sizes, including a few who occasionally oink, and some of those plucky pigs recently took it upon themselves to try to sneak away from the farm... and, they got about as far as the subway!

Every Christmas, it's like the same gift Aunt Phylis gives you: Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker or Miracle on 34th Street predictably appear on the boards for the Holiday season. Make this season an alternative to the same old 'gift'. The Fearless Players, known for their highly entertaining GONG SHOW, is bringing the highly irreverent Holiday piece THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES to American Repertory Theater of WNY's newly created performance space, ART in the Box, located at 16 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo NY 14209. The production opens December 12th and runs to December 21st with all showtimes at 7:30 pm. Ticket prices for this spicy cup of eggnog begin at $20 General Admission, a special online ticket price of $15 and $12 for students and military veterans.

The Tony-Award winning Broadway cast of PIPPIN has joined the line-up of performances in the nation's most beloved spectacle, the Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which returns for the 87th year of magic on Thursday, November 28 (9 a.m. - noon EST; check local listings) throughout the country live on NBC. The cast will perform "Corner of the Sky" and "Magic to Do."

Juilliard Dance, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, presents New Dances PLUS: Edition 2013 from December 11-15, 2013featuring Juilliard alumna Pina Bausch's Wind von West (Wind from the West) performed by 4th-Year Dancers, plus three world premiere commissions created for each of the classes of Juilliard's Dance Division. This year's innovative choreographers are Juilliard alumnus Takehiro Ueyama (1st-Year Dancers); Brian Brooks (2nd-Year Dancers); and Juilliard alumnus Darrell Grand Moultrie (3rd-Year Dancers).