Andrew Jackson News

Following a rousing October run of BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, Arizona Regional Theatre (ART) has mounted Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' LUCKY STIFF -- a two-act, 17-song whodunnit which has been a favorite of Valley venues over the years.

Prolific theatrical songwriter Micheal Friedman died at age 41 from AIDS related complications in 2017, leaving many bereft as the theater community recognized his vibrant creativity was snuffed out too soon. To preserve his legacy and work, Ghostlight Records is partnering with The Civilians to record nine albums of Friedman's previously unrecorded music for THE MICHAEL FRIEDMAN COLLECTION. This past October, the first trio of albums was released.

Meet the cast of the West Coast premiere of Ebenezer Scrooge's BIG San Diego Christmas Show at The Old Globe, a hilarious family-friendly Scrooge parody set in San Diego.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob Squarepants, of course a?" and now, the ambitious but kind, optimistic yet somehow down-to-earth a?oesimple spongea?? is taking his show on the road in a colorful, fun-filled, peripatetic and eye-poppingly surreal musical fresh off Broadway: The Spongebob Musical. You don't have to be a longtime fan of the animated and timeless, eponymously titled Nickelodean series, but clearly it helps to have at least a passing knowledge of the Spongebob oeuvre to keep all the players straight in an apocalyptic, yet thoroughly entertaining, tale of imminent danger for all the Bikini Bottom inhabitants fans have come to love over the years.

BroadwayWorld is checking in with the cast to uncover some little known facts about the political giants they play onstage. Today, watch as Bryce Pinkham gives us a lesson on Robert F. Kennedy.

 Based on overwhelming demand, new shows and markets have been added to the a?oeLETTERKENNY LIVEa?? 2020 tour.  The stars of the wildly popular award-winning Crave Original Series LETTERKENNY will bring a?oeLETTERKENNY LIVE!a?? to the U.S. for the first time in 2020.  All new, the acclaimed 90-minute comedy experience will feature NINE of the beloved cast members along with never-before-seen sketches and more. The live event, that includes major stops across North America is produced by New Metric Media and presented by Puppers Premium Lager.

When it comes to United States history, it can be easy to gloss over the period between the early 1800s to the cusp of the Civil War. The generation who lived during this forgotten era, however, faced no less tumultuous times than we do in modern times. Aaron Posner's play, JQA, specifically looks at this time period through the eyes of John Quincy Adams, who, as the son of founding father John Adams, and later a statesman in his own right, was uniquely poised to survey the era's ups and downs. Through the use of fictionalized encounters with some of America's most dynamic figures, the political and personal issues raised in JQA are as relevant now as they've ever been.

Arizona Regional Theatre's BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON a rock-solid show, featuring great turns by Logan Scott Mitchell and supporting cast.

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of Ebenezer Scrooge's BIG San Diego Christmas Show, a hilarious family-friendly Scrooge parody set in San Diego. Based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens,

ArtsEd, the UK's leading performing arts schools is celebrating 100 years of world-class training in the performing arts by launching in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Tonight marks the Broadway opening of David Byrne's American Utopia, so in honor of the occasion, we're looking back at Byrne's previous experience in the world of theatre: Here Lies Love! Check out the video to get a peek inside the show in the studio recording their cast recording with Ruthie Ann Miles, Jose Llana, and Conrad Ricamora and more!

Magic Theatre kicks off its 2019-20 season with Lloyd Suh's intriguing a?oeThe Chinese Lady.a?? Suh's point of departure is one of those fascinating a?oetruth is stranger than fictiona?? tales that are so compelling it's hard to believe they aren't more widely known. His play tells the story of Afong Moy, the first Chinese female to set foot on American soil in 1834. Moy was brought to New York at the tender age of 14 by a pair of businessmen in their effort to sell affordable Chinese furniture to America's growing middle class. They created an exhibition wherein patrons could pay to view a real Chinese lady in her supposedly authentic surrounds. This exhibition proved so popular to the public it went on tour throughout the Eastern U.S., and Moy was taken to the White House to meet President Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately, we have no historical record in Moy's own words, and virtually all of the story of her latter life is lost to history. Thus, playwright Suh describes this work as a conjuring of who he imagines Moy might have been.

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS and THE CIVILIANS have announced that the first three premiere albums of The Michael Friedman Collection, will be available for streaming and download today, Friday, October 18. The Great Immensity, The Abominables, and This Beautiful City are all written (or co-written) and directed by Steve Cosson and feature music and lyrics by Michael Friedman.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature Once On This Island, The Light in the Piazza, Sweeney Todd and more!

The blockbuster Broadway hit, Moulin Rouge, will be heading to the West End in 2021!

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS and THE CIVILIANS will release the first three premiere albums of The Michael Friedman Collection- available for streaming and download on Friday, October 18. The Great Immensity, The Abominables, and This Beautiful City are all written (or co-written) and directed by Steve Cosson and feature music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. This extraordinary long-term project will eventually comprise the premiere recordings of nine musicals from the beloved late Obie Award-winning songwriter Michael Friedman. The albums will be available at www.ghostlightrecords.com/michaelfriedman.html.

Songwriter Michael Friedman died in 2017, but his work will live on. According to The New York Times, nine albums of his unreleased work will soon be released.

Visually stunning. Inventively staged. Compellingly acted. Beautifully told. Utterly delightful. Heartrendingly poignant. What more can be said about Once On This Island, the Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty musical which launched its national tour in Nashville last night with a remarkable opening performance before a capacity crowd in Andrew Jackson Hall? The critical raves, audience adulation and awards for the recent Broadway revival of the Caribbean-influenced musical were enough to attract ticket-buyers, to be certain, but the sheer artistry of the production and its amazingly talented cast will be more than enough to propel the company forward on their cross-country tour where, we suspect, the accolades will continue to be bestowed upon the heartfelt and authentic story.

For audience members who saw Once On This Island during its recent Tony Award-winning revival on Broadway, actress Tamyra Gray has some pointers in regard to the show's national tour, which launches tonight at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center: a?oeThere's a new set-up,a?? she explains. a?oeSince we are no longer in the round, our set has been restructured and it's really, really cool: It's like you've walked into this village and you're watching events unfold.a??

Elizabeth Caballero's captivating performance as the tragic romantic heroine Cio Cio San, the titular lead of Puccini's classic opera Madame Butterfly, is so breathtakingly, so exquisitely heartbreaking that she alone is enough to make the 2019-20 season opening production from Nashville Opera a triumph, but director John Hoomes surrounds her with a cast of equally impressive singers who bring the romantic tragedy to life with such vigor and style that any of them might serve as reason enough for audiences to take note.