Andrew Jackson News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! We'd like to wish a happy first performance to Hannah Corneau who is making her Broadway debut in the role of Elphaba in Wicked, beginning tonight! Break a leg, Hannah!

Rehearsals are now underway for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann. Moulin Rouge! The Musical will begin performances on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on June 28, 2019 ahead of a July 25 opening night.

The June 2020 release of the filmed production of Jeamarie Simpson's HERETIC, timed for the 350th Anniversary of Mary Dyer's execution, has just been announced. Although the premiere is a year away, it seems fitting that, coinciding with Mother's Day and the abiding relevance of issues related to free speech, we offer an exclusive interview with the author about the work and the person ('the mother of the First Amendment), conducted by her associate, Shannon Cain.

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theater of California, is pleased to announce that casting is complete for Gather: Surprising Stories & Other Mischief.  Academy and Tony Award Nominee John C. Reilly and an amazing ensemble of actors will craft a spirited evening of Story Theater, which Reilly has created with Patrick Murphy, who will also direct. The production will play Friday, May 24 through Saturday, June 22, in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre of the Pasadena Playhouse.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

The Alley Theatre and Interim Artistic Director James Black, announce the cast and crew of the 2018-19 Season finale production of Ken Ludwig's The Three Musketeers, adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. Mark Shanahan (Alley's Holmes and Watson, The 39 Steps) returns to direct a cast of 14, which includes Alley Resident Acting Company members, Alley favorites, and artists making their Alley debut. Ken Ludwig's The Three Musketeers runs May 31-June 30, 2019 in the Alley's Hubbard Theatre. Tickets are available at alleytheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at 713.220.5700.

The Al Hirschfeld Theatre box office opens today, Monday, May 6, for tickets to Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann. Moulin Rouge! The Musical will begin performances on June 28, 2019 ahead of a July 25 opening night.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, concludes its 2018-19 season with the Tony-winning rock 'n' roll tribute, Million Dollar Quartet. The production will be performed in the company's intimate home at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square, May 3-26, 2019. GLT's production of Million Dollar Quartet will feature a number of Broadway actors from shows such as Monty Python's Spamalot, Hello Dolly!, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Anything Goes and more playing the iconic quartet and supporting roles. Tony-Winning Broadway star, Hunter Foster, directs.

Next month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

The CMA Foundation, a national music education nonprofit and the philanthropic arm of the Country Music Association, held its fourth annual Music Teachers of Excellence event on Tuesday, April 30, honoring 30 music educators from across the country for their exemplary work. The invite-only program was livestreamed from Marathon Music Works in Nashville. 

It only takes a moment to realize that composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, aided and abetted by book writer Michael Stewart (with an able assist from Thornton Wilder), knew exactly what he was doing when he created the classic Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!: put together a star vehicle for a quintessential theater diva, surround her with characters both irascible and lovable, then give them all a score that's delightfully hummable and danceable and a script that's appealingly daft, maybe even a little goofy.

Broadway's pit orchestra musicians are some of the most passionate, hardworking, and talented people around! In his first NYC show as band leader this Saturday, April 27th, bassist Dave D'aranjo will curate a high-energy, groovy evening of Contemporary Musical Theater at The Green Room 42, featuring fourteen incredible performers; rising stars from both on - and below - the stage.

For Analisa Leaming, playing Irene Molloy in the national touring company of Hello, Dolly! - which heads to Nashville next week for an eight-performance run at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall - there are more reasons than usual to be exhilarated and excited for an impending opening night in a new city and venue.

David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, a tale of obsession, perception and the allure of fantasy, will conclude South Coast Repertory's 2018-19 season. Hwang's break-out hit-a Tony Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist-is about more than steamy seduction and fantasy; inspired by a true account, it's a compelling story of espionage, East-West relations and betrayal. Desdemona Chiang, in her SCR debut, directs the show on the Segerstrom Stage, May 11-June 8. Tickets are available online at www.scr.org.

Today, the Nederlander Organization and Hollywood Pantages Theatre announced the nominees for THE 8TH ANNUAL JERRY HERMAN AWARDS, a celebration of the achievement and excellence in high school musical theatre in Los Angeles.

East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District presents Flavors on the Avenue street festival on Sunday, April 28, 2019, from 11:00am to 5:00pm. The city's first big food festival of the spring will feature five blocks of street food, seasonal sips, craft beer, live music, sidewalk sales and free family fun - on East Passyunk Avenue from Broad to Dickinson streets. Over twenty-four award-winning restaurants, cafes and bars will bring their signature cuisine outside under the blue skies. Craft beer, signature cocktails and wine will pour from select restaurants outdoors, as well as inside the Founders Brewing Co. Tasting Tent. East Passyunk Flavors on the Avenue is free to attend and open to all ages. Food will be specially priced between $3.00 and $6.00 (average) and be pay-as-you-go from individual restaurants.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture by Baz Luhrmann, will begin performances on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on June 28, 2019 ahead of a July 25 opening night.

Nashville audiences will be treated to premieres of Tony Award winners Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton, along with revivals of Once On This Island and My Fair Lady, during the upcoming 2019-20 Broadway at TPAC series, which was revealed last night by TPAC president and CEO Kathleen O'Brien - her final season reveal following a storied 30-year career at the performing arts center - in Andrew Jackson Hall.

Nathan Lee Graham (Zoolander, "LA to Vegas") Nadia Quinn (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Josh Sharp (Comedy Central's "The Opposition"), and Phillip Taratula ("The Outs") have joined the cast of Justin Sayre's camp-horror-soap-opera Ravenswood Manor at JOE'S PUB on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at 9:30 PM. After premiering at the venue last fall, Ravenswood Manor will be continued with episodes 7 thru 9 on Saturday, and episodes 10 through 12 on Sunday.

Playwrights Horizons announces today its 2019/20 season, featuring new works from Jaclyn Backhaus (Men On Boats, India Pale Ale), Will Arbery (Plano, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing), Lucas Hnath (The Christians; A Doll's House, Part 2), Michael Friedman (Mr. Burns, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) & Daniel Goldstein (Row, Unknown Soldier), Sylvia Khoury (Against the Hillside, The Place Women Go),and Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play, 'Daddy').