Arin Arbus News

The Drama League has announced the twelve stage directors who have been selected as the 2019 Directing Fellows of The Drama League Directors Project: NJ Agwuna, Sharifa Elkady, Raz Golden, Chika Ike, Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly, Ismael Lara, Jr., Amanda McRaven, Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Ben Randle, Tai Thompson, Gabriel Torres, and Sophia Watt. They will be publicly introduced to the professional theatre community during the 85th Annual Drama League Awards, which will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway). More information can be found at www.dramaleague.org

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Happy Friday! Finish off your week by catching up on the latest Broadway news!

The new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Audra McDonald and two-time Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon, directed by Obie Award winner Arin Arbus, will play the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) on Broadway. Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune will begin previews on Saturday, May 4, 2019 and open officially on Thursday, May 30, 2019. The strictly limited 16-week engagement concludes on Sunday, August 25, 2019. Check out a just-released photo of McDonald and Shannon below!

The Drama League's 2019 Spring Charity Auction has launched, featuring more than twenty once-in-a-lifetime prize packages.

On this morning's episode of TODAY on NBC, Audra McDonald stopped by to talk about the latest season of the CBS All Access series she stars in, 'The Good Fight.' During the interview, she talked about how she'd love to have a musical episode of the series, but that she's gotten to sing on the series. Al Roker then went to ask McDonald about her upcoming return to Broadway in FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE. McDonald tells TODAY that she is 'very excited to do that.'

Producers Hunter Arnold, Debbie Bisno and Tom Kirdahy have just announces that the new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Audra McDonald and two-time Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon, directed by Obie Award winner Arin Arbus, will play the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) on Broadway.

As with most tales of doomed romance, Giuseppe Verdi's LA TRAVIATA highlights the contrasts between two social spheres and the difficulties faced by lovers who try to bridge this chasm. In this 1853 opera, based on a play by Alexandre Dumas, fils, the beautiful courtesan Violetta Valery (Albina Shagimuratova) tries to escape her past life among the hedonistic upper classes of Paris to settle down with her true love, Alfredo Germont (Giorgio Berrugi). After a brief period of bliss, the couple is driven apart by the strict bourgeois morality of Alfredo's family, in particular his father, who refuses to overlook Violetta's shameful past until she is on her deathbed.

Lyric Opera of Chicago's fever-dream staging of Arin Arbus's production of Giuseppe Verdi's perennially popular La traviata opens Saturday, February 16 at 7:30pm, with ten performances through March 22 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available now at lyricopera.org/Traviata or by calling 312-827-5600.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! First, we'd like to wish a happy opening night to the company of True West!

In celebration of four-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally's 80th birthday, producers Hunter Arnold, Debbie Bisno and Tom Kirdahy announce a new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Audra McDonald and two-time Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon, directed by Obie Award winner Arin Arbus.

Violetta Valry is a courtesan who can have everything she desires except lasting happiness. Love is found, lost, and reclaimed too late in Verdi's most cherished opera.

Theatre for a New Audience presents About Alice, the world premiere of a new play by Calvin Trillin, inspired by his 2007 memoir of the same name. The production, directed by Leonard Foglia, plays January 8-February 3, 2019 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn). 

Theatre for a New Audience presents About Alice, the world premiere of a new play by Calvin Trillin, inspired by his 2007 memoir of the same name. The production, directed by Leonard Foglia, plays January 8-February 3, 2019 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn). 

The 2017-2019 Lab Culminates with Free Presentations from Collaborative Partners Shayok Misha Chowdhury & Virginia Grise, Ann Marie Dorr & Paul Ketchum, Jen Goma & Kristine Haruna Lee, Raja Feather Kelly & Daaimah Mubashshir, and Julia Mounsey & Peter Mills Weiss

Can a musical drama set on a grim WW I battlefield make an audience feel good? Those working on the San Diego Opera's staging of All Is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914 are certain it can. The work tells the true story of the spontaneous unofficial truce between WWI enemies who left their trenches and entered the no-man's land between them to join in a celebration of the Christmas holidays. Peter Rothstein wrote the drama for his Minneapolis-based company Theatre Latte Da, and based it on material from the period, the most important of which is the verbatim text of letters and war journals written by soldiers who participated in the truce.  The cast sings many songs popular during the war and a few traditional Christmas carols. All were arranged by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, and are sung a cappella in the English, German and French languages of the soldiers. Vanessa Dinning has taken on the challenge of coaching in nearly 20 different dialects.

The American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice announce that the 64th Annual Obie Awards will be held on Monday, May 20, 2019 at Terminal 5 (610 West 56th Street). Additional information will be announced shortly.

92Y's Unterberg Poetry Center will present a reading of an abridged version of Philip Roth's critically-acclaimed novel, The Plot Against America, on Sunday, October 28 at 1 pm. Featured readers include Ayad Akhtar, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle, Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Marvel, Maggie Siff and John Turturro, among others.   

92Y's Unterberg Poetry Center will present a reading of an abridged version of Philip Roth's critically-acclaimed novel, The Plot Against America, on Sunday, October 28 at 1 pm. Featured readers include Ayad Akhtar, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle, Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Marvel, Maggie Siff and John Turturro, among others.   

La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for Hundred Days, book by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, music and lyrics by The Bengsons, directed by Anne Kauffman, with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh. Nominated for a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award, Hundred Days runs in the Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum September 22 - October 21.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced at its annual meeting today that its 2017-18 season, dramatically relocated after Hurricane Harvey, closed on a strong financial footing despite nearly $15 million of losses due to the storm and related costs. Lower sales income than in previous seasons was significantly offset by a Harvey recovery fundraising campaign that has raised more than $9.5 million to date. HGO presented its entire 63rd season in the HGO Resilience Theater, a temporary venue the company built in Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center after its home in the Wortham Theater Center was seriously damaged by flooding. The company will return to the Wortham in the fall with a gala benefit concert featuring Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez on September 26.