Arthur Laurents News

The Farmington Players Present GYPSY April 30 through May 22 at the Barn Theatre. The production is directed by Jason Wilhoite, with musical direction by Rachel Rose and choreography by Allison Soranno.

The Jermyn Street Theatre in London will revive the musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE as a part of its 2010 season. The production will run March 10th through April 17th, 2010. The show will feature a team of musical direction and arrangements by Tom Attwood, design by Morgan Large, and will be directed by Tom Littler.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is thrilled to present Opus, a New England Premiere by Michael Hollinger. Opus opens for the press on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 7:30pm and plays through Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

The cover artwork has been release for Patti LuPone: A Memoir. Now listed on Amazon.com are the hardcover and audiobook CD versions of Patti LuPone: A Memoir, by Harmony Books.

This week, continuing our show-by-show analysis of the entire canon of Stephen Sondheim's theatre scores, we are taking a listen to the various cast recordings of that other legendary musical Sondheim helped to create early in his career, a show which is currently wowing them every night in its hit revival at the Broadway Theatre, WEST SIDE STORY.

Angela Lansbury will receive the Stephen Sondheim Award in Washington this Monday. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Lansbury said she had never even considered performing in musicals until being approached by Arthur Laurents and Sondheim for Gypsy.

Tony nominee Alison Fraser will join Broadway and television personality Julie Halston at Manhattan's premier club Birdland (315 West 44th Street, NYC) on Sunday, April 11 at 6pm for 'The Cocktail Hour, A Reality Show.' This concert is part of the award-winning concert series, 'Broadway at Birdland.'

ANYONE CAN WHISLTE is an experimental satire that takes aim at every target on the American cultural scene of the moment-conformity, psychology, race relations, greed, religion and politics. It divided the critics, thrilled the emerging counter-culture, baffled the masses, and became an instant legend-one that has grown over the years along with Sondheim's reputation. The title song and 'With So Little to Be Sure Of' have survived as cabaret classics, but the rarely heard complete score is a riot of jazzy, show-biz razzmatazz, waltzes, gospel numbers and Broadway pastiche, as full of variety and surprise as the show that gave birth to it.

Lakewood Theatre Company will celebrate its 58th anniversary season with six productions beginning July 16, 2010.

Indiana University Opera Theater will close its 2009-10 season with Leonard Bernstein's timeless West Side Story April 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. in Bloomington's Musical Arts Center. The production, presented at the one-year anniversary of a major gift by the Bernstein family to the Jacobs School of Music, will be conducted by guest Rob Fisher, with sets and costumes designed by Jacobs Professor C. David Higgins.

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Tony nominee Alison Fraser will join Broadway and television personality Julie Halston at Manhattan's premier club Birdland (315 West 44th Street, NYC) on Sunday, April 11 at 6pm for 'The Cocktail Hour, A Reality Show.' This concert is part of the award-winning concert series, 'Broadway at Birdland.'

PlayhouseSquare announces today its entire seven-show line-up for the thrilling 2010 - 2011 KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare. The series entertains hundreds of thousands each season and is largely responsible for making the not-for-profit PlayhouseSquare a thriving destination and economic engine for downtown Cleveland.

Today, Hennepin Theatre Trust announced a stellar 2010/11 Broadway Across America-Minneapolis Season showcasing a six-show slate of some of the nation's best new touring musicals combined with returning favorites, all scheduled to play the Trust's Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

Donna Murphy, star of the upcoming production of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE at City Center, recently sat down with the New York Daily News to discuss her feeling on the production and her upcoming Disney film.

Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose will perform in a concert reading of THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall. The reading will take place at 7:30 PM on April 3 at the Independence Community College as a part of the William Inge Theatre Festival. Chay Yew will direct.

The Cardinal Group's proction of HATE MAIL, a play by BILL CORBETT and KIRA OBOLENSKY, will close on April 2 at the 45th Street Theatre, located at 354 W. 45 St. in the heart of New York City's Times Square.

Donna Murphy, Sutton Foster and Raúl Esparza will star in Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents' Anyone Can Whistle, the final New York City Center Encores! production of the 2009-2010 season. Anyone Can Whistle, running for five performances April 8 - 11, will be directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw with musical direction by Rob Berman.

Indiana University Opera Theater will close its 2009-10 season with Leonard Bernstein's timeless West Side Story April 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. in Bloomington's Musical Arts Center. The production, presented at the one-year anniversary of a major gift by the Bernstein family to the Jacobs School of Music, will be conducted by guest Rob Fisher, with sets and costumes designed by Jacobs Professor C. David Higgins.

This week, both in memory of the real-life Baby June, June Havoc, who passed away this week, as well as a precursory introduction to a multi-part series critiquing the entire canon of all major Sondheim cast albums available in anticipation of the late April opening of the new review SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM (currently in previews at Studio 54), we are taking a listen to the various cast recordings of the major productions on Broadway/West End of GYPSY over the last fifty years. GYPSY was, of course, one of the first scores on Broadway boasting lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and whether a leading lady the likes of Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters or Patti LuPone, it is a score unlike any other before or since and a true pinnacle of not only musical theatre, but all theatre, on Broadway and beyond. Some may even say the greatest musical of all...