Arthur Laurents News

Tony Award Winner and current star of My Fair Lady, Laura Benanti, is hopping across the pond to perform a concert at London's Cadogan Hall. Known for her performances on Broadway in Gypsy, She Loves Me, and Meteor Shower, this concert will be her first performance in London.

Everything's coming up roses this week because the original production of the legendary musical GYPSY is celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its opening night! To celebrate, we're looking back at the opening night of Broadway's most recent revival in 2008 starring Patti LuPone in the iconic role of Mama Rose. Check out the video to see our chat with LuPone, Laura Benanti, Boyd Gaines, and more!

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story announced today that acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be guiding the baton for the film's recording of Leonard Bernstein's iconic score.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), will host a conversation entitled 'Producing Theatre for an Ageless Audience', moderated by Linda Hartzell, SDC Foundation Trustee and Artistic Director Emerita of Seattle Children's Theatre, with luminary directors Mark Brokaw and Marcia Milgrom Dodge and playwright Timothy Allen McDonald on Monday May, 20, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 PM at SDC, 321 W. 44th St., Suite 804.

"West Side Story" in Concert is set for May 18 and 19 in the Stephenson Amphitheatre at RLT. This concert version of Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's musical will feature musicians of the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra with Zach Meeker as Tony and Alyssa White as Maria. Full bios for Zach and Maria

Acclaimed Broadway performer Corey Cott and rising star Mikaela Bennett will headline Lyric Opera of Chicago's premiere of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's groundbreaking American musical West Side Story, presented from May 3 - June 2, 2019 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago (press opening May 4, 2019).

There are few musicals with as prominent a place in the American theatrical canon as 'Gypsy'*. It's a big musical, meant for a proscenium stage, and while the Contemporary has mounted a creditable production, their attempt to fit it into a smaller theatre has not been entirely successful.

Everything's coming up roses this spring at The Contemporary Theater Company! The company will perform the classic musical Gypsy April 12 - May 11.

George Street Playhouse is set to open its 2019-20 season in its new home, the state-of-the-art New Brunswick Performing Center this October, marking a new era in the theater's esteemed history of bringing world-class productions to New Jersey audiences. The theater's longtime Artistic Director David Saint will be this week's special guest on the popular WPKN Radio (89.5 FM) program 'State of the Arts" tomorrow (Friday) at 12:10 pm. The show can be heard online at www.wpkn.org.

The much-anticipated Broadway revival of West Side Story is continuing its nationwide search for actors to fill the roles of Maria and Anita. Directed by Ivo van Hove and choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the production is seeking actors who authentically identify as Latina for the roles. The breakdown is as follows:

Opera Australia, GWB Entertainment and BB Group production of WEST SIDE STORY has opened in Melbourne to rave reviews. This stunning production, currently playing at Arts Centre Melbourne, will then embark on an international tour giving this young, vibrant cast the opportunity of a lifetime as they tour to Wellington Opera House; then onto three German cities including the Musical Dome, Cologne; State Opera Berlin (Staatsoper Unter den Linden) and Semperoper, Dresden. The company then open on 16 August at Sydney Opera House and finish with tour to Canberra Theatre and Adelaide Festival Theatre.

Lake Worth Playhouse has announced its 2019/20 season!

George Street Playhouse will open its inaugural 2019-20 season in its new home, the state-of-the-art New Brunswick Performing Center, this October, marking a new era in the theater's esteemed history of bringing world-class productions to New Jersey audiences.

A new StageAround production of the legendary musical West Side Story will debut at IHI Stage Around Tokyo, Japan in August 2019. West Side Story, a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim based on a conception of Jerome Robbins, will be directed by David Saint with choreography restaged by Julio Monge, who recently staged an outdoor production of West Side Story in Sydney, Australia.

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is ending its smash hit 2018/19 season with an iconic American musical that's impossible not to love: West Side Story.

As I'm going through all my Gypsy CDs (yes, to ensure I have them all either on my hard drive or accessible in the cloud, before throwing them out), I'm finding myself weirdly most drawn to Tyne Daly's recording, from her Tony-winning performance in the 1989 revival. The thing is I know Tyne Daly, I mean I know her work. She's been a familiar and distinctive presence on stage and screen for as long as I can remember and I even have a few musical theater recordings featuring her singing, but hers is not a singing voice I live with on a LITERALLY daily basis like, say, Ethel Merman's, Angela Lansbury's, Bette Midler's, Bernadette Peters's or Patti LuPone's. So to me, Tyne Daly's Rose is a unique sound that I can only identify with Tyne Daly's Rose and, therefore, a character. For today, that's the Gypsy I most feel like listening to.

The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC), City of New Brunswick, and George Street Playhouse today announced The Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theater and The Arthur Laurents Theater named after two George Street Playhouse benefactors. The $7.75 million in gifts, the largest in George Street Playhouse history, strengthens NBPAC as the premier center for the performing arts. NBPAC, a $172 million redevelopment initiative that will transform New Brunswick's Downtown Cultural Arts District, opens its doors to the public this fall.

In 2017, the Broadway musical version of Anastasia (which opened at Hartford Stage nice months earlier), based on the 1997 film, featuring music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally debuted to much fanfare, and now Nashville audiences are in the thrall of the cast and crew of the national touring company, onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, March 24.

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is ending its smash hit 2018/19 season with an iconic American musical that's impossible not to love: West Side Story. And it's almost sold out!

One of the most celebrated musicals of all time, WEST SIDE STORY will play a limited season at Adelaide Festival Centre this year.