Audra McDonald News

According to Nielsen, the premiere of 'A Raisin in the Sun' which aired 8-11PM on ABC-TV on Monday, February 25 succeeded in drawing-in viewers and adults 18-49, beating NBC in their 6-week winning streak, with 12.7 million viewers.

Composer and performer Jason Robert Brown and Lauren Kennedy will present a special one-night-only concert version of The Last Five Years, Brown's 2002 musical that won the Drama Desk Award for Best Music and Best Lyrics, with the original Off-Broadway orchestra, Monday, March 17, 2008 at 7PM.

The highly anticipated 'ABC World Premiere Movie Event: A Raisin in the Sun' is set to air on February 25th, 2008. BroadwayWorld.com brings you this special closer look video featuring interviews with the cast and creative plus scenes from the screen adaptation!

Actors' Equity Association's Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, as part of Black History Month, will present the First Annual Extraordinary Excellence in Diversity on Broadway Awards to last season's 110 in the Shade and Les Miserables on Monday, February 25, 2008 at a private reception.

On Tuesday, February 19, a special screening of the up-coming ABC TV Movie Event A Raisin in the Sun was held at the AMC Loews Theatre at Lincoln Center (67th Street).

On Friday February 29 at 8PM, for one night only at UCLA's Royce Hall, Tony Award-winners Audra McDonald and Sara Ramirez, and Loretta Devine, will headline Good Medicine - a musical event with the casts of television series 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Private Practice.'

The American Theatre Wing's SpringboardNYC, an intensive summer boot camp for aspiring theatre artists, is now seeking applications for the 2008 program, being held June 2-15.

The deadline for submitting scripts and materials for consideration for the New York Musical Theatre Festival's 2008 Next Link Project - the open-submission program that will select more than half of the three dozen new musicals at the 5th annual NYMF in the fall - has been extended one week to March 7. The 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival is scheduled to run from September 15 through October 5 at various venues throughout New York City

The American Theatre Wing announced it is now making its wealth of video and audio encompassing all aspects of the theatre available for free on iTunes U, an area of the iTunes Store dedicated to educational content.

It was recently announced that stage/screen actress Ruby Dee will receive the Chairman's Award at the 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards, which will be bestowed on Thursday, February 14 in Los Angeles and broadcast on FOX Television, according to Variety.

On Monday, February 4, the ABC Television Network and The New York Times presented a special screening and panel discussion at the Times Center in New York for the up-coming TV movie premiere of A Raisin in the Sun.

A Raisin in the Sun, the up-coming made-for-TV movie adapted from the recent Broadway revival production, premiered at the Eccles Theatre at the 208 Sundance Film Festival in Park Ckity, Utah on Wednesday January 23, 2008.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is pleased to announce the Grand Jury for this year's Next Link Project, the writer-service program whose 18 selections will comprise more than half of the musicals at the fifth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival, September 15 through October 5

The American Songbook, in its Broadway musical form, is often sung with varying degrees of interpretation from singers in nightclubs and symphony halls across the country, yet rarely has the genre sounded so regal as when the magnificent soprano Deborah Voigt lends her glorious vocal styling to the mix, as was the case Wednesday at UCLA's Royce Hall...

Ted Sperling has joined The Public as Director of The Musical Theater Initiative.

Roundabout Theatre Company officially opened the New York premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at the American Airlines Theatre

Roundabout Theatre Company officially opened the New York premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at the American Airlines Theatre

The 92nd Street Y opens the 2008 season of Lyrics & Lyricists, the Y's legendary American Songbook series, with 'It's Magic: The Lyrics of Sammy Cahn,' by artistic director Ted Sperling, who also serves as host.