Baz Luhrmann News

Deadline writes that Jimmy Smits will star in Baz Lurhmann's upcoming Netflix series THE GET DOWN.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? This weekend's big news: NICE GIRL and THE QUALMS begin off-Broadway, and Al Hirschfeld's work is on view in NYC!

A new 'musical spectacular' featuring a unique tribute to Academy Award-nominated director Baz Luhrmann is set to take up residency at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay.

Iconic founding father of hip hop Grandmaster Flash will serve as associate producer and advisor on Netflix original series THE GET DOWN from creator Baz Luhrmann.

Peter Landgren, dean and Thomas James Kelly professor of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), has appointed leading Broadway producer Kevin McCollum to the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor. McCollum's initial appointment will be for three years and will become effective in August of 2015.

The complete cast and creative team have been announced for The Old Globe production of William Shakespeare's delightful and romantic Twelfth Night. Rebecca Taichman, whose production of the time-traveling Time and the Conways fascinated audiences last April, is back to direct the first show of the 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival. The Old Globe engagement will begin performances on June 21 and run through July 26, 2015, with opening night on Saturday, June 27 at 8:00 p.m., in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

The Muny announced today its complete cast for Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine's (book) Into The Woods, playing July 21-27. The production will be directed by Gary Griffin, choreographed by Chris Bailey and music directed by Brad Haak.

Internationally-renowned performer Alfie Boe will return to Broadway to star as 'Jean Valjean' in Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new Broadway production of Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil's Les Miserables, now in its second year at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street). Boe begins performances in Les Miserables Tuesday, September 1. Tony Award nominee Ramin Karimloo will give his final performance as Valjean on Sunday, August 30. Boe made his Broadway debut as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann's acclaimed production La Boheme, for which he and his co-stars received a special Tony Award in 2003 for their performances.

The Muny announced today several principal cast members for the seven shows in its spectacular 97th season, which opens on June 15 with My Fair Lady. Full casts and companies will be announced throughout May.

Totem Pole Playhouse, Pennsylvania's premiere summer stock theatre located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, has announced the casting for the theatre's 65th Anniversary summer season. Included in the casts will be the star of a current, long-running CBS television series, a star from one of the classic TV sitcoms of the 1970s and '80s, a Tony Award-winning, internationally-acclaimed baritone, and a veteran stage actor offering his final performance in his one-man show directed by an Oscar Award-winning director. Franklin County Visitors Bureau is the season's sponsor.

After selling out an often-extended Off-Broadway run in 2013 (which attracted the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Joan Rivers, and RuPaul), a national tour, a 3-month Australian tour (with a nomination for the Aussie equivalent of a Tony Award), and a summer run in Provincetown, RuPaul's Drag Race favorite Jinkx Monsoon will return to New York with the World Premiere of THE VAUDEVILLIANS: BRINGING UP BABY, a new musical comedy co-starring composer and musician Major Scales. Previews of this 6-week limited Off-Broadway engagement begins May 21 at The Laurie Beechman Theatre with opening set for Sunday, May 31 at 1pm.

Cape Town Opera in collaboration with the UCT Opera School present perennial opera favourite LA TRAVIATA, with multiple casts of talented young students sporting vintage 1900-inspired costumes in Giuseppe Verdi's emotional masterpiece.

PS122's 2015 Spring Gala celebrates homecomings by honoring actor and dancer Claire Danes, whose history with PS122 includes her 1985 performance debut at the age of six along with critically acclaimed dance pieces in 2005 and 2007. In addition, New York City Council Member Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer will receive the Shining Star Award for his unwavering dedication to New York City arts and culture.

Following on the heels of Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet), Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) and Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby), Baz Luhrmann has discovered his new leading lady, who will make her acting debut in The Get Down, Luhrmann's new Netflix Original Series set to debut in 2016.

Baz Luhrmann's new Netflix Original Series, The Get Down, has cast its first four young male leads, a rag tag group of teenagers who are wild in the streets of the Bronx in the late 70's.

Folger Theatre and the Capitol Riverfront BID celebrate Shakespeare's birthday this April with three free screenings of some of the most beloved film adaptations of the Bard. From April 24 through April 26, free screenings of Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, and Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew will begin at sundown, between 7:30 and 8pm each night. Actors from Folger Theatre's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (on stage May 12 through June 21) will be present to introduce the screenings and area vendors will be on hand to provide refreshments. Bard in the Yards represents an exciting collaboration between Folger Theatre and the Capitol Riverfront BID in a burgeoning area just south of Capitol Hill.

The latest edition covered 1941 to 1965, featuring songs from Oklahoma, Carousel, Finian's Rainbow, Kiss Me Kate, The Pajama Game, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Oliver!, Hello Dolly, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and more. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights from the evening below!

THOMAS DEKKER, star of Backstrom on Fox-TV will join RuPaul's Drag Race sensation JINKX MONSOON and San Francisco drag legend PEACHES CHRIST in the New York Premiere of RETURN TO GRAY GARDENS, a theatrical comedy that pays homage to the acclaimed documentary film 'Grey Gardens'.

Scott Siegel, creator/writer/host of Town Hall's (123 West 43 Street and 6th Avenue) Broadway by the Year, continues the critically acclaimed series that has been lovingly hailed as a success by Variety,Time Out New York and virtually every other theatrical paper, magazine and internet site in New York City. Over four concerts this season, Broadway by the Year will cover a century of Broadway history with over one hundred musical stars singing (and often dancing!) the songs that made the Great White Way great.

After a completely sold out six week run in Los Angeles, and recent 12 show sellout in Chicago, producers Shane Scheel and Siobhan O'Neill of Ad Astra Live are happy to announce that FOR THE RECORD: DEAR JOHN HUGHES at West Hollywood's DBA will extend through May 31.