Benj Pasek News

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will soon present Ben Platt (Pitch Perfect, The Book of Mormon) in the original world-premiere musical debuting this summer. The production, by Tony Award-nominated composing duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dogfight; A Christmas Story, The Musical) and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning playwright Steven Levenson(Masters of Sex), is directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (If/Then, Next to Normal, Rent) and will run July 10-August 23, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater. Below, go inside the rehearsal room with Platt and Laura Dreyfuss as they sing 'Only Us.'

The Growing Stage - The Children's Theatre of New Jersey, located in the Historic Palace Theatre on Route 183 in Netcong, New Jersey is proud to present its 34th Main Stage Season:

Adventure Theatre MTC, ATMTC, recent recipient of the TYA/USA Harold Oaks Award for significant contributions to the Theatre for Young Audiences field, is proud to announce its 64th Season featuring five main stage productions with four world premieres. The 64th Season offers a series of fresh and diverse stories exclusive to the ATMTC stage brought to life for young audiences by award-winning directors.

Cygnet Theatre will kick off its 13th season in July as director Sean Murray mounts the San Diego Premiere of Dogfight, a romantic and comic musical adaptation of the 1991 movie with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical in 2013, Dogfight represents the new generation of voices in musical theatre creation. The production runs July 16 - August 23. Opening night for media is July 25.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Jason Alexander comes home to Broadway, The Public fetes its founders in the park and more!

It's 1967 and a young Marine, returning from a life-changing experience in Vietnam, is on a bus bound for San Francisco, the site of his last hurrah in 1963: a momentous night before he shipped out for Okinawa in the company of friends and cohorts with whom he'd created a bond he thought would last forever. That initial scene in Dogfight – the hit off-Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a book by Peter Duchan, based upon a little-known movie of the same name that starred River Phoenix and Lili Taylor – serves as a gateway to the story of Eddie Birdlace and his fellow Marines and a winsome, idealistic young woman who left her imprint on his heart despite his best efforts to forget her.

Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, Dogfight, premiered off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre, and tells the story of three young Marines set out for one final boys' night of debauchery on the eve of their deployment. When Corporal Eddie Birdlace (Alex Ward) meets Rose (Hannah Quinn), an awkward and idealistic waitress, he enlists to win a cruel bet with his fellow recruits, but she rewrites the rules of the game and teaches him the power of love and compassion.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce two actors from Street Theatre Company's production of Dogfight - one of the most eagerly anticipated new musicals we've heard about in the past 25-plus years of covering Nashville/Tennessee theatre - and, judging from their answers to our five questions and our new 'bonus round' question, Audrey Johnson and Jens Jacobson are two names we think you'll be talking about in the coming months

Cathy Street, artistic director of Street Theatre Company, and Taylor Kelly, one of the actors in this production of Dogfight, took some time out of their schedules to answer some questions for us about this amazing production. Kelly is a new addition to the Nashville theatre community, having moved to Nashville right before rehearsals started on this production.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Our Tony Awards Viewing Party is Sunday night, and the non-Equity Jeffs are on Monday! Theo Ubique prepares its Marvin Hamlisch revue and announces next season, a whole bunch of new musicals get a hearing, and AMTP teaches songwriting. 'Murder Ballad' gets a reprise, 'Ring Of Fire' gets an extension, and bikinis and witches heat up June!

The American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University and The Johnny Mercer Foundation will celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project with 15 emerging professional songwriters from across the country, three award-winning master teachers and Mercer Songwriters Project alumni guests.

One of the fabulous things about living in the Washington, DC Metro Area is that opportunities to see theatre - and good theatre at that - exist throughout the year. The summer is no exception.

The students from the Warner Theatre Center for Arts Education Performance Lab are proud to present the new musical Dogfight in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre, this weekend, May 28-31, 2015.

Broadway's Ben Platt recently stunned a packed audience with a number from the new Pasek & Paul musical DEAR EVAN HANSEN prior to a special screening of PITCH PERFECT 2. Check out his performance below!

The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University will workshop and present a staged reading of the new musical "The Enlightenment of Percival von Schmootz" written by the Fred Ebb Award, Jonathan Larson Grant and Lorenz Hart Award-winning team Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond. 

The Omaha Community Playhouse is announcing its Alternative Programming series for the 2015-16 season. Alternative Programming includes a series of staged readings, special events and play development collaborations. All events are held at OCP.

The students from the Warner Theatre Center for Arts Education Performance Lab are proud to present the new musical Dogfight in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre, May 28-31, 2015.

World Premiere by Katori Hall examines the lives of four half-sisters and how they deal with the passing of their mother.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, announces the full cast and creative team for Dear Evan Hansen.

The Hayes Theatre Company announces Pasek and Paul's DOGFIGHT, opening tonight, May 1, through May 31.