Benj Pasek News

The 58th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street). The Awards show is written by Bill Rosenfield and directed by Jack Cummings III (co-founder and artistic director of Transport Group).

The Off-Broadway League today gave out awards in 14 categories and two additional special awards for the 2013 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards were handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at NYU Skirball Center, hosted by acclaimed stage and screen actors Aasif Mandvi and Maura Tierney. This year's event once again benefited The Actors Fund.

The Off-Broadway League previously announced award nominations in 14 categories and two additional special awards for the 2013 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out today, May 5, 2013 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00pm EST, and hosted by acclaimed stage and screen actors Aasif Mandvi and Maura Tierney. This year's event will once again benefit The Actors Fund.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will celebrate the new Ghostlight Records cast recording of Dogfight with a special concert at Joe's Pub at The Public on Wednesday, May 15 at 9:30 PM which will features performances by the original cast of the Second Stage Theatre production and other special guests. Tickets are $25 and on sale now at JoesPub.com. Pasek and Paul - along with Lindsay Mendez, Derek Klena and other original cast members - will also appear at an in-store performance and CD signing at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side (150 East 86th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues) on Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 PM. Please call (212) 369-2180 for details.

The producers of A Christmas Story, The Musical, including Peter Billingsley, who starred as Ralphie in the original 1983 film, are holding open auditions to find exceptionally talented kids for the upcoming 2013 production. Recently nominated for three 2013 Tony Awards including Best Musical,A Christmas Story, The Musical seeks young actors to play Ralphie, his friends and classmates, including: Randy, Flick, Schwartz, Scut Farcus, Grover Dill, Mary Beth, and Esther Jane.

I woke up early to watch the Tony nominations. The categories & nominees were announced so fast I could barely register the names, much less process a reaction or live tweet my thoughts! Now that I've had a couple of days to consider the list, here are my very preliminary thoughts about each of the main categories. (Part 1 of 2!)

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 67th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced on Tuesday at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM. Check out the full list here, and meet the nominees below!

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for THE 67th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS were announced today by stage and screen actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Tony Award-winning actress Sutton Foster at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement.

Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, nominated for BEST ORIGINAL SCORE for A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL

The Tony Award Nominations were just announced and we'll be doing analysis, nominee reactions, behind the scenes coverage and all sorts of other excitement ALL day.

Se acaban de anunciar las nominaciones de los Premios Tony 2013. Kinky Boots, el musical de Cindy Lauper y Harvey Fierstein, cuenta con 13 nominaciones seguido de Matilda con 12 y el revival de Pippin con 10.

Lauded musical theatre composing duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will join special guests for a one-night-only concert event at Joe's Pub on May 15 in support of the release of the Ghostlight recording of their new original cast album for DOGFIGHT.

Ghostlight Records will present the Original Cast Recording of the musical DOGFIGHT with a digital release today, April 30 and the CD in stores on May 21. The show - which debuted Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre last year - features music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (A Christmas Story), a book by Peter Duchan (IFC Films' Breaking Upwards) and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Wicked, Glengarry Glen Ross). DOGFIGHT is based on the Warner Bros. film and screenplay by Bob Comfort.

The Tony Award Nominations were just announced and we've got the complete list - show by show! The 67th Annual Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from Radio City Music Hall, on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 9, 2013.

The Tony Award Nominations were just announced and we've got the complete list! The 67th Annual Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from Radio City Music Hall, on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 9, 2013.

The 58th Annual Drama Desk awards will take place on May 19th at Town Hall and this morning, the nominees were announced!

Beginning performances on Tuesday, May 28, 2013, Lindsay Mendez will assume the role of Elphaba in the Broadway production of WICKED. Ms. Mendez has previously worked with both the composer and director of WICKED, having appeared in the 2011 Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz's Godspell, and, more recently, giving a breakout performance in the world premiere musical, Dogfight, staged by WICKED director Joe Mantello.

Dogfight, a musical based on the 1991 movie starring Lili Taylor and River Pheoniz, is the product of young brilliant minds who are up and comers in the theatre industry. The show follows the story of three marine's who have a 'Dogfight' - a competition to see who can bring the ugliest girl to a party. But, when 18-year-old Birdlace (Derek Klena ) asks out Rose (Lindsay Mendez), a plain-jane waitress, in efforts to win the competition, he ends up getting not at all what he expected.

The Drama League (Executive Director, Gabriel Shanks) has announced the 2013 Drama League Awards Nominees for Distinguished Play, Distinguished Revival of a Play, Distinguished Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Musical, and Distinguished Performance Award. The nominations were announced at a ceremony hosted by Patina Miller and Michael Urie this morning at Sardi's Restaurant which were streamed live online at www.BroadwayWorld.com.

Ghostlight Records will present the Original Cast Recording of the musical DOGFIGHT with a digital release on April 30 and the CD in stores on May 21. The show - which debuted Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre last year - features music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (A Christmas Story), a book by Peter Duchan (IFC Films' Breaking Upwards) and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Wicked, Glengarry Glen Ross). DOGFIGHT is based on the Warner Bros. film and screenplay by Bob Comfort. To pre-order the album, please visit www.sh-k-boom.com/dogfight.html.