Betty Comden News

Bill Hanney's award-winning North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) continues the 2018 Musical Season with the family favorite musical, PETER PAN, set to take flight beginning on Tuesday, July 10 and playing through Sunday, July 22.

In July, The Village Light Opera Group will present On The Twentieth Century at the Riverside Theatre (91 Claremont Avenue).

What would you do if you met someone who had never seen a musical before? They have no concept of what goes into it - the dance breaks, the big ensemble numbers, the balance of humor and pathos. The Noel S. Ruiz Theatre's production 'On the Town' would be the perfect production to display what it means to be a musical. Although it teeters on the cliche at times, the production value and the performances make up for the sometimes flawed piece.

The New York Times has reported that Allyn Ann McLerie, star of stage and screen, has died at 91. She rose to attention on Broadway at age 21 in Where's Charley? before becoming a familiar star of film and television. Her daughter Iya Gaynes Falcone Brown said the cause of her mother's death was Alzheimer's disease.

There's forecasted rain at the Omaha Community Playhouse as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN opens for a June run.

Goodspeed favorite and Broadway alumni William Parry will join the cast of the spring hit The Will Rogers Follies in the role of Clem Rogers. This marks Mr. Parry's sixth Goodspeed production, having appeared previously in The Circus in Winter,High Button Shoes, The Gig, Good Sports and Blanco!. His Broadway credits include Groundhog Day, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George, Camelot and Jesus Christ Superstar, to name a few.

Virginia's Signature Theatre opens its air-conditioned doors once again for the annual Sizzlin' Summer Nights Series. Two and a half weeks of live music and performances by Signature favorites and DC area stars. The cabaret series runs July 19 through August 4, with a different performance every night.

Musical Theatre West's (MTW) Reiner Staged Reading Series (RRS) returns with Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green's Do Re Mi, Sunday, June 3, 7pm at the Beverly O'Neill Theater.  Tickets are now on sale at the MTW Ticket Office, by calling (562) 856-1999, ext. 4, online at www.musical.org, or at the Musical Theatre West Ticket Office.  Advance general admission tickets for each performance are $27 ($32 on the day of the performance).  Seating is general admission, with priority access for Reiner Staged Reading Subscribers.

The Hale Centre Theatre in Gilbert continues its tradition of "Powerhouse Musicals, Hilarious Comedies, and Family Friendly Shows" with its 16th season beginning in August.

Today, Saturday, May 19th, BroadwayWorld is going behind the scenes of WAITRESS on our Instagram!

The York Theatre Company will honor Five-time Tony Award-winning musical theatre director/choreographer Susan Stroman (Crazy for You) with the 2018 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre at the 27th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala to be held on Monday evening, November 12, 2018.

Porchlight Music Theatre concludes its fifth season of Chicago's "lost" musicals in staged concert series with Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi, starring Porchlight Music Theatre's Artistic Director Michael Weber and Nancy Voigts, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and book by Garson Kanin, with direction and choreography by Christopher Pazdernik and musical direction by David Fiorello. Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi is presented for three-nights-only Tuesday, May 22 through Thursday, May 24 at 7:15 p.m. and is performed on the set of Porchlight's Memphis (previews begin April 19) at Porchlight's new home, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.

Singin' In The Rain, the classic Tony nominated musical based on the wildly famous MGM film, is certainly a must see among theatre attendees. With a Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Greene and Music by Naico Herb Brown & Arthur Freedes, the incarnation at Northport's John W. Engeman Theatre will surely have you leaving the theatre with a smile. Running through July 1st, closing out their dazzling 11th season, the delightful incarnation is strongly directed by Engeman vet Drew Humphrey.

The Muny announced today its full cast, design and production teams for the theater's opening centennial season show, Jerome Robbin's Broadway. In its first production ever in the world since its original Broadway and national tour productions, Jerome Robbins' Broadway will run June 11 - 17.

Porchlight Music Theatre concludes its fifth season of Chicago's "lost" musicals in staged concert series with Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi, starring Porchlight Music Theatre's Artistic Director Michael Weber and Nancy Voigts, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and book by Garson Kanin, with direction and choreography by Christopher Pazdernik and musical direction by David Fiorello.

As a major highlight of its summer-long celebration, June 15-September 2, of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth, Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Lenox, MA, has programmed several fully staged and semi-staged productions of Leonard Bernstein's work written for the stage, featuring several Tony Award-winning Broadway performers, choreographers, and directors.

It's as cute as a puppy using a Teddy Bear as a pillow.

In silent movies, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a hot item but, behind the scenes, things aren't always as they appear on the big screen! Meanwhile, Lina's squeaky voice might be the end of her career in "talking pictures" without the help of a talented young actress to do the talking and singing for her. 

In July, The Village Light Opera Group will present On The Twentieth Century at the Riverside Theatre (91 Claremont Avenue).

Every once in a while, a person is born who is destined to influence the world in ways yet to be seen. Sometimes these men and women are born into a position of power, such as a king or queen, and other times they do whatever it takes to become great and powerful business or political leaders on the backs of others. But once in a blue moon there comes a man who gains fortune and fame for simply being someone who people connect with, who speaks the truth, and who does his best to make the world a better place than he left it. One such man is the sage from Oologah ,Oklahoma, William Penn Adair Rogers. As time passes, fewer and fewer people are alive who had first-hand experience reading Will Rogers' column, listening to him on the radio, or seeing his films. It is for that reason, that we are lucky a show like THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES exists, and even luckier that Goodspeed Musicals chose it for the opening production of its 2018 season. Telling his life story over the course of a Ziegfeld follies extravaganza (another thing that many today have no memory of), this dazzling, colorful, and heartwarming musical takes audiences on a journey from rags to riches with America's "Cowboy Philosopher".