Bobby Lopez News

The Kaufman Center has announced performers for its 'Broadway Close Up' series at Merkin Concert Hall.

Primary Stages, in association with Ted Snowdon, launched its 26th season with the New York premiere of SECRETS OF THE TRADE by Jonathan Tolins directed by Matt Shakman last night, August 10. The five-member cast features Amy Aquino as Joanne Lipman, Bill Brochtrup as Bradley, John Glover as Martin Kerner, Mark Nelson as Peter Lipman and Noah Robbins as Andrew Lipman.

The Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards will be broadcast from Las Vegas for the first time on June 27th, 2010 over the CBS Television Network. 'It is with great pleasure that the Daytime Emmy Awards returns to the CBS Network,' said Herb Granath, Chairman, NATAS. 'The Daytime Emmy Awards are one of the cornerstones of our business and this year's Las Vegas-based broadcast promises to be even more exciting.'

Today we are talking to Tony Award Special Honors Regional Theater Winner Preston Whiteway of the Eugene O'Neill Theater. We discuss the various plays and musicals begun there - NINE, AVENUE Q, IN THE HEIGHTS, the forthcoming TALES OF THE CITY by the Scissor Sisters, as well as the first plays by three-time Pultizer-prize winner August Wilson and much, much more! Michael Douglas will be presenting the award on Tony night as an accreditation to the legacy and accomplishment of the theater with particular, singular focus aimed at Mr. Whiteway himself. We also discuss the plays musicals on the horizon such as a new show by PASSING STRANGE's Stew and NEXT TO NORMAL's Tom Kitt.

Stephen Sondheim turned 80 on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 and he celebrated this landmark event with Roundabout Theatre Company at a special performance of Sondheim on Sondheim and star-studded tribute at Roundabout's 2010 Spring Gala: Sondheim 80.

AVENUE Q, the Tony Award-winning musical that has delighted and surprised theatergoers since it first arrived on Broadway in 2003, had another surprise in store when the musical's producers announced from the stage at the conclusion of the show's final Broadway performance at the John Golden Theatre (252 W. 45 St.) on September 13, 2009 that AVENUE Q will, in fact, move to a new address in the Times Square neighborhood and begin performances on October 9 at New World Stages (340 W. 50 St.). BroadwayWorld.com was there as the stunning news broke and our cameras caught the exciting moment.

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way. Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight. Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way. Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight. Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

SRT hosted its seventh annual benefit and cabaret event on November 17th at Birdland Jazz in Manhattan.

Infused with the familiar music of Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker,' Nickelodeon presents a contemporary twist on the holiday classic in the new The Wonder Pets! prime-time special, 'Save the Nutcracker!,' premiering Monday, Dec. 8, 8:00 - 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

SRT's Annual Benefit features Tony, Academy and Grammy Award-winning artists in 'Sonnet Sings: The Bard, An Evening of Original Songs Inspired by the Work of William Shakespeare.' 11/17

SRT's Annual Benefit features Tony, Academy and Grammy Award-winning artists in 'Sonnet Sings: The Bard, An Evening of Original Songs Inspired by the Work of William Shakespeare.' 11/17

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) concludes its fifth year which featured 24 full productions, a dance series, a developmental series, concerts and special events tonight 10/5th.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) celebrates its fifth year with 24 full productions, a dance series, a developmental series, concerts and special events.

The ASCAP Foundation will present this year's New York Musical Theatre Festival's Educational Series at Barnes and Noble Booksellers at Lincoln Triangle (1972 Broadway at 66th Street) on September 18th, 25th and October 2nd. The Educational Series provides an opportunity for audience members and aspiring theater artists to learn directly from industry professionals. All seminars are free of charge and made possible through the generous support of The ASCAP Foundation's Irving Caesar Trust.

The 35th Annual Creative Arts & Entertainment Daytime Emmy Awards were presented last night and Larry Hochman, the orchestrator for MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT, received an Emmy for his Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for Nickelodeon's 'The Wonder Pets!'

The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop is proud to announce the debut of The BMI Workshop Songbook Podcast, a podcast series of never-before-heard songs by members and alumni from the Tony honored workshop. The podcast can be accessed at www.bmi.com/fridayatfour

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) proudly announces the winners of its NYMF Awards for Excellence, selected by an independent jury from the 34 new musicals presented at the 2007 Festival.

The York Theatre Company presented 'NEO3,' a benefit concert celebrating emerging musical theatre writers tonight, on Monday, June 11th at its home in the Theatre at Saint Peter's

The York Theatre Company will present 'NEO3,' a benefit concert celebrating emerging musical theatre writers tonight, beginning at 6:00 pm at its home in the Theatre at Saint Peter's