Broadway Across America News

West Side Story returns to Broadway as it begins preview performances tonight, Monday, February 23, 2009, in a new production directed by its two-time Tony Award winning librettist Arthur Laurents. West Side Story will open at the Palace Theatre (1564 Broadway) on Thursday, March 19, 2009. The original Jerome Robbins choreography will be restaged by Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

WEST SIDE STORY returns to Broadway beginning performances Monday, February 23, 2009, in a new production directed by its two-time Tony Award winning librettist Arthur Laurents. WEST SIDE STORY will open at the Palace Theatre (1564 Broadway) on Thursday, March 19, 2009. The original Jerome Robbins choreography will be restaged by Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

The First National Tour of LEGALLY BLONDE The Musical and SunTrust Broadway Across America - Orlando are proud to announce the 'One ELLE of a Look-A-Like Contest' here in Orlando! Calling all Elle Woods hopefuls! Sorority star Elle Woods doesn't take 'no' for an answer. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone more 'serious,' Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and sets out to go where no Delta Nu has gone before: Harvard Law. Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style.

Nickelodeon and Broadway Across America are teaming up to bring 'Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys,' starring the world's most famous Latina explorer, to the Boston Opera House May 7 - 10, 2009 for 10 performances only. The last Dora 'Lost Toys' U.S. tour was seen by more than 1.2 million people during its 2003-2004 run. The 'Dora the Explorer Live!' shows have grossed more than $85 million in sales worldwide, traveled to more than 255 markets across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Southeast Asia and have been seen by 2.7 million kids and parents.

The LA Times has reported that the Orange County Performing Arts Center is expected to announce the establishment of a new theater development. This program will be the first 'completely staged developmental production' of the 'Broadway-hopeful' musical by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, called 'The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown.'

Nickelodeon and Broadway Across America are teaming up to bring 'Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys,' starring the world's most famous Latina explorer, to Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium from February 20-22.

This one day seminar focuses on prodviding a practical approach to developing new work through readings, workshops and showcases.

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, the most fantasmagorical Broadway musical in the history of everything, flies into Pittsburgh's Benedum Center beginning Tuesday, March 10, 2009, for eight performances only! Based on the timeless novel by famed James Bond author and creator Ian Fleming, the production features the music and lyrics by the legendary Sherman brothers, composers of Mary Poppins. The national tour features an original script and fresh adaptation directed by Ray Roderick.

Now celebrating eleven glorious years of girls, glitz and glamour across the country, the record-breaking smash hit musical CHICAGO is BACK IN TOWN and its PURE ENTERTAINMENT! Tickets for the St. Petersburg engagement of CHICAGO start at $40.00 andare on sale now. Tickets are available at the Progress Energy Center for the Arts - Mahaffey Theater box office (400 1st St S), Ticketmaster locations, by calling 800-982-2787 or online at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.

THE FIRST NATIONAL TOUR OF LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL will play eight performances at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre in Orlando March 10 - 15, 2009. Tickets range from $38.00 to $67.00 and go on sale Friday, January 23 at 10:00a.m. at the SunTrust Broadway Across America - Orlando Box Office, Amway Arena Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations. Online purchases can be made at www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com. To charge-by-phone call 1-800-982-2787.Group orders for 20 or more may be placed by calling (407) 423-9999 x17 or (800) 950-4647.

Tickets went on sale Friday, January 30 at 10:00 a.m. for the Orlando premiere engagement of JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing the Carr Performing Arts Centre May 6 - 24, 2009. Directed by two-time Tony ? Award-winner Des McAnuff, JERSEY BOYS won both the 2006 Tony ? Award for Best Musical and the 2006Grammy Award ? for Best Musical Recording, and continues to breakbox office records on Broadway and across North America. JERSEY BOYS is written by Academy Award ? -winner Marshall Brickmanand Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by BobCrewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

Rain covers the Fab Four from their very first Ed Sullivan Show appearance through the Abbey Road album, through the psychedelic late 60s and their long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days. Rain is a multi-media, multi-dimensional experience...a fusion of historical footage and hilarious television commercials from the 1960s lights up video screens and live cameras zoom in for close-ups.

L.A. Theatre Works, America's premier radio theater company, is back on the road, bringing two masterpieces of science fiction and adventure to performing arts centers and theatres across the country. War of the Worlds and The Lost World, which played last fall to great audience and critical acclaim, heads out on a seven-month national tour February 27 ? May 2, with a stop in Omaha, for one performance at the Holland Performing Arts Center?s Kiewit Concert Hall on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. John de Lancie ('Q' on Star Trek: The Next Generation) directs the double bill.

Avenue Q ? the three-time Tony Award? winning smash-hit Broadway musical about real life in New York City, is coming to Omaha?s Orpheum Theater. Avenue Q, as told by a cast of people and puppets through a hilariously irreverent award-winning book and score, will be presented by Omaha Performing Arts and Broadway Across America - Omaha, Wednesday, March 25 through Sunday, March 29, 2009. Tickets go on sale to the public Thursday, February 12.

The Bob the BuilderTM LIVE! Spud's Big Mess performances scheduled at ASU Gammage for Sunday, March 8 have been cancelled. ASU Gammage apologizes for any inconvenience. A full refund will be issued to all patrons who have purchased tickets and should contact the ASU Gammage Box Office at 480.965.3434 to make arrangements. Tickets purchased by credit card will automatically be refunded. If not purchased by credit card you will need to return your tickets to where you purchased them.

Omaha Performing Arts will host comedian and television star Bill Cosby to Slosburg Hall at the Orpheum Theater for two performances on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Bill Cosby is, by any standards, one of the most influential stars in America today. Whether it be through concert appearances or recordings, television or films, commercials or education, Bill Cosby has the ability to touch people's lives. His humor often centers on the basic cornerstones of our existence, seeking to provide an insight into our roles as parents, children, family members, and men and women. Without resorting to gimmickry or lowbrow humor, Bill Cosby's comedy has a point of reference and respect for the trappings and traditions of the great American humorists such as Charlie Chaplin, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields and Groucho Marx.

12 Community Participants and three understudies were selected from more than 35 people who auditioned Monday to take part in a one-of-a-kind extended residency project called The Diavolo Project: Nebraska. This creative and collaborative project between the Diavolo Company, Omaha Performing Arts and the Lied Center for Performing Arts engages Nebraska-based performing artists, educators and communities with Diavolo in an exploration of their unique approach to the dynamic art of movement. The auditions, which were open to any Nebraskan with extensive experience and interest in movement, drew dancers, gymnasts, acrobats, athletes and physical theater artists from across the state.

Tickets to Wicked, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Academy Award winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman (?My So Called Life,? ?Once And Again? and ?thirtysomething?), based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, will go on sale Friday, March 6, beginning at 7:00 a.m. Tickets will be exclusively available and must be purchased in person at the Ticket Omaha Box Office inside the Holland Performing Arts Center, 13th and Douglas streets, Omaha, Neb. Beginning at 10:00 a.m., remaining tickets will not only be available at the Ticket Omaha Box Office, but will also be available online at TicketOmaha.org or by calling 402-345-0606. There is an eight-ticket limit per person. For group sales, call 402-661-8516, or toll-free 866-434-8587, and ask for Group Sales.

The original production of A CHORUS LINE opened at the Public Theater's Newman Theatre on May 21, 1975 and transferred to Broadway's Shubert Theatre on July 25th, where it officially opened on Broadway on October 19th of that year. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Direction, Choreography, Actress, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Score and Book, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It ran for nearly 15 years, closing on April 28, 1990 after 6,137 performances.

MOVIN' OUT, the Tony Award-winning new musical conceived, choreographed and directed by Twyla Tharp and based on 24 classic songs by Billy Joel, is movin' in to Pittsburgh's Benedum Center on Friday, February 27, through Sunday, March 1, 2009. Tickets ($24-$62) will go on sale on Friday, January 16, 2009, at the Box Office at Theater Square, online at pgharts.org and by calling 412-456-6666. MOVIN' OUT is a special presentation of the PNC Broadway Across America - Pittsburgh series, presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Symphony and Broadway Across America.