Carmen Cusack News

Broadway Dreams and The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization announced today that two-time Grammy Award-winner Isabel Leonard, Broadway vet Eden Espinosa, and Tony Award nominee Erin Dilly will join the cast of the previously announced 70th Anniversary gala concert celebration of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award-winning musical triumph, South Pacific. The evening will take place on Monday, December 10, 2018 at The St. Regis New York (2 E 55th Street) and will serve as a fundraiser for Broadway Dreams, a not-for-profit performing arts training organization with global reach. Tickets for the event start at $1,000 and can be purchased at broadwaydreams.org/event-tickets.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Carmen Cusack has been cast in the Mister Rogers film, starring Tom Hanks, according to Deadline. Cusack will play the longtime Mister Rogers' Neighborhood producer, Margy.

Bay Area Cabaret welcomes Tony Award nominee KATE BALDWIN for her West Coast cabaret debut on Sunday, November 4 at 5:00 p.m. in a new show titled How'd You Get This Number? featuring signature songs from her acclaimed performances in Finian's Rainbow, Giant, Big Fish and Hello Dolly! 

According to an Equity casting notice, LEMPICKA, which ran at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer, will have a future beyond Massachusetts. The new musical, directed by Tony nominee Rachel Chavkin, with music by Matt Gould and book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, will get a developmental lab in NYC this November. 

Matthew Morrison couldn't be more 'Glee'-ful about launching Bay Area Cabaret's 15th Anniversary Season on Sept. 30 at the world-famous Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. 'I love places that have so much history,' says the Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee. Among the celebrated singers who've sung there: Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee and Tina Turner. And in 1961, Tony Bennett first performed 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' there, which is especially apt since the Fairmont sits high upon Nob Hill, 'where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.'

Bay Area Cabaret welcomes Tony and Olivier Award-winner Gavin Creel for his Bay Area Cabaret debut on Sunday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. in a new concert showcasing 'The Great American Songbook.'

Bay Area Cabaret opens its 15th season with Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe award-nominee Matthew Morrison making his San Francisco solo concert debut Sunday, September 30 at 7 pm in Song and Dance Man, a show celebrating his 20 years on stage and screen (Glee, Hairspray, South Pacific, Finding Neverland).

Featuring Tony nominee Carmen Cusack and Eden Espinosa, the world premiere of the musical Lempicka is playing at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Lempicka is directed by Tony nominee Rachel Chavkin, with music by Matt Gould and book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer. Let's see what the critics are saying...

BroadwayWorld has a first look at LEMPICKA at the Williamstown Theatre Festival! Featuring Tony nominee Carmen Cusack and Eden Espinosa, this world premiere musical is directed by Tony nominee Rachel Chavkin, with music by Matt Gould and book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer.

REPRISE 2.0 (led by Producing Artistic Director Marcia Seligson), in association with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television's Department of Theater (UCLA TFT) chaired by Brian Kite, presents its inaugural production of Sweet Charity.  Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall with musical direction by Gerald Sternbach, the classic Broadway hit plays through July 1 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Take a look at photos from the show's opening night below!

Bay Area Cabaret announces its 15th Anniversary Season of shows, its ninth at the legendary Venetian Room (Fairmont Hotel 950 Mason Street atop Nob Hill). This season's stellar lineup features many performers making their Bay Area Cabaret debuts, as well as the return of several favorites. It kicks off on Sunday, September 30, 2018 at 7:00 pm with the San Francisco solo concert debut of Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe award-nominee Matthew Morrison (Glee, Hairspray, South Pacific, Finding Neverland).

It was exactly three years ago that I first spoke with Audrey Cardwell. At that time, she was in the ensemble of CINDERELLA on tour, often stepping in for the title character opposite her boyfriend, Andy Huntington Jones (who later starred in CATS on Broadway). Since then, her life has continued to play out like the fairytale she performed, now bringing her back into town as the leading lady of the new Broadway musical, BRIGHT STAR.

Casting is now complete for the inaugural REPRISE 2.0 production of Sweet Charity. Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, the classic Broadway hit plays from June 20 to July 1 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. 

Tony-nominee Carmen Cusack is returning to San Francisco to perform May 19 at the annual 'A Twist of Limelight' gala for Bay Area Musicals followed by rehearsals for this fall's VICTOR/VICTORIA in Los Angeles, part of the Reprise 2.0 relaunch season.

On Friday, May 11, prolific performer Ty Taylor collaborated with the team behind LA's hit series "For The Record" to debut his new solo album Nouveau Mid-Century Romance Songbook. Taylor, best known as the lead singer of classic soul and rock 'n' roll band Vintage Trouble, will light up the stage at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills for this official album release concert along with special guests Matthew Morrison, Tracie Thoms, Brenna Whitaker and Chris Pierce. Directed by Anderson Davis, the evening will kick off with a Jazz showcase from exceptional artists including Spencer Day, Olivia Kuper Harris, Myles Nuzzi and Dylan Meek and will be followed by Taylor's collection of modernistic tracks inspired by mid-century jazz standards.

Cabaret 313 is delighted to present cabaret's star couple, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, in An Evening with John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey on Saturday, May 19 at 8 p.m. at The Cube at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center (3711 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201). Hailed by Time magazine as one of the year's "Ten Best Shows," Pizzarelli and Molaskey bring their signature combination of Broadway, pop and jazz hits to Detroit for a one-of-a-kind combination of all things cabaret.

Casting is announced for two REPRISE 2.0 productions with two Tony Award leading actress nominees: Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde - Tony Nomination, Hairspray, Anger Management) is to play Charity in Sweet Charity, directed and choreographed by three time Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall from June 20 to July 1, and Carmen Cusack (Bright Star - Tony Nomination, Wicked) is to play Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria directed by Richard Israel and choreographed by John Todd from September 5 to 16 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Amas Musical Theatre(Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) and The Amas Musical Theatre Lab will present further staged readings of Play It by Heart, a new musical, with music by David Spangler, Jerry Taylorand Marty Dodson, lyrics byDavid Spangler, Jerry Taylor,R.T. Robinson, and Marty Dodson, and book byWilly Holtzman. Directed by Daniel Goldsteinwith music direction by Andrew Wilder, the readings (by invitation only) will be held on Thursday, May 17 at 1pm and 5pm at Opry City Stage (48th/49th& Broadway).