Carmen Cusack News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its April 2016 schedule, featuring: Pharoah Sanders Quartet, Yellowjackets, Showbiz After Hours with Frank DiLella, The Birdland Big Band, Karrin Allyson, The Matt & Brian Show, Arturo O'Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more. Scroll down for details!

Just announced, Ghostlight Records will release the original cast recording of Bright Star, the new musical from Grammy and Emmy Award winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell.

Dear Readers, I'm back from the Mothership (New York of course) to let you all in on some of the wonderful and not so wonderful things I saw with a few brief notes on each. And yes that includes my catching the juggernaut of all shows on Broadway right now, 'Hamilton'. Now there are some shows that I saw that are still in previews so I can't really review them but wanted to let you know about them anyway. So let's start at the top.

On last night's TONIGHT SHOW, the cast of the new Broadway musical BRIGHT STAR performed 'Sun's Gonna Shine,' led by Carmen Cusack, who makes her Broadway debut in the show.

Bright Star, the new musical from Grammy and Emmy Award winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, will make its national television debut tonight on NBC'S "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."  The appearance will include interviews with Martin and Brickell, as well as a cast performance of the number "Sun's Gonna Shine," which Variety called, "A gorgeous anthem to optimism," led by Carmen Cusack.  (Ms. Cusack's starring role in Bright Star marks her Broadway debut.)  "The Tonight Show" airs on NBC at 11:35 p.m. (10:35 p.m. Central). 

The new musical BRIGHT STAR by Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, will play Broadway's Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street), beginning tonight, February 25, with an official opening night set for Thursday, March 24, 2016.

Tonight,  Steve Martin and Edie Brickell will visit the TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON to talk about their new Broadway musical BRIGHT STAR. The cast of the show will serve as the night's musical guests.

The Broadway premiere of the new musical Bright Star from Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell and directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, will begin previews at Broadway's Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street) on Thursday, February 25, with an official opening night set for Thursday, March 24. Check out photos of the marquee below!

Tonight, before a gathering of theatre artists and patrons, theatreWashington announced the nominees for the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, drawn from 202 eligible productions presented in the 2015 calendar year. Scroll down for the full list of nominees!

The box office officially opened today for the Broadway premiere of the new musical Bright Star from Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie. Previews begin at Broadway's Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street) on Thursday, February 25, with an official opening night set for Thursday, March 24. Tickets are available by visiting the Cort Theatre box office Monday - Saturday, 10am - 8:30pm; online at Telecharge.com, or by calling 800-447-7400. For groups of 10 or more, call 1-800-BROADWAY, ext. 2. For more info, visit www.BrightStarMusical.com

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Kelsey Grammer flies back to Neverland, SKELETON CREW opens at the Atlantic and more!

The new musical Bright Star, from Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, will begin performances on Broadway on Thursday, February 25, 2016 with an official Broadway opening night on Thursday, March 24 at the Cort Theatre. Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, the production will star Carmen Cusack in her Broadway debut. Below, check out a just-released video featuring Cusack performing 'Sun's Gonna Shine'!

The new musical from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell wraps up its Kennedy Center engagement and begins Broadway previews in February.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington DC, Boston, Sydney, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include BRIGHT STAR and WEST SIDE STORY in DC, NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET in Boston, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC in Sydney, just to name a few.

I wish this 'little musical that could' well.

With a handful of new pieces set to bow before the Tony Awards deadline in April, BroadwayWorld brings you a look at those currently set to bow on the Great White Way this year!

The new musical BRIGHT STAR, from Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, will play a limited engagement at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater from December 2, 2015 to January 10, 2016. Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, BRIGHT STAR will have its Kennedy Center official opening night on Thursday, December 17. BRIGHT STAR will begin performances on Broadway on Thursday, February 25, 2016 with an official Broadway opening night on Thursday, March 24 at the Cort Theatre. Carmen Cusack will make her Broadway debut as Alice, a role she originated in BRIGHT STAR's world premiere production, and will be joined by co-stars Paul Alexander Nolan, Tony Award nominee Michael Mulheren, A.J. Shively, Hannah Elless, Tony Award nominee Stephen Bogardus, three-time Tony Award nominee Dee Hoty, Stephen Lee Anderson, Emily Padgett, Tony Award nominee Jeff Blumenkrantz, along with Maddie Shea Baldwin, Allison Briner-Dardenne, Max Chernin, Patrick Cummings, Sandra DeNise, Richard Gatta, Lizzie Klemperer, Michael X. Martin, William Michals, Tony Roach, Sarah Jane Shanks, and William Youmans. Inspired by an astonishing true event, the wholly original new musical BRIGHT STAR tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and 40s. When successful literary editor Alice Murphy meets an ambitious young soldier just home from World War II, their connection inspires Alice to confront a shocking incident from her past. Together they discover a long-buried secret with the power to transform their lives. With music and book by Steve Martin and music and lyrics by Edie Brickell, BRIGHT STAR is based on an original story by Martin and Brickell and features direction by Walter Bobbie, choreography by Josh Rhodes, scenic design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Jane Greenwood, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, hair and wig design by Tom Watson, musical supervision by Peter Asher, musical direction and vocal arrangements by Rob Berman, orchestrations by August Eriksmoen, and casting by Howie Cherpakov. BRIGHT STAR was developed and had its world premiere at The Old Globe in San Diego (Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director; Michael G. Murphy, Managing Director). BRIGHT STAR runs December 2, 2015 - January 10, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets starting at $45 are available on the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

The new musical BRIGHT STAR, from Grammy and Emmy winner Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, will play a limited engagement at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater now through January 10, 2016. Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie, BRIGHT STAR will have its Kennedy Center official opening night tonight, December 17.