Charles Isherwood News

Hollywood Pantages Theatre has announced a lottery ticket policy for Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT, which returns to L.A. for a limited one week engagement; May 13 - 18, 2014.

After a season of through-the-roof ticket sales and critical acclaim, the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) now presents the final play of Season Eight. In true BETC style, "This" by Melissa James Gibson is a thought-provoking, heartrending, and laugh-filled examination of some of the most difficult years of our lives.

A Small Fire opens on May 30 for a limited run at New City Theatre, located at 1404 18th Avenue in Seattle, with a preview performance on May 29. Tickets are $25, $15 for students, and pay-what-you-can performances on May 29, June 9, and June 16. Due to the small, intimate performance venue, seating for A Small Fire is extremely limited.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

The Velocity of Autumn by Eric Coble stars Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde, 'Roseanne') and two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America, Lincoln, '24'). It is directed by Molly Smith and opens tonight, April 21, 2014 at the Booth Theatre. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Violet, starring Sutton Foster, Colin Donnell,Alexander Gemignani and Joshua Henry, officially opens tonight at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street).

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill opens tonight on Broadway. Lady Day stars five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald under the direction of Lonny Price (110 in the Shade, A Class Act), will play a strictly limited 10-week engagement with only 70 performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre (1633 Broadway, on 50th Street btwn. Broadway and 8th Ave.).

Seattle Repertory Theatre's full 2014-2015 season was announced today by Artistic Director Jerry Manning. The season is headlined by the first-ever presentation of Seattle writer Robert Schenkkan's striking meditation on power and morality in his two-part Lyndon B. Johnson plays, All the Way and The Great Society, in repertory format.

Allan Hawco has been putting in long days in the lead-up to his onstage appearance in Belleville, a play about a dysfunctional couple, on now through May 4 at Toronto's Berkeley Street Theatre.

Strawdog Theatre Company and Interim Artistic Director Hank Boland are proud to announce the final production to their 2013 - 2014 season, Jessica Dickey's Charles Ives Take Me Home, May 9 - June 21, direction by Keira Fromm with music direction by Strawdog Theatre Company Member Mike Przygoda and original music composition by Christopher Kriz, at Strawdog Theatre Company, 3829 N. Broadway Street. Preview performance tickets are $15 with performances Friday, May 9, Saturday May 10, Thursday, May 15 and Friday, May 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 18 at 4 p.m. There is a Board Preview performance, Saturday, May 17 at 7 p.m., with $50 tickets that include access to a post-performance reception. Opening/press night is Monday, May 19 at 8 p.m. Industry night is Monday, June 2 at 8 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. Single tickets are $28 and are currently on sale. Subscriptions, group, senior and student discounts are also available. Tickets may be ordered online at strawdog.org or by calling OvationTix toll-free: 866-811-4111.

Atlantic Theater Company's revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's musical The Threepenny Opera, directed and choreographed by Martha Clarke, opens tonight, April 7 and plays through Sunday, May 11, 2014 off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street). Let's see what the critics had to say...

The Realistic Joneses opens tonight, April 6, on Broadway at the Lycuem Theatre (149 W 45th Street). This new American play comes to Broadway after a critically-acclaimed run at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2012.

What happens when a strapping young Englishman suddenly finds he has become a woman? It's an amazing journey, to say the very least, in Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's sweeping and witty Orlando, beginning a 5-week run at Stage West tonight, April 3.

SISTER ACT, the family friendly, over the top spectacle with nuns that rock, opens at the Majestic Theatre for eight performances, June 24-29. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, April 4.

What happens when a strapping young Englishman suddenly finds he has become a woman? It's an amazing journey, to say the very least, in Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's sweeping and witty Orlando, beginning a 5-week run at Stage West on Thursday, April 3.

Lantern Theater Company closes their 20th anniversary season with the Philadelphia premiere of The Train Driver, one of South African playwright Athol Fugard's newest plays. This will be the Lantern's fourth production of works by the 2011 Tony Award-winner for Lifetime Achievement, including 'Master Harold'...and the boys in 2006, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead in 2009 and The Island in 2012. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times described The Train Driver as 'a moving portrait of a man coming to recognize the deep divisions that still plague his country, and makes a modest but eloquent addition to Mr. Fugard's oeuvre.' Directed by Matt Pfeiffer and starring respected Philadelphia veteran actor Peter DeLaurier as Roelf and Kirk Wendell Brown in his Lantern debut as Simon, performances run April 10 - May 4, 2014. [Full schedule including special events is below]

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegria Hudes's Water by the Spoonful, directed by Shishir Kurup, March 30 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are tonight, March 26, March 28 and 29.

Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? In Brecht's comic and complex play, this question is raised by one of his most entertaining characters, Shen Tei, the good-hearted, penniless, cross-dressing prostitute, who is forced to disguise herself as a savvy businessman named Sui Ta so she can master the ruthlessness needed to be a 'good person' in a brutal world. The Good Woman of Setzuan will run March 28-April 13, 2014 in the Loft Theater at the Syracuse Stage/Drama Complex. Tickets can be purchased online at http://vpa.syr.edu/drama, by phone at 315-443-3275, and in person at the SU Drama Box Office, 820 East Genesee Street.

Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Tony Award-winning musical Les Miserables opened last night, Sunday, March 23 on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre.

Tony Award-nominated Best Musical and 2010 Grammy Award winner for Best Musical Show Album, Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT will premiere at the Van Wezel on April 7, 2014 at 8PM. This Broadway smash-hit features the music of Green Day with the lyrics of its lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. The book is by Armstrong and Michael Mayer and direction is by Tony Award-winner Mayer ('Spring Awakening').