Chesney Snow News

In addition to producing great theatre works, Primary Stages produced one of this season's most exciting Galas. The 2017 event, celebrating Artistic Honorees Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, Producer Honorees Janet B. Rosen & Marvin Rosen, and Corporate Honorees Jose Mendez and Katie Graziano, was a glamorous and talent-filled evening at Tribeca 360 with a full view of lower Manhattan as a backdrop to the festivities.

Primary Stages announced today additional performers, speakers and presenters for the Primary Stages 2017 Gala, which will take place on Monday, October 16, 2017 at 6:30 pm.

Tony Award winner Debbie Gravitte (Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Chicago, Les Miserables) will be the featured vocalist in the October 1st installment of 'Russ Kaplan's Broadway Jazz Session.'

Primary Stages announced today that the Primary Stages 2017 Gala will take place on Monday, October 16, 2017 at 6:30 pm. The event, which will be held at Tribeca 360º (10 Desbrosses Street), will honor Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, the Tony-winning songwriting team of Ragtime, Once on This Island, and Anastasia (Artistic Honorees); Janet B. Rosen and Marvin Rosen, producers of In Transit on Broadway (Producer Honorees); and Jose Mendez and Katie Graziano of The Excel Group and MIC Floor Covering, LLC (Corporate Honorees).

Andrea Frierson (Me & Ella, Once On This Island) and Chris Dilley (Broadway Inspirational Voices, Voca People) will be the featured vocalists in the September 10th installment of 'Russ Kaplan's Broadway Jazz Session,' the popular monthly series which presents In Transit composer Kaplan's innovative jazz interpretations of current Broadway favorites. Guests slated to appear later this year include Tony-winner Debbie Gravitte (Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Chicago) on October 1, and Marva Hicks (Motown; Caroline, or Change) on December 10.

Chesney Snow (In Transit) calls THE UNWRITTEN LAW: REALITY SHOWING OF MY AMERICAN LIFE 'a choreopoem.' Like everything else in Snow's exquisitely wrought and riveting autobiographical work, his invocation of the term coined by Notzoke Shange in 1975 to describe For colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf is deliberate. In just 65 minutes, Snow compresses one-hundred years of family history and anchors this into a larger historical narrative. Not a single word is superfluous or out of place; everything signifies. Yet for all this tragedy, THE UNWRITTEN LAW isn't a downer. One feels sadness and some anger but by the show's conclusion, the dominant feeling is simply awe--awe at the courage and beauty both of the show as a whole and of Snow himself. Snow, literally, wrote his way out of the despair. The phenomenal dancing of Rebecca Arends and Maleek Washington are essential to the show's effect, as is the haunting union of A.J Khaw's piano and Varuni Tiruchelva's cello. The pure pleasure of the language, the dancing, and the music add up to 65 minutes of the most breathtaking theater I've ever witnessed.

On Monday, August 21st, at 8pm Broadway's Marcus Paul James (RENT, In The Heights, The Wiz Live) will light up the Living Room Bar at the spectacular W New York - Times Square on his Paper Hearts Tour.

Dixon Place (Ellie Covan, Founding & Artistic Director) presents the co-production of world-famous beatboxer and Drama Desk Award recipient Chesney Snow's THE UNWRITTEN LAW opening Sunday, July 30th. Snow comes direct from his run in Broadway's In Transit, where Ben Brantley of the NY Times called him "a one-man sound effects wiz."

Urban Movie Channel (UMC) is bringing viewers an exciting yet educational scope of titles in celebration of Black Music Month. Beginning on Friday, June 2, 2017, UMC's Black Music Month collection will include films featuring some of the culture's most prominent and beloved entertainers. Titles from the collection include the Damon Dash production Welcome to Blakroc, the documentary The Industry from Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Speaks Series, and the untold story of the legendary Sugarhill Gang, I Want My Name Back.From documentaries about late hip hop greats Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., and Jam Master Jay;to concert performances from Earth Wind and Fire, Jimi Hendrix, and Unlocking the Truth; and little known stories of black musicians in history such as the enslaved pianist Thomas Greene Bethune and Queen of the Trumpet, Valaida Snow, UMC is the destination for the best of Black Music Month programming.

Primary Stages' 2017 Spring Fling celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Einhorn School of Performing Arts this week with an event which honored Broadway composer Jeanine Tesori with the Einhorn Mentorship Award.

Primary Stages' 2017 Spring Fling celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Einhorn School of Performing Arts this week with an event which honored Broadway composer Jeanine Tesori with the Einhorn Mentorship Award. Additional honorees from the ESPA community were also celebrated at the event, including Tanya Barfield, Jimmy Carbone, and Cusi Cram.

Broadway stars Jessie Mueller (Tony Award, BEAUTIFUL), Chesney Snow (IN TRANSIT), Adrienne Warren (SHUFFLE ALONG), Christopher Jackson (HAMILTON), and BD Wong (M BUTTERFLY) joined 60 students from ROSIE'S THEATER KIDS - the musical theater and education organization for NYC public school students -- on stage at the school's annual spring benefit evening, entitled 'Passing It On' at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College (68 St. between Park and Lexington Avenues) on Sunday evening, April 23. The students also performed in pieces choreographed and directed by Chase Brock (SPIDERMAN) Camille A. Brown and Wong. Scroll down for photos from the star-studded event!

Russ Kaplan, a creator of the Broadway musical In Transit and leader of the eponymous jazz band Russ Kaplan + 7, will be appearing with his band in 'Russ Kaplan's Broadway Jazz Session,' along with guest vocalists Justin Guarini, Shayna Steele, and beatboxer Chesney Snow. The concert will be held at The Green Room 42 [570 10th Ave, New York, NY 10036] on Sunday, April 30 at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $20 and available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/10157817. There is no food and drink minimum.

Primary Stages announced today that the Primary Stages 2017 Spring Fling will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 6:00 pm. The event, which will be held at The Highline Ballroom (431 West 16th Street), will honor Jeanine Tesori with the Einhorn Mentorship Award.

Just in, Broadway's first a cappella musical In Transit will play its final performance on Sunday, April 16, 2017 after playing 36 preview and 145 regular performances at Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street).

Do you have your own crazy subway story? CLICK HERE to tell us all about it (via video or essay) and enter for a chance to win free dinner at Thalia (828 8th Ave) and two tickets to see IN TRANSIT on Broadway! Contest runs now through April 16.

Janet B. Rosen, producer of Broadway's first a cappella musical IN TRANSIT, just announced that the Original Broadway Cast Recording will be released on Hollywood Records. The original cast album is now available for preorder at Amazon. The album will be available wherever digital music is sold and streamed on Friday, April 28 and wherever CDs are sold on Friday, June 9.

IN TRANSIT, Broadway's first ever a cappella musical, and the MTA are teaming up to help audience members travel "Deep Beneath the City" free for one week! From March 27 through March 31, customers who purchase a full price ticket to IN TRANSIT for any performance through April 30 will receive a FREE 7 day unlimited MetroCard.

The Green Room 42, Broadway's newest, funkiest, and most spacious club located on 42nd street and Tenth Ave inside YOTEL announces an all-star lineup for the spring.

Perry T's latest New York Roundup includes six Broadway shows; NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET, HAMILTON, A BRONX TALE, IN TRANSIT, PARAMOUR, and ON YOUR FEET! plus three off-Broadway shows; PRUDENCIA HART, SPAMILTON, and CAGNEY