Christopher Ashley News

Several Tony Award-winners are teaming up to bring an adaptation of the 1988 musical "Lucky Stiff" to the screen. The show, based on Michael Butterworth's 1965 novel "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," was written by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty and first performed at New York's Playwright's Horizons where it won the Richard Rogers Production Award before going on to London and hundreds of international productions. Ahrens & Flaherty went on to win the Tony for their musical "Ragtime" as well as two Academy Award nominations. Other notable credits include "Once On This Island" and "Seussical." Ahrens has adapted the play for the screen, while Flaherty and Ahrens have written additional songs.

LEAP OF FAITH plays its final performance today, May 13, at Broadway's St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street) after the matinee performance. Broadway's LEAP OF FAITH opened on Thursday April 26 and will have played 24 previews and 20 regular performances. Take a look back through video from the show's opening in Los Angeles to its first steps on Broadway, and everything in between, including fan's reactions and an opening-night interview with Raul Esparza!

LEAP OF FAITH plays its final performance today, May 13, at Broadway's St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street) after the matinee performance. Broadway's LEAP OF FAITH opened on Thursday April 26 and will have played 24 previews and 20 regular performances. Take a look back through photos of Raul Esparza and the company on stage, the show's opening night curtain calls and party, its Gypsy Robe Ceremony with Dennis Stowe and more below!

The Kennedy Center presents Memphis in the Opera House from June 12 to July 1, 2012.

Producers of LEAP OF FAITH announced today that the show will close at Broadway's St. James Theatre this Sunday May 13 after the matinee performance. In a statement, they said "Although we love our show and very much appreciate both our many award nominations and the joy of our audiences, we have not been able to achieve a sustainable level of ticket sales to continue. We thank all those who worked so hard over so many years to bring LEAP OF FAITH to Broadway."

Mary Kay Yezerski-Bondoc, of the MEMPHIS wig department, recently did an eight-step video about how to properly take curlers out of a wig and style it. Additionally, this video gives a glimpse at the astounding number of wigs used in the show.

LEAP OF FAITH's Kecia Lewis-Evans will be interviewed on WAMC radio on Tuesday May 8 at 10:35 AM on all Northeast Public Radio frequencies; it also streams live at www.wamc.org.

La Jolla Playhouse has announced the cast and creative team for its upcoming production of Blood and Gifts, by J.T. Rogers, directed by Lucie Tiberghien, running in the Mandell Weiss Forum June 12 - July 8.

MEMPHIS, the 2010 Tony® Award-winner for Best Musical, opens at the Ohio Theatre on May 29 for a limited engagement.

While it may look through its world through "rose colored glasses", MEMPHIS celebrates a time when race music was beginning to catch on with a white, mostly teenaged audience. It's a crackling, amusing, and fast-paced show (book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music and lyrics by David Bryan) that takes you on a musical journey through the eyes of young Huey, a wannabe DJ, who gets his wish, and may get his girl, if they can survive the glare of the fifties, when mixing of the races was against the law. Does this all sound heavy? Well it's not, not by a long shot. Instead, it's a bouncy and bluesy production that's easy to take and listen to. It's currently playing the Fox Theatre (through May 13, 2012), and there's a reason this show is so successful, it's just edgy enough to appeal to the jaded, and it lightens the tone of this historical racist behavior just enough to succeed with the masses.

A long-standing opening night tradition on the Great White Way, the fabled Gypsy Robe is bestowed upon a veteran Broadway chorus member for each opening production. In what has now become a theatrical ritual, originating on Broadway 60 years ago, it was just presented to LEAP OF FAITH 'gypsy' Dennis Stowe.

Watch the CBS Early Show tomorrow, Saturday April 28, in the 8 AM half-hour for a feature on LEAP OF FAITH hosted by correspondent Elaine Quihano. LEAP OF FAITH opened last night at The St. James Theatre, 246 West 44th Street, with four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza leading the company.

LEAP OF FAITH opened on Broadway on April 26th, 2012 with four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza leading the company along with Jessica Phillips, Kendra Kassebaum, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Leslie Odom, Jr., Krystal Joy Brown and Talon Ackerman. BroadwayWorld was on hand to celebrate at the fun-filled after party and chatted with all of the show's stars - in addition to the creative team - throughout the night. Click below to go inside the party!

Nominations for the 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced at a news conference this morning by Drama Desk winners Donna Murphy and Brian d'Arcy James. The 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall in Manhattan.

Performances for LEAP OF FAITH began on Tuesday, April 3, and the show officially opened tonight at The St. James Theatre. Four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza leads the company along with Jessica Phillips, Kendra Kassebaum, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Leslie Odom, Jr., Krystal Joy Brown and Talon Ackerman. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Leap of Faith, based on the 1992 film of the same name, began previews on April 3 and opens on Broadway on tonight at the St. James Theatre. It's been a long road to the Broadway stage, and we highlight key parts of the musical's journey below!

Today we are continuing BroadwayWorld's exclusive multi-part InDepth InterView series focusing on the New York Pops 29th Birthday Gala concert celebrating the music and musicals of Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, JOURNEY ON, that will take place at Carnegie Hall on April 30 at 7 PM, by talking to the musical half of the Tony Award-winning songwriting team, Stephen Flaherty.