So, after trashing Mormonism, and by implication most other faiths (since most have foundational myths about as likely-sounding as the LDS ones, and taboos that are no less but also no more sensible than those which restrain the Mormons), there are two natural places to end up. One would be in some kind of existential humanism, the other in some kind of existential despair. But the creators don't want to go either place. So they have to fudge it, with a huge spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down and a philosophically confused but dramatically permissible twist. There is some kind of reason for the whole cast and the audience to be exultant at the end.
It was announced today that this year's Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award will be presented to Playing on Air, which produces short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet. Dedicated to nurturing and supporting theatre artists, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, named for the multi-Award-winning producer, is a financial grant given annually to a theatre artist or organization who has demonstrated exceptional promise in their field.
The tradition continues! Each year Paper Mill Playhouse sends out five images that hold small clues as to the upcoming season titles. Check out the images above, and then let us know your best guesses for the 2014-15 lineup!
Bay City Players, Michigan's oldest continuously operating community theatre, will open its 97th season with Stephen Sondheim's Company next autumn, and close with family favorite The Sound of Music in spring 2015. In between, playgoers will be entertained with a unique interpretation of the holiday favorite Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the classic American comedy You Can't Take It With You, and the 2013 Tony Award winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written originally for David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver.
Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith reveals the 2014/15 season lineup for the company's 65th season and fifth year in the Mead Center for American Theater. As a national center focused on showcasing American voices and artists, this season is designed with range through productions that are emotional, uplifting, funny and thought-provoking.
The Dramatists Guild of America held their annual awards ceremony last night at The Lambs Club in New York. The ceremony was hosted by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez. Check out a look back at the festivities below!
Whether you've been living under a rock for the past week or you're just in the mood for a recap, BroadwayWorld's 'This Week in Pictures' is here to satisfy your end-of-the-week fix! Take a look below to catch up on the latest happenings from the Great White Way to The West End (and everywhere in between) with coverage of press events, rehearsals, opening nights and more. Highlights this week include a sneak peek into rehearsals of BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, new character portraits from ALADDIN, and a look at the Broadway-bound LES MISERABLES!
Playing on Air, which presents readings of short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet, inaugurates a new initiative next month. On consecutive Mondays in March, Playing on Air presents its first plays for radio broadcast taped in front of live audiences.
Center Theatre Group has a big hit in Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," currently in performances at the CTG/Mark Taper Forum. With strong ticket sales and critical acclaim, CTG has extended the run by a week, now closing on March 16, 2014.
Rehearsals begin today for Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and running March 14 - April 6 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a co-production with Center Stage in Baltimore.
In 2011, BroadwayWorld reported that Brian Hargrove and Barbara Anselmi's new musical IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU, directed by David Hyde Pierce in its world premiere at the George Street Playhouse that year, would be coming to Broadway. It's been a much longer wait than anticipated, but now Pierce has revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the show is prepping for arrival on the Great White Way 'in the coming season or early next year'.
TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, the critically-acclaimed company 'dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit,' and named 'Company of the Year' by Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal, is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for Beyond Therapy, the hilarious comedy byChristopher Durang, the modern master of the outrageous and absurd (and recipient of the 2013 'Best Play' Tony Award for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike). The spring production of the company's 21st Season directed by TACT Co-Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans will begin performances at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues) on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Opening night is set for Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. Performances will continue through April 19, 2014. Below, check out a first look at the cast in rehearsal!
This February Company of Fools (COF) will present the critically acclaimed and award-winning play, Good People, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. As part of The Center's multi-disciplinary project Creativity and Work, COF will present 13 public performances running now through March 1. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Dinner with Friends offers an intimate view of two marriages and four friendships, examining the loyalties, fears, passions, and habits that keep couples and friends together. Marriage is a popular onstage subject, the backbone for many of the last century's most iconic plays. Domestic drama as we know it today may be traced back to Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House. The play, which follows an unequal and eventually unsustainable marriage, was a radical critique of 19th-century marriage norms and set the stage for the realistic plays (many of them domestic) of the 20th century. Below are a few examples of notable marriage-centric plays from the last hundred years. Whether funny or heartbreaking, they are inherently, undoubtedly dramatic.
The four-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce stopped by to talk with Tavis Smiley about his latest projects, including directing the L.A. production of the Tony-winning VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, as well as the possibility of acting in the show in London. Pierce told Smiley: 'And in the fall the plan is to take Vanya to London, the original production, and I'll go back to acting in it.' Watch the full interview below!
Uptown Players opens its 2014 season with the zany Broadway comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play. Written by Christopher Durang and directed by B. J. Cleveland, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike runs at the Kalita Humphreys Theater from tonight, February 14 to March 9, 2014.
Tickets to Shakespeare & Company's provocative and ambitious 37th Summer Performance Season are now on sale. Artistic Director Tony Simotes has planned a celebratory season packed with Shakespeare, modern works, premieres and special events in honor of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. To purchase tickets or for more information please visit us online at www.shakespeare.org, call the Box Office at (413) 637-3353, or stop by in person at 70 Kemble Street, Lenox Ma.
After a stellar off-Broadway run in 2012, and a Tony-award winning Broadway production in 2013, the Los Angeles premiere of Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike", opened Sunday night at the Mark Taper Forum, and it was well worth the wait to see.
The Dramatists Guild of America has announced the recipients of their annual awards, which will be presented at an awards ceremony hosted by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson Lopez on Monday, February 24, 2014, at The Lambs Club in New York.
