City Center News

Performances begin tomorrow Tuesday, January 16 for Manhattan Theatre Club's New York premiere of the American Repertory Theater production of In The Body of The World, written and performed by Tony Award winner Eve Ensler and directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus. Opening night is set for Tuesday, February 6 at MTC at New York City Center Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will present its latest work, A Quest for Freedom, at New York City's City Center Studio 4 today, January 13 at 7pm and 8pm, and Sunday, January 14 at 12 noon and 12:30pm. The performances will showcase the company's latest collaboration with the renowned Korean American classical music powerhouse The Ahn Trio during the annual conference of the Association of the Performing Arts Presenters. The collaboration, although planned over a years ago, has been influenced greatly by the current discussion on immigration during its development.

To celebrate The Play That Goes Wrong laughing into the New Year, the hit comedy saluted the audiences who have made them the longest running play on Broadway with a special 'Fan Appreciation Night' yesterday, January 11. In an official statement regarding the evening, the company said: 'The Play That Goes Wrong sincerely apologizes for this misunderstanding. We love our fans (and our fans).'

Encores! Off-Center Co-Artistic Directors Anne Kauffman and Jeanine Tesori today announced programming for the 2018 season of New York City Center's acclaimed summer musical theater series. The season will open, June 27through 30, with Jason Robert Brown's breakout musical Songs for a New World and close with Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll's vibrant, radical 1971 work Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, July 25 through 28. The centerpiece of the season will be a special two-night-only engagement (July 11 & 12) of Gone Missing, honoring composer and Off-Center Artistic Director Michael Friedman, whose life was tragically cut short last summer.

Following a five-week season launch in New York City, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will continue to grace stages from coast to coast, arriving at Jacksonville's Times-Union Center on February 20, 2018 for one performance only.

Queens Theatre (Taryn Sacramone, Executive Director) will present Broadway Valentine, a concert-style revue produced by Stephen DeAngelis exclusively for Queens Theatre, located at 14 United Nations Avenue South in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for two performances only on February 17 at 8pm and February 18 at 3pm.

Erte was nicknamed 'the father of Art Deco', a soubriquet that he was not comfortable with but it unfortunately stuck. He was born into Russian aristocracy and his family tree can be traced back to the Tartar kahns. He was greatly influenced by books on Persian and Indian miniatures in his father's library and by his beloved Greek vases that he studied during frequent trips as a boy to the Hermitage Museum.

Rehearsals are currently underway for Lincoln Center Theater's production of ADMISSIONS, a new play by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin. ADMISSIONS will begin previews Thursday, February 15 and open on Monday, March 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

From January 12th-21st, North Carolina Theatre will be presenting A.R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater. I recently had the great pleasure of stopping by rehearsal to interview the stars of this production, two-time Emmy nominee Sandy Duncan and Ira David Wood III.

Following the show's development at The Orchard Project in 2017, LubDub Theatre presents The Doubtful Guest, an immersive contemporary s ance featuring cocktails and sleight-of-hand and exploring the legacy of American spiritualism. The piece premieres at The Public Hotel (215 Chrystie St., New York, NY) following sold-out developmental performances at The Inn at Saratoga and Guild Greene Gallery.

The 13th Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals, produced by Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre, kicks off its much-anticipated three-day festival of brand-new works today, January 12, 2018 at The Goodspeed with a staged reading of the rousing new musical Five Points by Ethan D. Pakchar (Music) and Douglas Lyons (Music and Lyrics), and McKnight Fellowship winner Harrison David Rivers (Book).

Kim H. Kowalke, President and CEO of the Kurt Weill Foundation, has announced the judges for the 20th Anniversary Lotte Lenya Competition. A distinguished panel will preside over the finals on 14 April in Rochester, NY: Tony Award-winning actress and singer Victoria Clark, renowned opera and musical theater conductor James Holmes, and Jack Viertel, Broadway producer, author, and Artistic Director of New York City Center Encores!

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center , announces that multi-discipline creative artist Lin-Manuel Miranda will receive the 18th Monte Cristo Award . An alumnus of the O'Neill, Miranda's first professional production was at the O'Neill's National Music Theater Conference with In The Heights in 2005. A gala dinner featuring a conversation with the honoree will be held at the Edison Ballroom (New York) on Monday, April 30, 2018.

The Wallis will be the place for jazz lovers this month when the performing arts center, in conjunction with the Arturo Sandoval Institute, present a special four-night musical celebration curated by the dynamic American jazz legend Arturo Sandoval from Thursday, January 25 through Sunday, January 28. Sandoval shines a spotlight on his legacy, as well as up-and-coming musicians, in an exciting jazz series featuring a Master Class, sponsored by the Arturo Sandoval Institute; two extraordinary nights of emerging jazz artists, whom Sandoval proudly calls the Young Lions; and an unforgettable concert of his own with special guests.

Following the show's development at The Orchard Project in 2017, LubDub Theatre presents The Doubtful Guest, an immersive contemporary s ance featuring cocktails and sleight-of-hand and exploring the legacy of American spiritualism. The piece premieres at The Public Hotel (215 Chrystie St., New York, NY) following sold-out developmental performances at The Inn at Saratoga and Guild Greene Gallery.

DANCE NOW is thrilled to present an encore presentation of Places Please!, an evening-length duet created and performed by longtime collaborators Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott of KEIGWIN + COMPANY. Two performances only: Today, January 11, at 7pm, and Sunday, January 14, at 5pm, at Joe's Pub at The Public, 425 Lafayette Street (between East 4th Street and Astor Place), in Manhattan.

BroadwayHD announces today that Thom Pain, the Geffen Playhouse's filmed adaptation of its stage production of Will Eno's lauded play Thom Pain (based on nothing) starring Rainn Wilson ('The Office,' founder of Soul Pancake), will be available on BroadwayHD beginning January 11, 2018.

To celebrate The Play That Goes Wrong laughing into the New Year, the hit comedy will salute the audiences who have made them the longest running play on Broadway with a special 'Fan Appreciation Night' on Thursday, January 11 at 7:00pm.

The rock musical Next to Normal has an impressive record. It won three Tony Awards in 2009, including the award for Best Original Score, and it is one of only nine musicals ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2010). It is an emotional powerhouse of a play that demands excellence in performance, and artistic director Robert Hupp has assembled a cast capable of delivering every nuanced note when Next to Normal begins its run at Syracuse Stage on Jan. 24.

Mile Square Theatre, Hudson County's leading professional theatre, kicks off its 2018 season with Alfred Uhry's powerful masterpiece Driving Miss Daisy. Set in the South between the late 40's and early 70's, the play explores an unlikely friendship between an elderly white Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffer, Hoke Colburn.