Classic Stage Company News

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director) today announced that Derek Smith would join the cast for the American Premiere of a new adaptation of August Strindberg's The Dance of Death by Mike Poulton (Tony Award Nominee for Best Play for Fortune's Fool), directed by Joseph Hardy (Tony Award winner for Best Director for Child's Play). This strictly limited engagement begins Wednesday April 10th and continues through May 4th only, at the Lucille Lortel Theater (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and Hudson Streets). Opening Night is set for Thursday April 18th. Hardy directs a company that features Daniel Davis, Laila Robins, and Derek Smith.

Classic Stage Company announced today that Amy Justman will assume the role of Clara for the final 11 performances of their critically-acclaimed new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's PASSION through Friday, April 19 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). Melissa Errico, who originated the role of Clara, has been out of the show with bronchitis since March 21. PS Classics announced today that they had postponed the cast recording of PASSION (which was scheduled for today) until Ms. Errico is fully recovered. A new recording and release date will be announced in the coming days.

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that the Classic Stage Company's production of Passion has delayed the recording of it's upcoming cast album, because Melissa Errico, who plays Clara in the show, is out on vocal rest. Errico has been out of the show since March 21 and the cast will not head to the recoding studio until she has fully recovered. In the mentime, Amy Justman has been filling in for Errico on stage.

New York Live Arts is set to present several Re: Awakenings performances as part of the inaugural Live Ideas festival. New York Live Arts' newest program initiative, Live Ideas is an annual humanities festival that will explore a different theme each year over several days. The inaugural festival, The Worlds of Oliver Sacks, will take place from April 17 through 21, 2013 and is comprised of more than 20 events, including performances, films and discussions that showcase works of art and spark conversations that engage the prevalent themes in the acclaimed neurologist's works.

To conclude its 45th season, Berkeley Repertory Theatre welcomes back a pair of acclaimed collaborators: Sarah Ruhl and Les Waters, the creators of Eurydice, Three Sisters, and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), return to Berkeley Rep with another tale of love and longing in Dear Elizabeth.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present a new production of Bertolt Brecht's THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE featuring Christopher Lloyd (Azdak), directed by Brian Kulick (who directed Brecht's Galileo last season), and featuring new music by Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening). THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE will begin performances Friday, May 3 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 9. The official opening is Thursday, May 30. Tickets are now on sale.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 14 categories and two additional special awards for the 2013 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00pm EST, and hosted by acclaimed stage and screen actors Aasif Mandvi and Maura Tierney. This year's event will once again benefit The Actors Fund.

The Village Voice, the nation's largest alternative weekly newspaper, announced today that tickets will go on sale April 10, 2013 for the 58th Annual Obie Awards on Monday, May 20, 2013, at Webster Hall in the East Village, 125 East 11th Street.

Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Virginia Stage Company, stages the regional premiere of Matthew Lopez's Civil War drama The Whipping Man in Mill Valley from March 28 to April 21, 2013. MTC's artistic director Jasson Minadakis directs the production. Featuring popular Bay Area actors L. Peter Callender, Nicholas Pelczar and Tobie Windham, as well as the design team from MTC's 2011 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nominated production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, this co-production rehearsed and ran at VSC in Norfolk, Virginia, from February 26 to March 17, 2013, before tonight's move to MTC. Opening night at MTC is tonight, April 2.

Austin Pendleton is set to play William Shakespeare in Abingdon Theatre Company's Off-Broadway premiere of Robert Brustein's THE LAST WILL, which he will also direct, beginning Friday, April 5 in the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Brustein's final installment of his trilogy examining the life of William Shakespeare, THE LAST WILL is set to open on April 17, with performances through May 5. OBIE Award-winner Austin Pendleton replaces actor Peter Cameron who has left the production.

BroadwayWorld collected as many of yesterday's evening Saturday Intermission Pics as we could to bring you Part 2 of our March 23rd SIP round-up. Yesterday evening's photos featured a first SIP from PIPPIN, plus shots from MATILDA, HANDS ON A HARDBODY, CINDERELLA, MOTOWN, ROCK OF AGES, KINKY BOOTS, WICKED, PASSION, F#%KING UP EVERYTHING, Encores! SUPERMAN, JERSEY BOYS, THE WIZARD OF OZ in Toronto, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, FLASHDANCE, WEST SIDE STORY, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, MARY POPPINS, SHREK and more!

Seduction and power, desire and sex are themes of David Ives' dark comedy Venus in Fur, receiving its Philadelphia premiere at Philadelphia Theatre Company May 24-June 23 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed by Kip Fagan, the two-person cast features Mark Alhadeff and Jenni Putney.

Venus in Fur, written by theatrical mastermind David Ives opens in the Historic Asolo Theater Friday, April 5 and runs through April 28, 2013. Two preview performances are scheduled for April 3 and 4. Tea Alagi?, an exciting new talent originally from the Czech Republic, directs this comedy that explores the complex relationship between an aspiring stage actress and her playwright/director.

It appears as if Christina Ricci might be waking up from her COMA earlier than expected. According to Deadline, Ricci has officially dropped out of NBC's drama pilot GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA, following the project's very first table read.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced O Guru Guru Guru, or why I don't want to go to yoga class with you by Mallery Avidon, directed by former Actors Theatre directing intern Lila Neugebauer. The play will run in the Victor Jory Theatre beginning tonight, March 20, opening March 22 and running through April 7th.