Cole Porter News

The 2012 LOST MUSICALS season presents two extraordinary musical productions - the fantastical 1951 FLAHKOLEY and Cole Porter's magical 1958 ALADDIN at the Lillian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells in May and August 2012.

Musicals Tonight will be presenting Cole Porter's SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS May 1-13 at The Lion Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). Tickets are $25 at the Box Office or from Telecharge at (212)239-6200 or telecharge.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, time for a battle of wits! In one corner: urbane, wealthy American Cole Porter. In the other corner, making his way from genteel poverty to the top of English society: Noel Coward. Guest artistic director Mark Waldrop serves as referee in 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists'™ Mad Dogs & Educated Fleas: Noel & Cole, A Battle Of Wits. Interpreting the songs of these two master lyricists are vocalists La Tanya Hall, Jeff Harnar, Edward Hibbert, Colleen McHugh andT. Oliver Reid with special guest Harriet Harris.

In the 62nd Season at Totem Pole Playhouse-Fayetteville, PA, audiences will be treated to six shows never before seen on the Totem Pole stage plus a special preseason presentation. Some favorite company actors, such as Sean Fri from 2011's Honus and Me, Artistic Director Ray Ficca and long time favorite Wil Love have already committed to performing in the 2012 season.

The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre will honor esteemed stage actress Patti LuPone with the company's third Stephen Sondheim Award. The award, established in 2009 in honor of America's most influential contemporary musical theater writer and composer, will be presented at a black-tie Gala Benefit on April 16, 2012 at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer said, 'I am thrilled that Patti LuPone will be this year's recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award. With her wonderful performances in Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Passion, and more - she has had an amazing connection to Steve's words and music. It's wonderful to add her name to the distinguished honorees Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters. We look forward to saluting Patti and her extraordinary talents in April.'

To inaugurate its 10th anniversary season, Stolen Chair has partnered with Lady Mendl's Tea Salon to offer a unique theatrical experience, "tea theatre." Stolen Chair will pair its 15th original work, The Bachelors' Tea Party, with a classic 5-course tea service. Written by Stolen Chair's resident playwright, Kiran Rikhye, and directed by Jon Stancato, 'one of the most daring and imaginative directors of his generation' (Martin Denton, NYtheatre.com), the play is open to the press on April 15 (5pm). Stolen Chair veteran Liz Eckert (Stage Kiss and Kinderspiel) is joined onstage by Jody Flader (The Vineyard Theater's Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island).

Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble, one of New York's longest-running experimental theatres, premieres its production of The Beggar's Opera, the original source of The Threepenny Opera in less than three weeks. The production opens Friday, April 27 and closes Saturday, May 19. Performances are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m., with an additional performance Tuesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. There are no performances on Mondays, Thursdays or any other Tuesday.

Will Pomerantz, director of The Blue Flower at Prospect Theater Company and Second Stage and Dai at the Culture Project, will direct Prospect Theater Company's upcoming production of Cole Porter's 1933 musical Nymph Errant. Performances will begin July 7 at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row.

Noted performer and music historian, Benjamin Sears has an unprecedented familiarity with both Irving Berlin's work and the writings about him, much of which he has brought together in the new, The Irving Berlin Reader, part of the Readers on American Music Series from Oxford University Press, available in stores on April 6, 2012.

The Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum presents the return engagement of one of today's most celebrated sibling acts, the Tony-nominated actresses Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway, who will reprise last season's sold out engagement for one night only, April 7 at 8:00 pm. The concert will feature highlights form their critically acclaimed shows "Sibling Rivalry", "Relative Harmony" and their newest show "Boom".

Today in 2011, the third Broadway revival of Anything Goes opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it is still running. Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced such songs as 'Anything Goes', 'You're the Top', and 'I Get a Kick Out of You.'

ANYTHING GOES, which received the 2011 Tony Award for a winning revival, will start its national tour on October 2 after a four-week rehearsal period in Cleveland. The Cole Porter 1934 musical will be staged by director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall.

Following sell-out shows across the UK in 2011, John will headline three exclusive summer outdoor performances, 21st June 2012 at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre, 22nd June 2012 at Glasgow Green and 23rd June 2012 at Tower Festival Headland, Blackpool.

Tennessee Performing Arts Center has announced the six Broadway titles visiting for its 2012-13 HCA/TriStar Broadway Series, plus two Broadway specials. In a presentation to season ticket holders, special guests, and press on Tuesday, President and CEO Kathleen O'Brien unveiled the new season, which will conclude in 2013 with a four-week run of the Tony Award®-winning hit Disney's The Lion King. The season includes beloved classics like Cole Porter's Anything Goes and Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the acrobatic off-Broadway smash Traces, plus new favorites Flashdance and Catch Me If You Can.

Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) will play host this summer to the world premiere of The Nutty Professor, a new musical comedy directed by the King of Comedy himself, Jerry Lewis. The Broadway at TPAC Special Event will run from July 24 to August 19 in TPAC's James K. Polk Theater. Featuring music by Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line) and a book and lyrics by three-time Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), The Nutty Professor is based on the classic 1963 film in which Lewis starred and co-wrote.

42nd Street Moon, the company that presents intimate productions of "Uncommon Musicals" by great 20th Century composers, today announced casting forSUGAR, the first 2012 mainstage production of the season. The show will feature Michael Kern Cassidy, Tony Panighetti and Riley Krull in the starring roles, under the direction of Dyan McBride.SUGAR opens at the Eureka Theater on April 7, with three low-priced previews April 4 - 6, and runs through April 22.