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!
Grammy Award-nominated singer and renowned interpreter of the Great American Songbook, Michael Feinstein, returns to Carnegie Hall with a special concert featuring a variety of love songs in celebration of Valentine's Day, tonight, February 14 at 8:00 p.m. He is joined by special guests Laura Osnes (Broadway's Cinderella, and Maria in Carnegie Hall's The Sound of Music) andJulian Ovenden (Season Four of PBS's Downton Abbey, the West End's Finding Neverland, and as John F. Kennedy in the 'Bombshell' production on NBC's Smash).
The Public Theater announced the line-up today for the 2014 free Shakespeare in the Park season, continuing a 52-year tradition of free theater in Central Park. Since 1962, over five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte Theater. Conceived by founder Joe Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's free Shakespeare in the Park continues to be the bedrock of the Company's mission to increase access and engage the community. This summer, free Shakespeare in the Park will feature a comedy and a tragedy with Jack O'Brien directing MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and Daniel Sullivan directing KING LEAR.
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.
Christopher Durang loves to take a somewhat placid environment and turn it upside down, inside out. What doesn't happen matters just has much if not more than what does and the characters let out their feelings at the slightest provocation. Sound like it's right out of Anton Chekhov? When Sonia gives coffee to her brother Vanya and he seems displeased with it, she takes the cup away from him in anger and throws it against the wall. It's not the coffee comment that has upset her, it's the way she feels inside, at the overall way her brother neglects her, takes her kindness for granted. She's sad and is not afraid to tell him so. Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike, now onstage at the Mark Taper Forum and last year's Tony winner for Best Play, is one hilarious ride from moment to moment with wonderfully surprising twists and an eclectic mix of characters that would make any world dysfunctional. Dysfunctional is the new normal, and that's what makes Durang's work shine. Akin to drama queens, misery forms their best company. It's as if everyone were totally smashed...they say and do what they feel; they're so brutally honest, you can't stop laughing.
The Actors Fund is holding a Special 'Producer's Picks' Fundraising Evening at tonight's, February 11th performance of Christopher Durang's award-winning comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. In addition to enjoying the show, guests will receive an autographed program and enjoy an exclusive post-performance dessert and wine reception with director, David Hyde Pierce, and cast members.
Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' opened last night, Sunday, February 9 at 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld brings you a look back at the opening night festivities with the cast, crew, and attendees below!
Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' opens today, Sunday, February 9 at 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum.
The evening will be co-hosted by two of the company's alumni actors: two-time Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce (at PH in Richard Greenberg's The Maderati in 1987) and two-time Tony Award nominee, two-time Obie Award winner and 2012 Special Drama Desk Award winner Mary Testa (at PH in William Finn's In Trousers in 1979, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Lucky Stiff in 1988, Tom Donaghy's From Above in 1998/Obie Award and Kathleen Tolan's The Wax in 2000).
The Actors Fund is holding a Special 'Producer's Picks' Fundraising Evening at the Tuesday, February 11th performance of Christopher Durang's award-winning comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. In addition to enjoying the show, guests will receive an autographed program and enjoy an exclusive post-performance dessert and wine reception with director, David Hyde Pierce, and cast members.
On March 31st at New York City's Pierre Hotel, the National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will honor Tony and Emmy Award Winning singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth, and the Edgerton Foundation for their leadership in the arts at the NCTF 2014 Chairman's Awards Gala. The evening will be chaired by Chairman James S. Turley, Cisco Systems, Inc, Wells Fargo/Joseph F. Kirk and world-renowned playwright David Henry Hwang.
The Drama League, and Tony Award winning-director and Drama League Alumnus, Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), announced the establishment of the new Drama League Beatrice Terry Fellowship, named in honor of the late director Beatrice Terry, an alumna of The Drama League Directors Project, during last night's 30th Annual Musical Celebration of Broadway Honoring Neil Patrick Harris, held at the famed Pierre Hotel (2 East 61st Street).
Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' opens Sunday, February 9 at 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. The hysterically funny and affecting new play is directed byDavid Hyde Pierce, based on the Broadway direction of Nicholas Martin, and has performances through March 9, 2014. 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' is currently in previews. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' opens Sunday, February 9 at 7 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum.
Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce will return to the hysterically funny and affecting new play 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,' this time directing the play which earned him his most recent Tony nomination. Christopher Durang's Tony-winning farce will be performed at the Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum, tonight, January 29 through March 9, 2014, and will feature two Tony-nominated members of the Broadway cast.
In addition to being a sacred chalice, the Holy Grail is a metaphor for an ultimate ideal or reward. If hilarity is Spamalot's Holy Grail, the current production at Playhouse on the Square most certainly found it.
On January 27, 2014, Ten Chimneys Foundation announced that Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce will serve as the Master Teacher for the 2014 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Program.
