Des McAnuff News

On Friday, February 18, The Town Hall presented Tony Winning stage and screen vet Ben Vereen in a concert, coinciding with the release of his new CD 'Stepping Out With Ben Vereen' on the Ghostlight Records label. Vereen's concert highlighted his stage career as well as American Standards. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the event and post-celebration and brings you photo coverage below!

According to an Equity casting notice, FINDING NEVERLAND will have a New York City reading May 24-31, and will feature direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Rob Ashford. Auditions for the project will be held by Tara Rubin Casting on February 23-24 for the roles of Peter, George, Jack, and Michael.

The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street), Times Square's landmark concert venue, presents Ben Vereen in a concert on Friday, February 18 at 8:00PM that coincides with the release of his new CD "Stepping Out With Ben Vereen" on the Ghostlight Records label.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-12 season will feature the world's leading singers, conductors, and stage directors in seven new productions, including a world premiere, a Met premiere, and the first complete performances of a new Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle conducted by Music Director James Levine and directed by Robert Lepage.

The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street), Times Square's landmark concert venue, presents Ben Vereen in a concert on Friday, February 18 at 8:00PM that coincides with the release of his new CD 'Stepping Out With Ben Vereen' on the Ghostlight Records label. Ben Vereen is a Tony Award winning stage veteran and Broadway star.

The new musical DOCTOR ZHIVAGO began performances in Sydney February 11, but the first performance was affected due to an injury sustained by the show's star, Anthony Warlow.

The New South Wales Minister for Tourism, Jodi McKay, announced today that in 2011, Sydney (Australia) will host the World Premiere of a new musical, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO starring Anthony Warlow.

Get your tickets now to see this entertaining musical based on the singing group 'The Four Seasons' which Ends Feb. 27, 2011.

Casting has been announced for the premiere Miami engagement of the Tony®, Grammy® and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing at the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County from March 2 - 20, 2011. The cast of JERSEY BOYS will be led by Matt Bailey (Tommy DeVito), Joseph Leo Bwarie (Frankie Valli), Michael Lomenda (Nick Massi) and Quinn VanAntwerp (Bob Gaudio) as The Four Seasons, with Jonathan Hadley and Joseph Siravo.

Roger Daltrey is set for a March 24 performance of The Who's Tommy at Royal Albert Hall . The performance will benefit Teenage Cancer Trust.

La Jolla Playhouse announced the fifth production in its 2011/12 season: Finding Neverland, book by Allan Knee, with a score by the Grey Gardens writing team of Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics), directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Rob Ashford (Cry-Baby, Thoroughly Modern Millie).

Ben Vereen is back. And he's brought his bowl of cherries. On February 18, 2011, the legendary song and dance man will perform his concert, Stepping Out With Ben Vereen, at Town Hall in celebration of the release of his corresponding album. In the concert, recorded live during its recent Hartford engagement, Vereen highlights his stage career and delivers American Standards with his signature 'razzle dazzle' as only he can.

The votes have all been counted and audited and we're VERY excited to announce the results of the first ever BroadwayWorld.com Toronto Awards! Tens of thousands of votes were cast during six weeks of intensive voting on over 430 nominees in 25 categories. Thank you to all who voted and congratulations to all the winners!

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is pleased to announce that David Grindley will direct the 2011 production of The Misanthrope.

The Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, will close at Boston's Colonial Theatre January 30.

The Boston engagement of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning musical JERSEY BOYS broke the box office record at the Colonial Theatre for the second time, grossing $1,147,250 for the week ending January 23, 2011.

The new Broadway musical Baby It's You! tells the inspiring story of Florence Greenberg, the woman who changed the recording world forever when she discovered The Shirelles and created Scepter Records, becoming the music industry's first female powerhouse. Starring Tony Award winner Beth Leavel as Greenberg, conceived by Floyd Mutrux, directed by Floyd Mutrux and Sheldon Epps, and written by Tony nominated book writers Mutrux and Colin Escott, the team behind Broadway's Million Dollar Quartet, Baby It's You! begins performances at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) Saturday, March 26, 2011, and opens Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at 6:30pm. Baby It's You! features a cast of 19 that includes Allan Louis, Geno Henderson, Erica Ash, Kelli Barrett, Kyra DaCosta, Crystal Starr Knighton, Barry Pearl, Christina Sajous, Brandon Uranowitz, Alison Cimmet, Erica Dorfler, Berlando Drake, Adam Heller, Jahi A. Kearse, Annette Moore, Zachary Prince, Ken Robinson and Chelsea Morgan Stock.

Rehearsals for the new musical production Doctor Zhivago recently began in Sydney, with the full cast assembled for the first time. The creative team, a mix of US and Australian, were thrilled with the excitement and energy in the rehearsal room. Director Des McAnuff Jersey Boys arrived in Australia from Canada just before Christmas to commence rehearsals, and others had flown in from the US including composer Lucy Simon, choreographer Kelly Devine, music supervisor Eric Stern, orchestrator Danny Troob and US co-producer Anita Waxman.

Obsidian Theatre Company in association with Nightwood Theatre is thrilled to present the Toronto premiere of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize award-winning play Ruined. Written by Lynn Nottage and starring theatre and film veterans, Yanna McIntosh and Sterling Jarvis, the story is set in a small mining town in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Given the odds, for one to have been involved with a singular Broadway success would be impressive. To have been involved with two would solidify one's status as a true Broadway 'player.' How about 4, running at the same time? Only two artists have been able to boast such an accomplishment, the first being Susan Stroman, whose productions of Contact, The Producers, The Music Man, and Thou Shalt Not all ran simultaneously for a short time in 2001. Last season, Broadway's go-to choreographer, Sergio Trujillo, joined her company with his superfecta of Next to Normal, Jersey Boys, The Addams Family and Memphis. It appears that like Jersey Boys, Memphis, and The Addams Family, Trujillo is showing no signs of breaking his streak, or going anywhere, with new projects in the pipeline incoming.