Des McAnuff News

Guys and Dolls stars Oliver Platt ('Nathan Detroit'), Lauren Graham ('Miss Adelaide'), Craig Bierko ('Sky Masterson') and Kate Jennings Grant ('Sarah Brown'). The first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, Guys and Dolls began previews on February 5, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The cast celebrated Opening Night on March 1, 2009 and BroadwayWorld's cameras greeted the starry arrivals.

Guys and Dolls stars Oliver Platt ('Nathan Detroit'), Lauren Graham ('Miss Adelaide'), Craig Bierko ('Sky Masterson') and Kate Jennings Grant ('Sarah Brown'). The first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, Guys and Dolls began previews on February 5, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The cast celebrated Opening Night on March 1, 2009 and BroadwayWorld's camera's rolled the dice with the starry group as they took the first night bows!

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Sunday, March 1, 2009.

Oliver Platt as 'Nathan Detroit', Lauren Graham as 'Miss Adelaide', Craig Bierko as 'Sky Masterson' and Kate Jennings Grant as 'Sarah Brown' will star in the new production of the greatest American musical comedy GUYS AND DOLLS. The first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, GUYS AND DOLLS began previews on February 5, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1, 2009.

In-keeping with their our series of 'Extraordinary EBay' packages, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is proud to announce an online auction item that 'lady luck' has smiled on.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 2008-09 Season with the World Premiere of Antebellum by Robert O?Hara, author of Insurrection: Holding History, and an OBIE Award winner for directing the Off-Broadway hit, In the Continuum. Directed by Chay Yew, the cast features Woolly Mammoth Company Member Jessica Frances Dukes and Jenna Sokolowski. Antebellum runs March 30 ? April 26, 2009, with Pay-What-You-Can performances on March 30 and 31 at 8pm. PRESS OPENING IS SUNDAY, APRIL 5 AT 7PM. Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

The Hartford engagement of JERSEY BOYS, which opened to rave reviews on Friday, February 6, broke the box office record - twice in a row - at the Bushnell Center, where it just completed its triumphant run on February 22, 2009. From there, the national tour will play Rochester, NY from February 25 through March 15, 2009. For the week ending February 15, JERSEY BOYS grossed $1,346,126, breaking the previous house record of $1,341,958 held by Wicked. For the week ending February 22, JERSEY BOYS grossed $1,429,211, breaking its own record from the week before.

For 35 years, Pulitzer Prize winning THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY has nurtured hundreds of playwrights through its EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS PROGRAM. In June, 2006, we launched NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD, a play reading series designed to serve our audiences and writers even better. Curated by Michael Scott-Price, TNC Literary Manager, NEW CITY , NEW BLOOD will provide a hearing for worthy plays in earlier stages of Development. Audiences will get the opportunity to provide feedback, and artists will gain valuable insight from audience response. Be sure to check www.theaterforthenewcity.net for details about upcoming readings. Please join us!

The producers of ROCK OF AGES announced the complete, awesome cast for Broadway's new, smash hit musical today. Constantine Maroulis, ('American Idol' Season 4, Broadway's The Wedding Singer, RENT) reprising his critically acclaimed role as 'Drew', is now joined by Broadway's best 1970's & 1980's period actors Amy Spanger (The Wedding Singer, Kiss Me Kate) as 'Sherrie' and James Carpinello (Saturday Night Fever, VH1's 'So NoTORIous') as 'Stacee Jaxx'.

Oliver Platt as 'Nathan Detroit', Lauren Graham as 'Miss Adelaide', Craig Bierko as 'Sky Masterson' and Kate Jennings Grant as 'Sarah Brown' will star in the new production of the greatest American musical comedy GUYS AND DOLLS. The first joint Broadway project by two-time Tony Award winning director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo since their collaboration on the Tony Award winning musical Jersey Boys, GUYS AND DOLLS began previews on February 5, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1, 2009.

As an additional effort to bring the arts into the community, JERSEY BOYS is proud to announce the addition of six Stage Side Chats with cast members. Audience members at Tuesday night performances March 3 through April 7 will be invited to a brief question and answer session following that evening's performance with the actors who bring this show to life eight times a week. Chicago's own JERSEY BOYS performs at the Bank of America Theatre (18 W. Monroe) in an open run.

Tickets went on sale Friday, January 30 at 10:00 a.m. for the Orlando premiere engagement of JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, playing the Carr Performing Arts Centre May 6 - 24, 2009. Directed by two-time Tony ? Award-winner Des McAnuff, JERSEY BOYS won both the 2006 Tony ? Award for Best Musical and the 2006Grammy Award ? for Best Musical Recording, and continues to breakbox office records on Broadway and across North America. JERSEY BOYS is written by Academy Award ? -winner Marshall Brickmanand Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by BobCrewe and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

This summer, Broadway?s hottest musical made Canadian premiere electrifying audiences at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, extending twice and garnering extraordinary critical acclaim. Today, Dancap Productions Inc. and Jersey Boys are pleased to announce that the show will remain in Toronto! 'After our first eight weeks of performances, it has become ever so clear that Jersey Boys and the great city of Toronto seem meant for each other,' says Michael David, Producer of Jersey Boys. 'We are most excited to join with Aubrey Dan and Dancap to perpetuate that relationship hopefully for a very long time to come.'

'Jersey Boys', the award-winning Broadway musical which opened in London's West End at the Prince Edward Theatre on 18 March last year, is on a roll when it comes to theatre award nominations in the UK, the Tony winning tuner has been nominated for four What's On Stage Awards and five Oliviers.

National tour of Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is an entertaining, if shallow, tribute to the enduring music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

La Jolla Playhouse welcomes back Rick Elice, co-writer of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as the playwright of Peter and the Starcatchers. Alex Timbers and Roger Rees are set to direct with choreography by Kelly Devine and music by Wayne Barker. Peter and the Starcatchers will be playing at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse February 13 -March 8, 2009. Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers dares to tell the real story of precisely how a desperate orphan in Victorian England became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. It's a tale that travels halfway round the world and straight up to the stars. It's a comedy that takes aim at social injustice. It's a romance of young heroes who risk everything for the sake of doing right. It's an expos? of extravagant villains possessed of a single-minded ferocity from which no good shall ever spring. In short, it's an awfully big adventure. La Jolla Playhouse will present Peter and the Starcatchers, a new play, as a part of its Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Adam Green has been cast in the role of Peter. He has appeared in Off-Broadway productions such as Election Day, All This Intimacy and None of the Above. Molly will be played by Celia Keenan-Bolger who most recently appeared on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in Saved. Lost boy Prentiss will be played by Carson Elrod, who appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Our Town. Elrod has also appeared on Broadway in Reckless and Noises Off. David Rossmer is cast as the ever - peckish lost boy Teddy. His Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic. Christian Borle, who will be playing the ravenous Black Stache, received acclaim for his roles in Spamalot. He also received a 2007 Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. Andrew McGinn is set to play Slank. His New York credits include Coast of Utopia and The Invention of Love. Playing Lord Aster is John G. Preston, who recently appeared as Cameron Parker in the Off-Broadway production of Taboos. Greg Hildreth, playing the good hearted Alf, recently appeared in Dance Dance Revolution and Gentlemen of Verona. Teddy Bergman will be playing Fighting Prawn. His New York theater credits include Dance Dance Revolution and Nobody Likes the Mormons.

Bobby Fox, Scott Johnson, Glaston Toft and Stephen Mahy will star in JERSEY BOYS - The story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Broadway's multi-award winning musical opening in Melbourne's Princess Theatre on July 4. Rehearsals begin in Melbourne in April. Bobby Fox will play Frankie Valli, Scott Johnson is Tommy DeVito, Glaston Toft is Nick Massi and Stephen Mahy is Bob Gaudio - The Four Seasons. JERSEY BOYS is the story of how four boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty. JERSEY BOYS features their hit songs Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Rag Doll, Oh What a Night and Can't Take My Eyes Off You, among many others.

Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).

La Jolla Playhouse extends its warmest welcome to Michael Benjamin Washington, who appeared in Playhouse productions of The Wiz and Memphis.In his one-man show, Washington portrays five different characters as they explore the new America with a newly-elected president. An invite-only reading of Letters to Barack: A New American Play is taking place on Monday, February 9, 2009 at 7:30 pm in the Seuss 1 rehearsal room at La Jolla Playhouse.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award?-winner in years is coming to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will play a two-week engagement from February 10-22, 2009. Curtain times for the U.S. Bank Broadway Series presentation are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 & 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 15 at 2 & 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, February 22 at 2 p.m. There is also a weekday matinee on Thursday, February 19 at 1 p.m.