Des McAnuff News

On Wednesday February 4th, Erich Bergen and Jeff Leibow from Jersey Boys Las Vegas participated in a fundraising celebrity pizza-making competition on behalf of the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts. The 'Celebrity Cook-Off' was held at the grand opening celebration of the newest Sammy's Woodfired Pizza location in Las Vegas.

The first preview for Guys and Dolls will now take place on Thursday, February 5th at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The production is delaying its first preview to allow for an extra day of needed technical rehearsal. Audience members scheduled for the February 4th preview performance will be contacted and accommodated for another performance.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced additional casting and complete details for the World Premiere of INKED BABY, a new play by 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn nominee Christina Anderson in her Off-Broadway playwriting debut. Directed by Kate Whoriskey (Fabulation at Playwrights Horizons, the current Ruined at MTC), the production will begin previews on Thursday, March 5, 2009 with an Opening Night set for Monday, March 23 at 7PM. The limited engagement will run through Sunday, April 5 at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

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 will now begin previews on February 4, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1, 2009.

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!

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce casting for ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN, by Charles Fuller and directed by Stephen McKinley Henderson. ZOOMAN AND THE SIGN is the final production of Signature's 2008-09 season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

The first preview for Guys and Dolls will now take place on Thursday, February 5th at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The production is delaying its first preview to allow for an extra day of needed technical rehearsal. Audience members scheduled for the February 4th preview performance will be contacted and accommodated for another performance.

The first preview for GUYS AND DOLLS will now take place on Thursday, February 5th at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The production is delaying its first preview to allow for an extra day of needed technical rehearsal. Audience members scheduled for the February 4th preview performance will be contacted and accommodated for another performance.

Nominations have been announced for this year's Laurence Olivier Awards, London's equivalent of the Tonys. The awards, which were created in 1976 will be given out on Sunday March 8, 2009 in a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

On Saturday, January 31, daytime television star Tyler Christopher, who currently portrays Nikolas Cassadine on the ABC drama 'General Hospital,' attended JERSEY BOYS at The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino. Christopher stopped backstage after the show to meet the talented cast and congratulate them on a spectacular performance.

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!

Variety is reporting that Canada's Cineplex has joined forces with CTV and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to present the festivals 2008 hit production of 'Caesar and Cleopatra,' starring Christopher Plummer, on 80 screens across Canada. Scheduled to be shown just one time only, on Saturday January 31st, 'Caesar' was shot in front of an audience over three days during the George Bernard Shaw play's Stratford run last fall, using nine high-definition cameras and Dolby surround sound reports Variety. The advanced demand is strong, with several theaters sold out.

Loretta Greco has chosen Tough Titty to start off the new year, a dynamically theatrical and surprisingly funny odyssey through one woman's battle with breast cancer. Tough Titty, written by Oni Faida Lampley and directed by Robert O'Hara, marks the third play of Magic Theatre's 2008/09 season. In Tough Titty, when Angela's routine cannot keep breast cancer at bay, she must learn to face the disease, her family, and her community with equal doses of tenacity and humor. Richly emotional, Tough Titty is a boisterous exploration of one woman's willful search for grace.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award-winner in years is coming to Cleveland. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will open at PlayhouseSquare's PalaceTheatre and play for 16 performances, March 3-15. Spring Awakening is part of the KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare. Spring Awakening swept the 2007 Tony Awards? winning eight out of its eleven nominations, including Best Musical, Best Director (Michael Mayer), Best Book (Steven Sater), Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones), Best Orchestrations (Duncan Sheik), Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams), Best Featured Actor (John Gallagher Jr.).

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 will now begin previews on February 4, 2009 at Broadway's newly refurbished Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Opening Night is March 1, 2009.

Variety is reporting that Canada's Cineplex has joined forces with CTV and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to present the festivals 2008 hit production of 'Caesar and Cleopatra,' starring Christopher Plummer, on 80 screens across Canada. Scheduled to be shown just one time only, on Saturday January 31st, 'Caesar' was shot in front of an audience over three days during the George Bernard Shaw play's Stratford run last fall, using nine high-definition cameras and Dolby surround sound reports Variety. The advanced demand is strong, with several theaters sold out.

On Friday, January 23, Mario Lopez, the current host of 'Extra!' and the Miss America Pageant, attended a performance of JERSEY BOYS at The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino. Lopez was in town with family and stopped backstage after the show to congratulate the cast and crew. After only seven months on The Strip, the musical phenomenon JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, was named the number one show of 2008 by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Recently named Hottest Bachelor of 2008 by People magazine, Lopez danced his way into America's heart on the hit program 'Dancing with the Stars' and is one of the most popular performers in the history of that show. He also served as the host of Warner Horizon Television's hit reality-competition series 'Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew,' on MTV, and also starred on Broadway in the part of musical theatre director Zach in the recent revival of 'A Chorus Line.' His television credits include starring roles in the telefilms 'Holidays in Handcuffs' and 'Husband for Hire,' hosting the 2007 Miss America Pageant, and guest-starring appearances on 'Nip/Tuck' and 'George Lopez.' Jersey Boys opened in Las Vegas on May 3, 2008 as the exclusive west coast permanent company, led by Erich Bergen (Bob Gaudio), Rick Faugno (Frankie Valli), Jeff Leibow (Nick Massi) and Deven May (Tommy DeVito) as The Four Seasons. Presented in Las Vegas in a unique, custom-built theatre adorned with one-of-a-kind memorabilia from The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jersey Boys at The Palazzo is the same production fans all over the world have come to know and love.

That roar you hear every night at around 10:30 is not the wind. It's the crowds cheering the new Canadian cast of Jersey Boys at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. This Tony-award winning musical sent it's touring cast here last August but demand was so great that when that cast moved on to their next engagement, they were replaced by a mostly Canadian company who elevate this quintessentially American show into the stratosphere. New Canadian cast is if anything even better. If you haven't seen this production yet, what are you waiting for? * * * * * (OUT OF 5)

McCarter Theatre Center announces the complete cast for Eclipsed, the Spotlight Production of the theater's 3rd Annual In-Festival of new works. Written by Obie Award-winning actress and playwright Danai Gurira and directed by Liesl Tommy, the five-woman play features Pascale Armand, Nikiya Mathis, Keiana Rich?rd, Stacey Sargeant, and April Yvette Thompson. Eclipsed runs on Wednesdays through Sundays from January 26 to February 8, 2009 in The Room in the Berlind Theatre (opening night January 31). Set in war-torn Liberia, Eclipsed offers a chilling, humanizing, and surprisingly funny portrait of transformation and renewal. With wit, compassion, and defiance, this gripping play unearths the wreckage of war and celebrates the women who navigate and survive the most hostile of circumstances. Danai Gurira first introduced excerpts of Eclipsed to McCarter in 2007, followed by a public reading of the work during the 2008 In-Festival. In researching the play, Ms. Gurira traveled to Liberia through a TCG New Generations Grant, which she applied for with McCarter Theatre. Pascale Armand has been seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons and Manhattan Theatre Club and regionally at numerous theaters including Kansas City Rep, Arena Stage, Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, American Repertory Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Lauren Graham (Golden Globe Award nominee for 'Gilmore Girls') will make her Broadway debut as 'Miss Adelaide' opposite Oliver Platt's 'Nathan Detroit' in the new Broadway production of GUYS AND DOLLS. Lauren Graham talks to Entertainment Weekly about Broadway, a 'Gilmore' movie, and her big TV comeback. ABC announced a production commitment to a new comedy starring Graham, who will play a self-help guru who teaches women how to live a stress-free life -- but struggles to follow her own advice when her boyfriend dumps her.'