Des McAnuff News

The producers of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award winning musical Jersey Boys have just announced that performances will resume at New York City’s New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) Stage 1 on November 15, 2021. Tickets are now on sale at Telecharge.com.

Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations, the Tony Award-winning musical will resume Broadway performances on October 16, subject to government approval, at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) with a gala performance heralding the return of Broadway.

Black Hills Community Theatre is presenting The Who’s Tommy beginning tonight, May 7, 2021. The production features a Book by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff, Music by Pete Townshend, with Additional Music and Lyrics by John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

While Disney's Frozen, which was previously announced as part of Broadway In Detroit's 2021-22 season, will be scheduled for a future Detroit engagement, Broadway In Detroit has announced that Disney's The Lion King will return to The Detroit Opera House in early 2022. Performance dates and times will be announced at a future date.

The Stratford Festival is continuing to expand its online offerings as it marks the first anniversary of its Thursday night viewing parties this week with an encore screening of King Lear, and with a specially curated selection of theatrical content newly added to Stratfest@Home, the Festival’s $10-a-month streaming service.

San Francisco’s revered 42nd Street Moon kicks off its 2021 “Moonbeams” season with Jason Graae in Perfect Hermany, a tribute to the late, great Jerry Herman, writer of such classic musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage Aux Folles. The title Perfect Hermany is an unusually apt one as Graae is the perfect interpreter of Herman’s work, having starred in a much-lauded production Herman’s The Grand Tour in LA and toured for years with Herman in Hello, Jerry!, a revue of Herman’s work. Perfect Hermany is available for streaming on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through May 2, 2021. For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit 42ndStreetMoon.org. Among his many credits, Graae has appeared on Broadway numerous times, toured extensively as The Wizard in Wicked, performed with major symphonies across the country, recorded dozens of musical theater albums and has enjoyed a long association with 42nd Street Moon. He is known for the improbable combination of his antic, go-for-broke comedic style and the impeccable musicianship of his soaring tenor. He is the type of performer who can make you bust a gut one moment, and then melt your heart the next.   BroadwayWorld caught up with Graae last week from his home base in LA soon after he had completed filming Perfect Hermany. We talked about his long association with both Herman and 42nd Street Moon, his favorite Herman songs, a couple of key roles that somehow got away from him and a few he still hopes to have a go at. Graae is always a blast to talk to. It seems the guy just is incapable of not being funny, but he is also thoughtful and kind, and sort of a walking treasure trove of theatrical lore. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced its 2021–2022 Theater season featuring hit Broadway musicals, acclaimed plays, Kennedy Center productions, special programming for the Center’s 50th Anniversary, and more, beginning in October 2021.

Today's episode features internationally renowned theater choreographer and director, Sergio Trujillo, who was quick to note that his success has been deeply effected by the many supportive people in his life.

Today (April 5) in live streaming: Mandy Gonzalez and Lin-Manuel Miranda unite to talk Fearless, Jay O. Sanders is Exploring Falstaff, and more!

Today's top stories: Inside the first Broadway theatre reopening, featuring Nathan Lane and Savion Glover, and more!

The schedule includes a week entitled From Page to Stage, featuring operas based on works by some of history’s great writers, and a week of fairy-tale operas entitled Once Upon a Time. The 1987 telecast of Puccini’s Turandot, with Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell, Plácido Domingo, and Paul Plishka, will be streamed for the first time on April 17.

Hennepin Theatre Trust has announced that a Jersey Boys edition will be added to the previously announced The Broadway Cast Reunion Series which takes viewers behind-the-scenes for Broadway’s biggest hits with up close and personal conversations.

Hosted by Lee Lessack and Robert Bannon, The Broadway Cast Reunion Series was created due to the overwhelming success of their Broadway-themed episodes of their 10-month online series “Quarantine, Cabaret and Cocktails.”

An exciting line-up of Broadway hits making their Charlotte debuts and returning fan favorites including Hamilton and Wicked will be center stage when Blumenthal Performing Arts relaunches its PNC Broadway Lights and Equitable Bravo series this fall.

Lee Lessack and Robert Bannon, the hosts of the weekly, online chat show, Quarantine, Cabaret and Cocktails, have launched a new live online series, giving audiences an opportunity to get close to Broadway during this unprecedented moratorium on in-person, live entertainment. 

Florida Theatrical Association, Dr. Phillips Center and Broadway Across America announced today the upcoming FAIRWINDS Broadway in Orlando series, which is expected to begin this fall. New subscriptions are now on sale and current subscribers are able to add to their packages.

The Stratford Festival was shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Christopher Plummer's death. The theatrical pioneer was a member of the Stratford acting company for 11 seasons between 1956 and 2012.

NBC's special One Night Only: The Best of Broadway premiered last night, December 10 at 8pm ET. Cast members from Mean Girls, Jagged Little Pill, Chicago, Ain't Too Proud, Jersey Boys, Rent, and more performed at the event. The cast of Ain't Too Proud performed 'Rain' which can be watched here!

Stonestreet Studios, the New York-based independent film and tv studio founded in 1991 by director/writer/producer team Alyssa Rallo Bennett and Gary O. Bennett, just honored Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations star Nik Walker with the studio's Fifth Annual Stonestreet Granite Award.

Academy Award-winner Christopher Plummer is the focus of the Stratford Festival's next two Thursday night viewing parties, with two remarkable performances and two exclusive new pre-show interviews – all being added this month to Stratfest@Home, the Festival's new subscription streaming service.