Don Walker News

Theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) announced that for the third straight week, the musical The Theory of Relativity has taken the top spot on the company's list of Trending Shows.

Theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) announced an agreement with Theatre Now New York, an artist service organization dedicated to the development of new works, to represent and license 25 short musicals from its collection beginning in early 2021.

Red Line Productions, recently honoured with the Hayes Gordon Memorial Award for significant contribution to Australian Theatre, and featured in Timeout New York & The Chicago Tribune, today announce that Alexander Berlage (American Psycho, Cry Baby,) Catherine Van-Davies (Hungry Ghosts, No Pay, No Way) & Constantine Costi (Opera Australia's La Traviata on Sydney Harbour, Bittersweet Obsessions for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra,) will join the company as part of the new artistic directorate of the Old Fitz Theatre.

Theatre Odyssey is forging ahead with its fifteenth annual ten-minute play festival. It is preparing to allow its audience to comfortably hear the festival from the safest place. Home.

The Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) is pleased to announce the five Providence public elementary schools that have been selected to participate in the 2019 - 2020 Disney Musicals in Schools program. The program is an initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Group to create sustainable theater programs in public elementary schools. The five schools include:  

Director Joel Grey and stars from the critically-acclaimed, award-winning and groundbreaking production of a?oeFiddler on the Roof in Yiddisha?? will celebrate the success of their original cast recording at Barnes & Noble (150 East 86th Street) in New York City at 3:30pm on Tuesday, October 15, 2019. 

In 2017, Center Theatre Group was awarded a grant from Disney to bring the Disney Musicals in Schools program to the Los Angeles area. The program is an initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create sustainable theatre programs in under-resourced elementary schools. Center Theatre Group will select four area public elementary schools to participate in this year's program. Previous recipients have included Breed Street Elementary (LAUSD), Cantara Street School (LAUSD), Harrison Elementary (LAUSD), Hope Street Elementary (LAUSD), Humphreys Avenue Elementary (LAUSD), La Ballona Elementary (Culver City Unified School District), Ritter Elementary (LAUSD), Saturn Street Elementary (LAUSD), Tulsa Street Elementary (LAUSD) and Wild Rose School of Creative Arts (Monrovia Unified School District). 

For the first time ever in its 55-year history, the musically complete cast recording of a?oeFiddler on the Roofa?? will be released, including 11 songs in English that were cut from the original Broadway production in 1964.

Final casting has been announced for the upcoming concert performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein's iconic musical CAROUSEL for one night only at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 19th May.

Dame Patricia Routledge has been announced for the upcoming concert performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein's iconic musical CAROUSEL for one night only at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 19th May. She will play the role of the Narrator.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins JR. will be playing at Roswell Cultural Arts Center from Friday, May 10 through Saturday, May 11. The "practically perfect" 70-minute musical, designed for middle school-aged performers, is based on the classic P.L. Travers stories and the Walt Disney film. The Roswell Youth Theatre cast includes 30 students led by Leslie Kelley, Jane Hendrix, and Nancy Whitehead Brown.

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts hosted its second Student Share Celebration for the Disney Musicals in Schools program on Tuesday, April 2. More than 150 students from four local Title I elementary schools performed in the showcase for hundreds of family and friends. The showcase took place in the Center's Dreyfoos Hall.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's iconic musical CAROUSEL is to receive a concert performance for one night only at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 19th May. Joanna Riding and Janie Dee will reprise their performances as Julie Jordan and Carrie Pipperidge for the first time in twenty-seven years since appearing in the National Theatre's legendary production of CAROUSEL, which earned them both Olivier Awards. The two-time Olivier Award-winners are currently enjoying great acclaim and success in the National Theatre's revival of FOLLIES. Joining them will be Hadley Fraser as Billy Bigelow. The 1945 musical marks the second collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and is based on Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play LILIOM.

Now in its 2nd year, Goodman Theatre selects five Chicagoland elementary schools to participate in the "Disney Musicals in Schools" program--an outreach initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create sustainable musical theater programs in under-resourced elementary schools. The selected schools include John C. Haines Elementary School (China Town) performing Aladdin KIDS; Jonathan Y. Scammon Elementary School (Logan Square) performing The Lion King KIDS; Richard Yates Elementary School (Humboldt Park) performing Aladdin KIDS; Belmont-Cragin Elementary School (Belmont Cragin) performing The Lion King KIDS; and Gerald Delgado Kanoon Magnet Elementary School (Little Village) performing Aladdin KIDS. Coordinated by Goodman Theatre artists Adrian Azevedo and Anna Gelman, under the leadership of Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor, the five area public elementary schools received performance rights to a Disney KIDS musical of their choice, at no cost.

Disney's Frozen JR. is playing at Woodruff School from Friday, April 12th, 2019 through Sunday, April 14th, 2019 at 7pm Friday and Saturday, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. The spectacular 60-minute musical, designed for middle school-aged performers, is based on the 2013 Disney film and the 2018 Broadway adaptation. The Woodruff School ACE Music cast includes 50 students led by Director Spencer Lau, Associate Director Tanya Nakai, Choreographer John Stephan, Vocal Coach Kayleigh Whitmore, Assistant Choreographer Lindsay Nakai and Casting Directors Jaclyn Pohlig and Sarah Moore.

For City Center's 75th Anniversary Season the series is reviving one of its own revivals, the musical Call Me Madam. Featuring a memorable score by Irving Berlin and book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, Call Me Madam centers around a brassy ambassador to the fictional European nation of Lichtenberg.

The brevity of political satire's shelf life tends to rival that of a tray of supermarket eggs, but it seems one of the quips penned by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse for the book of their smash hit 1950 musical Call Me Madam is breathing in new life in the 21st Century.

In partnership with Disney Theatrical Productions, Music Theatre International is now licensing Frozen JR.

PS CLASSICS will release a new studio cast recording of Cole Porter's 1943 smash hit musical, Something for the Boys. Seventy-five years after it took Broadway by storm, the full score to one of Porter's most forgotten musicals is finally preserved on disc, complete with its original orchestrations for 26 musicians - plus a marching band.

Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma is pleased to announce the five new schools that have been selected to participate in the 2018-19 Disney Musicals in Schools program. The program is an initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create sustainable theater programs in under-resourced elementary schools. The five schools are a part of  Oklahoma City Public Schools. The five schools include: Adelaide Lee, Hawthorne, John Rex, Pierce, and Willow Brook elementaries.