Edna Ferber News

Barrington Stage Company and Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, has announced the 2018 season, which will feature three world premieres, including a major new musical from Tony Awards winners William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, a new play from Off Broadway Alliance Award winner Lloyd Suh, and the first major production of a work from an exciting young playwright, Rachel Lynett.

As usual, the Equity professional, award-winning East Lynne Theater Company is accepting items for the Food Closet during the run of its holiday show. What is needed most are cereal, soup, bar soap, tuna, peanut butter, and dry spaghetti. For monetary donations, makes checks payable to The Community Food Closet of Cape May.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, will host its annual New York City Benefit, BSC/NYC, on Monday, November 13, 2017, to celebrate their New Works Initiative and honor composer Joe Iconis with the William Finn Award for Innovation and Excellence in Musical Theatre.

Actors Co-0p Theatre Company (Ovation Award-Winner 2014 Best Intimate Theatre Musical for 110 in the Shade) presents the second show in its 26th Season, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's beloved comedy classic THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announced today two productions for their 2018 season.

New Jersey Repertory Company is excited to offer an interesting, informative and inspiring array of classes at our newly acquired West End Arts Center located at 132 West End Avenue, Long Branch on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons for five weeks, October 17th through November 18th.

Tony Award nominee and renowned Broadway actor Michel Bell makes his Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston debut this month. Bell will revive the role of JOE, the performance that earned him a Tony Award nomination in Hal Prince's 1995 Broadway production of Show Boat. Bell's bass-baritone delivery of the iconic song 'Ol' Man River' brought audiences to their feet on Broadway. Bell brings his immense talents to the Reagle stage now through July 16 for 8 performances only, in this intimate Goodspeed Musicals version of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II masterpiece. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Tony Award nominee and renowned Broadway actor Michel Bell will make his Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston debut this July! 

Broadway's "Phantom," Ciaran Sheehan, returns to Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston to take on the role of GAYLORD RAVENAL in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1927 masterpiece Show Boat. Running from July 6-16 for 8 performances only, Show Boat will also star Boston's own Sarah Oakes Muirhead (Sunday in the Park with George) as MAGNOLIA HAWKS. 

Tony Award nominee and renowned Broadway actor Michel Bell will make his Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston debut this July! 

The more the Sheriff of Nottingham collected ever-increasing taxes to stuff the pockets of the corrupt Prince John and his own pockets, the more Robin Hood fought to get that money back to the original owners. He was aided by Little John, Friar Tuck, and others, in Sherwood Forest.   

Broadway's "Phantom," Ciaran Sheehan, returns to Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston to take on the role of GAYLORD RAVENAL in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1927 masterpiece Show Boat. Running from July 6-16 for 8 performances only, Show Boat will also star Boston's own Sarah Oakes Muirhead (Sunday in the Park with George) as MAGNOLIA HAWKS. 

American Theater Company (ATC) is proud to announce its Season 33, which kicks off this October with the world premiere of Janine Nabers' Welcome to Jesus, directed by Artistic Director Will Davis, October 26-December 3, 2017.

On Friday, March 31, 2017, The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theatre, is pleased to recognize the talents of six outstanding women: Carol Hall, Linda Cho, Lilieana Blain-Cruz, Liesl Tommy, Jess Chayes and Emily Simoness.

The question of gender parity in the theatre is a matter that has long been explored within our community. While recent Broadway seasons have taken encouraging steps toward better female representation, both on and offstage, the question of gender equality within the theatre continues to be a hotly debated issue across the theatrical sphere.

On April 1, 2017, R. Scott Williams will release 'An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,' a biography of the life of Oscar Odd McIntyre, the first modern pop culture and entertainment reporter. It will be available on Amazon.com and through IngramSpark. As the highest-paid and most-read columnist of his era, Odd McIntyre achieved great fame and fortune in the early twentieth century. Raised in Gallipolis, Ohio, eventually he moved to New York and became close friends with many of the leading personalities of the day, including writers Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; entertainers Fred Astaire, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Billie Burke, and Will Rogers; composers George Gershwin and Meredith Willson; actors Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin and many others. In his daily column, 'New York Day by Day,' and in national magazines like Cosmopolitan and Life, Odd captured a time and place undergoing great transition and innovation in communication, politics, art and entertainment. As the country shifted from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era and through the Great Depression, new technologies and methods of communication were being quickly adopted around the world, as were new ideas regarding journalism and the role of media in American politics and society. Odd, living and writing in New York, was at the epicenter of this new modern age. 'Odd documented the stories of what was happening backstage and behind the scenes with popular culture around the world,' said Williams, who is the chief operating officer of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. 'Odd was there as the telegraph changed the news business, and then as radio changed everything. He covered live entertainment as it shifted from vaudeville to something new and exciting on Broadway, and he had a literal front-row seat as moving pictures evolved first to nickelodeons, then to silent films, and finally to talkies.' As a young journalist and editor in Ohio, Odd was one of the very first reporters to interview the Wright brothers in Dayton, and he worked side by side with early muckrakers to fight government corruption in Cincinnati. After moving to New York and working briefly as an assistant editor for Hampton's Magazine, he got a job as a Park Row newspaper reporter. One of his first assignments was interviewing Titanic survivors as they stepped onto the pier in New York. Later, McIntyre began working for music publisher Leo Feist on Tin Pan Alley, promoting songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and 'song pluggers.' His success there led to many years as the press agent for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., where he got to know many of the most popular performers of the day. In Paris, he became friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and others who came to be known as the 'Lost Generation,' while back in New York, he had a long-time feud with members of the group known as the 'Algonquin Round Table.' His experience and connections in New York allowed him and his biggest champion, his wife Maybelle McIntyre, to start a daily column that they mailed from their small New York apartment to newspapers around the country. Eventually, Odd's column grew to reach more than seven million readers each day, making him a media superstar. In his 1938 obituary, a reporter for The New York Times wrote, 'His greatest stock-in-trade was his incarnate rapture at the glories of a New York recognizable to none but himself. To him the towers of Manhattan were studded with minarets and the neon lights of Broadway flickered like jewels.' Only Odd's wife and closest friends knew his biggest secret. Throughout adulthood, he struggled with social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and severe depression that were likely brought on by undiagnosed pernicious anemia. Despite the extroverted 'man-about-town' image he projected to the world, his disorder eventually drove him to a reclusive lifestyle. He left his home only at night, and observed New York's nightlife from the window of his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. A special launch event will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Odd's hometown of Gallipolis, Ohio where The Ohio Valley Symphony will perform Meredith Willson's 'O.O. McIntyre Suite.' In anticipation of the book, Williams has also launched several social media initiatives to help the public learn more about Odd McIntyre and his work. Photos of the people, places and pop culture icons that Odd covered in his daily column will be featured at Instagram.com/ anoddbook, and short excerpts from Odd's articles will be shared on Twitter.com/anoddbook. Williams noted, 'Because Odd's writing style frequently included short, cleverly written sentences, they still resonate remarkably well today in the 140-character Twitter format.' Additional content about Odd McIntyre and 'An Odd Book' will be shared on YouTube and at Facebook.com/anoddbook. Links to these social network accounts, along with much more information about Odd McIntyre and the book launch, can be found at AnOddBook.com. About R. Scott Williams R. Scott Williams is the author of 'An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,' available April 1 on Amazon.com and through IngramSpark. Williams is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Williams earned his degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. He then held positions at several advertising agencies and organizations, including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. He currently serves on the board of the D.C. chapter of the American Advertising Federation and on the board of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife and daughters in historic Arlington, Va. Passionate about discovering and sharing forgotten stories from the past, in his spare time he explores the history of the American South, especially around his home in West Tennessee. His first book was 'The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton: From Tennessee to Timbuktu.' High-resolution photos available on the book's press page at AnOddBook.com/press.

The Drama League (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director), has named Shakina Nayfack the 2017 Beatrice Terry Artist in Residence Fellow, the second recipient of the award named in honor of the late Beatrice Terry, an alumna of The Drama League Directors Project.

The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway in 1927 was a watershed moment in the history of American musicals. Compared to the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies and 'Follies'-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, Show Boat was, according to the "Complete Book of Light Opera, "a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness."

Of the three shows currently running at the Guthrie, THE ROYAL FAMILY is definitely the lightweight, longer on comedy and razzle-dazzle production values than on importance. (The other two shows are KING LEAR and PROMISE LAND, a barebones physical theater take on the Hansel and Gretel tale retold as an immigrant story.) Loosely based on the Barrymore acting clan, THE ROYAL FAMILY follows three generations of a prominent and wealthy family of performers, with particular attention to the female line.

On Friday, March 31, 2017, The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theatre, is pleased to recognize the talents of six outstanding women: Carol Hall, Linda Cho, Lilieana Blain-Cruz, Liesl Tommy, Jess Chayes and Emily Simoness.