Ellen Dostal News

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature IN THE HEIGHTS in Detroit, ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE in North Carolina, THE LAST FIVE YEARS in Los Angeles and more.  Check out our top features below!

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington, DC, Chicago, Orlando and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include THE SECRET GARDEN in DC, THE FUNDAMENTALS in Chicago, and PYGMALION in Orlando, just to name a few.

Legendary American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's masterwork Merrily We Roll Along is revisited in a new production under the direction of Tony Award nominee Michael Arden (Spring Awakening), playing at the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts through December 18. 

Back in 2008, the creators of Unbound Productions - Jonathan Josephson, Paul Millet, and Jeff G. Rack - bet that audiences were ready for something different. That's when the trio began to explore adapting classical literature to create a new kind of immersive theatre no one had seen before. You know them better as the guys who produce Wicked Lit. 

Frances Seymour Fonda, actor Henry Fonda's second wife, was only 32 years old when the theater she commissioned architect Arthur W. Hawes to build opened in December of 1940. Originally known as the Westwood Theater, it was designed to be a performance space for live productions and for a short time it did fulfill that mission. Across town, movie musicals like Busby Berkeley's Strike Up the Band and Down Argentine Way were becoming box office hits as Tinseltown capitalized on the popularity of established young stars such as Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and soon-to-be stars like pin-up girl Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Chicago, Madison, Sydney and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include HOW TO SUCCEED in Chicago, ENDGAME in Madison, and MY FAIR LADY directed by Julie Andrews in Sydney, just to name a few.

Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to enjoy an evening of theatre outdoors in one of the area's loveliest and most unique venues - El Molino Viejo, The Old Mill, in San Marino. I'd never been there before, but since I love historic buildings and grew up on Sunday afternoon westerns, I was immediately intrigued by an invitation to see THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS in the mill's garden courtyard.

Grey Gardens/Ahmanson Theatre/July 6 - August 14, 2016 Based on the 1975 documentary of the same name, the story recounts the fall from uppercrust society of mother and daughter Edith Bouvier Beale, eccentric cousins of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who lived in poverty in East Hampton, New York. This is the long-awaited west coast premiere of the Tony winning musical, and it will star Rachel York as 'Little Edie' and Betty Buckley as 'Big Edie'. www.centertheatregroup.org Beautiful - The Carole King Musical/Pantages Theatre/June 22 - July 17, 2

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Denver, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include OF MICE AND MEN at Milwaukee Rep, the pre-Broadway engagement of EMPIRE in Los Angeles, and VIOLET in Denver,  just to name a few.

The pre-Broadway engagement of EMPIRE opened at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, with book, music & lyrics by Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull, musical direction by Sariva Goetz, and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime). EMPIRE runs through Sunday, February 14, 2016.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Rhode Island, Westchester, Chicago and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include GYPSY in Rhode Island, GODSPELL in Westchester, and GRAND CONCOURSE in Chicago, just to name a few.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington, DC, Chicago, St. Louis, Vancouver, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include DEAR EVAN HANSEN in DC, VANYA AND SONIA in Chicago, and The Muny's HOLIDAY INN, just to name a few.

There's a fascinating mix of familiar and not- so-familiar plays and musicals that will grace Los Angeles stages this summer. LA editors Don Grigware, Ellen Dostal, Shari Barrett and Gil Kaan have chosen their favorites in the list below. Enjoy!

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Maine, Austin, Portland, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include Mad Horse's OTHER DESERT CITIES, classic comedy GREATER TUNA in Austin, and GROUNDED in Portland, just to name a few.

With over 100 U.S. cities and 30 international regions featured on our site, we have so many exciting theatre happenings around our Broadway World! Below, we've highlighted our top 10 stories from this week. Check out the roundup below!

Are you one of the thousands already following BroadwayWorld.com, the biggest theatre site on the net on Twitter and Facebook?

For our 48th Kritzerland show we're proud to present a salute to some incredible female lyricists of the musical theatre, mostly Carolyn Leigh, the brilliant lyricist of such Broadway shows as Little Me, Wildcat, Peter Pan and others, as well as such classic pop songs as 'Witchcraft' and 'The Best Is Yet to Come,' as well as other great female lyricists like Lynn Ahrens (Once on this Island, Ragtime, Seussical), Carol Hall (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), Marsha Norman (The Secret Garden), Gretchen Cryer (I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road), Fran Landesman (The Nervous Set, 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most'), Amanda McBroom ('The Rose', Heartbeats) and Carole Bayer Sager (They're Playing Our Song). Kritzerland's Bruce Kimmel has recorded many of the lyricists above and has chosen the usual Kritzerland colorful and eclectic program, a mix of the well- known and the unknown. As always, we've assembled a stellar cast. So, come join us for some amazing songs by some amazing women.

The Capital Fringe Festival (today, July 10-27) will host Andrew Potter's nationally touring, critically acclaimed, fringe show, The Road to High Street. It's the true, tell-all tale of two unicycle-riding/fire-eating/guitar-playing/rubber chicken-juggling street performers in a one-man, musical, digital storytelling show. And, as the show's synopsis playfully declares, 'It's about chasing your dreams, too'.

The Capital Fringe Festival (July 10-27) will host Andrew Potter's nationally touring, critically acclaimed, fringe show, The Road to High Street. It's the true, tell-all tale of two unicycle-riding/fire-eating/guitar-playing/rubber chicken-juggling street performers in a one-man, musical, digital storytelling show. And, as the show's synopsis playfully declares, "It's about chasing your dreams, too".