Eric Schaeffer News

First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb in the Eisenhower Theater opened at the Kennedy Center last night, June 13, where it plays in the Eisenhower Theater through July 1, 2012. The show stars Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Alan H. Green, Leslie Kritzer, Patina Miller, and Matthew Scott. BroadwayWorld brings you a complete first look at the show below!

The Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre is looking for the next 'Signature Idol,' with the return of the very popular Signature Idol Competition being held during this year's annual Open House on August 4th.

PS Classics, the label dedicated to the heritage of Broadway and American popular song, released the two-disc set Broadway cast album of the Kennedy Center's acclaimed revival of FOLLIES on Tuesday, November 29, 2011. Since then, the Metropolitan Museum of Art requested permission from PS Classics to include "Broadway Baby" in an upcoming compilation disc. Because the track on the New Broadway Cast Recording includes brief reprises of other tunes, Jayne Houdyshell kindly went back into the studio to record a new solo ending.

Gregg Barnes is this year's recipient of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for FOLLIES. Check out what the designer had to say about his big win just moments after receiving his award!

The musical revue First You Dream opened at the Kennedy Center, and we have a first look at the photos from the event. Check them out below!

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, the hit musical with productions in New York, Chicago and touring across North America, is launching a national casting search seeking musicians/actors for the roles of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins for future replacements and understudies for the Chicago and touring productions.

The national tour of the Tony Award® - winning musical, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, is currently playing Las Vegas' Smith Center for the Performing Arts, where it will play through June 17. The Broadway musical inspired by the electrifying true story of four rock ‘n' roll icons, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins will continue onto the Pantages Theatre on June 19.

Continuing in its ongoing efforts of supporting new musical theater works, Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director of Signature Theatre, announced today that the Tony Award®-winning theatre is commissioning two new musicals under Signature's American Musical Voices Project (AMVP): The Next Generation. Composers Joshua Rosenblum (Einstein's Dreams, Fermat's Last Tango) and Josh Schmidt (Adding Machine, A Minister's Wife) will be creating new musicals for future seasons at Signature. In December of 2011, Mr. Rosenblum and Mr. Schmidt were awarded "honoree grants" and shared selections from projects in development at a special performance held at Signature Theatre.

Gregg Barnes is this year's recipient of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for FOLLIES.

James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES closes tonight, June 9, at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre after a critically acclaimed run. Nominated for eight Tony Awards, the show has been through quite the journey, beginning at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center in May 2011, then making its transfer to Broadway's Marquis Theatre, where it opened in September of 2011 and ran through January 22, 2012, and finally traveling to L.A. for its May 9, 2012, opening. As a farewell to Follies, BroadwayWorld brings takes you through this journey with photos, video and highlights from all three productions below.

In the videos below, FIRST YOU DREAM cast members James Clow and Alan H. Green talk about their journey from hometown to Broadway and the excitement of performing in the Kander & Ebb First You Dream revue at The Kennedy Center, beginning performances tonight!

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts previously announced casting for its production of First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb in the Eisenhower Theater tonight, June 8 to July 1, 2012.

Virginia's Signature Theatre is heating up once again this summer with their annual Sizzlin' Summer Cabaret, a series featuring a number of red hot acts from some of our favorite DC and Broadway performers from July 11th through July 28th.

Nominations for the 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced at a news conference this morning by Drama Desk winners Donna Murphy and Brian d'Arcy James. The 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards took place tonight, Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall in Manhattan.

Nominations for the 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced at a news conference on April 27 by Drama Desk winners Donna Murphy and Brian d'Arcy James. After weeks of anticipation, the ceremony is tonight, June 3, at The Town Hall and BroadwayWorld will be bringing you the full spectrum of coverage, of course!

Today, BroadwayWorld brings you Victoria Clark performing 'Losing My Mind' in FOLLIES at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre. Watch the video below!

BroadwayWorld brings you Elaine Paige singing 'I'm Still Here' in Follies onstage at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre. Watch the video below!

The cast and director Eric Schaeffer of the musical revue First You Dream, set to open this month at the Kennedy Center, discuss the work of their show's muses, John Kander and Fred Ebb, the songwriting team who created Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Zorba, and many more Broadway hits. Watch video interviews, plus footage of the cast in reherasal, below!

Today we are talking to a two-time Tony Award winning lyricist and book writer who was responsible for the 2010 Best Musical winner, MEMPHIS, and who has since written the libretto of the Gershwin revue NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET and received a well-earned Tony nomination for his efforts; one of the show's ten nods - Joe DiPietro. In this concluding portion of our conversation, DiPietro and I break down the process of creating NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT and he comments on the starry cast - including Matthew Broderick, Kelli O'Hara, Judy Kaye and Estelle Parsons - and the process of collaboration in bringing the 2012 Tony Awards top nominee to the Broadway stage. Additionally, DiPietro fills us in on the future for THE TOXIC AVENGER and its tentative Broadway plans, as well as the upcoming West End mountings of MEMPHIS and, hopefully, NICE WORK - and, a look ahead to his next David Bryan collaboration, CHASING THE SONG, as well. Plus, a glance back at his work on I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT NOW CHANGE, F*CKING MEN and ALLEGRO and his favorite current pop acts.

James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, which was just nominated for eight Tony Awards, opened on May 9 at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Performances of the exclusive Los Angeles engagement of the Kennedy Center's critically acclaimed Broadway production of Follies continue through June 9, 2012. We now bring you 'Waiting For the Girls Upstairs' from the production below!