Frances News

BroadwayWorld Cabaret is pleased to announce the nominees in 17 categories for the 2018 BWW New York Cabaret Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD!

The DROWSY Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Jazz Age musical, featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another. With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical. The recording comes to life and 'The DROWSY Chaperone' begins as the man in the chair looks on. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight. Rated - PG. SHOWS/DATES: Thursday, November 29 - Sunday, December 2, 2018 ONLINE TICKETS: https://commerce.cashnet.com/oul-theatre

Teater Musikal Nusantara (TEMAN), a musical theatre company based in Jakarta, will produce their first show, Stephen Sondheim's fairytale musical INTO THE WOODS. The production will run for three shows on two days from December 22nd to December 23rd 2018 and will take place at Teater Salihara, Jakarta. This production is licensed through Musical Theatre International and produced in association with Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy.

Imagine yourself in a small room where you can watch people in their most unguarded moments and listen to their innermost, basest desires without any burden or worry of getting caught… Imagine yourself doing what you love doing with no cares for time and space… Imagine yourself in a dressing room where the ethereal meets the corporal, and the objects of your voyeuristic eyes are actresses prepping up for their roles prior to their cues on stage.

TimeLine Theatre Company announces its inaugural "FIRST DRAFT: A TimeLine Playwrights Collective Festival,' the culmination of the company's latest two-year new-play incubator program offering residency to Chicago-based emerging and established writers. FIRST DRAFT will take place December 1 - 3, 2018, at TimeLine's home at 615 W. Wellington Avenue in Chicago, with free public readings of new plays by current Playwrights Collective members Tyla Abercrumbie, Will Allan, Maureen Gallagher, and Calamity West. 

The McCallum Theatre announced that performance-only tickets are on sale on Wednesday, November 21st at 9:00am for its Annual Fundraising Gala on Wednesday, December 5th. The gala will be headlined by one of entertainment's most beloved performers, multiple Grammy Award-winning country music superstar and lifestyle entrepreneur Trisha Yearwood.  Performance-only tickets are $100 for rear orchestra and $75 for balcony seats and may be purchased online at www.mccallumtheatre.com, at the McCallum Theatre Box Office, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert or by calling 760-340-2787.

Continuing its 35th Anniversary season, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director; Tom Toce Producer) proudly announces the line-up for this year's award-winning series, WINTER RHYTHMS 2018, which will begin Wednesday, December 12 featuring some of New York's best musical performances through Saturday, December 22, 2018 at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30th Street, just East of 8th Avenue).

Frances Smith Cohen has built an astounding career as a dancer, educator and director in Arizona for more than 60 years. That legacy is now being honored by Scottsdale Arts Education & Outreach with a special exhibition in the ArtReach Space at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts from Nov. 30 through Jan. 8.

In keeping with their mission of supporting emerging writers, the Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) hosted some award-winning student writers at their recent gala in New York City. The winners of theNext Generation Works Thespian Playworks and Thespian Musicalworks writing competitions for members of the International Thespian Society (ITS) were the Foundation's guests at the invitation of Rachel Routh, DGF Executive Director.

As one of the most famous coming-of-age films, the story of Dirty Dancing is loved by many. The 2004 stage show now comes to the New Wimbledon Theatre in an energetic but occasionally awkward revival. 

Boreal's annual show is the perfect antidote to a cold winter's night. Each November and December, singer/songwriters Katherine Wheatley, Tannis Slimmon and Jude Vadala come together as the musical trio Boreal criss-crossing Ontario peforming their heartwarming show, Songs For The Snowy Season.

The Wallace Collection and Via Brooklyn proudly present The Collection, an original work by playwright Tristan Bernays. The Collection will be directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson. This immersive theatre experience, filled with history and music, will breathe new life into the Wallace Collection and allow the audience to explore the galleries as they have never been seen before.

On opening night for the Minnesota Opera (MNOP), the audience in attendance became curiously quieter and quieter, silent, when the curtain rose at the Ordway Center on the company's contemporary award winning opera 'Silent Night.' Commissioned by MNOP in 2011, the music by Kevin Putts combined with a libretto by Mark Campbell transported the opera house to Christmas, 1914, the beginning of World War I, Based on Christian Carlson's screenplay for the film 'Joyeux Noel,' the opera travels to a small, bloodied war zone in a tiny Belgium village along the French boarder, which centers the attention while profoundly affecting those in the audience.

Anna Shoemaker is excited to share the video for her single 'Too High.' The track is off her newly released debut EP East Side (5town Records). The video premiered via Blackbook Magazine who note the single 'is all jittery beats, sultry atmospherics and Anna's soulful vocals, lyrically telling a story of giving oneself over to a burgeoning romance.' Of the video Anna says:

VH1 today announced the guest judges set to join the highly anticipated fourth season of “RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.” RuPaul will be joined by a star-studded line-up of celebrities, alongside show regulars Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, and Ross Mathews, as they decide who will stay, lip-sync for their legacy, or “sashay away.” “RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars” follows the record-breaking tenth season of VH1's “RuPaul's Drag Race,” which just became the first show to ever win an Emmy® Award in both the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program and Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program categories in the same year. The series will return to the runway with supersized 90-minute episodes on Friday, December 14th at 8:00 PM ET/PT on VH1.

Carol de Giere's revised and updated second edition to her earlier biography, 'DEFYING GRAVITY: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz,' was a necessary Act II, since, as we all know, Schwartz's star has only continued to rise since 2008. It's a wonderful addition with brand new behind-the-scene insights on his latest projects. As her webpage states, 'This new edition features a Foreword by Alan Menken and four new chapters covering Schwartz's more recent projects like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt, and Wicked after Broadway. DEFYING GRAVITY Second Edition includes additional 'Creativity Notes' with comments from Schwartz about overcoming creative blocks, collaboration, and the artistic life.' A stunning 512 pages (with photographs and handwritten notes), de Giere's book is a thoroughly fascinating read as well as something of a musical theatre master class in written form -- one that has been lovingly lensed through the life and creativity of Stephen Schwartz.

KING KONG officially opened last night, Thursday November 8, at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway). BroadwayWorld was at the big night and you can check out photos from the red carpet below!

The San Diego State University MFA Musical Theatre Program has launched an innovative two-year development program dedicated to fostering the creation of new musicals. The SDSU MFA New Musical Initiative was conceived with the idea of helping musical theatre writers develop a new work through a two-year process including a reading (fall 2018), a workshop (spring 2019) and a full production (spring 2020).