Frances News

The New Group has announced full casting and creative team for Lily Thorne's Peace for Mary Frances, with Heather Burns, Johanna Day, Natalie Gold, Mia Katigbak, Paul Lazar, Brian Miskell, Melle Powers and J. Smith-Cameron joining, as previously announced, Lois Smith in this world premiere production directed by Lila Neugebauer.

THE GREEN ROOM 42 - Broadway's newest intimate concert venue - has announced the return of Tony Award winner Frances Ruffelle and the monthly residency of her solo theater piece "Frances Ruffelle LIVEs in New York" on Monday, April 30. An acclaimed sold-out hit since its debut in the fall of 2017, the show encompasses Broadway, Piaf, French 60s pop, and American chart hits. It features an updated version of "On My Own," Ruffelle's signature number from the original Les Miserables, a song cut from the original French production of the show.

The Acting Company (Ian Belknap, Artistic Director; Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director) presents William Shakespeare's beloved comedy, Twelfth Night, directed by Tony nominee Maria Aitken (The 39 Steps) with a dynamic cast of The Acting Company alumni and ensemble members of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players (REP). When her ship is wrecked, Viola washes ashore in the unfamiliar land of Illyria and embarks on a journey to find her lost brother. Brimming with music, love and longing, Shakespeare's enchanting play transports audiences to a world of comedic mayhem, mistaken identity and unrequited passion. This co-production with the Resident Ensemble Players comes to Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn), May 10-27.

Following a successful UK and international tour, and after a 5½-year absence from London, the multi award-winning Kander & Ebb musical CHICAGO, winner of six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and a Grammy, will begin performances at the Phoenix Theatre in London on Monday 26 March, with a press night on Wednesday 11 April and an extended booking period until 6 October 2018.

A tale of a librarian whose self-imposed isolation high atop a mountain is broken by a worldly woman on a quest to read a list of 100 books takes the stage in Little Fish Theatre's second midweek show of its 2018 season. Written by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, the 2012 Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence at Sewanee University and directed by Little Fish Theatre Company Member Holly Baker-Kreiswirth, Provenance will make even the most skeptical believe in magic again.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents the West Coast premiere of Farmhouse/Whorehouse, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili Taylor, directed by Obie Award-winner Lee Sunday Evans, on Saturday, April 14 at 8 p.m. at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Single tickets are now available for $44.50-$59.50 online at cap.ucla.edu and theatre.acehotel.com, via AXS by phone at 888-929-7849 and in person at The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office.

The Way of the World opens tonight at the Donmar Warehouse (Thursday 5 April), get a first look at the show below!

In a time where people are speaking out and not letting anyone stop them or bring them down, it is more important than ever to find the trailblazers of the past and make your own path into the future. History repeats itself. Over the centuries, women and their rights and ideas have been squashed time and again. Yet there are always a few women so confident in themselves and what they want that they push back against society and carve their own path in life. They are heroes, idols, and people that we don't always hear about because history doesn't venerate them and teach their stories to young people. Times are finally changing, and so many books are now being published that celebrate women and teach young girls to be proud of being female.

Sherlock star Amanda Abbington and Sunset Boulevard leading man Danny Mac are the first stars to be announced for the UK premiere of the musical A Little Princess by Tony-nominated composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa (Big Fish,The Addams Family, The Wild Party).

Y York's acclaimed SYCORAX, starring Demene E. Hall, will be a featured performance at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference this June in Valdez, Alaska.

World-renowned arts organization for young people, Seattle Children's Theatre (SCT), is proud to announce their ambitious upcoming 2018-2019 lineup. The 44th season is brimming with a kaleidoscope of bold adaptations, timeless classics updated for new audiences, and provocative stagings of historical works for ages 3 to 9+. Ticket packages are on sale now with single tickets going on sale August 1, 2018.

Tim Crouch's play AN OAK TREE is a unique performance experience that revolves around a traveling hypnotist who discovers that the volunteer he's called up from the audience for his show is the father of a girl he accidentally killed in a car accident. As Crouch explains, for the grieving father 'nothing now is what it is. It's like he's in a play - but he doesn't know the words or the moves.'

Dwayne Johnson admitted to Ellen that he got a major crush on Frances McDormand after she was very kind to his daughter at the Golden Globes.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 9-14, 2018 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF.

Raise your skirts and bob your hair, because the toe-tapping flapper frolic Thoroughly Modern Millie is ready to take the stage at Reston Community Players. Based on the 1967 Academy Award-winning film, Thoroughly Modern Millie will transport audiences back to the height of the Jazz Age in New York City in an era when women were first entering the workforce and rewriting the rules of love. Millie will perform at the Reston Community Center April 20-May 12.

On Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m., the Afro-Semitic Experience will headline a musical evening that will also feature musicians from the Healing World Project at the Autorino Center for the Arts and Humanities on the University of Saint Joseph's West Hartford campus. The Afro-Semitic Experience is an American roots jazz band with a difference; they merge Jewish and Afro-diasporic melodies and grooves, combining the core concepts of ase and shalom - power, action, unity, and peace. 

The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) Dance Ensemble will present its annual spring dance concert on Saturday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hoffman Auditorium. The annual concert will feature choreography from students, faculty, and special guest choreographer and performer, Sokeo Ros. Ros performed his original production, From Refugee Camp to Project, at the Autorino Center for the Arts in 2016. Due to popular demand, Ros returned to choreograph USJ students. In addition, he will perform with his Rhode Island-based performance company, Case Closed!

The Arvada Center has announced its 2018-2019 season, a diverse line-up of plays and musicals. The three musical and four play season includes a world premiere play, two regional premieres, and a Broadway smash-hit. The season also marks the third year of the Black Box Repertory Theatre, a company of actors who will perform three of the Black Box Theatre's four plays in repertory. The 2018-19 Theatre Season is sponsored by Lutheran Medical Center.

Today, Philadelphia rock royalty Hop Along's new full-length album Bark Your Head Off, Dog is streaming via NPR First Listen ahead of its April 6 releaseon Saddle Creek.

Spring's rebirth in March invites magical thoughts of budding romance. A beloved multi-award winning musical rom-com, She Loves Me, sings in the sunny emotions and weather at Anoka's Lyric Arts. The playful musical first ran on Broadway in 1963, and was translated from Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play "Parfumerie." Joe Masteroff's book partnered with music composed by Jerry Bock together with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, capture the perfect notes to a tangled romance between two store clerks, Amalia and Georg, in 1934 Budapest. The two clash on the small boutique's floor while unknowingly sending each other letters to 'Dear Friend (Yes, they used real snail mail).