Gary Griffin News

The new musical 'Saved' begins previews May 9th at Playwrights Horizons.

PREMIERES, a not-for-profit musical theater development company, proudly announces the world premiere of INNER VOICES: SOLO MUSICALS, three new works created by and starring some of the industry's brightest talents.

Rehearsals will begin on Tuesday, April 8 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) World Premiere production of the new musical SAVED.

Chicago Shakespeare Artistic Director Barbara Gaines Stages William Shakespeare's 'The Comedy of Errors.' Second City's Ron West Brings Additional Comedic Twist

Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders and the producing team of the Broadway smash hit The Color Purple are proud to announce that tickets for the first North American Touring production of The Color Purple in Pittsburgh will go on sale Monday, April 7, 2008 at 9 a.m. The Color Purple will run for two-weeks as part of the Pittsburgh CLO's 2008 Summer Season June 3 - June 15, 2008 at the Benedum Center.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional casting for the sixth and final production of its 2007/2008 Season, the World Premiere of the new musical SAVED.

Fools and Foes Share the Stage in CST's 2008/09 Season

The Festival of New American Musicals, a two-month musical theatre festival, will be held in May and June, 2008, throughout Southern California. Marcia Seligson and Bob Klein are the Executive Producers of the Festival.

Kerry Ellis, currently starring as London's Elphaba in Wicked, is to recreate her award-winning performance on Broadway. Kerry will play her final performance in London on June 7, 2008 before beginning performances at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre on June 17, 2008. Following her Broadway engagement, Kerry will return to the London production at the end of the year.

David Mirvish is delighted to present a total of eight shows in the new 2008/2009 Mirvish Theatre Season. Six of the shows - five acclaimed musicals and one classic drama - will be available in a subscripton package. Two bonus shows, both musicals, round out the season.

Scott Bakula, known for his performances in Romance/Romance, and TV's 'Quantum Leap' is tapped to play the lead, Tony Hunter, in Dancing in the Dark, a new musical based on the film The Band Wagon. The Band Wagon, (1953) is a musical comedy film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an aging musical star who wants to star in a Broadway play that will restart his career. But the play's director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of Faust, and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the show's star. It stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan.

The producers of The Color Purple announced today that the show will play its final performance on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 7:30pm, after playing 30 preview performances and 910 regular performances at the Broadway Theatre.

Anthony Crivello likes Las Vegas. The Tony Award-winner, who alternates the title role in Phantom: The Las Vegas Experience with Brent Barrett, will be in Las Vegas for at least the next six months, when the show celebrates its second anniversary.

The Color Purple opened at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre December 16th, bringing the National Tour to Los Angeles for the holiday season, running through March 9, 2008...

Transforming such a momentous story into a staged musical, as bookwriter Marsha Norman has done with The Color Purple, could not have been an easy task. What has ended up on stage more closely resembles a Disney spin on history, rather than a gritty realization of historical abuse. Yet, it strikes a soulful chord with a gospel and jazz aged sensibility, giving the musical an otherwise absent poignant heartbeat.

The LA Times reports Oprah Winfrey, legendary American talk-show host and producer of Broadway's The Color Purple, may be planning a stage-to-screen adaptation of the hit musical production.