Last night, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune celebrated opening night, ahead of tonight's official opening. BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and we're taking you to the red carpet below!
Bonnie Comley, Founder of BroadwayHD, was the guest speaker at MAESTRA's May seminar at SongSpace. Composer/lyricist and music director Georgia Stitt founded the MAESTRA organization in 2017 to give support, visibility, and community to the women who make the music in the musical theater industry. The MAESTRA membership is made up of female-identifying, non-binary, and gender non-conforming composers, music directors, orchestrators, arrangers, copyists, rehearsal pianists and other musicians who are underrepresented minorities in musical theater. Songwriter and composer, Kathy Sommer, moderated the seminar.
Founding Executive Director Kathy Evans announced the 27 writers of nine new musicals for Rhinebeck Writers Retreat's summer weeklong residencies. This year's artists include Obie-winner Heather Christian, Kleban-winner Brian Crawley, TV and film writers Bekah Brunstetter (THIS IS US) and Cinco Paul (DESPICABLE ME), inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award winner Oliver Houser, and ASCAP Foundation scholarship winner Khiyon Hursey. The musicals cover a wide range of subjects. Four have LGBTQ themes: a historical look at Florida in the 1950s (IN A SUNSHINE STATE), a Palestinian/Israeli love story (BORDERS), a modern coming of age of a young black man (SEAN'S STORY PART I | THE AWAKENING), and a fantasy queer rock musical celebrating lady love (TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX). Two are darkly comedic historical musicals: one featuring Mary Magdelene (A.D. 16) and the second a WWII plot to foil Hitler (OPERATION MINCEMEAT). Other subjects include the opioid crisis (ALMOST HEAVEN), the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (THE GOLDEN SPIKE), and a mystery involving a woman with a sleep disorder (NARCOLEPSY).
The 2019 ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) Color Ball honored Laura Benanti and Lutheran Social Services for their work with ASTEP in providing arts education for students who have arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors - and Laura's work in the creation of Singing You Home: Children's Songs for Family Reunification, in conjunction with Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Broadway music director and Founder Co-Executive Director of ASTEP.
Next Monday, April 29 at 54 Below, Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) and friends are coming together to celebrate the 2019 ASTEP Color Ball. The 2019 Color Ball is a night to honor Artists/Activists who inspire ASTEP students, Sponsors who make our work possible and Community Partners who join our efforts in giving children from underserved communities access to the power of the arts. The evening is conceived by Broadway Musical Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell (ASTEP Founder and Co-Executive Director) and will allow ASTEP to give audience members an in depth look into our programs and the exciting work we have ahead of us.
Tootsie officially opened last night, April 23! BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and you can check out photos of all the red carpet action below!
Goodspeed Musicals has announced that the Award-winning Composer and Lyricist Jason Robert Brown will be the latest recipient of The Goodspeed Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre.
BroadwayWorld is giving you the chance to win tickets to six different concerts from Symphony Space's Project Broadway series! Be sure to enter for the chance to see this celebration of the women of Broadway - from hyper-talented lyricists and composers, to incredible performers, to iconic female characters revered and reinterpreted. Check out the links below to enter!
On April 9th, Pat Suzuki, Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt attended Smart Blonde and visited with the cast after the show. Check out the photos below!
Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) and friends are coming together to celebrate the 2019 ASTEP Color Ball on Monday, April 29 at 54 Below. The 2019 Color Ball is a night to honor the Artists/Activists who inspire ASTEP students, the Sponsors who make our work possible and the Partners who join our efforts in giving children from underserved communities access to the power of the arts.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces a concert featuring three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs for a New World, The Last Five Years, The Bridges of Madison County) and 2018 Tony Award winner Lindsay Mendez (Carousel, Wicked, Dogfight) on April 18, 2019 in the Eisenhower Theater.
Fresh from the hat shop of Hello, Dolly!, Kate Baldwin is currently starring in the world premiere musical Superhero. She took a moment to chat with BroadwayWorld about the journey of bringing the new musical and her character to life for the first time on stage!
Twitter users, check out your next list of must-follow accounts for 2019!
Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) announced today that it will honor its Community Partner Lutheran Social Services of New York at its annual Gala and Dinner, The ASTEP Color Ball on Monday, April 29, at Feinstein's/54 Below. Along with Artist/Activist Laura Benanti, ASTEP will celebrate the empowering arts programs they provide, in partnership with Lutheran Social Services of New York, for children who arrive in the United States as unaccompanied minors.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces three additional commissioned playwrights as a part of Power Plays, an ambitious initiative commissioning and developing 25 new plays and musicals from a diverse mix of writers, composers and lyricists over the course of 10 years. Playwrights Kia Corthron, Idris Goodwin and Octavio Solis join previously commissioned playwrights with projects underway, including Aaron Posner, whose Power Play JQA, an inquisitive and provocative look at America's sixth president, enjoys its world premiere in Arena's Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle March 1 through April 14, 2019.
ARTISTS STRIVING TO END POVERTY (ASTEP) announced today that it will honor Tony Award Winner Laura Benanti (My Fair Lady) at its annual Gala and Dinner, The 2019 ASTEP Color Ball on Monday, April 29, at Feinstein's/54 Below. She will join Mary-Mitchell Campbell (The Prom, Mean Girls), Founder and Co-Executive Director of ASTEP, on stage to celebrate Benanti's leadership and advocacy in the creation of the benefit album SINGING YOU HOME: Children's Songs for Family Reunification.
Philadelphia Theatre Company will kick off the new year welcoming one of the greatest living American musical theatre composers to the stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. For one-night only, Jason Robert Brown will perform an intimate solo concert today, January 26, 2019 at 7 p.m.
In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 34 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2019 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 21 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration.
Philadelphia Theatre Company will kick off the new year welcoming one of the greatest living American musical theatre composers to the stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. For one-night only, Jason Robert Brown will perform an intimate solo concert on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at 7 p.m.
The Tank will present the World Premiere of Real, written by Rodrigo Nogueira (The Ideal Obituary at The Tank) and directed by Erin Ortman (One Thousand Nights and One Day with Prospect Theater Company) in the 99-seat theater at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), January 3-20, 2019.
