Goodman Theatre News

Happy Holidays! It's the last week to vote for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Chicago Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 18. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31!

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's the 2015 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards Celebration, Sunday, January 10, 2016. Join us at The Call nightclub! Plus the top ten shows running right now. Holiday plus Celebration!

Get set for a high-octane ride with thrilling choreography, rockin' tunes and explosively colorful costumes - plus some really cool hairdos - when the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora, presents HAIRSPRAY - The Broadway Musical, January 20 - February 21, 2016.

The Old Globe today announced it will present the Third Annual New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by professional playwrights, January 15 - 17, 2016.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT (2014 Ovation Award Nominee for Best Season!), in association with Sue Vaccaro, Ricky Stevens & The Rivet Gang announce the third show of their 2015-2016 season, the pre-Broadway engagement of EMPIRE, book, music & lyrics by Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull, musical direction by Sariva Goetz, and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime).  EMPIRE will preview on Friday, January 22, 2016 (with a press opening on Saturday, January 23) and run through Sunday, February 14, 2016 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd in La Mirada.

Bye Bye Birdie, the four-time Tony Award-winning musical, begins performances at Drury Lane on January 14 to conclude the 2015 - 2016 Season. The funny, irreverent musical takes audiences back to 1959 in quiet Sweet Apple, OH, where rock star Conrad Birdie shakes things up when he arrives to give one lucky teenage girl a special goodbye kiss. With a cast led by 2015 Jeff Award Best Supporting Actor winners Michelle Aravena as Rosie and Matt Crowle as Conrad's agent, Albert, Bye Bye Birdie is directed and choreographed by multiple Jeff Award winner Tammy Mader. Featuring musical theater classics such as "Kids," "Put on a Happy Face," and "A Lot of Livin' to Do," the inspired cast and creative team promise to bring a decidedly fresh touch to the timeless story. 

Time is running out to vote for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Chicago Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 18. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31!

The Huntington Theatre Company will present the Obie Award-winning drama MILK LIKE SUGAR by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish) and directed by Huntington Associate Producer M. Bevin O'Gara (Becoming Cuba). Performances begin Friday, January 29 and continue through February 27, 2016 in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Skylight Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of FOREVER HOUSE Written by Tony Abatemarco and Directed by Elizabeth Swain Opening Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 8pm reception to follow 8:30pm Fridays, 8pm Saturdays, and 3pm Sundays through Feb 28, 2016 The Skylight Theatre is located at 1816 1/2 N. Vermont, LA, 90027

he Public Theaterannounced complete casting today for the new musical SOUTHERN COMFORT that tells the true story of a group of transgender friends living life on their own terms in the back hills of rural Georgia.  Directed by Thomas Caruso and based on the film by Kate Davis, SOUTHERN COMFORT features book and lyrics by Dan Collins and music by Julianne Wick Davis, and was conceived for the stage by Robert DuSold and Thomas Caruso. SOUTHERN COMFORT begins previews on Tuesday, February 23 and will run through Sunday, March 27 in The Public's Anspacher Theater, with an official press opening on Monday, March 7. Public Theater Member tickets and single tickets are available now.

Squeals of delight and blood-curdling screams of fright will fill the Allen Theatre as Cleveland Play House's (CPH) Centennial Season continues with a humorous and heartfelt production of Little Shop of Horrors. Hearkening back to its very first productions in 1915 that featured sophisticated marionettes, CPH is bringing the cheeky and blood-thirsty plant Audrey II to life in a production that will be every vocal coach's dream - and every hemophobic's worst nightmare!

WASHER/DRYER, a new comedy by Nandita Shenoy about a recently eloped young couple- Michael and Sonya- who discover they haven't been entirely truthful with each other as they settle into Sonya's Manhattan studio apartment with its own stackable washer/dryer as a key perk - is being given its NY premiere by the award-winning Asian-American Off-Broadway company MA-YI THEATER COMPANY at the Beckett Theater at Theater Row (410 W. 42 St.) in NYC (www.theatrerow.org). Previews begin January 26 prior to its official opening night on February 2.

On Monday, December 14, San Francisco-based playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett received Abingdon Theatre Company's 2015 Christopher Brian Wolk Award for her play Restore. Artistic Director Tony Speciale presented Ms. Puckett with her award and directed a stage reading of the new play about how an unthinkable event affects a young couple and their families. The reading featured Chris Dwan, Yvette Ganier, Ginger Grace, Dominique Fishback, and Michael Winther, with stage directions read by Zach McCoy.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of THE METROMANIACS by supremely clever playwright David Ives (All in the Timing, Time Flies). This uproarious new 'translaptation' of a classic French farce, Alexis Piron's La Metromanie, will be directed by one of America's most renowned stage directors, Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company are proud to announce its production of the award winning drama AMERICAN BUFFALO by David Mamet.

Li'l Buds Theatre Company presents TINSEL! THE MUSICAL. This original musical for families was co-written by Li'l Buds Co-founder and Artistic Director J. Preddie Predmore, Co-Founder Jenny Lamb, and the Jeff award winning and recently nominated for best supporting actress in a musical for the Goodman Theatre's revival of Brigadoon!, Maggie Portman.

Voting is fully underway for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Chicago Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 11. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

Casting is complete and rehearsals begin December 16 for 2666, a new stage adaptation of acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolaño's famed novel, adapted and directed by Tony Award-winning Artistic Director Robert Falls and Playwright-in-Residence Seth Bockley at Goodman Theatre.

AJ Epstein Presents, in collaboration with ACTLab, announce the West coast premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer coming to ACT in February. Directed by Anita Montgomery, Buzzer is a story about class, money, race, love, and fear set in a rapidly changing urban environment.