Goodspeed Opera House News

Gloucester Stage wraps up the 2013 season with Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy from September 5 through September 22 at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the stars in action below!

The cast will feature Karen Mason as Sue. Ms. Mason has appeared in Broadway'sWonderland, Hairspray, Mamma Mia!, Sunset Boulevard, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Play Me a Country Song as well as Goodspeed's Heartbeats at The Norma Terris Theatre. Opposite her as Dan will be Tony-nominated Mark Jacoby whose credits include Broadway's Elf, Sweeney Todd, Man of La Mancha, Ragtime,Showboat, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the Opera and Sweet Charity. Mr. Jacoby performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in On The Twentieth Century.

Experience the passion of Paris as Louise Pitre marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of legendary French chanteuse, Edith Piaf, with an evening of songs from France's favorite composers, at The Cabaret at the Columbia Club, October 11 & 12, 2013.

Three-time Tony Award-nominated actor Marc Kudisch (Thoroughly Modern Millie, 9 to 5, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) joins Lauren Worsham (Dog Days, Where's Charley?), Joshua Jeremiah (Anna Nicole, La Perichole), Katie Thompson (Giant), Theresa McCarthy (Queen of the Mist, Floyd Collins, Titanic), Eve Gigliotti (Dark Sisters, Die Walkure at the Metropolitan Opera), Amelia Watkins (Sumeida's Song, Song from the Uproar), Jeff Gavett (loadbang), Cree Carrico (New York Philharmonic's Carousel) in singing for 'The Coterie: Downtown/Uptown.'

He is a Roman general, handsome & brave. She is the Queen of Egypt, beautiful & proud. Together they will defy the power of an Emperor. Together they will destroy that which they strive to uphold. Join us as the HARLEM SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL presents Shakespeare's ANTONY & CLEOPATRA from August 28th thru September 1st, at the Waterfront Amphitheatre in Riverbank State Park. Award-winning actress & director Petronia Paley leads theTWAS Classical Actors of Color as they share the stage with classical actor Christopher Sutton as Antony & Debra Ann Byrd as Egypt's last Queen, Cleopatra.

Goodspeed Musicals, the first two time Tony Award-winning theatre in the country, announced today that the wildly popular Hello, Dolly! has been extended and will now play to enthusiastic audiences for 12 additional performances. This beloved American musical will now run through September 14, 2013. Check out the photos below of some star-studded visitors!

The music of legendary Asian rock group, Ming Dynasty, is revived in The Sister Rosettas, presented by terraNOVA Collective September 13th, 20th & 27th at 9:30 at IRT Theater. Featuring Diana Oh.

Called 'the greatest singer in the world' by Frank Sinatra, the always charming, classy and debonair Tony Bennett crooned his way into the heart of America. In this sexy musical revue, three superb male singers perform an anthology of Bennett's best work - from 'Rags to Riches' to 'Put On a Happy Face' to the title track and many more - celebrating more than six decades of remarkable music in this swingin' walk down memory lane. David Grapes and Todd Olson are co-creators for the production; Todd Olson will also be directing The Rep's production. Original piano and vocal arrangements for I Left My Heart are by Vince di Mura. The cast features singers Eric Jon Mahlum, Andrew McMath and Rob Tucker, all making their Rep debuts, and Richard Carsey, well-known to Milwaukee audiences from his years with Skylight Music Theatre, will accompany them on piano. Carsey is also the Music Director for the production. I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett runs in the Stackner Cabaret from tonight, August 23 - October 20 and opens Sunday, August 25.

Transcendence Theatre's Broadway Under The Stars in Jack London State Park 2013 season completes on August 30th and 31st with the Gala Celebration.

On Twitter Watch, darren Ritchie wrote ' So this weekend my life just got a whole lot better, I finally have my soulmate to walk through life with!! #becauseofher #mylifeisfulloflove #blessed '

Infinity Theatre Company (Anna Roberts Ostroff & Alan Ostroff) and Perry Street Theatricals (Martin Platt & David Elliott) have just announced that the first Broadway production of DAMES AT SEA will set sail on Broadway in 2014. With a book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, music by Jim Wise, and musical direction byRob Berman (The Pajama Game, Finian's Rainbow), DAMES AT SEA will be directed and choreographed by three time Tony Award nominee Randy Skinner (42nd Street, Irving Berlin's White Christmas). Design team, casting, production dates and Broadway theatre to be announced at a later date.

Called "the greatest singer in the world" by Frank Sinatra, the always charming, classy and debonair Tony Bennett crooned his way into the heart of America. In this sexy musical revue, three superb male singers perform an anthology of Bennett's best work - from "Rags to Riches" to "Put On a Happy Face" to the title track and many more - celebrating more than six decades of remarkable music in this swingin' walk down memory lane. David Grapes and Todd Olson are co-creators for the production; Todd Olson will also be directing The Rep's production. Original piano and vocal arrangements for I Left My Heart are by Vince di Mura. The cast features singers Eric Jon Mahlum, Andrew McMath and Rob Tucker, all making their Rep debuts, and Richard Carsey, well-known to Milwaukee audiences from his years with Skylight Music Theatre, will accompany them on piano. Carsey is also the Music Director for the production. I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett runs in the Stackner Cabaret from August 23 - October 20 and opens Sunday, August 25.

Bay Street Theatre is pleased to announce that Scott Schwartz, a leading voice of the next generation of American theater, has joined Bay Street as its new Artistic Director. His tenure at Bay Street will inaugurate a new vision for the theater beginning with the 2014 season, to ensure an exciting and sustainable future for our cultural community. Schwartz is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been seen on and off Broadway, across the United States, in Great Britain, and Asia. Over the past twenty years, he has built a reputation for pursuing and embracing a wide range of works for the stage, from new plays to classics to musicals and opera.

Performers were originally brought to Goodspeed directly from New York City, typically by Steamboat. Though we are now brought by the Goodspeed Guild members in vans and buses, it is still exciting to come down the side of the river valley and near the swing bridge and see the towering Goodspeed Opera House on the other bank.

Goodspeed Musicals will transport audiences to beautiful Napa Valley with its production of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella. This all-new production of the beloved musical that Goodspeed sent to Broadway in 1991 will run from September 20 - December 1 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn. The Most Happy Fella will be sponsored by Connecticut Light and Power.

Today in 1989, the first Broadway revival of Shenandoah opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 32 performances. Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah. The musical first opened at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1974 and then transferred to Broadway, opening on January 7, 1975. It ran on Broadway for a total of 1,050 performances, closing August 7, 1977. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won two, one for Best Actor in a Musical (John Cullum) and the other for Best Book of a Musical.

JAMES SNYDER (Broadway's Cry-Baby, Goodspeed's Carousel) has joined the company of If/Then, the new musical by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning creative team behind Next To Normal, Tom Kitt (music), Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), and Michael Greif (director). Mr. Snyder joins the previously announced Idina Menzel, LaChanze, and Anthony Rapp.

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company opens its 37th annual tour today, August 3 with 'Sanitation, or Off the Grid,' a rip-roaring musical which will tour City streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs through September 15. The production, free to all New Yorkers, will have book, lyrics and direction by Crystal Field and musical score composed by Joseph Vernon Banks. (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)

Atlantic Theater Company has just announced that Robert Beitzel, Halley Feiffer, Susan Pourfar and Tony Award nominee Deborah Rush will star in the world premiere production of Academy Award winner Ethan Coen's first full length play WOMEN OR NOTHING, staged by acclaimed director David Cromer.