Gwen Verdon News

The great Cole Porter's Can- Can, hits the Westchester Broadway Theatre stage this Fall. Written by Caleb Porter and Abe Burrows, the story revolves around 'the lovely Pistache, who owns the only café that features the sexy and provocative Can-Can. She spars with Aristide Forestier, a self-righteous judge, determined to close all Parisian dance halls. The show features the provocativly delightful Can-Can, the high-energy and physically demanding music hall dance which is a hybrid of the Polka and The Quadrille. First danced in circa 1822, it was outlawed for a number of years as immoral and prohibited by the police! How times have changed!'

Aurora Theatre opens a new season with a new chamber version of the Broadway classic Sweet Charity now through September 2, 2012. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.

Cole Porter's Can-Can hits the Westchester Broadway Theatre stage this Fall. Written by Caleb Porter and Abe Burrows, the story revolves around t'he lovely Pistache, who owns the only café that features the sexy and provocative Can-Can. She spars with Aristide Forestier, a self-righteous judge, determined to close all Parisian dance halls. The show features the provocativly delightful Can-Can, the high-energy and physically demanding music hall dance which is a hybrid of the Polka and The Quadrille. First danced in circa 1822, it was outlawed for a number of years as immoral and prohibited by the police! How times have changed!'

Aurora Theatre opens a new season with a new chamber version of the Broadway classic Sweet Charity beginning tonight, August 2, 2012. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the production. Check out the video teaser below.

Aurora Theatre opens a new season with a new chamber version of the Broadway classic Sweet Charity beginning August 2, 2012.

Aurora Theatre opens a new season with a new chamber version of the Broadway classic Sweet Charity beginning August 2, 2012.

Cape May Stage, South Jersey's premiere Equity theatre, is thrilled to welcome another Broadway legend into their ranks: Lee Roy Reams in Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance, tonight, July 16th.

On July 9, friends and family of Bradshaw Smith (Founder & Executive Producer of "Broadway Beat" and Applause Video), gathered at the New Signature Theatre space to honor the former cabaret star and beloved videographer at an intimate memorial celebration.

For over twenty-five years, the late Bradshaw Smith (Founder & Executive Producer of "Broadway Beat" and Applause Video) was the theater world's preeminent videographer, capturing over 1,000 performances on Broadway, off-Broadway, in cabaret halls and beyond that now, because of him, live on today. Bradshaw Smith died on January 16, 2012, at age 57, following a sudden and severe stroke. To conclude the intimate memorial, Bradshaw's longtime friend and editor, Jonathan Frank, compiled the best of Bradshaw's work as a video artist. For a look back at your favorite performances nearly three decades long, all captured through Bradshaw's lens, click below!

Cape May Stage, South Jersey's premiere Equity theatre, is thrilled to welcome another Broadway legend into their ranks: Lee Roy Reams in Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance. On Monday, July 16th

Happy Birthday, Bob Fosse! Fosse won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. Amonst his many Broadway credits are The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, Pippin, Chicago, Dancin' and many more.

On Thursday, three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Richard Adler passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Responsible for two of the biggest Broadway smash hits of the 1950s, THE PAJAMA GAME and GAMN YANKEES, Adler never quite managed to equal his career-high double-hitter of that era, yet his earlier work with Tony Bennett ('Rags To Riches'), Doris Day ('Everybody Loves A Lover') and Marilyn Monroe (the iconic 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President') surely shall solidify his place in the firmament of entertainment history along with his two classic musicals from the Golden Age. Winning both Best Score and Best Musical for both THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Adler's partnership with lyricist Jerry Ross - which began on Broadway in 1953 with JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC - was tragically cut short just months after the DAMN YANKEES premiere when Ross was diagnosed with lung disease and passed away soon thereafter. Yet, thanks to the beloved film versions of THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES and continued interest in the entities as expressed in the revivals and reappraisals of both onstage from Broadway to Biloxi to Bombay year after year, the snappy, snazzy tunes of Adler and Ross live on eight times a week all around the world - even now, more than fifty years after they premiered. Unfortunately, Adler's subsequent shows with other collaborators post-1955 failed to capture the early magic of his previous projects with Ross and his earlier musical and theatrical endeavors in the pop arena, with the racially charged KWAMINA flopping on Broadway in 1961 (though he took home a Best Composer Tony Award for his efforts anyway) and the awkwardly titled MUSIC IS failing to recreate the magic of its source material, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, in 1976. A MOTER'S KISSES, starring Bea Arthur and a young Bernadette Peters, died on the road, as well. In the intervening years, Adler attempted musical adaptations taken from a number of intriguing sources - OF HUMAN BONDAGE and others among them - though only his ballet scores seemed to reach an audience; particularly his last, commissioned for a new production of Lorca's THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA in 1998. Of course, THE PAJAMA GAME has had two Broadway revivals - most recently the rapturously received Kathleen Marshall-directed production starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara; and DAMN YANKEES famously returned to the Great White Way with much ado in 1994 starring Victor Garber. Now seems particularly ripe for remounting YANKEES, as we approach twenty years in its absence - especially given the musical's seriously smashing showing at Encores! in 2007. Who knows, perhaps some risky producer will even take a chance on a new production of KWAMINA, MUSIC IS, A MOTHER'S KISSES or one of the bottom drawer shows someday soon to see if they possess any of the limitless potential shown by Adler's earlier work. Or maybe a stage treatment of his TV musical GIFT OF THE MAGI (originally composed for then-wife Sally Ann Howes)? Or, better yet, how about a revue? What a stupendous songstack Adler created over the course of his career - 'Whatever Lola Wants' to 'Hey There' to 'Hernando's Hideaway' to 'You Gotta Have Heart' to 'Steam Heat' to the aforementioned Bennett, Day and Monroe standards and so many more chestnuts.

Probably the golden age of musical theatre in the US was from 1950 to 1960. Great scripts like King and I, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story were staged. Also produced were such flops as Salad Days, Zuleika, Ankles Away, The Vamp, ShaNgri-La, Shinbone Alley, and Free As Air. Most shows were of the neither great nor flop variety. These included the likes of Call Me Madam, Guys and Dolls, Paint Your Wagon, Can-Can, Wonderful Town, Fanny, and The Pajama Game. Also included in the list was DAMN YANKEES, now on stage at Porthouse Theatre.

This year the "Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement" was presented to Jason Alexander, "A man worthy of the tribute for both his illustrious career and for his support of The Fund over the years," said The Fund's President and CEO, Joe Benincasa. See below for photos from the event!

With only one day to go before the big day on CBS at 8 PM tomorrow, today we are shining a spotlight on a currently-running Broadway musical that has recently become the longest-running American musical in Broadway history - beating even the champ, A CHORUS LINE - John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse's landmark 1920s vaudeville satire CHICAGO.

Chita Rivera, Tony Danza, Susan Stroman, Albert Maysles, John Turturro, Tamara Tunie, Karen Ziemba, Melissa Errico, and more were among the star presenters at last night's 30th Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The Astaire Awards are the only awards show to honor excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film and were first started in 1982 by the late Fred Astaire and the late Douglas Watt (a critic and writer for the NY Daily News and The New Yorker). BroadwayWorld was on hand for the evening and brings you photo coverage of the ceremony below!.

Chita Rivera, Tony Danza, Susan Stroman, Albert Maysles, John Turturro, Tamara Tunie, Karen Ziemba, Melissa Errico, and more were among the star presenters at last night's 30th Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The Astaire Awards are the only awards show to honor excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film and were first started in 1982 by the late Fred Astaire and the late Douglas Watt (a critic and writer for the NY Daily News and The New Yorker). BroadwayWorld was on hand for the evening and brings you photo coverage of the starry arrivals below.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Sunday, June 3, 2012.

Producer Patricia Watt has announced that $25 Student Rush tickets will be available at the Skirball Center for the Performing at New York University tonight, June 4th at 7:00pm one half hour before curtain time of the 30th Fred & Adele Astaire Awards at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University.

Today in 1975, Chicago opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers Theatre), where it ran for 936 performances. Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago, with music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the 'celebrity criminal'. The original cast starred Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart, Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn and Barney Martin as Amos Hart.