Legends aren't born, or merely made - they are created; and, so very, very carefully crafted. In equal parts due to her incomparable stage work creating roles in musicals by Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman, to her film work encompassing John Frankenheimer and Vincente Minnelli, to name but two, as well as a smash-hit television series - MURDER SHE WROTE - and hosting duties at various Tony Awards and Academy Awards broadcasts over the last half century, have certainly cemented her place in our hearts, minds and entertainment history itself - I am speaking, of course, of the simply exquisite Ms. Angela Lansbury. In this enlightening discussion conducted yesterday we dissect many of her most treasured roles and performances, and Ms. Lansbury provides many warm and wonderful recollections of her astonishingly varied and accomplished tenure onstage and onscreen over the course of her sixty-year-plus career. ANYONE CAN WHISTLE to SWEENEY TODD; MAME to GYPSY; BEDKNOBS AND BROOM STICKS to SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE to the forthcoming MR. POPPER‘S PENGUINS co-starring Jim Carrey - plus, acting with Bette Davis in DEATH ON THE NILE - and much, much more in this special interview! This is all coming in anticipation of Ms. Lansbury's tribute to Bob Hope at the NY Pops gala on May 2, which will also feature performances by Kelli O'Hara and more - whom we continue our SPOTLIGHT ON NY POPS series with later next week. Don't miss them! Further information about the NY POPS event - including tickets - is available here.
The John W. Engeman Theater is proud to announce the creative team for their upcoming production of GUYS AND DOLLS. Previews begin on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 8:00 p.m., officially opening on April 16, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. and running through June 19, 2011.
Classic tunes from Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello!, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree, and others will fill the air at New Yorks legendary National Arts Club on Monday May 16, 2011 as The Theatre Museum pays tribute to famed Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick -- its 2011 Career Achievement Award recipient.
On this very day in 1943, Michael DiFiglia was born in Buffalo, New York, and the world of Broadway would simply never be the same. Cutting his teeth with the accomplished choreography for A JOYFUL NOISE, PROMISES, PROMISES, SEESAW and COCO was merely the beginning of a career that would virtually rewrite and revolutionize the ways and means by which a director could yield ultimate control over a project. With COMPANY and FOLLIES, the later co-directing with Hal Prince, Bennett solidified himself as one of the most talented and brilliant choreographers of his generation and, shortly thereafter, proved with A CHORUS LINE that he was a master theatrical engineer with few, if any, peers. Worldwide success, Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize were just the gravy. Who else but Michael Bennett would then, or ever, receive - or should I say, earn - the credit "Entire Production Conceived, Produced and Directed by," besides him? While BALLROOM failed to live up to A CHORUS LINE in mostly every way, he soon after reinvented the wheel yet again with DREAMGIRLS in 1981. We never got to see his productions of CHESS and SCANDAL, both of which he was in the latter stages of developing at the time of his death in 1988. Broadway has never been the same since he's been gone. So, today, on the day following a glittering new production of COMPANY at Lincoln Center - with the complete dance sequence "Tick Tock" fully restored, now with five dancers - we take a tip of the top hat to the tops in taps, temerity and truthfulness onstage - the one and only Michael Bennett.
The John W. Engeman Theater is proud to announce the creative team for their upcoming production of GUYS AND DOLLS. Previews begin on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 8:00 p.m., officially opening on April 16, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. and running through June 19, 2011.
The Broadway community mourns the loss of veteran production stage manager, Beverley Randolph, who passed away from cancer yesterday at age 59. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in her memory tonight, March 16, at exactly 8:00 p.m. for one minute.
Veteran Production Stage Manager Beverley Randolph died Tuesday, March 15 at her home in Bloomingdale, NJ, surrounded by family and friends. The cause was cancer. The highly-respected Randolph, 59, stage managed more than 20 Broadway productions over the course of a 30-plus year career. At the time of her death and since 2009, she was Production Supervisor for the musical The Addams Family. Her credits include the Kander & Ebb musical Curtains, the musical Little Women, the 2002 revival of Into the Woods, the 1998 revival of The Sound of Music, Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning best musical Passion, Kander & Ebb's The Kiss of the Spider Woman, William Finn's Falsettos, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Follies in Concert at Avery Fisher Hall, the 1987 revival of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret and Neil Simon's Chapter Two. In the 1980's, she stage managed eight Broadway productions for legendary producer/director Hal Prince.
Rehearsals are still just under a year away, but the casting work on the upcoming EVITA revival is heating up. Sources tell us that a number of Broadway's highest profile baritones will be auditioning for the show's creative team later this month, with a casting announcement expected shortly thereafter. We're told that almost every well-known baritone that you can think of (and then some!) have appointments to be seen by the creative team of the highly anticipated revival to potentially star opposite Ricky Martin and Elena Roger.
New York's Cafe Carlyle comes to life in San Francisco when Bay Area Cabaret presents the winners of New York's coveted Nightlife Award, jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, Broadway star Jessica Molaskey (Tommy, Sunday in the Park with George).
Broadway's cuddliest cast kicked off a new year with the 14th edition of THE BROADWAY BEARS auction yesterday, Sunday, March 6, 2011 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, produced by and benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Sure to out-do last year's collection, 43 one-of-a-kind, autographed BROADWAY BEARS - each dressed in original, handmade costumes representing some of the theater's most legendary performers and performances - will be put up for auction.
Broadway's cuddliest cast kicks off a new year with the 14th edition of THE BROADWAY BEARS auction on Sunday, March 6, 2011 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill (237 West 42 Street), produced by and benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Broadway's cuddliest cast kicks off a new year with the 14th edition of THE BROADWAY BEARS auction on Sunday, March 6, 2011 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill (237 West 42 Street), produced by and benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Let the bidding begin on the cuddly chorus line of one-of-a-kind teddy bears that make up this year's cast of THE BROADWAY BEARS XIV. Each bear is meticulously outfitted in original, costumes handmade by Broadway's leading designers. Check out the amazingly crafted bears from American Idiot, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hair, The Merchant of Venice, Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse, Phantom of the Opera and dozens more.
Today, the producers of the smash hit musical ROCK OF AGES announced the ‘supergroup' they've assembled to kick off performances at the Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street on Thursday, March 24, 2011.
From the Cast of ANYTHING GOES and SPIDER-MAN, to the Ladies of THE VIEW, Raul Esparza, Barbra Streisand, Alan Menken, Bernadette Peters, Susan Boyle, Kelsey Grammer, GLEE and everyone in between...it's the BroadwayWorld.com 2011 Valentine's Day Special! Its Biggest Ever!
Tony Award-winning producer Andy Sandberg (Hair, The Last Smoker in America) will present the world premiere of the provocative new play, A Perfect Future, by David Hay (The Maddening Truth) with direction by Tony Award-nominee Wilson Milam (The Lieutenant of Inishmore).
The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Les Miserables,' 'Memphis,' 'Showboat' at Lyric Opera of Chicago, a double dose of 'Glee,' Darren Criss's 'Starship, 'Meet John Doe,' more....
Executive Artistic Director Carson Kievman has announced that SoBe Institute of the Arts (SoBe Arts) will present staged readings of promising new plays, beginning with Acapulco by New York writer Jacquelyn Reingold (HBO's In Treatment, Law and Order, and produced off-Broadway) and featuring L.A.-based Evan Handler ('Sex and the City,' 'Californication,' and films by Ron Howard and Oliver Stone) in addition to local artists.