Hartley News

The first season of Destination America's GHOSTS OF SHEPHERDSTOWN ended strong on Sunday, July 17 with the finale becoming the network's #1 telecast ever in P25-54

The Paley Center for Media's annual celebration of the Fall TV season, the PaleyFest Fall TV Previews, will take place September 8-13, 2016, at the Center's Los Angeles location

Kaufman Music Center will host a diverse 2016-17 season at Merkin Concert Hall, highlighting Broadway musicals as part of the Broadway Close up series giving theater fans a new perspective on the shows and songs they love, with compelling performances along with eye-opening interviews.

Bill Kenwright's production of one of the greatest family musicals of all time, The Sound of Music, arrives at The Bristol Hippodrome from Tuesday 30th August - Saturday 3rd September 2016.

Underscore Theatre Company is pleased to announce the full line-up for its third annual CHICAGO MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL, featuring 14 new musical productions. Created to showcase and support Chicago's burgeoning field of musical theatre creators, this year's festival will be held August 8 - 28, 2016 at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Each production will receive four performances during the Festival. The full schedule (Tuesdays - Sundays) can be found at www.cmtf.org, with single tickets and festival passes currently on-sale. The press preview, featuring songs from all of the 2016 productions, is Monday, August 8 at 7:30 pm.

Hannah Grover, Gloria Onitiri, Marc Pickering, Michael Steedon and Sebastien Torkia star in THE STRIPPER, which opened last night at the St. James Studio and plays until 13 August. Based on the pulp fiction story by Carter Brown, with music and lyrics by The Rocky Horror Show creators Richard Hartley and Richard O'Brien, The Stripper is directed by Benji Sperring with set and costume design byTim Shortall, choreography by Lucie Pankhurst, musical direction and arrangement by Alex Beetschen and lighting design by Nick Farman. 

Richard O Brien and Richard Hartley reunite to pen a murder mystery musical set in 'Club Extravaganza'.

Michael Crawford makes his glorious return to the London Stage in a new musical, based on the famed novel The Go-Between. Based on the classic novel by L. P. Hartley and adapted by David Wood, The Go-Between is a new musical with a score written by Richard Taylor. Today, the show has unveiled a preview of star Gemma Sutton performing 'Grow and Change' - check it out below!

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Pittsburgh, Portland, Orlando and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include DAMN YANKEES at Pittsburgh CLO, WEST SIDE STORY in Portland, and THE BROTHERS SIZE in Orlando, just to name a few.

The brand new British comedy web series Happy Now launches new episodes, including Long Weekend featuring popular online star Bella Younger (AKA Deliciously Stella), this British comedian has over 124 thousand instagram followers and Techno Cock, starring TV presenter Matt Johnson.

Prolific composer Richard Hartley has written for stage and screen, including film scores for The Romantic Englishwoman, The Lady Vanishes, Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing, Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty, and an Emmy-winning score for Channel 4's Alice in Wonderland. He's also worked extensively in theatre, but is perhaps best known for his partnership with Richard O'Brien, which began in 1973 with the iconic Rocky Horror Show - Richard Hartley arranged the score and performed in the original band, and went on to arrange music for the film adaptation.

Michael Crawford and the creative team of THE GO-BETWEEN stopped by Neil Sean's Showbiz to discuss the production and what Crawford brings to it. Check out the video below!

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Enchants at the Orpheum Now Thru July 10!

The 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast is a spectacular work of animated musical storytelling. Belle, a type of feminist in a sense (at least within the context of Disney, especially when compared to Ariel, who taught millions of young girls just two years earlier that it is important to change who you are for a man), is an independent, intelligent, and beautiful young woman who reads and finds pleasure in the pursuit of knowledge. She has found her voice and she demands to be heard. So naturally, the whole town thinks she is crazy. A heroine of this caliber is a lot to live up to in any fairy tale and such a fanciful, witty and heartfelt presentation seems impossible to duplicate, but that's what I expect from a Broadway production. I expect seats that can cost a good $120 to rival the magic created by the brilliant animators working with Disney in the early part of that transitional decade. Unfortunately, the touring Broadway musical produced by NETworks Presentations does not live up to this expectation. In fact it falls quite short of perpetuating the wonder and depth established in the original film. I brought my twin 6-year-old daughters to the show and they loved it. Certainly it was quality enough to entertain a kindergartener, but is that really what Dallas should grow to accept as quality theatrical art. We have a booming and continuously growing art scene and so-called 'Broadway' productions such as this should not be tolerated in our community. Broadway is supposed to be a leader in the creation of quality art, not the preservation of an industry that overcharges audiences, underpays artists, undermines unions, and whose primary mission is not artistic success but financial success.

On 5 July, the National Arts Festival's Arena Programme will host the world premiere of AS EVER, BESSIE - a poignant story that has been left untold, until now. Written and directed by Bobbie Fitchen, the play will have two special preview performances at the Galloway Theatre prior to its bow at the festival.

The Stripper will run at St. James Studio from 7 July to 13 August 2016, with press night on 11 July at 8pm. Based on the pulp fiction story by Carter Brown, with music and lyrics by The Rocky Horror Show creators Richard Hartley and Richard O'Brien, The Stripper will be directed by Benji Sperring (The Toxic Avenger) with set and costume design by Tim Shortall, choreography by Lucie Pankhurst, musical direction and arrangement by Alex Beetschen and lighting design by Nick Farman. The Stripper is produced by Niall Bailey and Chris Wheeler for Scala Theatre Ltd.

The Sunday, June 12 series premiere of Destination America's GHOSTS OF SHEPHERDSTOWN was the network's #1 highest-rated and most-watched series debut ever, becoming the third consecutive paranormal series premiere of 2016 to break records for delivery of P2+ (663k) and HH (529k) on L+3 Day

Delaware All State Theatre (DAST) will present the five-time Tony Award-winning TITANIC THE MUSICAL in the Laird Performing Arts Center at the Tatnall School for two weekends from June 18-26.

Michael Crawford makes his glorious return to the London Stage in a new musical, based on the famed novel The Go-Between.

The Stephen Joseph Theatre is offering theatre-goers the chance to be among the first to discover brand new playwriting talents as part of its Summer Festival 2016.