Helen Hayes News

This fall, artists and audiences from the Washington, D.C. area, the U.S., and around the globe come together at the nation's cultural capital to dance, sing, create, collaborate, listen, learn, talk, share, and celebrate the opening of the REACH, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's unprecedented new expansion. At a preview event today, May 29, which marks both President Kennedy's 102nd birthday and 100 days until the historic opening, the Kennedy Center unveiled preliminary details of the free 16-day REACH Opening Festival on September 7-22.

I must applaud Everyman Theatre's Artistic Director Vince Lancisi for having the brilliant idea of ending its season with two plays by Caleen Sinnette Jennings in repertory: QUEENS GIRL IN THE WORLD and QUEENS GIRL IN AFRICA. What a genius!

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop) has announced that it will produce Intimate Apparel, a new opera with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and a libretto by Lynn Nottage, based on her critically acclaimed play.  The production, which will be directed by Bartlett Sher, will begin previews Thursday, February 27 and open on Monday, March 23 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street). 

The Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical A Night With Janis Joplin rocks the Aronoff Center's Procter & Gamble Hall on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 7:30 PM. The much-anticipated show is part of the Cincinnati Arts Association's 2019-20 Season.

A limited edition two LP yellow vinyl set of the original Broadway cast recording of COME FROM AWAY will be released on Friday, May 31. The vinyl will be available exclusively online and in store at Barnes and Noble. The vinyl lacquers were cut by Clint Holley at Well Made Music and the records were pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. David Lai, Ian Eisendrath, August Eriksmoen, Irene Sankoff and David Hein serve as album producers.

Today's subject David Muse is currently living his theatre life as the Artistic Director of Studio Theatre. This season marks his ninth in the position. He became only the second Artistic Director in the company's history when founder Joy Zinoman stepped down in 2010.He is currently represented as a director at Studio Theatre with The Children which is now playing through June 9th in the Metheny Theatre space.

Creative Cauldron closes out its 10th season of award-winning theater with Disney's Beauty and the Beast. In the same spirit of its highly acclaimed Wizard of Oz, Creative Cauldron will tackle the iconic Disney musical Beauty and the Beast, with creativity and simplicity, knowing what is most essential is the story at its heart.

For the fourth year in a row, Broadway Sings for Pride will lend their musical talents to Westchester Pride 2019 in White Plains, NY! On Sunday, June 2, 2019, Broadway Sings for Pride cast members Brennyn Lark (Broadway's Les Miserables 2014 Revival, West End's Dreamgirls) and Phindile Wilson (Disney's The Lion King United States, Madrid, Brazil and Hong Kong Tours, Helen Hayes Award nominee) will showcase their singing at Westchester Pride sponsored by The LOFT: LGBT Community Services Center! Expect to hear Broadway favorites to pop hits. Broadway Sings for Pride will be performing around 1:00pm on the Westchester Pride stage which is at the intersection of Main Street and Mamaroneck Avenue facing Renaissance Plaza in White Plains, NY. The event will happen rain or shine.

TRT closes their 20182019 season with 'Oo-Bla-Dee' by Regina Taylor from June 8 to June 30. The production is directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and features original music by Diedre L. Murray with original lyrics by Regina Taylor. Broadwayworld.com had the opportunity to interview Amber Iman who is playing Luna C in the show.

New York company Fiasco Theater has announced plans to expand its training programs beginning this fall. 

The Toronto production of DEAR EVAN HANSEN, which has recently extended into the fall, will now close early, on July 21st. The production will have played for 20 weeks, including preview performances.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: the Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony will be held today, and more!

Described by the Los Angeles Times as a "cultural phenomenon," DEAR EVAN HANSEN comes to the historic Orpheum Theatre (910 Hennepin Ave.) as part of the 2018-2019 Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin series Tuesday, May 28 to Sunday, June 9, 2019. In advance of the start of performances, the production announced today that it will host a digital ticket lottery offering fans the chance to purchase a limited number of $25 tickets available for each performance.

Today is going to be a great day, and here's why: the acclaimed a capella group Pentatonix is performing 'Waving Through a Window' from the Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Check out the full music video!

Hartford Stage will present Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, a celebration of one of America's most beloved and prolific songwriters, written and performed by internationally-acclaimed pianist, actor and playwright Hershey Felder, for a limited one-week engagement - June 21 through 30, 2019.

The fun of an evening such as this week's 'Michael Kahn & Friends, Off the Record: The Lansburgh Years, 1992-2007' derives from the relaxed, unscripted content provided by those who usually offer scripts to an audience. The three actors and one former administrative colleague who joined Kahn at the Harman Wednesday to visit memory lane required little prompting by moderator Tom Story to recall and reminisce about their work with the Shakespeare Theatre Company during the Lansburgh Years. Once Story asked each to remember his/her first meeting with Michael Kahn, a series of photos of past productions drove the evening of anecdotes.

Olney Theatre Center offers its fourth musical production of the 2018-19 Season on the Mainstage, with the Tony Award-winning Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical (June 21 - July 21, 2019), directed by Peter Flynn, fresh off the rave reviews for his acclaimed revival of Into the Woods at Ford's Theatre. Invited Press Night is Thursday, June 27 at 8:00pm.

Every year, hundreds of theatre artists and patrons gather to honor the work done on stage from the previous year. But just as important as getting the chance to acknowledge the craft of their peers are the many reunions that take place. Though the 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards began at 7:30pm on May 13, the celebrating started much earlier as collaborators from productions both big and small started reuniting on the Waterfront, then quickly bled into The Anthem. Things got underway quickly; after hosts Felicia Curry and Rick Hammerly provided a snappy intro, the winners of the 47 categories were unveiled in a timely fashion, though never at the expense of the acceptance speeches. The Helen Hayes are never a short show, but last night, they ended just a hair after 10:30pm, a relatively early end before the afterparty. These are theatre artists we're talking about - pacing is everything.

Vintage Theatre presents "Crowns" June 28* through August 4 at Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $19 - $38 and available online at www.vintagetheatre.org or by calling 303-856-7830.

Classic Stage Company continues its recently established repertory series which provides a platform, and freedom in the creative process, to today's most exciting emerging theater artists with two new adaptations of canonical gothic horror works based on novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. CSC has commissioned 2017 Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year and one of the US' 10 Most Produced Playwrights of the 2018-2019 season, Kate Hamill, to take on Dracula, while Smith Prize for Political Theater and Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm will create a new version of Frankenstein.Popularly known as a pair of macabre fantasies about blood-sucking vampires and man-made monsters, Dracula and Frankenstein illuminate and exorcise some of humanity's most fundamental fears surrounding life, love, and death. The productions will be performed in repertory January-March 2020.