Helen Hayes News

Award-winning Retro Productions kicks off its 2019 season with one of the longest running Broadway comedies of the 1960's, Mary, Mary written by Jean Kerr. The witty revival runs May 3 - 18 at the Gene Frankel Theatre in SoHo. Shay Gines who previously directed Retro's revival of And Mrs. Reardon Drinks A Little, directs. Opening night is slated for Friday, May 3.

Just in! Two-time Tony Award and three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf and two-time Emmy Award winner Eddie Izzard will star on Broadway next season...

On Sunday, April 21, 2019, everyone is invited to the Open Rehearsal for The Oresteia, freely adapted by Ellen McLaughlin from Aeschylus' trilogy and directed by Shakespeare Theatre Company's outgoing Artistic Director Michael Kahn.

Studio Theatre concludes its 40th Anniversary Season Main Series productions with the DC premiere of playwright Lucy Kirkwood's urgent and unsettling eco-thriller The Children, directed by Studio Artistic Director David Muse. Inspired in part by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear explosion in Japan, Kirkwood's disaster drama begins as an old love triangle flaring to life in the aftermath of a natural disaster and morphs into a disquieting look at the cataclysmic impact of human intervention in the natural world. The Children deepens Muse's relationship with Kirkwood's work he directed the US premiere of her Olivier Award-winning epic play Chimerica in 2015.

First Stage concludes its 2018/19 mainstage season with a sparkling new adaptation of TINKER BELL, written by playwright Patrick Flynn and based on the works of Sir J.M. Barrie. This family-friendly adventure brings to the stage characters audiences know and love - Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook - but told all from the unique perspective of the feisty fairy, Tinker Bell. With over a dozen different puppets, original music and even some potent fairy dust, Milwaukee families will get to experience theater magic at its best. The world of Neverland will come to life in the Todd Wehr Theater like it has never been seen before! Audience members young and old won't want to miss taking this fantastic voyage in TINKER BELL.

The Drama League has announced, today, that Shoshana Bean and Jeremy Jordan, who both currently star in Waitress, will announce the 2019 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the 50th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 16-20, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF. Selected awardees and representatives will be brought to Washington, D.C. for an expense-paid trip to participate in the National Festival. These student artists from across the United States have been recognized for their outstanding work from the eight regional festivals that were held January 8 through February 28, 2019.

Indecent, a haunting drama about a Jewish theatre troupe and its devotion to a controversial play, and Memphis, an exuberant musical about the racial divide in early days of rock and roll, took their respective places in South Florida theatrical history as Best Play and Best Musical on Monday, April 8, when the winners of the 43rd annual Carbonell Awards were announced. The ceremony was held at Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

The 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards will take place on Monday, May 13, 2019 at The Anthem, the cultural center of Southwest D.C.'s District Wharf, with a celebratory party to follow.

Dear Evan Hansen will now call Toronto home through September 29, 2019, it was announced today. The Tony Award-winning musical, which opened at the historic Royal Alexandra Theatre on March 28, 2019 and was originally on sale through June 30, has been extended due to popular demand.  A new block of 119,424 tickets, July 2 - September 29, are now on sale. 

Celebrating its fifth and final installment of "Bold New Works for Intimate Stages," Creative Cauldron presents the world premiere of On Air. Set in Pittsburgh, PA during the 1920s, On Air tells the story of Frank and Flora Conrad, who were on the edge of discovering mass broadcasting. These two unsung radio pioneers established the first radio station in America in their unassuming garage. On Air follows their untold love story, and how radio became a constant companion, messenger and soundtrack of our lives over the past century of American life. Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith, the critically acclaimed creative team for Creative Cauldron's past Bold New Work premieres (Turn of the Screw 2015, Monsters of the Villa Diodati 2016, Kaleidoscope 2017, Witch 2018,) are mining the nostalgia of a bygone era and shedding light on a relatively unknown piece of American history with this newest work. On Air runs May 2 - 26, 2019.

Mark Weiss, was a 14-year old kid from New Jersey when he made a deal with a neighbor to cut his lawn in exchange for a 35mm camera. Thus began a lifelong journey of rock & roll mayhem that continues to this day. While in high school, Mark would sneak his camera into concerts, paying off security guards to get him closer to the stage. Mark developed the prints in his parent's bathroom to sell the next morning out of his school locker and then in front of the concert venue that night.

On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis (Mahira Kakkar) receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant (Greg Wood), a successful and charismatic restaurateur. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship with food and wine, only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires.

The clash between Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots takes on contemporary resonance, exploring issues of gender and power in Mary Stuart, adapted by Olney Theatre Center Artistic Director Jason Loewith from Friedrich Schiller's Maria Stuart. Loewith also directs his adaptation of this retooled classic for a unique 21st Century production staged with 6 actors in the intimate confines of the 150-seat Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab (May 8 - June 9, 2019).

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce Title Wave at Bay Street: The 6th Annual New Works Festival, May 3 - 5. All readings are free, but tickets are required, as these events typically sell out. Tickets are available now at baystreet.org or by calling the Bay Street Theater Box Office at 631-725-9500, open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5 pm, or until show time.

It's time to rock out because this week marks the tenth anniversary of the Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages opening and bringing the Sunset Strip to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre! To celebrate the occasion, we're throwing it back to that rocking night as Constantine Maroulis, Amy Spanger, Wesley Taylor, and more took their first bows! Check out all the footage below!

Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the first show of the 2019 Mainstage Season. The World Premiere of THE PROMPTER (May 28- June 16) a new comedy by Wade Dooley; will be directed by Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theater's Artistic Director.

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team as comic playwright Ken Ludwig, who delighted Globe audiences with Robin Hood! and Baskerville, returns with a hilarious world premiere: Ken Ludwig's The Gods of Comedy, directed by Amanda Dehnert (West Side Story at Carnegie Hall, world premieres of Kate Hamill's Pride and Prejudice and Ludwig's Baskerville). Presented in association with McCarter Theatre Center, The Gods of Comedy will run May 11 - June 16, 2019 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, Old Globe Theatre, Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, opening on May 16. Single tickets start at $30.00 and are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE, or by visiting the Box Office at 1362 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Performances at McCarter Theatre Center ran March 12 - 31, 2019.

Shakespeare Theatre Company's Artistic Director Michael Kahn invites theatre-lovers to the second event of a series of intimate conversations about his career in D.C. as he prepares to retire. Open, unrehearsed and off the record, invited speakers will swap anecdotes and share memories about Michael Kahn's 33 years directing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The discussions focus on three distinct eras in STC's history and chronicle D.C.'s changing theatre scene. This second Michael Kahn and Friends: Off the Record will focus primarily on the formation of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in its second location: the Lansburgh Theatre (1992-2006).

The Play Company (PlayCo; Founding Producer Kate Loewald, Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw) announces the chefs and artists scheduled for their 2019 gala, Cabaret Gourmet