Helen Hayes News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! It's almost Friday! Power through the end of your week by catching up on the latest Broadway news!

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts announces A Star is Born: The Concert, on Saturday, April 13 at 8 pm. The show features a number of Broadway' finest singers, from shows such as Cats, Crazy for You, Aida, and more. Bay Street audiences will remember director/performer Scott Coulter from Music Monday's Stephen Schwartz & Friends and the 8-Track Memories concert. 

What the Constitution Means to Me has announced a general rush policy!

During an interview with The New York Times, Amy Schumer revealed that she is working on a film adaptation of the Tony-winning play 'The Humans.'

Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced today the full casting for the world premiere of MS. BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT, co-written by ensemble members Tina Landau (SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight, Academy Award). Conceived by Tina Landau, she also directs this true and little-known Chicago story that will star Tarell Alvin McCraney as Ms. Joan Jett Blakk. Joining McCraney in the cast are Patrick Andrews, Molly Brennan, Daniel Kyri, Jon Hudson Odom and Sawyer Smith.

Dear Evan Hansen comes to Charlotte's Belk Theater March 19-24 as part of the 2018-2019 PNC Broadway Lights. 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 per performance.

Vilna, a new play by Ira Fuchs directed by Joseph Discher, will begin its limited Off-Broadway World Premiere engagement at the Theatre at St. Clement's (423 West 46th Street, between Ninth & Tenth Avenues) tonight Monday March 11th.  Opening Night is set for Wednesday March 20th (7pm). This limited Off-Broadway engagement will continue through Sunday April 14th only.

Moon Over Buffalo, written by York native Ken Ludwig, will be produced in the Bon Ton Studio March 29-31 & April 4-7. Friday, Saturday and the second Thursday shows are at 7:30 p.m. Sunday shows are at 3:00 p.m.

You most likely know today's subject Nicholas Rodriguez from his many area appearances at Arena Stage. Who could forget his Billy Bigelow in Carousel or his Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady or Curly in Oklahoma!? The latter garnered Nicholas a Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Avant Bard has announced that Khalil Kain has had to withdraw from the cast of TOPDOG/UNDERDOG due to unforeseen personal circumstances. But Avant Bard is happy to announce that Jeremy Keith Hunter has joined the production. Jeremy will play opposite Louis E. Davis in the Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy by Suzan-Lori Parks about two African American brothers grappling for destiny. The production runs from March 14 to April 14, 2019, at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two in Arlington.

Milwaukee is thrilled to announce the national tour of COME FROM AWAY, a Broadway musical about the true story of the small town that welcomed the world, will make its Milwaukee debut at the Marcus Center for a limited engagement May 7-12. COME FROM AWAY tickets are on sale now!

Due to popular demand, Broken Nose Theatre's hit drama GIRL IN THE RED CORNER will add one additional week of performances, extending through Today, March 9, 2019 at BNT's resident home, The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. The Midwest premiere is written by Stephen Spotswood and directed by Elizabeth Laidlaw. Tickets for all performances are currently available at www.brokennosetheatre.com. Tickets for all Broken Nose Theatre productions are available on a "pay-what-you-can" basis, allowing patrons to set their own price and ensuring theatre remains economically accessible for all audiences.

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.

River City's about to get the last thing they expected ? and the very thing they need ? in The Music Man. Goodspeed Musicals kicks off its 2019 season with the rip-roarin' dance-filled classic running April 12 - June 20 at The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn. [Official Press Opening will be May 1, 2019].

'Imagining Madoff,' written by Deb Margolin and directed by Jerry Heymann is now on stage at 59E59 Street Theaters. It is an intense and fascinating fictionalized view of Bernie Madoff, the man behind the Ponzi scheme that devastated countless people's financial fortunes.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at Aaron Posner's JQA, recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. The first of Posner's plays that is not adapted from an existing work, JQA shines a spotlight with humor and care on an ineffectual presidency, the idea of government and how a society lives in relationship to it, and the American experiment as it continues to evolve. Directed by Posner as well, JQA runs March 1 through April 14, 2019 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC), recipient of 62 Helen Hayes Nominations, brings to the stage Winnie the Pooh, directed by Helen Hayes Nominated Shirley Serotsky (ATMTC's The Jungle Book) former Interim Artistic Director for Theatre J. Based on the classic by A. A. Milne, this delightful tale of the Hundred Acre Wood is recommended for all ages. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased online at www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org or by calling 301.634.2270.

Dear Evan Hansen has been found in Toronto! Go inside the show's first performance, which they named 'Blue Hat Day,' in the video below!

Richard Wright's iconic novel, Native Son,  streamlined into a blazing 90 minute adaptation by actor/playwright Nambi E. Kelley, will run in repertory with Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of A Native Son, inspired by James Baldwin's blistening critique of Wright's controversial work. Award-winning director and playwright Psalmayene 24's stages the innovative take on Wright's masterpiece while authoring a modern reimagining of Wright's real-life meeting with Baldwin in 1953 Paris.

Cal State Fullerton's Spring semester begins with "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov, translated by Paul Schmidt and directed by Maria Cominis. The play runs from March 8-24, 2019 in the Young Theatre on campus. "The Cherry Orchard" follows a destitute Russian aristocrat who returns home to find her family in a financial crisis, forcing them to sell their home to pay off their debt. The family must decide on their prospects for happiness and how to rebuild their lives and fortunes.