Helen Hayes News

From the extraordinary mind of Pultizer, Tony, and Academy Award recognized playwright, August Wilson comes one of America's most renowned stories of race and music. Inspired by the real life of legendary blues singer, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a powerful installment in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning Century Cycle- 10 illustrious plays that explore the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century.

Folger Theatre concludes its very successful 25th anniversary season this spring with Shakespeare's gripping tragedy Timon of Athens. Directed by Robert Richmond (Othello, Henry V, Richard III), this rarely produced satire examining wealth, false friendships, and the abuse of generosity features Helen Hayes Award-winner Ian Merrill Peakes (Macbeth, Othello, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) in the title role. Timon of Athens is on stage now through June 11, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Signature Theatre has announced that Gun & Powder by Ross Baum and Angelica Cheri has been chosen for further development at the second annual SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Michele Weathers, is proud to announce initial casting for the 2017 season.

Award-winning actor/director Frank Ferrante re-creates his acclaimed New York and London stage portrayal celebrating America's greatest comedian - Groucho Marx.  You will feel as though Groucho is back, as Ferrante sings, dances and performs classic routines on the North Coast Rep stage, June 12 and 13th at 7:30pm.

AFTER HOURS THETRE COMPANY (who most recently produced I Love You Because) present, from the Academy Award-winning musical team responsible for 'La La Land' and the smash Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen, DOGFIGHT, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, book by Peter Duchan, musical direction by Elmo Zapp, choreography and co-direction by Jennifer Oundjian and co-directed by Jennifer Strattan.  DOGFIGHT will open on Friday, June 2 and perform through Sunday, June 25 at the Hudson Backstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

Playwrights Horizons begins accepting entries today, Monday, May 8 at 12 Noon, for the LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to their world premiere production of BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin at Playwrights, Miracle Brothers).

Every night at Studio 54. Tony nominee Johanna Day digs a little bit deeper as Tracey, a factory worker in Reading, Pennsylvania. How does she give such a poignant performance and deal with the exhaustion of the season? She explains below!

Everyone knows to expect the unexpected at one of The Skivvies sets, and this time they've involved the audience. Taking a cellphone from an unsuspecting audience member, Lauren Molina decided to improv a song based on a text message thread. Watch the hilarious video below!

Main Street Theater (MST) closes its 2016 - 2017 MainStage subscription season with the regional premiere of Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias.  "I'm interested in working on scripts that reflect both a world I know and understand, and a world that to me is entirely foreign," shares director Brandon Weinbrenner.  "Native Gardens centers on the comedic combat between two opposite parties with respective poignancies, prejudices, and basic needs.  I love this play and am thrilled to be working on a script by the heartfelt and hilarious Karen Zacarias."

Quintessence Theatre Group concludes its 7th season of progressive classic theatre with Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, in the Philadelphia premiere of a new version by Annie Baker.  All performances are at the Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, 19119.  To purchase tickets, visit www.Quintessencetheatre.org or call 215.987.4450.

The Skivvies are Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley, singer/actor/musicians performing stripped down arrangements of eclectic covers and eccentric originals. Not only is the music stripped down - cello, ukulele, glockenspiel, melodica - but the Skivvies literally strip down to their underwear to perform.

The Tony Award-nominated comedy, "Lettice and Lovage," will open Westport Country Playhouse's 87th Season, written by Peter Shaffer, author of "Amadeus," and directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director.  The play runs from May 30 through June 17. 

ZERO HOUR, Jim Brochu's acclaimed play about the life of theatre legend Zero Mostel, will return to its original home, the Theatre at Saint Clement's (423 West 46th Street, between Ninth & Tenth Avenues) for a limited engagement beginning June 2nd and continuing through July 9th only!  Opening Night is set for Wednesday June 14th (7pm).  The performance runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

Today's subjects, Sherri Edelen and Thomas Adrian Simpson, are currently living their theatre lives in tech for Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature Theatre. Thomas is playing the high priest Caiaphas and Sheri, in a brilliant turn of non-traditional casting, will be playing King Herod. The production runs from May 9th to July 2nd.

Creative Cauldron announces American classic musical The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, directed by Creative Cauldron Artistic Associate, Matt Conner. The story is the whirlwind journey of a Kansas farm girl, Dorothy, swept away to the magical Land of Oz where she meets a cast of iconic characters, like the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, on her journey home. Creative Cauldron will reimagine what the Library of Congress called 'America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale' within their intimate black box theatre, featuring a virtuosic cast of local talent and an ensemble cast drawn from Creative Cauldron's new Professional Musical Theatre Workshop.

The Ogunquit Playhouse kicks off its 85th Anniversary Season with the international smash hit Mamma Mia!, dazzling audiences on stage from May 17 to July 1.

Following productions at Houston's Ensemble Theatre and Fort Worth's Jubilee Theatre, and development in New York City and Washington, D.C., including a sold-out run at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), Trav'lin - The 1930s Harlem Musical receives its Connecticut Premiere at Waterbury's Seven Angels Theatre, beginning Thursday, May 11, 2017. Opening Night is Saturday, May 13, and the show runs through Sunday, June 11, 2017.

American Theater Company (ATC) is proud to announce its Season 33, which kicks off this October with the world premiere of Janine Nabers' Welcome to Jesus, directed by Artistic Director Will Davis, October 26-December 3, 2017.

The Greenhouse Theater Center is pleased to announce its 2017-18 Season, kicking off this summer with Artistic Director Jacob Harvey and Elizabeth Margolius' bold reimagining of Sophie Treadwell's most celebrated play MACHINAL, inspired by the first woman to be executed by the electric chair.