Helen Hayes News

Synetic Theater is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Haskett, Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Synaptek Corporation, as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors. 'I am excited to take the reins as we focus our efforts on reviewing and refining the organization's strategic plan toward making Synetic a center of excellence for its signature, unique art forms', Mr. Haskett said.

Four-time Tony Award Nominee Judy Kuhn(Fun Home, She Loves Me, Chess, Les Miserables) joins the cast of Fiddler on the Roof as Golde beginning tonight, Tuesday, November 22nd and will play through the show's final performance on Saturday, December 31st at 2:00 pm.  She takes over the role from Jessica Hecht whose final performance was on Sunday, November 20th.

Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw, under the leadership of Artistic Director David Staller, continues its 11th Season with its 118th concert presentation with J.M. Barrie's Alice Sit-By-The-Fire, last night at Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).

Following an acclaimed run at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Lisa Loomer's world-premiere drama Roe makes its D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.

Signature Theatre presents the world premiere production of a new holiday musical, Silver Belles. Directed by Signature Theatre Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer (Broadway's Follies, Million Dollar Quartet), this world premiere musical features a book by Allyson Currin (WSC Avant Bard's Caesar and Dada), music by Matt Conner (Signature's Nevermore) and lyrics by Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith (Creative Cauldron's The Turn of the Screw).

The Wicked tour welcomes Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award-winner Isabel Keating as Madame Morrible, Fred Applegate as The Wizard and Andy Mientus ('Smash') as Boq, beginning tonight, November 22nd, at Wharton Center in East Lansing.

Gulfshore Playhouse, Southwest Florida's Premiere Professional theatre, is very excited to announce that 2016 Tony Award-nominee Carmen Cusack will star in the one-woman, world premiere of Do This by Karen Siff Exkorn, which will run from January 7th through the 28th.

The Irvington Town Hall has brought back the Best of Film Series this season which produces features films as they have done for over 7 seasons. On Friday, December 16 at 7:30pm, we will present the film BEYOND GLORY where actor Stephen Lang tells the stories of eight Medal of Honor recipients in their own words, as he tours across the Heartland, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, New York and Los Angeles. 

Bakersfield Mist by Stephen Sachs, the Fountain's smash hit comedy that went on to see productions around the world including London's West End, will return to the Fountain for a limited 4-week engagement beginning Nov. 19. Sachs will again direct, with Jenny O'Hara (Transparent, The Mindy Project) and Nick Ullett (As the WorldTurns) reprising the roles they created.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is poised between two Empires - The Sceptered Isle and La Serenissima. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare and the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Venetian ghetto, The Floor of Heaven interweaves moments from Shakespeare's complex and revolutionary text with the play's original music and songs from the English-Venetian soundscape that Shakespeare's characters would have played and heard.

BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance proudly presents Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo, written by Charles Rice-Gonzalez and directed by Luis Caballero. This marks the second year that the award-winning director of Off-Broadway hits La Lupe: My Life and My Destiny and DC-7 The Roberto Clemente Story steps in to helm the work. The play interweaves two holiday classics,The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol, and creates a queer, Latino play about a gay couple who go on a psychedelic trip through their lives one Christmas Eve. The play will be presented December 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 16, and 17 at 8pm; Saturday, December 10 at 3pm at BAAD!, 2474 Westchester Avenue in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx. Tickets are $25 with discounts offered for seniors and students.  For reservations call 718-918-2110 or visit www.BAADBronx.org. BAAD! can be reached by the #6 train to Westchester Square.

The Players, the city's most fabled private social club for actors and artists, just presented its inaugural Helen Hayes Award to Barbara Cook, the musical theatre legend who is widely considered one of the twentieth century's best interpreters of the Great American Songbook, at a gala ceremony yesterday.

The Washington Stage Guild starts its 'Pearl Anniversary' season with a remount of one of America's favorite holiday stories in It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. It's Christmas Eve, 1946, and we are the studio audience for a local radio station as its cast of voice actors and one very busy sound effects man broadcast the beloved tale of George Bailey and his encounter with Clarence, his guardian angel. This 'radio play-within-a-play' re-imagines the familiar movie as it would have been heard in homes all over America in the late 40s, when just such a broadcast took place. Playwright

Sometimes what you're looking for is right next door. Expectations is a  heartwarming comedy about motherhood, widowhood and neighborhood. The reading is directed by Luna Stage founder and former Artistic Director Jane Mandel and also features Cynthia Fernandez who returns to Luna after her critically acclaimed starring role in the company's 2014 revival of Marisol by Jose Rivera.

Pointless Theatre is proud to announce our take on one of the iconic works of the early avant-garde: King Ubu, opening December 11 in the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. 

Audiences first became aware of Jaston Williams as half of the citizens of Tuna, Texas with the debut of Greater Tuna in 1982. The saga continued with A Tuna Christmas, Red, White and Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas. The plays have been performed on and off Broadway at the Kennedy Center, the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and all over America. He has received Washington DC's Helen Hayes Award nominations for A Tuna Christmas and Red, White and Tuna as well as the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Award for Greater Tuna. He also received the L.A. Dramalogue Award for both Greater Tuna and A Tuna Christmas. A Tuna Christmas was published in 'Best Plays of 1995.' For several years, Jaston toured in Larry Shue's The Foreigner, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actor. He performed in The Fantasticks at Washington DC's Ford's Theatre and directed the musical Bad Girls Upset By The Truth at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. A recipient of the Texas Governors Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts by a Native Texan he performed at the White House on three occasions. His hometown of Austin, Texas has seen him perform at the State Theatre in Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs and at Zachary Scott Theatre in Jay Presson Allen's Tru, for which he received the Austin Critics Table Award for Best Actor in a drama. He has appeared at Zach Theatre in The Laramie Project and next month is joining their production of A Christmas Carol as Scrooge. His play, Romeo and Thorazine, work-shopped at Zach in November 2001. He work-shopped his autobiographical one-man show I'm Not Lying to critical acclaim at the State Theatre and returned it there for a full production in February of 2004 as well as a benefit performance at Washington DC's Kennedy Center. His autobiographical play Cowboy Noises premiered in Austin in February 2008 to critical acclaim. Broadway World recently sat down with Jaston for a Q & A session during the run of his latest play A WOLVERINE WALKS INTO A BAR.

The Players, the city's most fabled private social club for actors and artists, will present its inaugural Helen Hayes Award to Barbara Cook, the musical theatre legend who is widely considered one of the twentieth century's best interpreters of the Great American Songbook, at a gala ceremony tonight, November 17th.

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will continue their lunchtime concert series "THIRD THURSDAYS" to highlight the unique musical personalities and special talents of the members of their acclaimed ensemble at Live! at 10th and G (First Congregational, UCC Washington - 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) - this Today, November 17 at 12:15 PM. 

Take a break from your busy day and check out Kate Baldwin singing Elvis Costello's 'Everyday I Write the Book' from her Feinstein's/54 Below show 'Extraordinary Machine.'

Atlantic Records and Dear Evan Hansen producer Stacey Mindich announced today that the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical Dear Evan Hansen will be released on Atlantic Records this winter.