Howard Ashman News

The success of the billion-dollar worldwide hit live-action remake of Disney's Aladdin has the company considering a possible follow-up.

The Little Theatre of Manchester (LTM) announced its 2020 season today, which marks the organization's 60th year of producing theatre.

Disney Theatrical Productions and The CareFirst® BlueCross BlueShield Hippodrome Broadway Series announced today that tickets for the long-awaited engagement of Disney's Aladdin will go on sale to the public on Friday, August 16, at 10 a.m.

ABC has just announced that THE LITTLE MERMAID LIVE will air Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. as part of The Wonderful World of Disney. Auli'i Cravalho, of Moana fame, will star as Ariel. Queen Latifah will star as Ursula and Shaggy will play Sebastian. No additional casting has been announced at this time.

ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) of Connecticut announces the first show of its second season, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Following its wildly-successful inaugural season, ACT of CT will kick-off the 2019-2020 lineup with a bang a?" or shall we say a SCREAMa?" when this global phenomenon lands in Ridgefield. 

The Mac-Haydn Theatre presents Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's sci-fi hit Little Shop of Horrors, running August 8 through 18.

According to the annual high school play survey conducted by the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), The Addams Family; Almost, Maine; and Check Please received top billing for the most produced musical, full-length play, and short play, respectively, during the 2018-19 school year.

According to the annual high school play survey conducted by EdTA, The Addams Family; Almost, Maine; and Check Please received top billing for the most produced musical, full-length play, and short play, respectively, during the 2018-19 school year.

By the time you read this, you may have missed your chance to see Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at the Ralston Community Theatre. You may have thought that it's a 'tale as old as time,' that you've seen several times, both on film and on stage. But this one may be different. This one felt more like home than a quiet village. The performers were familiar, the theater was in a local high school, and the audience...your friends and neighbors...were loving every minute. I especially enjoyed watching the face of a little girl dressed in her Belle costume completely entranced. Sometimes seeing something through the eyes of a child makes it new again.

Patty Smithey is marvelous as Ariel, but the show belongs to the amazing Janelle Richardson as Ursula.

Disney's live-action Aladdin has become the 3rd Disney film of 2019 to pass the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, according to Deadline.

The best-known version of the classic fairy tale a?oeBeauty and the Beasta?? may have been written by 18th century French author Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, but Disney infused the a?oetale as old as timea?? with new life and wild popularity in 1991 and created a Golden Globe-winning best motion picture award.

In short, THE LITTLE MERMAID taps into the magic of Disney and brings it to Central Texas. It offers family-friendly summer fun that is accessible to all.

Pasadena Playhouse announces preliminary casting for Little Shop of Horrors which comes to the Playhouse September 17 through October 20; the press opening is September 25.

Today's top stories: Little Shop of Horrors returns off-Broadway, Britney Spears musical postponed, and more!

Tony Award-winning producers Tom Kirdahy, Robert Ahrens, Hunter Arnold, Mickey Liddell, Curt Cronin and John Joseph, have just announced that Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's landmark musical LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS will return to its Off-Broadway…roots…this fall. Two-time Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff (Hamilton, Spring Awakening, 'Mindhunter') will play Seymour in the long-awaited revival, opposite Emmy Award winner Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland, Gypsy) as Audrey, and Tony Award winner Christian Borle (Something Rotten!, Falsettos) as Orin Scrivello D.D.S. Directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot), the production begins previews Tuesday, September 17, with an official opening night of Thursday, October 17, at the Westside Theatre (407 W 43rd St). Tickets are available now at Telecharge.com, through November 24 only.

I witnessed the best stage effects I have ever seen anywhere (including Broadway), when  on Saturday, July 20, I had the pleasure of seeing BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at the Sharon Playhouse, in Sharon, CT!   While this story is likely familiar to most people, the Sharon Playhouse grips the audience right from the start, not merely by elevating the Enchantress into the air, but by having the Young Prince transformed into the Beast, on stage, in front of the whole audience, in a manner of seconds, with effective use of strobe lights, a successful undertaking of a greater magnitude than what people can expect in a typical magic show, much less a musical!  Without providing any spoilers, for those of you familiar with how the story ends, that happens on stage too, right before our eyes, with effective use of strobe lights.  Lighting Designer Jamie Roderick deserves a lot of credit for working what appears like magic, on the stage.  Every show I have seen at Sharon Playhouse has been wonderful, but this is the best!

Currently docked at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through July 28 is Musical Theater West's wonderfully vibrant new regional production of THE LITTLE MERMAID, Disney's Broadway stage adaptation of their hit 1989 animated classic, which itself was adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. The resulting show achieves a cheerful, pleasant, and often charming hybrid that honors the original Disney-esque qualities of the film, but also shows what one may call a 'director's cut'---wherein the new 'extras' expand the musical even further in size, elements, and thematic mood. MTW's production is a visual treat.

Su nombre es sinonimo de cine y teatro musical. Ha creado las bandas sonoras de la epoca dorada de Disney como LA BELLA Y LA BESTIA o ALADDIN, y tambien musicales inolvidables como LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS o NEWSIES, por el que gano el Premio Tony.

Some questionable casting choices and a book by Chad Beguelin that's filled with a little too many eyeroll worthy anachronistic jokes, aside, the touring production has a few elements that make a trip to the Kennedy Center worth it.