I. Fell News

The Play About the Baby previews September 7-9 and runs through October 7 at Gough Street Playhouse.

Book-It Repertory Theatre has announced its staging of the popular bestseller, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. This hopeful journey of a Chinese American boy in 1940s Seattle will run Wednesday- Sunday, Sept 18 - October 21, 2012 at the Center Theatre at the Armory.

Music Theatre of Connecticut School of the Performing Arts in Westport will conduct the College Bound in the Performing Arts Seminar, a crash course in performing arts degree programs for high school performers and their parents, on Saturday, September 15 at 10am in Westport.

Today we are talking to a multi-talented performer who has performed on Broadway in everything from BROOKLYN to WICKED who made her most recent Broadway bows standing by in both ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER and PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT - the dynamic and compelling Julie Reiber. Talking all about her new solo album, LOVE TRAVELS, and its various inspirations as well as casting a look back at her many Broadway, touring and regional roles thus far in her eclectic career - ALL SHOOK UP, SWEENEY TODD and many more included - Reiber and I attempt to illustrate her unique place on Broadway and what she would like to pursue in the future, both on the stage and in the recording studio. Additionally, Reiber opens up about her exhaustive song selection process for LOVE TRAVELS and shares candid stories of the recording process of her solo debut, including providing some background on the songs that did not make the cut, how the sterling arrangements arose out of the material and the process of becoming a singer-songwriter in her own right over the project's three-year-long creation. Also, Reiber outlines her experiences performing in the out-of-town tryout of the new musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's TALES OF THE CITY penned by rock super group Scissor Sisters and expresses her desire to continue with future iterations of the 70s-set Broadway-bound tuner as she looks ahead to her new roles of recording artist, and, also, she is happy to announce, mother. Plus, Julie offers details on her role in the heretofore little-known Meat Loaf-inspired movie musical ECLIPSE OF THE HEART (hopefully released some red moon soon), expresses her thoughts on GLEE and SMASH, compared Broadway now versus a decade ago - and much, much more!

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find on stages in the Volunteer State. Sure, it might be Thursday on your calendar (same as mine, actually), but with Angels Without Wings premiering tonight at Darkhorse Theatre, it just seems like perfect timing to talk to Halee-Catherine Culicerto, who's been part of Angels for quite some time now.

he American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) has announced additional casting information for David Adjmi's new play, Marie Antoinette, directed by Rebecca Taichman, with choreography by Karole Armitage, in a co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre. Marie Antoinette begins previews on Saturday, September 1, and runs through Saturday, September 29, with press opening on Friday, September 7 at 7:30pm.

A Ring in Brooklyn is being produced by the Academy for New Musical Theatre at the NoHo Arts Center for a six week run beginning tonight, July 28 through September 2nd. It's starring Jordan Kai Burnett, Gabrielle Wagner, Mike Irizarry, Johnny Cannizzaro, Anna Hanson, Mark Shunock and Matt Valle; written by Eric Dodson and Alan Ross Fleishman and directed by Joshua Finkel.

A Ring in Brooklyn is being produced by the Academy for New Musical Theatre at the NoHo Arts Center for a six week run beginning July 28 through September 2nd. It's starring Jordan Kai Burnett, Gabrielle Wagner, Mike Irizarry, Johnny Cannizzaro, Anna Hanson, Mark Shunock and Matt Valle; written by Eric Dodson and Alan Ross Fleishman and directed by Joshua Finkel.

Today we are talking to Patricia Kelly, the widow of one of the most iconic and influential performers in entertainment history, Gene Kelly, all about her husband's incomparable career on Broadway and in Hollywood, in honor of his centennial. Tracing Gene Kelly's journey from his theatre roots starring in Cole Porter's LEAVE IT TO ME!, Rodgers & Hart's PAL JOEY and William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE on Broadway to his unforgettable screen appearances in many of the greatest movie musicals ever made - COVER GIRL, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, THE PIRATE, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and many more included - Mrs. Kelly gives us a look into the life of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. In addition to behind-the-scenes stories involving Kelly's frequent collaborators - such as esteemed director Vincente Minnelli, songwriter and producer Arthur Freed, arranger Saul Chaplin and others - Mrs. Kelly also shares candid anecdotes involving her husband's involvement with directing Rodgers & Hammerstein's FLOWER DRUM SONG on Broadway, helming the feature film adaptation of HELLO, DOLLY! starring Barbra Streisand, as well as his appearing in two idiosyncratic movie musicals later in his life, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT (THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT) for Jacques Demy, as well as his au revoir to movie musicals in form of the Olivia Newton-John roller disco starrer XANADU. Additionally, Mrs. Kelly fills us in on all the details about this weekend's two-night Gene Kelly retrospective celebration, which she leads and narrates, as part of GENE KELLY @ 100 and her future plans for the multimedia presentation - each evening titled AN EVENING OF GENE KELLY and CHANGING THE LOOK OF DANCE ON FILM, respective - as she begins to tour the show across the country. Plus, reflections on SINGIN' IN THE RAIN's 60th anniversary and the recent Fathom HD premiere presentation in theaters, the impact of Kelly's work behind the camera, his choreographic legacy, what a legend is like at home, memories of attending the opening night of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (starring HELLO, DOLLY! lead Michael Crawford), what the master would say about GLEE, SMASH, BUNHEADS and today's movie musical renaissance, as well as much, much more!

But The Music Man? Come on, the classic Meredith Willson musical chestnut is as corny and all-American as you can possibly get (let's face it, Willson is the master of that particular genre of musical theater occupied by The Music Man and The Unsinkable Molly Brown-plus he wrote the Oscar-nominated score for William Wyler's The Little Foxes, which is one of my all-time favorite movies: "The grits didn't hold they heat"), it's pure hokum and there is absolutely nothing at all cynical about it. So why the heck does it make me respond with some emotional fervor?

New Musical Based on George Eliot's Silas Marner to be Featured at Prestigious NYMF Festival

Andrew Jackson, that guy on the twenty dollar bill and the United States' infamous seventh president, is alive and well in Houston. Remembered for the Indian Removal Act and initiating what would later be called Jacksonian Populism, this iconic badass president is the central character in Michael Friedman's comedic Wild West rock musical BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, which is being produced this month by Houston's Generations: A Theatre Company. George Brock, founding Artistic Director for Generations and Director of BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, assembled a panel of his cast, crew, and creative team to discuss the rip-roaringly raucous show and why you MUST see it!

Charles Osborne, star of Modesto Performing Art's 'Anything Goes,' talks to BroadwayWorld about his role as Billy Crocker and what audiences can expect from the Cole Porter Musical.

It's supposed to be 108 degrees in the Nashville area by week's end, which means stepping outside will likely leave you melted, quite literally and figuratively. But if you do have to venture out of doors, perhaps a trip to the theater is a good idea…it'll be dark and cool (with any luck, the AC will be working-and you know which theaters we're talking about) and you'll be entertained, perhaps even transported to another world. Or not. In the meantime, we present you with installment number four of Music City Confidential-our continuing effort to create a sense of community and build up some enthusiasm and excitement for the live theater industry here in our alarmingly sweaty region. So, press on, gentle readers and catch up on the latest adventures of the theaterati…

Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is, to quote its famous song lyrics, a "tale as old as time," but don't let those words fool you - the spectacular new NETworks national touring production currently at Washington's National Theatre has given new life to an already magnificent story.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) has just announced the Company for David Adjmi's new play, Marie Antoinette, directed by Rebecca Taichman, with choreography by Karole Armitage, in a co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre. The production begins previews on Saturday, September 1, and runs through Saturday, September 29, with press opening on Friday, September 7 at 7:00pm.

A Ring in Brooklyn is being produced by the Academy for New Musical Theatre at the NoHo Arts Center for a six week run beginning July 28 through September 2nd. It's starring Jordan Kai Burnett, Gabrielle Wagner, Mike Irizarry, Johnny Cannizzaro, Anna Hanson, Mark Shunock and Matt Valle; written by Eric Dodson and Alan Ross Fleishman and directed by Joshua Finkel.

Welcome to THE FRIDAY SIX: Q&As With Your Favorite Broadway Stars. Want to know what hooked them to a career in the theater? Their dream roles? Their Broadway crushes? Read on! In this next edition, we caught up with NaTasha Yvette Williams, who is starring as 'Mariah' in THE GERSHWINS' PORGY & BESS- currently playing at the Richard Rodgers Theatre!

In 1966 the Hallmark Hall of Fame presented a television adaptation of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's Off Broadway musical THE FANTASTICKS. Ricardo Montalban appeared as El Gallo and Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway were the two fathers. The young lovers were played by Broadway's favorite ingenue, Susan Watson, and a clean-cut young man named John Davidson who had made a strong impression on Broadway audiences as Lahr's son in the musical FOXY.

Sony Holland, the acclaimed vocalist who is a longtime San Francisco favorite, will return to The RRazz Room with a series of concerts to welcome her back to the Bay Area. Her all-star band will include Andy Langham on piano, David Hughes on bass, Jerry Holland on guitar and Kendall Kay on drums. Ms. Holland has toured Asia, performed in prestigious jazz festivals and in premier nightclubs such as the Blue Note, Catalina's, the Dakota and many more. Her recent CD Sanssouci (Van Ness, 2010) features Sony backed by an organic trio of acoustic guitar, upright bass and djembe drum.