Ira Levin News

There are quite a few advantages of getting old, despite what many people may believe: the well-worn worries of youth are whisked away in the leveled way more mature people live their lives, self-dictated rules and personal boundaries are set as people come into their own and emotions are at bay as people gradually accept and even embrace the monotone way in which their lives are lived. Youth can still be kept alive and may even be sought after, but that shouldn't be too strenuous a task, right? Ha, no. After seeing the workings of the Academy of Performing Art's newest production of Social Security, where insecurities run rampant, youth is a perpetual theme in hilarious unforeseen ways and basically nothing is secure, the irony of this show's title alone is bound to excite and surprise anyone one believes that youth cannot be rekindled in the old at heart.

Drury Lane Theatre kicks off the 2016 - 2017 Season with the world-premiere production of HAZEL, a musical maid in America.

Drury Lane Theatre opens its 2016-2017 season with the World Premiere musical comedy Hazel, A Musical Maid in America, based on the character from the Saturday Evening Post comic strip by Ted Key and the 1960s TV comedy series starring Shirley Booth. Hazel features a book by Lissa Levin, music by Ron Abel, and lyrics by Chuck Steffan. This new musical is directed and choreographed by Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner Joshua Bergasse with musical direction by Roberta Duchak. Hazel runs March 31 - May 29, 2016 at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The Press Opening is Wednesday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m.

Drury Lane Theatre kicks off the 2016 - 2017 Season with the world-premiere production of HAZEL, a musical maid in America. 

Drury Lane Theatre kicks off the 2016 - 2017 Season with the world-premiere production of HAZEL, a musical maid in America. BroadwayWorld is excited to confirm the full cast for the production!

The Fulton Theatre is thrilled to announce a season bursting with dance, iconic musical theatre heroes, and a music legend in its mainstage offering! The Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series, now in its third season, will offer three selections, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. The popular family series again will offer four shows that are ideal for the entire family. The 2016/2017 season kicks off with the mainstage series on Tuesday, September 20, 2016, with the triumphant Billy Elliot. 

Equity actor Andrew Criss, who appeared in the Clear Space Theatre Company fall production of LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART, will return to Clear Space to star in its latest show DEATHTRAP, a mystery play by Ira Levin.

On January 21, guests gathered at Drury Lane Theatre for the Opening Night of their newest production, Bye Bye Birdie, directed and choreographed by Tammy Mader. With a cast led by Michelle Aravena as Rosie, Matt Crowle as Conrad's agent, Albert, and Jason Michael Evans as Conrad Birdie, audiences were treated to a throwback of the classic 1950's musical, brought to life again by this energetic and lively ensemble of 31. Check out photos from opening night, below!

Broadway had one of its greatest commercial hits and the longest running comedy-thriller with Ira Levin's Deathtrap in 1978, and it was later on film in 1982 with Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. Like Sleuth  before it, Deathtrap makes a game out of murder with plot twists too numerable to mention, and adds just a small amount of comedy to make it all palatable. It's a play within a play, making it doubly intriguing to watch. Now on stage at Sierra Madre Playhouse, this new production of the classic is solid with fine direction from Christian Lebano and a resilient cast.

Directed by Rich McKey, who brings his creative vision of what kind of world Levin's five characters should inhabit as they simultaneously create and avoid their own demise, Deathtrap is a joyride into the minds of maniacal people who think that their plans and intentions will be brought about not only because of the sheer brilliance they believe themselves to have, but also because everyone else is not thinking along the same lines. From playwrights to psychics, to the innocent wife who sits on a couch and merely wants a part in the unfolding plot she knows nothing about, everyone in this show wants to be included in some way, shape or form; although this is human nature to some extent, what people will do to see their vision become a reality is nothing short of something out of a book…and that is exactly what makes this play so damn fascinating.

The Academy Playhouse, a theater that has brought Cape Cod audiences an eclectic mix of productions that are always of the upmost professional quality, is taking a slight tangent from its recently closed holiday presentation of Sounds of the Season and delving into a play of a more murderous nature, also chock full of just enough laughs to make audiences question whether or not they should, in fact, notice the play's comedic side in the circumstances presented. Written by Ira Levin, Deathtrap makes its way to the Academy stage and from the start captures audiences with the extreme witticism of its characters and the brooding sense of mystery and danger which the title of the play alone implies.

With the cold weather just beginning, the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children's Theater will present the chilling thriller Deathtrap for the first show of their 2016 season.

A wickedly funny comedy thriller -- DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin -- opens tonight, January 8th, at The Adobe Theater.

A wickedly funny comedy thriller -- DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin -- opens January 8th at The Adobe Theater.

Bye Bye Birdie, the four-time Tony Award-winning musical, begins performances at Drury Lane on January 14 to conclude the 2015 - 2016 Season. The funny, irreverent musical takes audiences back to 1959 in quiet Sweet Apple, OH, where rock star Conrad Birdie shakes things up when he arrives to give one lucky teenage girl a special goodbye kiss. With a cast led by 2015 Jeff Award Best Supporting Actor winners Michelle Aravena as Rosie and Matt Crowle as Conrad's agent, Albert, Bye Bye Birdie is directed and choreographed by multiple Jeff Award winner Tammy Mader. Featuring musical theater classics such as "Kids," "Put on a Happy Face," and "A Lot of Livin' to Do," the inspired cast and creative team promise to bring a decidedly fresh touch to the timeless story. 

Broadway's new suspense thriller Misery, starring two-time Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Award winner Bruce Willis and three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf and written by two-time Academy Award winner William Goldman, opens tonight, Sunday, November 15, 2015, in a strictly limited 16-week engagement.

DEATHTRAP is an old fashioned, twisty thrill ride. NextStop Theatre Company puts the thrill back in thriller with a briskly directed, well cast production of the venerable potboiler. If we gave out ratings at Broadway World, I would offer NextStop four big ones for a production that crackles with wit and delivers a bloody good time.

DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin, plays Thursdays through Sundays through November 22, 2015 at NextStop Theatre Company, in Herndon, Virginia. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace will present HAZEL, based on the character from the Saturday Evening Post comic strip, and the 1960's TV comedy series starring Shirley Booth.

We're back! After an extended absence due to The Last Five Years (we directed it to boffo notices from our critical colleagues), The 2015 First Night Honors (which played to SRO crowds at Chaffin's Barn in September) and a sense of overwhelming malaise and ennui (we are ever so dramatic at times), BWW Nashville's Critic's Choice is back on the interwebs, offering you our insights and advice on the shows that are coming up and what you should try to find time to see - or to avoid at all costs, depending on our perspective.