JD Webster News

The 2016 season of New York City Center's Tony-honored Encores! will open with Cabin in the Sky on February 10-14, 2016, with an all-star cast, including: Harvy Blanks, Chuck Cooper,Marva Hicks, Carly Hughes, Jonathan Kirkland, LaChanze, Norm Lewis, Forrest McClendon,Michael Potts and J.D. Webster. The company just gave us a special sneak peek and BroadwayWorld was there for the big day. Check out interviews with the company and a performance preview below!

The 2016 season of New York City Center's Tony-honored Encores! will open with Cabin in the Sky on February 10-14, 2016, with an all-star cast, including: Harvy Blanks, Chuck Cooper, Marva Hicks, Carly Hughes, Jonathan Kirkland, LaChanze, Norm Lewis, Forrest McClendon, Michael Potts and J.D. Webster. The company just gave us a special sneak peek and you can check out performances from LaChanze, Potts and Hughes below!

We're just three days into the New Year, and we can't wait for all the new shows set to open around the corner from Broadway! Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look at some of the upcoming plays and musicals from The Public, Classic Stage, Atlantic Theater, Second Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, Roundabout, the Encores! series and more, currently slated to open off-Broadway in 2016!

Watch it live! New York City Center and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC will live-stream the upcoming City Center Encores! Unscripted event on Monday, December 14 at 7pm at thegreespace.org.

The landmark musical with a score by Vernon Duke and John Latouche is the next offering from City Center's Encores!

Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel today announced the creative teams for New York City Center's 2016 Encores! season. J. Bernard Calloway, Chuck Cooper, Marva Hicks, Carly Hughes, LaChanze, Norm Lewis, Forrest McClendon, and J.D. Webster will star in Vernon Duke and John Latouche's jazz?filled fable Cabin in the Sky, running for seven performances at City Center from February 10-14. The 1940 musical will be directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago?Hudson with choreography by Camille A. Brown.

Directed by Rob Melrose, PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE is currently touring the five boroughs though November 9, and will have a sit-down run at The Public Theater, November 11 through November 30, with an official press opening on November 18. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Continuing its commitment to bringing free Shakespeare to the community and strengthening audience engagement with the arts, The Public Theater will mount its MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT again this October with a free three-week tour to the five boroughs of Shakespeare's PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, directed by Rob Melrose.

Carnegie Hall today announced the complete cast for its gala benefit performance of Guys and Dolls on Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Tony Award winner Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, Applause, A Little Night Music) joins the cast as Arvide Abernathy along with Tony Award nominee Lee Wilkof (Assassins, Little Shop of Horrors, Kiss Me Kate) as Harry the Horse. Members of the Mission Band joining Allison Blackwell (Agatha) are J.D. Webster (Calvin), Linda Mugleston (Martha), and Joseph Torello (Joseph).

A stellar performance of 'As You Like It' by William Shakespeare is now on stage at Two River Theater in Red Bank through February 16th. Metropolitan area audiences should not miss this show.

Two River Theater Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, continues its 2013/2014 Season with Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like it, directed by Michael Sexton (Two River's Henry V), the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Society in New York. Performances will begin in Two River's Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, on Saturday, January 25, with the opening night on Friday, January 31 at 8pm. The production must close on Sunday, February 16. Tickets are available from 732.345.1400 or tworivertheater.org. The lead production sponsor is Monmouth University.

Waterwell, one of the Village Voice's Best Arguments for Devised Theater (2010) and creators of the live concept album Goodbar and #9, will present a special one-night-only concert of The Last Year In the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. tonight, Monday, October 22nd at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) at 7:00 p.m.

The 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street) today, September 23, 2012. The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS began previews on Saturday, December 17, 2012, and officially opened on January 12, 2012. Upon closing, it will have played 322 performances. Below, BroadwayWorld takes you on a multimedia journey through the life of the longest-running production of Porgy and Bess to ever play on Broadway.

Anthony Crivello was back in New York after a six-year run in the title role of Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular. He went backstage to visit with Audra McDonald after seeing her perform in Porgy and Bess. McDonald performed with Crivello in Broadway's production of Marie Christine in 1999. BroadwayWorld has an exclusive shot of the reunion below.

The 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS becomes the longest-running production of Porgy and Bess to ever play on Broadway with its 306th performance today, September 11, 2012, breaking the record formerly held by the 1953 revival at the Ziegfeld Theatre. The show will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street) on Sunday, September 23, 2012.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS welcome Tony Award winner Audra McDonald's return to an eight-performance schedule beginning tonight, August 28th. She had previously been on a schedule of seven performances per week, not performing the Wednesday evening shows.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS announced today that five-time Tony Award winner AUDRA McDONALD will return to an eight-performance schedule beginning Tuesday, August 28th. She had previously been on a schedule of seven performances per week, not performing the Wednesday evening shows.

Producers of the 2012 Tony Award Winner for Best Revival of a Musical, The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS, have announced that the show will conclude its limited engagement at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Sunday, September 23, 2012. The show, which had been twice extended, was originally scheduled to end a week later. The new date has been set to make room for the next engagement at the Rodgers, beginning October 4, 2012.

The best of Broadway will be presented FREE on six consecutive Thursdays this summer with "106.7 Lite FM's Broadway in Bryant Park 2012" - a lunchtime series beginning today, July 12 at 12:30 p.m. on the Bryant Park Stage. Sponsored by Resorts World Casino New York City and hosted by Lite FM's on-air personalities, the twelfth annual presentation of open-air, On- and Off- Broadway lunch hour performances will run through August 16. BroadwayWorld was there for the festivities, and we bring you complete photo coverage below!

A devout theater fan knows no holiday, and thankfully, many of Broadway's most beloved shows and performers nationwide don't either. So what's a theater enthusiast to do on this Independence Day? Check out a sampling of this year's most exciting 4th of July offerings and click below to revisit some of your favorites saluting our nation in song!