Jack Viertel News

Today's top stories: streaming Broadway Backwards event announced, Once On This Island comes to limited edition orange vinyl, and more!

The third installment of Encores! Inside the Revival features director Victoria Clark, Encores! Music Director Rob Berman and Consulting Producer for Musical Theater, and previous Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel as they revisit, Love Life a year later and discuss their process of imagining Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s rarely seen 1948 musical. 

Today (February 24) in live streaming: Stars in the House celebrates William Finn's Birthday, Laura Bell Bundy on Backstage Live, and more!

Signature Theatre has announced the full lineup for Signature Theatre’s 2021 Signature Features season, five fully-staged plays and musicals, made exclusively for the screen and professionally filmed in HD on set (multiple safety protocols were employed to ensure artists’ and crew’s safety).

If you ask any theatre kid about the Golden Age of Musical Theatre, the first two people who come to mind are none other than Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

New York City Center President & CEO Arlene Shuler today announced the musical productions in development as part of the next chapter of the longstanding Tony-honored Encores! series, all of which will be explored in-depth as part of the 2020-2021 season in a new digital series Encores! Inside the Revival.

Ryan Murphy has revealed on Twitter that The Prom movie will officially be released on Netflix on December 11.

The Prom must go on! As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Ryan Murphy's upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Prom is still on track to be released later this year. Now he's sharing a photo from the set!

The film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Prom is starting up production again on Thursday at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.

RWS Entertainment Group, Binder Casting in association with the Broadway Podcast Network, have announced .... Jay Binder... A Life In Casting, a 5-episode podcast exploring the life and career of the esteemed casting director.

The Prom must go on! According to a recent interview with Collider, Ryan Murphy thinks that the upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Prom might be released according to schedule.

Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theaters have announced today that the 12th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition will cancel its in-person ceremony (originally scheduled for Monday, May 4th) and shift to a virtual celebration in light of the ongoing health crisis.

One of my favorite activities is reading books and what better time to do that then right now when we're all stuck at home? Unfortunately, there are many theatre related activities we cannot participate in right now but one of the best ways we can learn more about our crafts and read about others in our fields is by reading about them. There are hundreds of Broadway related books, script writing and acting guides, memoirs by our favorite stars, and more! I thought I would share some of my favorites with you all to hopefully get you all back in the mindsets of creating art and learning about those who you look up to.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, City Center cancelled the remainder of its season due to the current health crisis. One production that was cancelled, was Love Life, which was set to run March 18 - 22, starring Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell. However, Jack Viertel, Encores! Artistic Director, has some promising news.

New York City Center has canceled the remainder of the 2019–2020 season including Encores! Thoroughly Modern Millie.

New York City Center is presenting the #EncoresArchives series! The most recent installment is a clip from their production of Merrily We Roll Along, featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Colin Donnell, and Betsy Wolfe.

New York City Center is presenting the #EncoresArchives series! They will be posting daily highlights from their musical theater vault from Encores!, Encores! Off-Center, and Gala productions. In their first Instagram post about the new series they shared:

Not even Dee Dee Allen could sing her way out of this one. Deadline reports that out of 'an abundance of caution' production on the Netflix film adaptation of the Tony-nominated musical has stopped.

Performances concluded on Sunday for New York City Center Encores! first show of the 2020 season- Mack & Mabel. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production also starred Major Attaway (Fatty Arbuckle), Michael Berresse (William Desmond Taylor), Lilli Cooper (Lottie Ames), Ben Fankhauser (Frank Wyman), Jordan Gelber (Mr. Kessel), Evan Kasprzak (Freddy), Raymond J. Lee (Andy), Kevin Ligon (Eddie), Janet Noh (Ella), and Allen Lewis Rickman (Mr. Bauman).

Center Theatre Group has announced its 54th season at the Ahmanson Theatre, which features Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, The Prom, To Kill a Mockingbird, and more!