James Morgan News

Performances are begin tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. for a limited 3-week engagement through Sunday, December 27, 2015 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).  Opening night is Sunday evening, December 13 at 6:00 p.m.

The holidays have been especially busy for The Broadway Dreams Foundation with two, exciting annual events, including the NYC Showcase and the Night of Dreams Gala. Scroll down for photos from both events!

'Making it on Broadway' (www.makingitonbroadway.net), a week long musical theatre training program in New York City, has only a few spots left for its upcoming Winter Intensive. The prestigious guest teachers include, but are not limited to, SIERRA BOGGESS (Starring in Broadway's 'School of Rock'), ANNALEIGH ASHFORD (Tony-winner; Currently starring in "Sylvia" on Broadway), and Larry O'Keefe (Award-winning composer of "Legally Blonde," "Heather," and "Bat Boy").

BroadwayWorld is excited to announce the full cast for York Theatre Company's New York premiere of PLAID TIDINGS, the holiday edition of the ever popular FOREVER PLAID, with book by Stuart Ross, original FOREVER PLAID vocal and musical arrangements by James Raitt, and vocal and musical arrangements by James Raitt, Brad Ellis, Raymond Berg and David Snyder.

Broadway's MORGAN JAMES brings a signature retro R&B vibe to rock the Wharton Center stage in her East Lansing return. MORGAN JAMES, part of The Doctors Company Variety Series, will be featured on Sunday, December 6, 2015, in the Pasant Theatre. Tickets to see MORGAN JAMES are available at the official source to purchase Wharton Center tickets online, whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

The life and work of Will Holt, known for his immeasurable contributions to folk music and the musical theatre, will be celebrated by the York Theatre Company. 

The York Theatre Company honors Broadway and Hollywood legend Angela Lansbury with the 2015 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre tonight, November 16, 2015 at Guastavino's (409 East 59th Street).

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Interim Executive Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, will present the New York premiere of Plaid Tidings, the holiday edition of the ever popular Forever Plaid, with book by Stuart Ross and vocal and musical arrangements by James Raitt, Brad Ellis, Raymond Berg and David Snyder.

Question: Would you buy an orchestra ticket (or any ticket for that matter) to an experimental Broadway musical called The Sweaty Smorgasbord where the 11 o'clock number is "Supper Sings Tonight?" How about checking out a derivative Jason Robert Brown musical titled The Gassy Breakthrough, where the song "Too Soon" is about whether the protagonist should fart on the first date? Here's one that potential musical theater show investors would love: A new Disney style musical called The Sticky Snake. Of course these aren't real or even prospective Broadway musicals. They are ideas that have emerged from the creative minds of some young composers and lyricists who might very well have their musicals gracing Broadway theaters some day. But in the meantime they have been conjuring up these wild concepts in Tune In Time, a musical theater game show staged semi-regularly at The York Theatre Company on East 54th Street (the next installment will be on Monday, November 9 at 7:30 pm) that could have been created by some hybrid of Chuck Barris (of The Gong Show fame) and Mel Brooks. As the show's creators and producers Amy Engelhardt and Heather Shields are fond of promoting about Tune In Time, "Anything goes . . . and usually does."

ROTHSCHILD & SONS, the intimate one-act reimagining of the Tony-nominated musical The Rothschilds, with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Sherman Yellen, will conclude its limited engagement Sunday afternoon, November 8, 2015 at 2:30 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).

The Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciaran O'Reilly, Producing Director) announces its first production of 2016, THE BURIAL AT THEBES written by Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, based on Sophocles' Antigone.

The November installment will feature lyricists Meghan Kelleher (songwriter), Sukari Jones (Location, Location, Location!!!), and Kathleen Wrinn (Ten: The Story of Grace and Joe) and composers Bobby Cronin (unlucky in Love, 2014 NEO writer at the York), Andy Roninson (creator of the podcast Take a Ten Musicals), and Adam Spiegel (Cloned! and a returning TUNE IN TIME champion).

The York Theatre Company has announced today Broadway's Klea Blackhurst (York's Call Me Madame) Mario Cantone (Assassins), Erin Davie (York's Silk Stockings, Side Show), Matt McGrath (Nice Work If You Can Get It), and Mary Louise Wilson (On the Twentieth Century), along with the acclaimed Yale Wiffenpoofs, have joined the roster of illustrious special guest performers who will gather to honor Broadway and Hollywood legend Angela Lansbury at 2015 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre on Monday, November 16, 2015 at Guastavino's (409 East 59th Street). 

Acclaimed Broadway, film and television star Tovah Feldshuh brought her acclaimed show Aging Is Optional at 54 Below last night and BroadwayWorld was there for the fun. On the New York stage, besides earning four Tony nominations for Best Actress, Ms. Feldshuh won four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Obie, the Theatre World Award, and the Lucille LortelAward for Best Actress in Golda's Balcony. On the West Coast she received San Diego's Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance in a Touring Show for Golda's Balcony as well as two Drama Logue awards for her Juliet and her first one woman show: Tovah: A Rush Hour Revue! Most recently, Tovah stopped the show as the trapeze-swinging Berthe in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Pippin. Last season, she played Lady Politic in the acclaimed revival of Ben Jonson's Volpone at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. As Jason Zinoman of The New York Times raved, 'No one earns more laughs than the marvelous Tovah Feldshuh.' 

The Off-Broadway cast recording of the new Bock and Harnick musical, Rothschild & Sons, an intimate reimagining of the Tony nominated musical The Rothschilds, will be recorded and released by JAY Records.  Produced by John Yap, the recording will feature the original cast of The York Theatre Company production who will gather at The Avatar Studios on Monday, October 26, 2015 to lay down the tracks for the recording scheduled for release on JAY Records in early January.  Executive Producers are John Yap and Arnold Mittelman.

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Interim Executive Director) will honor Broadway and Hollywood legend Angela Lansbury with the 2015 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre on Monday, November 16, 2015 at Guastavino's (409 East 59th Street). 

Below, meet the cast from the world premiere production of ROTHSCHILD & SONS, an intimate one-act reimagining of the Tony nominated musical THE ROTHSCHILDS, with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Sherman Yellen presented by York Theatre Company, in association with Arnold Mittelman and the National Jewish Theater Foundation!

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and preserving musical gems from the past, in association with Arnold Mittelman and the National Jewish Theater Foundation, presents the world premiere production of Rothschild & Sons, an intimate one-act reimagining of the Tony nominated musical The Rothschilds, with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Sherman Yellen.

Below, meet the cast from the world premiere production of ROTHSCHILD & SONS, an intimate one-act reimagining of the Tony nominated musical THE ROTHSCHILDS, with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Sherman Yellen presented by York Theatre Company, in association with Arnold Mittelman and the National Jewish Theater Foundation!

Louisville Orchestra Performance of Bernstein's Mass is Triumphant