Jason Robert Brown News

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Rick Steiner passed away last week, November 3, in Cincinnati. He was 69.

Trish Santini, Peter Flynn and Frank Butler announced today the formation of their new company Mainspring Arts Cooperative (MAC), a not-for-profit organization that will produce and present productions that can tour regional theaters nationwide.

Theatre Under The Stars welcomes Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown to Houston for an exclusive Master Class and Concert Performance benefiting the Humphreys School of Musical Theatre (HSMT).

Laura Hodos, regionally and nationally known for outstanding musical theatre and vocal performances, will premiere her newest solo cabaret named [title of cabaret] in The Winter Park Playhouse Spotlight Cabaret Series November 16 and 17.

Jarrod Spector began performing at three years old. A film of his singing 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie' with emphatic gestures shows the talented artist preternaturally polished. We're then treated to a clip from Ed McMahon's Star Search in which the six-year-old, pint-sized pretender performs Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill's 'Mack the Knife.' His parents, he explains, favored Bobby Darin to the extent that they overlooked the song's subject was 'a serial killer.' Tonight's version is brass-centric, Las Vegas swing. JUKEBOX LIFE, presented at Feinstein's 54/Below, is the most recent iteration in a series of biographical shows. ('Time to move on.') It adds Spector's marriage and his role as songwriter Barry Mann in the Carole King musical BEAUTIFUL to that of playing Frankie Valli in JERSEY BOYS and early aspirations. (Interestingly, he was unaware of both the men into whose shoes he has stepped.) Its title was inspired by a fan who asked, 'What's it like to have this incredible jukebox life?'

Gary Naylor sees a slick romcom musical about 90s New Yorkers that impresses but leaves him just a little cold.

Executive Producer Terry James says 'I couldn't be more excited to announce that every show in the 2017 season is NEW to the Marriott Theatre. Our subscribers will enjoy 5 shows they've never seen on our stage, and all 5 have played on Broadway within the past 3 years. This season is full of fresh, new shows that will surprise and delight even our longest-subscribing patrons.'

The Marriott Theatre announces its 2017 Season.

Second Stage Theatre's New York Premiere production of NOTES FROM THE FIELD: DOING TIME IN EDUCATION, the latest work created, written and performed by groundbreaking theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby and directed by Leonard Foglia, opens tonight, November 2, 2016 at the Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street).

Ahead of tomorrow's opening night, first images are released today of Samantha Barks and Jonathan Bailey in Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown's acclaimed musical The Last Five Years. Due to popular demand, the production at St. James Theatre will also extend its run by a week, and will now play until Saturday 3 December. 

Could the writing team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey have another hit musical?

Red Branch Theatre Company Artistic Director Stephanie Lynn Williams and Managing Director Tiffany Underwood Holmes unveiled the 2017 season titles on opening night of the current production of Evil Dead: the Musical. The season, entitled 'Mad About You' includes productions of Mad Libs Live!, Lysistrata Jones, The Bridges of Madison County, and Madagascar - A Musical Adventure.

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Katie Rose Clarke on November 11th, at 9:30pm. Broadway leading lady Katie Rose Clarke returns to Feinstein's/54 Below for an intimate night of song to help raise money for Art House Astoria, a 510(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission of providing quality arts education to Queens and NYC communities.

The performance will take place on October 29th at 4pm at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. It will feature narration by Host and Moderator of WETA's Around Town and SiriusXM's Symphony Hall, Robert Aubry Davis, as well as 120 students from across the DC-Metro area who comprise the Young Artists of America Orchestra and Vocal Ensemble.

As previously announced, Jason Robert Brown will direct his two-hander musical THE LAST FIVE YEARS in London this fall, starring Samantha Barks and Jonathan Bailey as Cathy and Jamie. The production will run at the St. James Theatre starting tonight, October 28, and playing through November 26, 2016.

Second Stage Theatre has announced complete casting for its upcoming New York premiere production of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts' play, MAN FROM NEBRASKA, directed by David Cromer.

The much-anticipated musical version of KING KONG has lost a member of its creative team, according to the New York Times. Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman is no longer attached to the project.

This weekend's big news: LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES opens on Broadway this Sunday!

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of "Social Security," a comedy by Andrew Bergman, one of Hollywood's top comedy screenwriters, on Monday, November 14, at 7 p.m. 

CEK Productions presents the World Premiere of LUSH LIFE, book by Carole Eglash-Kosoff, musical direction and arrangements by Rahn Coleman, choreography by Cassie Crump and direction by John Henry Davis. LUSH LIFE begins previews Friday, November 11, 2016 and opens Friday, November 18 at 8pm. The production runs through Sunday, December 18 at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood.