Jennifer Moeller News

Playwright Lynn Nottage matters.  Winner of a MacArthur 'genius' grant, she's also been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2019.  She's the only woman to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama (for RUINED in 2009 and SWEAT in 2017). Nottage calls FLOYD'S her 'side hustle' to SWEAT.  Commissioned by the Guthrie, it had its world premiere there this past weekend.

MCC Theater (Bob LuPone, Bernie Telsey, Will Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) announced today that the highly anticipated World Premiere of The Wrong Man, the new stage musical written by multi-platinum songwriter Ross Golan (book, music, lyrics), will star three-time Tony Award® nominee and Grammy Award® nominee Joshua Henry, Ciara Renée, and Ryan Vasquez.

The 2019 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were handed out last night to recipients in 19 categories, with one special award and three honorary awards also bestowed. The Lortel Awards were distributed in a ceremony at NYU Skirball Center hosted by Drama Desk Award-nominated writer and performer of The New One, Mike Birbiglia. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 19 categories - and bestowed one special award - for the 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF. Beloved and celebrated entertainer, Wayne Brady, will emcee the ceremony.

Vanity Fair, William Thackery's 19th century exploration of female conventions and ambition as seen through the discerning eyes of Kate Hamill (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park) is a delight for the eyes and a thoughtful female perspective on gender roles that continue to evolve today. With its sparkling cast of seven actors playing dozens of roles and first-rate direction by Jessica Stone, Thackery's carnival-like satire of British society portrayed through the cunning, strong-willed Becky Sharp is as contemporary today as it was shocking in its day.

In my mind Tiny Beautiful Things is a perfect radio play because of its content. Letters to online journalist Sugar (Nia Vardalos) and her responses make us focus intensely. Vardalos has adapted the novel by Cheryl Strayed into a stage play in which she, in her living space, approaches Letter Writer # 1 (Teddy Canez), # 2 (Natalie Woolams-Torres) and # 3 (Giovanni Adams) and addresses each, as if they were in  direct conversation. At times the concept works well; at other times, it becomes speechy and rambling. Currently onstage at the Pasadena Playhouse through May 5, the play will appeal most to those who visit online chat rooms looking for advice on how to deal with a myriad of problems.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 19 categories - and bestowed one special award - for the 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF. Beloved and celebrated entertainer, Wayne Brady, will emcee the ceremony.

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theater of California, is pleased to announce that casting is complete for The Public Theater production of Tiny Beautiful Things starring Academy Award-nominated writer and actress Nia Vardalos, who will reprise the role of Sugar for the Playhouse production.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon announced the full cast and creative team for Vanity Fair, acclaimed playwright Kate Hamill's rollicking new stage adaptation of William Thackeray's classic 19th-century novel that pops with 21st-century spirit. Ambitious Becky Sharp may not have been born with wealth or status, but she's determined to attain both-at any cost. Armed with fierce wit and calculating charm, Becky forges her own path through London's high society, dealing herself into a game she was never invited to play. Displaying the celebrated audacity and verve that she brought to her adaptation of Sense & Sensibility, Hamill conjures an inventive and lively period drama that combines a fierce contemporary edge with the theatricality of Victorian Burlesque.

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theater of California, is pleased to announce that Academy Award-nominated writer and actress Nia Vardalos will reprise the role of Sugar in the Playhouse production of Tiny Beautiful Things.

Mean Girls, Big Little Lies, Heathers, Broad City, Thelma and Louise, Parks and Recreation, Sex and the City…These are some of the better known vehicles for female friendship that inhabit our pop culture universe. Paling in comparison to the numerous portrayals of male friendships and "bromances", too often these relationships center on competition or jealousy, on getting the guy. Very few take a deeper, more comprehensive dive into the complexity of female companionship. Even fewer are the product of female authors, directors, playwrights, etc.

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein's biting satire Candide, running now through May 26, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein's biting satire Candide, running now through May 26, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Check out photos of the production below!

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein's biting satire Candide, running now through May 26, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Check out photos of the production below!

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein's biting satire Candide, running now through May 26, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Check out photos of the production below!

When you hear the first few notes of the rollicking overture, you know Bernstein is genuflecting hard to Johann Strauss. Yet this is a story in which the principal characters are bayoneted, hanged, maimed, raped, prostituted, ravaged by disease, and enslaved, among other things, a story which, thematically, takes the characters and us right to the edge of the Nietzschean abyss and gives us a good long sobering look into it - not the sort of thing Strauss or Gilbert and Sullivan ever did.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced today a two-week extension for the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE. Written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney, MLIMA'S TALE continues The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. MLIMA'S TALE will now run two additional weeks through Sunday, June 3.

The Public Theater is currently hosting the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney. MLIMA'S TALE continues The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. The play will run through Sunday, May 20 in The Public's Martinson Hall. 

BroadwayWorld has a new video preview of MLIMA'S TALE, now on stage at the Public. Watch below!

The Public Theater is currently hosting the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney.