Joan Marcus News

"In this business we make movies.  American movies.  Leave the films to the French."

On Tuesday night, despite a thirty-minute delay due to technical difficulties beyond the group's control, the enthusiasm of both audience and band members did not dampen. In tank top and jeans, Abigail Bengson approached the mic - that too was not working - and said "all our sh*t's broken" and magically, the mic boomed her voice over the audience as she, her husband Shaun took their seats on empty stools and were soon joined by the band.

Many were surprised when Lauren Ambrose was cast as Eliza in My Fair Lady; no one was surprised when Laura Benanti was announced to take over. Benanti's passion for the role aside, she always seemed the perfect fit. In a recent Instagram post, Benanti paid tribute to Ambrose's run in the Broadway classic.

Federal employees on furlough due to the partial government shutdown will be given free admission to Beautiful - The Carole King Musical for select Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday evening performances.

With a terrific cast, led by the humorous Israeli TV and film star, Yehezkel Lazarov, this production made me think, made me ask newer and more interesting questions, and, oh, those gloriously memorable songs, the humor, the love stories. For me, Fiddler on the Roof remains perched firmly at the top.

A Broadway show, Tony Award, Grammy nomination and now a return visit to Feinstein's/54 Below, Lindsay Mendez has had a whirlwind of a year.

Get a first look below at the new production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, featuring a book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Fiasco's production will be directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Director Noah Brody, is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and will feature Music Direction & Orchestrations by Alexander Gemignani and Choreography by Lorin Latarro. 

Producers Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing announce that the Tony & Grammy Award-winning Broadway hit Beautiful-The Carole King Musical, about the early life and career of the legendary and groundbreaking singer/songwriter, will make its highly anticipated return to Rochester at RBTL's Auditorium Theatre for a limited 1 week engagement, January 22-27, 2019.

Earlier this month, six time Tony nominee Danny Burstein and Christian Dante White  assumed the role of Alfred P. Doolittle and Freddy Eynsford-Hill in Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady, directed by Bartlett Sher, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Check out a first look at the duo in action below!

If you're like me, there's probably a lot you didn't know about A Bronx Tale before settling into your seat.

Rehearsals began this week in New York for the upcoming North American Tour of William Finn and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical FALSETTOS. Get a first look at the cast below!

Today's subject Matthew Bourne has done what some might say is impossible, making his theatre life quite the big deal. Bourne has managed to meld the worlds of classical dance and theatre together in his internationally acclaimed company New Adventures with some pretty terrific results. His latest creation, Cinderella, hits the stage of the Opera House at Kennedy Center on January 15 playing through the 20th.

The Boston premiere of the US National Tour of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY opened at the Boston Opera House this week, just a year after the Broadway production closed. The core of the Broadway creative team brings in a 36-member cast, including the beguiling candy man Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas, his odd little troupe of orange-haired factory workers.

The Tony Award winning Best Revival Once On This Island closes today, Sunday, January 6, 2019. The production played 29 previews and 458 performances.

The most anticipated arrival in Pittsburgh since Le'Veon's vanishing...Hamilton, the Broadway musical, has taken up shop at the Benedum Center through January 27. The musical, nominated for a record number of Tony Awards and winning 11, recounts the life of Alexander Hamilton and the birth of our nation through hip-hop and song. With lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamiltonastonishes. To quote the author, 'There are moments that words don't reach' - and Hamilton is embodies them.

Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of Sam Shepard's Tony & Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama True West, directed by James Macdonald (The Children), is currently in previews at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street), where it officially opens on Thursday, January 24, 2019. This is a limited engagement through March 17, 2019

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today top stories: The Public kicks off its Under The Radar Festival, and more!

I was invited to the opening night performance of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, the hit Broadway show celebrating the life and music of Carole King. The show is infused with many number one hits of the era, written by King (Elise Vannerson) and her husband, Gerry Goffin (Ben Biggers), including 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and 'The Locomotion'. In addition, King and Goffin had some intense competition through their friends and rivals, Cynthia Weil (Alison Whitehurst) and Barry Mann (Jacob Heimer). Weil and Mann's musical contributions include equally successful songs, such as 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling', which remains, to this day, the song with the most airplay on American radio. King's biographical journey takes the audience from her humble beginnings as a smarty-pants, sheltered teenager from Brooklyn - whose mother wants her to teach music rather than write it - to a sensational musical hit making machine, together with Goffin. Despite their success, it wasn't all sunshine and roses and King's struggles echo those of many working parents trying to find a work-life balance. King longs for a suburban house and traditional family but her husband wants to experience the showbiz life and becomes less and less interested in family life (not to mention, monogamy). King, battling self-esteem issues, ultimately finds the courage to break out on her own. This liberation results in her moving to California and releasing the Grammy award winning album, Tapestry. The show ends on a high note, with King at her piano at Carnegie Hall, celebrating her well-deserved success.

We have a lot of new plays on Broadway this season. Thirteen are currently set. There are also seven play revivals. Two of the new plays were written by women--both produced by non-profits and both already closed. Not one revival is of a play written by a woman.

Sure, Broadway is traditionally known for its glitz and glamour, but New York audiences have never shied away from socially relevant theatre, either. And while controversial issues are more frequently discussed Off-Broadway, 2018 saw a great many political and social themes brought up throughout Manhattan's stages. So here are ten times New York theatre tackled political and social issues in 2018