Joan Marcus News

It's not a revival of an old classic. It doesn't have the cache of a recognizable movie title. And it's got a synopsis that may make some people weary. All of these reasons could be why there were far too many empty seats at last night's opening night of "Fun Home" at the 5th Avenue. And that fact of the open seats makes me incredibly sad as this Tony Winner for Best Musical deserves so much more attention as it's one of the most honest, raw and real musicals around today. I cannot urge you enough to see this show.

Fans in new towns now have a chance to see Broadway's FALSETTOS in cinemas! 

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: Robyn Hurder joins Broadway's CHICAGO tonight for a limited run as 'Roxie', and ME & ELLA opens at York Theatre Company on Sunday!

Ghostlight Records is celebrating the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical WAR PAINT - starring two-time Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole - with a special in-store event at Barnes & Noble today, July 14 at 2:30 PM.

Kevin McCollum produced some of Broadway's biggest shows, including MOTOWN THE MUSICAL, playing now in Minneapolis. Read along with my engaging conversation with him and learn some tidbits about an upcoming project and what drives his storytelling.

Encores! Off-Center kicks off the 2017 season with Assassins! The trigger-happy squad assembled for Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's carnival ride through the history of political violence, will star Steven Boyer(John Hinckley Jr.), Alex Brightman(Giuseppe Zangara), Victoria Clark(Sara Jane Moore), John Ellison Conlee (Charles Guiteau), Clifton Duncan (The Balladeer), Shuler Hensley (Leon Czolgosz), Ethan Lipton(The Proprietor), Erin Markey (Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme), Steven Pasquale (John Wilkes Booth), Cory Michael Smith (Lee Harvey Oswald), and Danny Wolohan(Samuel Byck). Assassins will be directed by Anne Kauffman, with music direction by Chris Fenwick and choreography by Lorin Latarro.

BBVA Compass Broadway at the Hobby Center welcomes the first U.S. National tour of the hit musical THE BODYGUARD to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, August 15 to 20. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The 2017-2018 touring schedule is set, and some exciting musicals are scheduled to perform in the greater Appleton area in the coming year.

Encores! Off-Center kicks off the 2017 season with Assassins! The trigger-happy squad assembled for Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's carnival ride through the history of political violence, will star Steven Boyer(John Hinckley Jr.), Alex Brightman(Giuseppe Zangara), Victoria Clark (Sara Jane Moore), John Ellison Conlee (Charles Guiteau), Clifton Duncan (The Balladeer), Shuler Hensley (Leon Czolgosz), Ethan Lipton(The Proprietor), Erin Markey (Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme), Steven Pasquale (John Wilkes Booth), Cory Michael Smith (Lee Harvey Oswald), and Danny Wolohan(Samuel Byck). Assassins will be directed by Anne Kauffman, with music direction by Chris Fenwick and choreography by Lorin Latarro.

As previously announced, 'Head of Passes' by Tarell Alvin McCraney, directed by Tina Landau, and starring Phylicia Rashad, is coming to Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum this fall.

PBS today announced its fall 2017 lineup, as well as the January 2018 broadcast of TONY BENNETT: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE, a PBS music special taping this fall to honor the singer, this year's recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Also announced is a weekly Friday night salute to Broadway from October 20 to December 1st. PBS raises the curtain on three of the Great White Way's most acclaimed recent musical productions.

Broadway In Chicago welcomes the completely original new musical Something Rotten!, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin), with music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Wayne Kirkpatrick and Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee Karey Kirkpatrick and a book by Tony Award nominees Karey Kirkpatrick and best-selling author John O'Farrell. The show wil play Chicago's Oriental Theatre (24 W Randolph) starting tonight, July 11, through July 23, 2017.

Producers Fox Theatricals (Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson) and Barbara Whitman are thrilled to announce the casting for the Seattle engagement of the first National Tour of Fun Home, the groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning Best Musical. The tour will premiere in Seattle at The 5th Avenue Theatre July 11-30, 2017.

I was sent the script of Cost Of Living by Martyna Majok the week of Valentine's Day 2016. I burned through it in one sitting. First impressions were that this was not your average project 'about disability' - this writer had a very unique voice and was using it to say some pretty profound stuff. When people ask me what the show is about, I have a hard time boiling it down to a sound bite - and my opinion keeps changing. It's about the act of providing care to someone and how that changes the dynamic of a relationship and surviving something 'tragic,' but at what COST? It's a beautiful dance between two seemingly unrelated stories, each with a person who needs care and a caregiver. It's about two relationships - one is brand new and the other has run its course. It explores those with means and those just trying to make ends meet, and all the stuff in-between that 'is not to be understood.'

Feel the earth move with Chilina Kennedy's powerhouse vocals. Mirvish Productions presents BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL, with a book by Douglas McGrath and music by Gerry Goffin & Carole King and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. The musical follows King's journey - from the sale of her very first song, to her solo performance at Carnegie Hall. Featuring some of the most well-known songs of all time, BEAUTIFUL is a night out at the theatre that promises to have you groovin' in your seat.

Ghostlight Records will celebrate the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical WAR PAINT - starring two-time Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole - with a special in-store event at Barnes & Noble on Friday, July 14 at 2:30 PM. 

Nearly a year after their first conversation, acclaimed actress Alexandra Silber and BroadwayWorld and BroadwayRadio's Matt Tamanini talk about her new book 'After Anatevka,' which follows the journey of Tevye's second oldest daughter Hodel as she travels far from the home she loves in search of her imprisoned fiance, Perchik.

The recently Tony-nominated Best Revival of a Musical, Falsettos, is being screened nationwide in select cinemas starting this month. Retreat to Broadway is hosting a Talk Back Q&A with one of the Tony-nominated stars of the Broadway revival and movie, Stephanie J. Block, following the July 12 screening at Bow Tie Cinemas in South Orange, NJ. The thirty-minute question-and-answer-session starts immediately following the 7:00 p.m. movie at the nearby South Orange Performing Arts Center. For all ticket information, visit: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/12545.

In an exclusive interview with BWW, Alex Sharp says of this important film, 'When you start a conversation about something that is under-discussed and you use art to convey it, I think that is incredibly powerful, but is always going to create waves.'

Based on the 2006 indie hit film, Once tells the captivating love story about Irish musician Guy and Czech immigrant Girl and how they are drawn to each other based on their shared love for music. From the moment Guy and Girl meet, the audience is enraptured by their chemistry and wait at the edge of their seats, gasping for air, watching how the next scene will either result in a stepping stone or a set back for their relationship.