Joan Marcus News

Yale Repertory Theatre concludes its 50th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of MARY JANE by Amy Herzog, directed by Anne Kauffman, now through May 20 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Friday, May 5. The cast of Mary Jane includes Kathleen Chalfant, Emily Donahoe, Vella Lovell, Miriam Silverman, and Shona Tucker. BroadwayWorld has a first look at them in action below!

The Public Theater is gearing up for its 2017 Free Shakespeare in the Park season, beginning Tuesday, May 23 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, continuing a 55-year tradition of free theater in Central Park. The rarely seen Julius Caesar, directed by The Public's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, begins previews Tuesday, May 23 and runs through Sunday, June 18 with an official press opening on Monday, June 12. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the company in rehearsal!

Bucks County Playhouse's Executive Producer Robyn Goodman, Producing Director Alexander Fraser and Producers Stephen Kocis and Josh Fiedler present the world premiere production of 'Clue: On Stage,' the outrageous new comedy adapted from the cult classic film. Performances run through May 20, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL, playing at The Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati through May 14th, is as well-constructed and entertaining as any of Ms. King's many hit tunes.  And if Tuesday night's audience is any indication, it appeals to super-fans, casual-fans and to men and women of all generations.

Grammy® Award-nominated and multi-platinum R&B/pop recording artist and film/TV actress Deborah Cox is starring as Rachel Marron in the first U.S. National tour of the hit musical THE BODYGUARD during its Los Angeles premiere at Hollywood Pantages Theatre through May 21, 2017. Ms. Cox is not only one of the most incredible singers I have ever seen onstage, her renditions of the many hit songs performed by Whitney Houston in Lawrence Kasdan's 1992 Oscar nominated Warner Bros. film, sound even better than the originals! In fact, in 2000, Cox collaborated with Houston to record the duet "Same Script Different Cast" for Houston's Greatest Hits CD, setting the precedent culminating with this production.

From producers Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, CAPA and Broadway in Columbus present the Columbus premiere of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Broadway hit Beautiful-The Carole King Musical, about the early life and career of the legendary and groundbreaking singer/songwriter, at the Ohio Theatre June 6-11.

Classic Stage Company's new production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Pacific Overtures, directed and designed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, opens tonight, May 4 at CSC (136 East 13th Street), and has extended its limited engagement through Sunday, June 18. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the starry ensemble onstage below!

Sixty years ago, Joseph Papp packed a truck with a small troupe of actors, some modest props and the firm belief that the plays of William Shakespeare belonged to everyone, and traveled throughout New York City giving free performances.

Manhattan Theatre Club's acclaimed production of "Heisenberg" by Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens has been announced as part of Center Theatre Group's 50th Anniversary Season.

In 1957, Meredith Willson wagered he could get Broadway audiences to cheer for THE MUSIC MAN's serial swindler who cheats nice people out of their hard-earned money and harasses the leading lady on the street and at her workplace while lying his way into her arms. Fortunately for him, the handsome and charming Robert Preston seduced audiences as well as Professor Harold Hill seduced early 20th Century Iowans.

By now, the idea has morphed into a pop-culture game lampooning (or honoring) one of our most prolific actors, but when John Guare's play, Six Degrees of Separation, debuted on Broadway in 1990, the idea that everyone on the planet was connected through a web of just six other people was a hard to imagine. So, to celebrate the 27-year history of Guare's play, we are going to attempt to connect the stars who originated the main roles on Broadway to the actors that assumed them for the revival, using only Broadway credits; hopefully we can get there in just six 'degrees.'

Deborah Cox and company make THE BODYGUARD easy to consume pop nostalgia in a slick production that makes few demands and delivers on the expected soundtrack highlights.

Difficult, but welcome discussions about race and representation continue to spread through the theatre landscape. Yesterday, a group of Middle Eastern and Muslim theater artists from Noor Theatre and elsewhere released a letter expressing concern about Playwrights Horizons' current production of Zayd Dohrn's THE PROFANE. Playwrights Horizons has responded today with a call for public discussion and further collaboration.

Signature Theatre presents Venus, written by Residency One playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Obie Award-winner Lear deBessonet. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Zainab Jah and company onstage below!

The North American tour of Disney's The Lion King is celebrating its 15th anniversary today, Thursday, April 27 in St. Louis, where the award-winning musical is playing a nearly sold-out engagement at The Fox Theatre through May 7, 2017. 

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is part of the 2016-2017 Broadway in Richmond series.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: The Drama Desk Award nominations are being announced from Feinstein's/54 Below, and A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 bows on Broadway!

Long before websites like Friendster (Remember Friendster?) increased the awareness of how few people it takes for one's social network to spread worldwide, John Guare's smart and funny 1990 entry, SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION, helped popularize the concept that you can connect any two people in the world by their associations with up to five people placed between them.

On Saturday, May 13, 2017, following the 2 p.m. matinee performance of Fiasco Theater's "Into the Woods" at the Ahmanson Theatre, Center Theatre Group will throw a cast party for all the Bakers and Witches, Cinderellas and Princes, Milky Whites, et al., who have ever appeared in a production of "Into the Woods."

The power of theater to transport and to transform is felt most acutely - experienced most vividly - in Simon Stephens' play Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based upon the novel of the same name by Mark Haddon, now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday. The winner of multiple Tony Awards from its Broadway run and numerous Olivier Awards for its London production, it is one of the most involving, most intricately crafted and thoroughly immersive theater experiences one could hope to have - and it is quite unlike anything you've ever seen before.