Joan Marcus News

Weird old people saying and doing outrageously inappropriate things have been a beloved comedy staple ever since the time Aristophanes handed a few zingers to the dirty old men and elderly activist women of LYSISTRATA.

Let's just get right down to it. In 2014, Simon Stephens' highly acclaimed and award-winning play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME (based on Mark Haddon's novel of the same name) offered me one of my most memorable Broadway theatergoing experiences in years. Thus, I was most enthused by the news that it would tour, and play the Kennedy Center. While the cavernous Opera House may not be the most appropriate Kennedy Center space to view the play - especially from the rear orchestra where I was sitting - the current tour offers just as powerful of a theatergoing experience as my initial one.

BWW Interview with Andrea Goss, the lead of Roundabout Theatre's national tour of CABARET, says this production brings a real understanding and grittiness to the experience of Berlin in early 1930s Germany that still resonates with today's world.

BWW Review: MAMMA MIA! Gives A Farewell Tour At The Hobby Center

Nate Martin (Mr. Pierce) is hopelessly single. When his most recent breakup, another in a lifelong string of ill-fated matches, casts him into a funk, he turns to the only source of wisdom he trusts: the stars. Poring over astrological charts, he obsessively questions his past and his place in the cosmos. But in Adam Bock's disarming new play, the answer he receives, when it comes, is shockingly obvious - and totally unpredictable. 

It's been said that Irving Berlin was no fan of big musical spectacles, which is why he stopped writing songs for the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES and had the intimate Music Box Theatre built so that his work could be framed by smart revues that emphasized music and lyrics over glitz and showgirls.

Broadway In Chicago has announced that individual tickets go on sale to the general public today, October 7, 2016 for The National Theatre production of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, the Tony Award-winning new play by Simon Stephens, adapted from Mark Haddon's best-selling novel. 

Yale Repertory Theatre announces a series of special free public events on the Yale campus, in New Haven, and in New York City, to celebrate its 50th Anniversary Season.

The first National Tour of FUN HOME, the groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning Best Musical, just launched in Cleveland, OH at Playhouse Square and will then travel North America playing multi-week and week-long engagements. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the touring cast in action below!

This second run of THE BOOK OF MORMON at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton, WI is just as delightful as the first.

Even without eye-popping special effects, a gimmicky storyline, or those oft-used literary or cinematic source materials, some stage musicals just manage to entertain by sheer likability alone. A big warm hug of a show that's brimming with lots of surprisingly snappy wit and, arguably, some of the previous century's most melodious pop hits, BEAUTIFUL---the Broadway stage musical based on the life of treasured Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Carole King---is a show that certainly lives up to its title. This charming, swiftly-paced bio-musical's first national tour continues performances at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through October 16.

On the heels of unanimous raves on Broadway, Carole Shorenstein Hays announced today that the Complicite production of The Encounter, Simon McBurney's riveting one-man play where audience members must wear headphones to take part in the journey, will continue at the Curran for a limited engagement next spring, April 25 - May 7, 2017.

Roundabout Theatre Company, in association with Universal Stage Productions, has announced the Broadway production of HOLIDAY INN, THE NEW IRVING BERLIN MUSICAL is now extended by two weeks through January 15, 2017.

Due to the success of Waitress's recent and first-ever 'Cast Album Karaoke,' following this evening's performance at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47th Street), audience members will have another chance to sing on a Broadway stage.

Broadway In Chicago has announced that individual tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 7, 2016 for The National Theatre production of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, the Tony Award-winning new play by Simon Stephens, adapted from Mark Haddon's best-selling novel. 

The Broadway engagement of Manhattan Theatre Club's acclaimed world premiere of Heisenberg, the new play by Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens, directed by Drama Desk Award winner Mark Brokaw, starring original cast members Denis Arndt and Tony and Emmy Award winner Mary-Louise Parker will extend by one week at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

Andrea Goss, who plays Sally Bowles, a young British singer at the Kit Kat Club in CABARET, spoke with me from her Denver appearance last week. Andrea has also appeared in RENT and ONCE. CABARET opens at Omaha's Orpheum on October 11 and runs through the 16th.

The PBS documentary HAMILTON'S AMERICA will premiere on Friday, Oct. 21, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, but the Hollywood Reporter has today shared details about what to expect in the highly anticipated program.

Today's big news: The new FREAKY FRIDAY musical begins tonight in D.C., PLENTY, starring Rachel Weisz, starts at The Public, VIETGONE begins previews at MTC, TICK, TICK...BOOM! returns Off-Broadway, and CAMELOT, featuring Robert Sean Leonard, launches in Westport!

Given the basket of deplorables that have populated the oeuvre of playwright Neil LaBute, it should be of little surprise that the storyteller of his new solo play, All The Ways to Say I Love You, is a rapist, liar and adulterer who spends the hour-long performance playing the victim card.