Joan Marcus News

The Off-Broadway production of Murder Ballad will close today, July 21 at the Union Square Theatre (100 East 17th Street). The show will have played 17 preview performances and 70 regular performances. MURDER BALLAD began previews on Tuesday, May 7 and opened Wednesday, May 22.

Sutton Foster leads Encores! Off-Center's outstanding concert production of Tesori and Crawley's underappreciated gem.

During the week of July 22-26, 2013, nationally-syndicated morning talk show 'LIVE with Kelly and Michael' will give its nationwide TV audience a taste of the top new productions currently on the Great White Way with the return of 'Broadway on LIVE' week.

Cast members Chuck Cooper and Jeremy Pope, from Manhattan Theatre Club's CHOIR BOY, will be appearing on NY1 'On Stage' this weekend, July 20 & 21. 'On Stage' airs Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 to 10:00 AM, and again from 7:30 to 8:00 PM It repeats on Tuesdays from 12:30 to 1:00 AM.

Second Stage Theatre is presenting the new musical comedy, NOBODY LOVES YOU, featuring Heath Calvert (world premiere of Nobody Loves You at the Old Globe Theatre), Bryan Fenkart (Memphis), Roe Hartrampf (Second Stage Theatre Uptown's The Bad Guys), Autumn Hurlbert(Legally Blonde), Leslie Kritzer (Legally Blonde, A Catered Affair), Lauren Molina (Sweeney Todd, Rock of Ages), Rory O'Malley (Tony nominee for The Book of Mormon) and Aleque Reid (Really Really). The show opened tonight, July 18, 2013. Let's see what the critics had to say...

SISTER ACT, the family friendly, over the top spectacle with nuns that rock, opens at The Paramount Theatre on August 20th for a limited engagement!

MORMON plays in DC until August 13, 2013

JERSEY BOYS, the Tony, Olivier and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, surpasses Tobacco Road with 3,183 performances, becoming the 17th longest-running show in Broadway history, following the performance tonight, Wednesday, July 17.

Sutton Foster, Joshua Henry, Van Hughes, Keala Settle, Christopher Sieber, Emerson Steele and Chris Sullivan lead Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet, the second Encores! Off-Center presentation of the 2013 season, beginning tonight, July 17. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Zachary Levi, star of TV's 'Chuck,' Disney's feature film Tangled and the upcoming Thor: The Dark World, will make his Broadway debut starring opposite Broadway and television ingenue Krysta Rodriguez ('Smash,' The Addams Family) in First Date, currently in previews at the Longacre Theatre. With a book by Austin Winsberg ('Gossip Girl'), music and lyrics byAlan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Secondhand Lions, Twice Charmed) and musical staging by Josh Rhodes (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella) First Date is directed by Bill Berry (Producing Director of The 5th Avenue Theatre). BroadwayWorld is excited to debut production shots for the new musical below!

Delightful and down-right hilarious, SISTER ACT - THE MUSICAL---the nun-tastic stage adaptation of the hit 1992 motion picture of the same name---is, frankly, to my pleasant surprise, an unexpected gem of a show. Heavily retooled from its 2006 Out-of-Town premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse and its eventual 2009 London debut, the Tony-nominated Broadway comedy's North American first national tour continues a three-week engagement at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre through July 28 (the tour is also scheduled for stops in nearby San Diego, July 30 - August 4 and Orange County, August 6-18).

MAMMA MIA!, the global smash hit musical based on the songs of ABBA, will transfer from the Winter Garden Theatre to the Broadhurst Theatre this fall. BroadwayWorld has conformed that the show will play its final performance at the Winter Garden on October 19. Peformances will begin at the Broadhurst on November 2.

This is the last week to see the Off-Broadway production of MURDER BALLAD. MURDER BALLAD will close on Sunday, July 21 at the Union Square Theatre (100 East 17th Street).

Cast members Jeremy Pope and Wallace Smith, from Manhattan Theatre Club's Choir Boy, will be appearing on WCSB2 'Eye on New York' today, Sunday, July 14. 'EYE ON NEW YORK' airs locally on Sundays at 6:30am on WCBS2.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: Broadway returns to Bryant Park, NYMF is back for 2013, PIPPIN gets a cast album, and so much more!

Anika Noni Rose and Raul Esparza star in Marc Blitzstein's historic pro-labor protest musical.

I was a freshman at Sam Houston State University when I first read Gregory Maguire's riveting and racy novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. That same year, on October 30, 2003 WICKED opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre. I was first bewitched by WICKED when the Original Broadway Cast Album was released on December 16, 2003. In October 2005, I saw the miraculous show for the first time when the First National Tour landed in Houston. Now, WICKED is retuning to Houston for the fourth time and the musical's Broadway production will turn 10 years old this year. It is currently the 12th Longest Running Show in Broadway history. WICKED, with its multiple productions all over the world, is a musical phenomenon that enchants audiences everywhere it goes.

Cast members Jeremy Pope and Wallace Smith, from Manhattan Theatre Club's CHOIR BOY, will be appearing on WCSB2 "Eye on New York" this Sunday, July 14. "EYE ON NEW YORK" airs locally on Sundays at 6:30am on WCBS2.

The producers of the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS are pleased to announce that Dominic Scaglione Jr. and Joseph Leo Bwarie will assume the role of Frankie Valli in the Broadway cast on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. A veteran of the Broadway company, Mr. Scaglione previously played this role to great acclaim in the Chicago and Las Vegas productions. Mr. Bwarie, who will be making his Broadway debut, played Frankie Valli to rave reviews across the country in the first national tour. John Lloyd Young will play his final performance as Frankie Valli on Sunday, July 28, 2013.

Not many performers get to serve as the dance captain of a classic musical and perform one of the principal roles in the show. But Polly Baird did just that. The strawberry blonde has played Meg Giry in The Phantom of the Opera and is now serving as the dance captain in the Broadway production. Ms. Baird was kind enough to answer some questions about Phantom, being a dance captain, and why people love to watch dancing.