Jodi Benson News

Stars from the world of film, television and the stage walked the 'blue carpet' on June 10, 2010 to celebrate the World Premiere of WORLD OF COLOR, the brand new nighttime show at Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim. A show five years in the making, WORLD OF COLOR combines water, music, fire, lights, animation, and a lot of Disney magic and storytelling to wow its audience with a 25-minute spectacle that rises from the waters of Paradise Bay.

Atlanta's Broadway dreams will come true for the 5th consecutive summer when THE BROADWAY DREAMS FOUNDATION (BDF) presents their acclaimed Summer Performing Arts Intensive Monday, June 7 through Saturday, June 12, 2010 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Marietta, GA), Atlanta's premiere entertainment venue.

Atlanta's Broadway dreams will come true for the 5th consecutive summer when THE BROADWAY DREAMS FOUNDATION (BDF) presents their acclaimed Summer Performing Arts Intensive Monday, June 7 through Saturday, June 12, 2010 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Marietta, GA), Atlanta's premiere entertainment venue.

The Broadway Dreams Foundation (BDF), the non-profit that brings first-rate Broadway training to aspiring performers throughout the country, brings you this clip of the development of a real Broadway baby, Neve Juday, daughter of an Atlanta faculty member. Check out the clip below of little Neve as Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors being coached by Chase Todd as a BDF 'director.'

This August, from the 18th through the 21st, the Broadway Dreams Foundation (BDF) will host its Summer Performing Arts Intensive in Philadelphia! During the intensive, attendees will receive first-rate training in acting, dance and vocal performance daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. by savvy Broadway veterans who will share their invaluable insider knowledge on the skills needed to make it in show business. Students will also learn how to improve their audition skills (song selections and cold readings) and attend classes geared toward college and career planning (headshots and resumes). At week's end, all participants will have the opportunity to perform alongside their Broadway idols in a 'one night only' concert event. Tony-winner Alice Ripley (Next To Normal) will participate as the guest teacher for the intensive.

Atlanta's Broadway dreams will come true for the 5th consecutive summer when THE BROADWAY DREAMS FOUNDATION (BDF) presents their acclaimed Summer Performing Arts Intensive Monday, June 7 through Saturday, June 12, 2010 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Marietta, GA), Atlanta's premiere entertainment venue.

Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of 'Ragtime' transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.' The production will end its run May 23rd.

What with all the star power of the assembled cast - featuring such theatre luminaries as Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Fedorov - it should come as something of a surprise that showHOPE's concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was very nearly stolen out from under them by some homegrown Nashville talent. No matter how you look at it, Cinderella was a completely magical and enchanting success, but had it not been for Nashville's very own Nan Gurley, Bonnie Keen and Carolyn German as Cinderella's nefarious stepfamily, the show wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as it actually was.

Fedorov's castmates in the star-studded production - directed and designed by Matt Logan, a Nashville native, whose work in New York City included staging events much like this - include Tony Award-winner Heather Headley (Aida) as The Fairy Godmother, Tony nominee Jodi Benson (Crazy for You) as Queen Constatina, BeBe Winans as King Maximillian, Jake Speck (Jersey Boys on Broadway) as Lionel and Alli Mauzey (Hairspray, Wicked, Cry-Baby) in the title role. Fedorov will sing the role of Prince Christopher and backstage spies tell us his duets with Mauzey are certain to dazzle audiences.

Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Federov will headline a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, set for Friday, May 14, at Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center. They will be joined by a cast of Nashville theatre luminaries - and featuring BeBe Winans and Nashville native Jake Speck, currently on Broadway in Jersey Boys - Cinderella is the spring celebration of the locally based showHOPE organization, which hopes to bring both attention and awareness to its efforts across the globe.

The altogether charming and amazingly talented Mauzey claims an impressive theatrical resume, which includes her starmaking turn in Cry-Baby, the Broadway musical based on the John Waters film, that resulted in a 2008 Theatre World Award, as well as a Drama League Award nomination. She's also had roles in both Wicked and Hairspray - two of the musicals that have helped define the first decade of the new millennium in Broadway terms - playing Glinda in Wicked (a role she'll play again later this year in San Francisco) and Brenda in Hairspray.

Perhaps best known to the general public for her performance as Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid (the animated blockbuster that is credited with reaffirming the Disney brand as the ultimate in film animation), Benson has delighted legions of fans over the years with her ageless vocal abilities, even while delighting Broadway audiences who know her as far more than the voice of Ariel. In fact, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her critically acclaimed performance as Polly in Ken Ludwig's Crazy for You, the updated version of Girl Crazy, the 1930s musical that features a score of iconic songs by George and Ira Gershwin.

For Matt Logan, staging a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is the culmination of a long-held dream of his to bring just such a production to his hometown of Nashville, perhaps best known as Music City USA. Now, with Nashville rebuilding after devastating floods in early May, the benefit performance for Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman's showHOPE organization is perhaps even more timely -- and it has certainly taken on a deeper meaning and a more compelling resonance.

Heather Headley, Alli Mauzey, Jodi Benson and Anthony Federov will headline a special concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, set for Friday, May 14, at Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center. They will be joined by a cast of Nashville theatre luminaries - and featuring BeBe Winans and Nashville native Jake Speck, currently on Broadway in Jersey Boys - Cinderella is the spring celebration of the locally based showHOPE organization, which hopes to bring both attention and awareness to its efforts across the globe.

Reprise Theatre Company presents Jerry Seinfeld Live! hosted by Jason Alexander, for one performance only on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 8:00 pm, at the Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills (formerly the Wilshire Theatre). This extraordinary event will feature the hilarious comedy of Jerry Seinfeld and will reunite him with Reprise's Artistic Director and the evening's host, Jason Alexander. Ticket sales support Reprise and its mission to produce musical theatre and provide arts education programs for underserved members of our community.

Reprise Theatre Company's production of 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,' 1962's Tony-Award-winning Best Musical, will play its final performance on March 28 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Directed by David Lee, the production's book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

I'm twelve years old when Mom & Dad tell me we're going to New York. I've already got the theatre bug - they've been taking me to see touring productions since the days I'd fall asleep at their feet - and I'm beside myself. I've already memorized Les Miz and Phantom, and the idea of actually seeing Broadway blows my preteen mind. We're still two months away from the trip but I think of nothing else. The summer days go by slowly as I count down the minutes till we depart.

Reprise Theatre Company presents An Intimate Evening with Marvin Hamlisch for one performance only on Monday, March 22 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of 'Ragtime' transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'

Reprise Theatre Company presents Jerry Seinfeld Live! hosted by Jason Alexander, for one performance only on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 8:00 pm, at the Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills (formerly the Wilshire Theatre). This extraordinary event will feature the hilarious comedy of Jerry Seinfeld and will reunite him with Reprise's Artistic Director and the evening's host, Jason Alexander. Ticket sales support Reprise and its mission to produce musical theatre and provide arts education programs for underserved members of our community.