Joe DiPietro News

MEMPHIS, the 2010 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, is playing at The Morris Performing Arts Center March 20 and 21.

The Fox Performing Arts Center (Fox PAC), in Riverside, will host the rollicking musical MEMPHIS, winner of the 2010 Best Musical Tony Award. The show features a Tony winning score by Bon Jovi's founding member and keyboardist David Bryan, lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro, and book by Joe DiPietro. MEMPHIS will play three performances at Fox PAC, on Friday and Saturday, February 13th and 14th. The story focuses on the music scene in the 1950's south as Huey Calhoun, a white, illiterate DJ, struggles to introduce musical styles previously enjoyed only by black people to his white radio audience.

Eastbound Theatre, a division of the Milford Arts Council, is excited to present the second show of its 21st season, the heartwarming comedy 'The Last Romance', by Joe DiPietro, directed by Nancy A. Herman.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that THE TOXIC AVENGER, a musical which ran off Broadyway in 2009, might be heading to Broadway at last. A revised version of the musical ran at Houston's Alley Theatre in 2012, with hopes of a Broadway transfer. The project was directed by John Rando and featured music by Bon Jovi founding member and keyboardist David Bryan and Joe DiPietro.

The Board of Trustees and Artistic Director David Saint have chosen noted Actress, Producer, Best-Selling Author and Social Activist Marlo Thomas as the inaugural recipient of the Arthur Laurents Award for Distinguished Artistic Achievement. The award will be bestowed upon Ms. Thomas at the New Brunswick theatre's Annual Gala Benefit, to be held on Sunday, May 3. She joins fellow honoree Stephen Jones, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Health System, who will be honored with the Thomas H. Kean Arts Advocacy Award.

Producers of Memphis THE MUSICAL, which recently celebrated its 100th performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre, recently announced that the Original London Cast Album is now available to purchase online for download. The CD will be available from 9 February at the Shaftesbury Theatre and via First Night Records. The Original London Cast Album is produced by First Night Records and Grammy Award-winning David Bryan. Mr. Bryan, a founding member of Bon Jovi, wrote the original score to Memphis THE MUSICAL with Joe DiPietro who wrote the book. The Guardian just released a video of the cast in the recording studio, and you can check it out HERE!

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change has been described as "Seinfeld set to music", "adorable", "silly", and "delightful". Nominated for Best Musical by both the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change became the second-longest running Off Broadway musical in theater history (6,000 performances), and has been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German, French, Catalan, Hebrew, Czech, and Hungarian.

George Street Playhouse and Artistic Director David Saint have announced that New Jersey native John Tartaglia, from the original Broadway cast of Avenue Q, as well as TV's Sesame Street and the Emmy Award - nominated Johnny and the Sprites will be appearing in New Brunswick as the sole cast member of Buyer & Cellar, the fourth production of the New Brunswick theatre's current season. Mr. Tartaglia will take the fictional journey to the fictional version of Barbra Streisand's fictional basement beginning March 3 through March 29. Opening night is set for Friday, March 6. Mr. Saint helms the production.

Producers of Memphis THE MUSICAL, which recently celebrated its 100th performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre, are delighted to announce that the Original London Cast Album is now available to purchase online for download. The CD will be available from 9 February at the Shaftesbury Theatre and via First Night Records.

The producers of Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love just announced that Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, 2-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson will join 4-time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming in the production. Living on Love, by two-time Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). The production will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015. Tickets are now on sale to the general public. For more information, visit www.LivingonLoveBroadway.com

La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to bring back its acclaimed new play development initiative, the DNA New Work Series, a two-week run of workshops and readings of new works, taking place February 16 - March 1, 2015.

Based on material previously written by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, featuring a catalog of many recognizable songs by George and Ira Gershwin, Nice Work If You Can Get It tells the story of wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter, who meets rough female bootlegger Billie Bendix on the weekend of his wedding. Jimmy, who had been married three times before, is preparing to marry Eileen Evergreen, a self-obsessed modern dancer. Thinking that Jimmy and Eileen wouldl be out of town, Billie and her gang hide cases of alcohol in the basement of Jimmy's Long Island mansion. But when Jimmy, his wife-to-be and her prohibitionist family show up at the mansion for the wedding, Billie and her cohorts pose as servants, causing hijinks galore.

As “Cookie,” the charming, mischievous troublemaker-with-a-heart in the national tour of Broadway's Nice Work If You Can Get It, Reed Campbell has a sweet deal: he gets to do work he loves and travel the country at the same time. Touring, Reed admits, is physically demanding, and taking on the role for which original Broadway cast member, Michael McGrath won a 2012 Tony award, gave him pause, but he loves the Nice Work cast and creative team, that are “so cohesive, kind and energetic,” all important qualities for taking a production of this scale on the road.

George Street Playhouse and Artistic Director David Saint have announced that a new musical, Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, will close their current season, bowing April 22 and running through May 17, 2015.

Back in 2010, Broadway's Tony-winning MEMPHIS released a video tribute to the bravery and heroism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. BroadwayWorld brings you the clip in honor of Martin Luther King Day 2015!

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT is not at Hershey Theatre long enough. It needs to be there longer. It's not perfect, but it sure is swell, and it's all-Gershwin, all the time.

Votes are cast; polls are closed; and results have been tabulated! This was our biggest year yet! After a record number of voters in more than 60 regions worldwide, BroadwayWorld is very excited to announce the 2014 Seattle winners! Thanks to all who voted, and huge congratulations to all the winners!

The Tony-winning musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, inspired by the music of the Gershwins, comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center tonight, January 15, 2015 at 8 pm for one performance only.

Oh my! It's been a hell of a year for the Seattle Theatre scene and I can say we've been quite fortunate to see the incredible shows we have. So many amazing shows in fact that picking just a few stand outs (let alone a "best") is a near impossibility. But I have searched the deep dark recesses of my memory to find the shows and performances that really stood out and stuck with me beyond the evening and throughout the year. And so, without further ado, I'm thrilled to present the BWW 2014 Seattle Critic's Choice Awards (or Jay's Picks). Let the awesomeness flow!

Eastbound Theatre, a division of the Milford Arts Council, is excited to present the second show of its 21st season, the heartwarming comedy "The Last Romance", by Joe DiPietro, directed by Nancy A. Herman.