Joe DiPietro News

The Gateway is thrilled to announce its 2018 Season! The Gateway's new season features dazzling Broadway hits incluing: A Chorus Line, Nunsense, Memphis, Cabaret, Flashdance and Beauty & The Beast. Tickets start at $59 and go on sale to the public on Tuesday, March 20 at 10am. Student and youth prices are available for select shows. Full Season Subscription Memberships are available now through March 18th. Season Subscription memberships include tickets to all five Main Stage shows and exclusive membership perks. For more information, contact the Box Office at (631) 286-1133, or visit the website at TheGateway.org.

Porchlight Music Theatre announces the final extension of its latest production, Memphis. Memphis must close Saturday, June 16, following that evening's 8 p.m. performance. Now playing through June 16 at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street, features  book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music and lyrics by David Bryan and  is directed by Daryl D.  Brooks, assistant directed and choreographed by Christopher Carter, music directed by Jermaine Hill and assistant choreographed by Reneisha Jenkins.

Lovers of new theatre will gather this August for an advance look at tomorrow's hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival. This unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development, give feedback, and participate in a panel discussion with the artists. Playwrights and composers are able to rewrite entire scenes of their shows between performances, allowing audiences to help shape a brand new piece of theatre.

Some exciting new details on the Broadway-bound Princess Diana Musical, Diana, have emerged this week following a lab presentation for potential investors in Midtown. 

Pride Films and Plays will fill the three months between its 2017-18 season and its already announced 2018-19 season with a five-play summer repertory of fully staged plays, according to an announcement today by company Executive Director David Zak. The summer rep, called "PAC Pride Fest," will include a world premiere, a US premiere, a Chicago premiere, a British drama that made Laurence Olivier an American stage star, and a new production of Joe DiPietro's comedy-drama f**kING MEN.

Hockadoo! Porchlight Music Theatre's MEMPHIS bursts onto the stage with joy and earnest energy. Under the direction of Daryl Brooks, this musical sheds light on timely historical issues while milking the show's sweetest, most exuberant moments for all they're worth.

The BroadwayHD digital capture is a multi-camera shoot of the award winning stageplay with book and lyrics by Tony winner, Joe DiPietro, and music by Tony winner,David Bryan. The film and musical tell the story of an aspiring environmental scientist, Melvin, who vows to clean up his home state of New Jersey from chronic pollution. The townspeople doubt Melvin's ability to find a solution to hazardous chemicals, throw him into a vat of toxic waste, which turns him into a superpower avenger, he finds a girlfriend and you guessed it, he ends up saving the planet. DiPietro and Bryan took the original campy elements, added hysterical lyrics and hum along tunes and created a new musical destined to become its own cult classic.

Porchlight Music Theatre announces that due to audience demand Memphis is now extended through Sunday, June 10, at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.

Powerhouse, the theater development program by Vassar and New York Stage and Film, has announced its 2018 season, according to Variety. The season will include new musicals by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the duo behind Spring Awakening, as well as Jason Robert Brown.

The Shaken Not Stirred Players have announced the cast of 'I Love You, You're Perfect,Now Change' at the Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point,NJ. The production will run from May 11th - May 20th 2018.

The Gateway is thrilled to announce its 2018 Season! The Gateway's new season features dazzling Broadway hits incluing: A Chorus Line, Nunsense, Memphis, Cabaret, Flashdance and Beauty & The Beast. Tickets start at $59 and go on sale to the public on Tuesday, March 20 at 10am. Student and youth prices are available for select shows. Full Season Subscription Memberships are available now through March 18th. Season Subscription memberships include tickets to all five Main Stage shows and exclusive membership perks. For more information, contact the Box Office at (631) 286-1133, or visit the website at TheGateway.org.

Following smash-hit, sell-out runs in London, Edinburgh and Dublin, F*cking Men returns to the King's Head Theatre for a strictly limited three-week run, celebrating the show's critically acclaimed history at the venue featuring new cast members.

Penguin Rep Theatre, under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, will stage four productions in its 2018 season.

Manatee Players' area premiere of the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It! for 13 performances, April 26 - May 13, in Stone Hall. History of Nice Work If You Can Get It!

Once in a while, you come across a stage show that, on paper, may not have had the buzz that other high-profile shows may have had initially, but then you see it … and it just completely surprises you in the best possible way. That pretty much sums up my recent experience with the oh-so delightful NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, Musical Theatre West's buoyant and sublime new regional production of the 10-time Tony Award-nominated 2012 musical comedy now on stage at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach, CA through April 22. An irresistibly silly and infectiously tuneful stage show that will have you smiling from start to finish, this roaring 20's throwback with modern sensibilities provides lots of zany antics, lots of witty one-liners, and lots of spectacular song-and-dance showstoppers that will have you wondering---where has this show been all my life?

Riverside Theatre, led by Producing Artistic Director/CEO Allen D. Cornell and Managing Director/COO Jon R. Moses, is delighted to announce its 45th Anniversary Season for 2018-2019. Building on the success and support the theatre has attained over the last few years, Riverside is proud to present a magnificent season of music, comedy, and drama.

BroadwayHD premiered The Toxic Avenger Musical at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) to a packed auditorium. The comic musical is based on the 1984 film created by Troma Entertainment. As with many cult films, the original release was not a critical success, but midnight screenings in NYC and around the country propelled the campy low budget movie to become a cult classic.

The Gershwins' Nice Work If You Can Get It is such a smooth entertainment and a joy to watch where and whenever it plays...if the director and cast are top notch and up to a myriad of challenges. You cannot pull off farcical material unless actors are atuned to split timing and can sing and dance up a storm. You must have triple threat performers. No problem at MTW, whose 'S'Wonderful' production keeps the audience consistently applauding for more. Dependably resourceful director Larry Raben, splendid choreographer Peggy Hickey and a stellar ensemble create real 'Fascinating Rhythm' through April 22.   

George Street Playhouse has announced that its Annual Gala Benefit - a one-of-a-kind evening featuring stars of Broadway, film and television - will take place Sunday, May 6, 2018, 5 p.m., at The Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick. This year, George Street Playhouse celebrates the Arthur Laurents Centennial - a tribute to the playwright on what would have been his 100th birthday - and honors Dr. Penelope Lattimer, the Playhouse's current Board President, with the Thomas H. Kean Arts Advocacy Award.

In this episode: Broadway's Shannon Lewis grew up in a rural Canadian suburb and at age 19 was hand picked by Susan Stroman to make her Broadway debut, after a 'Crazy for You' casting director saw her in a Toronto theme park show. The essence of this podcast is having integrity, the importance of the respect of your peers, and to have your talent and drive ready, so that when someone opens a door for you, you can walk right in. With an impeccable work ethic that takes every opportunity seriously; whether in the ensemble, as a deputy, or as a principle; as well as having Gwen Verdon as a champion, the real Shannon Lewis is coming out of hiding. @realshanlew