John F Kennedy News

The Philippines' first full-length opera, National Artists Guillermo Tolentino and Felipe Padilla De Leon's most beloved 1957 opera, 'Noli Me Tangere' (Huwag Mo Salangin/Touch Me Not) returns to the Cultural Center of the Philippines' (CCP) main theatre, Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, from March 8-10, 2019.

This January, Black Violin hit the stage with their new 2019 Impossible Tour with over forty high-energy shows scheduled into the summer. The band makes its much-anticipated return to Cincinnati at Music Hall's Springer Auditorium on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 7:30 PM as part of the Cincinnati Arts Association's 2018-19 Season.

The Martha Graham Dance Company will host its annual gala on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. This special gala evening will honor Barbara Cohen, a Trustee of the Martha Graham Center, for her generosity and service to the company. Proceeds from the gala support the creation of new works and preservation of Martha Graham masterpieces. The event is the nonprofit organization's largest annual fundraiser. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Annenberg Foundation, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Aspen Institute Arts Program, and Citizen University, presents the 2019 Kennedy Center Arts Summit: The Human Journey: Creating the Story of US. Taking place on Monday, April 29, 2019 at the Kennedy Center, the annual spring convening brings thought leaders from the arts and related fields together for conversation and connection.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Composer in Residence Mason Bates continue the 2018-2019 season of their immersive new-music series, KC Jukebox, with the renowned male a cappella groupChanticleer on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. in the Family Theater. The penultimate program of the KC Jukebox season will feature the music by Robert Shaw, Kurt Weill, Steven Stucky, Ned Rorem, and Queen's Freddie Mercury-all anchored by Bates's 30-minute song cycle, Sirens.

New Jersey Theatre Alliance, in partnership with New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, announces the return of NJPAC Stage Exchange for a fifth year. The program gives established playwrights an opportunity to hear commentary from the public about their new works at a special sneak peek reading event on Friday, March 8 at NJPAC.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall this March for two back-to-back programs in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. In an all-Richard Strauss program on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m., music director and conductor Andris Nelsons and the BSO are joined by world-renowned soprano Renee Fleming for the closing scene in the composer's final opera, Capriccio, on a program also including the Sextet and Moonlight Music from that opera, as well as the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces complete casting for The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963. This world premiere Kennedy Center commission is adapted by Christina Ham from Christopher Paul Curtis's Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning book.

Lamented as an ineffectual president, and later celebrated by then-Senator John F. Kennedy as a legislative statesman in his landmark book Profiles in Courage, Adams' legacy will get a long overdue reexamination thanks to Arena Stage and their world-premiere production of Aaron Posner's new play JQA.

The University Musical Society of the University of Michigan presents the world premiere of a new theater piece on the work of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Friday-Saturday, March 15-16 at the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI. Composed by Bryce Dessner, with a libretto by Korde Arrington Tuttle that includes poetry by Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe's longtime creative muse, Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) premieres 30 years after Mapplethorpe's untimely death from AIDS at the age of 42.

Ain't Too Proud is heading for Broadway! The musical, about the life of The Temptations, will play Broadway's Imperial Theatre beginning Thursday, February 28, 2019, with an official Opening Night set for Thursday, March 21, 2019.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced that Mo Willems-the beloved author and illustrator best known as the award-winning creator of The Pigeon series, Knuffle Bunny, and Elephant & Piggie-will serve as its first Education Artist-in-Residence. Throughout the two-year residency, Willems and the Kennedy Center will develop new works for children, former children, and their families; curate collaborative experiences across artistic genres that spark creativity and invite hands-on, multigenerational audience engagement; and consult with the Center's Education division, which serves students, adults, and communities nationwide. Visit www.kennedy-center.org/mowillems for performance and ticketing information.

The Martha Graham Dance Company's Studio Series continues with GrahamDeconstructed: Secular Games on Tuesday, March 19, and Wednesday, March 20, at 7pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street (11th Floor), in Manhattan.

Cleveland Play House (CPH), announces the World Premiere of Tiny Houses, a new comedy by Chelsea Marcantel, to be performed March 23rd-April 14th  in the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square.  The production is directed by CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley and is a co-production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park,

Legendary rock and roll band Chicago returns to the Majestic Theatre (224 E. Houston St.) in San Antonio, TX and performs on July 30, 2019 at 8PM. Tickets go on sale this Friday, February 22 at 10AM.

Many of the audience members clearly knew the source material better than I did going in – if the entrance applause and excitement of the people around me was any indicator. However, I think it's safe to say we were all equally charmed by the end – even me, an admittedly jaded musical theater junkie.

Jack and the Beanstalk, a new musical by Michael Andrew, produced by Orlando Shakes in partnership with UCF, appears in the Margeson Theater from April 4 - May 4, 2019. Tickets ($10 - $20) are available now by phone (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, online through orlandoshakes.org, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).

The 'Your Big Break' talent competition's first knockout round was held on Saturday, February 9th at the Gold Coast Arts Center in Great Neck, and featured eight local aspiring musicians. At the end, only two advanced to the next round. Lindenhurst, Long Island resident Arizona Lindsey was one of two performers, along with Jackie Romeo of Massapequa, Long Island, to move on to the second knockout round at the Arts Center on Saturday, March 23, 2019, at 8 p.m.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Happy Friday! Finish off your week by catching up on today's top Broadway news!

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Broadway Center Stage production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man starring Tony Award® nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess) as Harold Hill, Tony Award®-winning actress Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Carousel, Beautiful) as Marian Paroo, and Broadway, film, and television star Rosie O'Donnell as Mrs. Paroo. The semi-staged concert production is directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful, Broadway Center Stage: How to Succeed...) with choreography by Chris Bailey (Jerry Springer: The Opera, The New Yorkers at Encores!) and music direction by James Moore (Miss Saigon, the Kennedy Center's Follies and Ragtime).