John Rando News

Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc. (DSM) announced their 2014/2015 season of shows at Fair Park Thursday June 12. Heavy rain forecasts moved the 75-Year kickoff event from the Fair Park Band Shell where DSM first performed their shows to the nearby Centennial Building. DSM has been bringing the Best of Broadway to North Texas audiences with the finest in professional live theatrical entertainment since 1941.

On Tuesday, June 24, Tony Award nominee Constantine Maroulis (Rock of Ages) and stage and screen icon Marilu Henner (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Chicago) will headline private industry readings of the new Broadway-bound musical GETTIN' THE BAND BACK TOGETHER in midtown Manhattan.

Classic Stage Company has announced that Dave Quay, who appeared in the company's recent production of David Ives' The Heir Apparent, is this year's recipient of the Rosemarie Tichler Fund grant.

A unique new audiobook experience showcasing William Shakespeare's revered historical tragedy JULIUS CAESAR featuring an all-star cast is now available to download via Overdrive.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum celebrates the Bard's 450th Birthday with an All-Shakespeare Season under the stars and live oaks of Topanga Canyon.

Summer is already in full swing in the South. Back yard cookouts and swimming pools, summer camps and vacations are happening everywhere you look. I often find theatre slightly more difficult to find during the summer, so I've done a little research to help you find a good show when you need one. Cause after all, sometimes a nice air conditioned theatre is just the place to be on a humid summer day in Tennessee.

The Ogunquit Playhouse, America's Foremost Summer Theatre, will be one of the first regional theatres in the U.S. to produce the Tony Award winning Billy Elliot the Musical on stage June 25 to July 26. Billy Elliot tells the story of a young boy who discovers his true passion lies in ballet class and not in the boxing ring, and then finds the strength to defy the convention of his small UK mining town to make his dream come true. The Ogunquit production features a cast of Broadway veterans, including Anastasia Barzee, Armond Shultz and Tony Award nominee Joel Blum.

BWW was on the scene to capture the excitement, including an appearance and brief performance preview from the sailors of the upcoming Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN, Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves!

Tony Yazbeck (Gypsy, A Chorus Line), Jay Armstrong Johnson (New York Philharmonic's Sweeney Todd, Hands On A Hardbody, Hair), and Clyde Alves (Bullets Over Broadway, Nice Work If You Can Get It) will play the roles of 'Gabey,' 'Chip,' and 'Ozzie' - the sailors on 24-hour shore leave who take on the Big Apple in the critically-acclaimed Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN, directed by John Rando (Tony Award for Urinetown) and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (Emmy Award winner for 'Smash'). Yazbeck, Johnson, and Alves will reprise their performances from last summer's acclaimed Barrington Stage production. Yazbeck first thrilled audiences with his portrayal of 'Gabey' in John Rando's presentation of ON THE TOWN at City Center Encores in 2008.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), under the leadership of Julianne Boyd Artistic Director and Tristan Wilson Managing Director, announces four new Associate Artists, all of whom are working at Barrington Stage in 2014 - casting director Pat McCorkle, lighting designer Scott Pinkney, scenic designer Brian Prather, and press director Charlie Siedenburg.

Tickets for the new Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN - the musical-comedy love letter to New York City - are now available exclusively to Audience Rewards members through Sunday, May 11 (www.audiencerewards.com). Beginning Monday, May 12, tickets will be available for purchasewith a special pre-sale code sent to Ticketmaster customers. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, May 19 and will be available at Ticketmaster.com.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents 9 Songs...By James Harvey, tonight, April 22nd at 11:30pm.

The Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company (TAC) reunite for a sixth year, presenting Hamlet, Shakespeare's story of a Danish prince's search for vengeance, justice and truth, in repertory with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a reworking of the same tragedy from the point of view of two minor characters and their static existence in a world beyond their comprehension. This two-week engagement today, April 22 - May 4, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage, will conclude a successful seven-month 42-city tour, during which time these productions played to thousands of adults and students in large and small markets around the United States. Both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will showcase the talents of graduates of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program, as well as alumni of A Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, announced today that its acclaimed production of David Ives' THE HEIR APPARENT, adapted from the play by Jean-Francois Regnard, will extend through Sunday, May 11 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). Directed by John Rando, THE HEIR APPARENT features Suzanne Bertish (Madame Argante), Carson Elrod (Crispin), Claire Karpen (Lisette), Amelia Pedlow (Isabelle), David Pittu (Scruple), Dave Quay (Eraste) and Paxton Whitehead (Geronte).

Broadway vet and singing sensation Alysha Umphress - fresh off her starring turn as Cee Cee in the World Premiere of Beaches (Signature Theatre) - joins the line up.

David Ives' new version of Regnard 1708 French comedy is written in nimbly penned rhyming couplets.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its popular First Look Festival, a series of one-night only staged readings, this year focusing on the remarkable work of playwright Caryl Churchill, whose plays have provoked, captivated and astounded audiences since she burst onto the scene in the late 1960s.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum celebrates the Bard's 450th Birthday with an All-Shakespeare Season under the stars and live oaks of Topanga Canyon.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center will host a developmental production of Lisa Lampanelli starring in her new one-woman theatrical show, Fat Girl Interrupted in TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theater for two nights only: Friday, July 25 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 26 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its 2014 Annual Gala, MUSICAL MASTERWORKS, Monday evening, May 12 at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel (145 West 44th Street). Tony Award-winner and CSC Associate Director John Doyle will helm an evening of memorable numbers from iconic American musicals-a rich and vital heritage that CSC has begun to explore with last season's critically-acclaimed production of Passion and the upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro.