Jon-Michael Reese News

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) has announced casting for DirectorFest 2019: The 35th Annual Directors Festival, the only festival in the United States exploring the art of contemporary stage directing. DirectorFest takes place at various locations around NYC: New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street), The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thompson Avenue, Long Island City), and Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street). Festival programming, tickets and additional details are available at www.directorfest.org, or by calling (212) 244-9494.

Since its creation in 2015, JAG Productions focuses on creating theater to engage challenging issues of race, gender, sexuality and identity.

Theater Latte Da hosts the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT)'s New Work Roundtable from Thursday, July 19 - Friday, July 20 as part of this year's NEXT Festival.

The 24th season of the Adirondack Theatre Festival will feature the epic adventure musical Loch Ness. The show will open at the Charles R. Wood Theater, located at 207 Glen Street in downtown Glens Falls, and run from July 6th-8th and 10th-14th, with a preview on July 5th.

THE GREEN ROOM 42 - Broadway's newest intimate concert venue - has announced the world premier of 'ALICE IN WONDERLAND: AN X-RATED MUSICAL FANTASY IN CONCERT.' The debut performance features an all-star cast, and celebrates the sensuously silly new musical adaptation of Bill Osco's 1976 musical film. Presented by composer and book writers Harrison Beck and Maya Kates, enjoy fan favorites like 'Knight Like This,' 'Cards, Cards, Cards,' and 'Ding-a-Ling-Up' like never before, plus the debut of 'X-Rated Musical Fantasy,' 'Try Something Crazy!' and more! Featuring music direction by Jono Mainelli.

In this 50th anniversary year of the Loving vs. State of Virginia Supreme Court case that made interracial marriage legal in all 50 states, it is right that the renowned Penumbra Theatre, which puts questions of social justice at the center of its artistic mission, should take up gay rights. THIS BITTER EARTH centers on a love affair between two men, one black, one white.

On Sunday, March 11th, a group of Broadway's most beloved stars will gather at Feinstein's/54 Below to sing the music of Bruce Springsteen.  

Brave New World Repertory Theatre, the Brooklyn-based company that first won acclaim with To Kill A Mockingbird staged on the front porches of Victorian Flatbush in 2005, announces a new generation of Brave New Works for BNW's 15th anniversary season.

Come out to The Duplex Cabaret Theatre on January 21, 2018 at 6:30pm and drink for a good cause. The Duplex is hosting Typecast: A Benefit Concert for Life After Hate and Drama Club NYC.

An enthusiastic audience attended a showcase of Patrick Dillon Curry's songs from the new musical, WATER, at The Green Room 42 on Monday night, December 4. Scroll down for photos from the concert!

With one week left until The 17th Annual Festival of New Musicals, Village Theatre is excited to announce the casting for Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, an electronic pop musical about one of the world's greatest inventors; Hart Island, a look at social justice and the people society has forgotten; Afterwords, a tale of art and love; Howl's Moving Castle, based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones; and ZM, a hilarious romp through a zombie-filled future by the Tony Award-winning authors of Urinetown. Taking place in Issaquah on August 11-13, 2017, The Festival of New Musicals provides an essential platform for writers to incorporate a key component of live theatre - the audience. Each new musical will be rehearsed during the week, then present to the audience in staged reading format, performed in full using scripts.

Kicking off Adirondack Theatre Festival's 23rd summer season of professional theater is Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat, an electronic pop musical. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 21-Saturday, July 1, and 2 p.m.Wednesday, June 28, at the Charles R. Wood Theater.

The 2016-17 Ruth Easton New Play Series at the Playwrights' Center continues March 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. with public readings of 'The Sea & The Stars' by Harrison David Rivers.

Classic tale reimagined.Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's Camelot is being presented in a 'reimagined' way at the Westport Country Playhouse.

Westport Country Playhouse announces that due to high ticket demand for its current production of Lerner & Loewe's 'Camelot,' an extra week of performances has been added, extending through Saturday, November 5. Additional performances are scheduled on Wed., Nov. 2, at 2 p.m.; Thurs., Nov. 3, at 8 p.m., Fri., Nov. 4, at 8 p.m.; and Sat., Nov. 5, at 3 and 8 p.m. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

A freshly inventive and intimate take on the classic Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" will be staged by Westport Country Playhouse,October 4 - 30, featuring Tony Award winner Robert Sean Leonard as King Arthur, directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director.

Stacey Luftig and Phillip Palmer, winners of the 2015 Fred Ebb Award, will present an invitation only showcase of their acclaimed work MY HEART IS THE DRUM on Monday, June 6th at 5 PM at the York Theatre (619 Lexington Avenue at East 54th Street, New York City)  

One of my favorite events each year is the Village Originals Festival of New Musicals. Each year there's at least one new show that you long to get a full staging. Back in 2014 that show was "My Heart is the Drum" with it's touching story and engaging music. It showed so much potential and I was thrilled when I saw it on the season lineup this season. And while it still shows a lot of promise it still needs a lot of work to make it a tighter narrative and paced better.

Tina Fabrique plays a 1937 Virginia farmer with an unusual labor force.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre presents the 27th ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place today, October 15 and tomorrow, October 16 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).