Jonathan Larson News

Chip Danver will be hitting a personal milestone when Imagine Productions' presentation of RENT opens tonight, 7:30 p.m. May 7 at the Wall Street Night Club. Opening night will mark the first time Danver, who plays Mark Cohen in the Jonathan Larson musical, has seen the show in person.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced that its 2014 Spring Gala will honor Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and President of The Dodgers Michael David. Both are founding partners of Dodger Properties, which is responsible for over 150 productions of some of the most successful theatre on Broadway (56 Tony Awards), Off-Broadway and internationally. The gala will take place on Monday, May 12 at The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel, beginning at 6:30pm.

The Lobby Project, a series of free pre-show events presented in conjunction with the second season of New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center series, will take place June 25 - July 19 at City Center. The events will place each Off-Center musical in the context of its legacy and provide insightful explorations of the work the audience is about to experience.

Jackie Hoffman (Hairspray, The Addams Family), Jake Epstein (Beautiful, Spiderman...) and John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Shrek) are among the artists who will join Fred Ebb Award-winning songwriters Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond for Kooman & Dimond: Still Not Famous tonight, May 5th at the York Theatre at Saint Peter's.

A reading of WE FOXES, a new musical by Ryan Scott Oliver - whose, JASPER IN DEADLAND recently concluded a sold-out Off-Broadway run - will be held on Monday, May 5th at the Experimental Theatre on the San Diego State University campus at 7:30pm.

The MFA Musical Theatre Program has invited contemporary music theatre composer Ryan Scott Oliver to be a composer-in-residence from April 28-May 7, 2014. Mr. Oliver will work with the current MFA Musical Theatre students as well as selected alumni to present a reading of his new work, We Foxes, on Monday, May 5 at 7:30pm at the Experimental Theatre on the San Diego State University campus. We Foxes is directed by Paula Kalustian with music direction by Robert Meffe.

As first reported by TVLine.com, AMERICAN IDOL's Top-4 Week is going to take a very IF/THEN look at love with the theme 'Love: Break-Ups and Make-Ups.' So, after last night's elimination of personality vacuum Sam Woolf, IDOL's Final Four; Jena Irene, Caleb Johnson, Jessica Meuse, and Alex Preston, will each take their turns with two songs each that 'celebrate the agony and the ecstasy of music's greatest theme.'

The Kleban Foundation just announced that the 24th annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre lyricist has been awarded to Nathan Tysen and the 24th annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre librettist has been awarded to Arthur Perlman.The 2014 prizes will be presented on Monday, June 23, 2014, in a private ceremony (by invitation only) hosted by ASCAP and BMI.

From the singing, to the staging, and the multimedia effects, every song was a performance work of art and captivated me from beginning to end!

Chip Danver will be hitting a personal milestone when Imagine Productions' presentation of RENT opens 7:30 p.m. May 7 at the Wall Street Night Club. Opening night will mark the first time Danver, who plays Mark Cohen in the Jonathan Larson musical, has seen the show in person.

Jackie Hoffman (Hairspray, The Addams Family), Jake Epstein (Beautiful, Spiderman…) and John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Shrek) are among the artists who will join Fred Ebb Award-winning songwriters Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond for Kooman & Dimond: Still Not Famous May 5th at the York Theatre at Saint Peter's.

This just in! Leslie Odom Jr. ("Smash") will join Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo in the New York City Center Encores! Off-Center production of Jonathan Larson¹stick, tick… BOOM!, running for five performances, June 25 ­ 28. The opening show of City Center's acclaimed Encores! Off-Center series of landmark Off-Broadway musicals will be directed byOliver Butler with choreography by Camille A. Brown and music direction by Chris Fenwick. Jeanine Tesori is Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director.

Red-Eye to Havre de Grace began performances on April 22 and opens tonight, April 30, 2014 at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4 Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) will present its fifteenth annual All-City Musical, RENT to crown the District's 2013-14 series of All-City Arts Programming. The production features the talents of over fifty CMSD students from across the District and will take place on the stage of the Ohio Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, May 30 - June 1, 2014. Tony Sias, Director of Arts Education for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, co-directs the production with the CMSD All-City Arts Program's Managing Director, Kimberly Brown.

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces the lineup of productions for its 2014/15 Season. The year will include world-premiere plays and musicals that have been developed at the theater, including Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine, a new play written and directed by Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson; and Be More Chill, a musical by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, adapted from the novel by Ned Vizzini and directed by Scott Ellis. The season will also include a range of world masterpieces and American classics, and work for audiences ages three and up

Having successfully conquered a colorful year of programming that has received both critical and popular praise, The Gallery Players will bring their 47th Mainstage Season to a close with one of the most popular musicals to date - RENT. As Gallery has developed a reputation for reimagining these iconic pieces, President Mark Harborth (Chess, Dreamgirls) promises a unique experience for audiences already familiar with the show. 'You won't see a striped winter scarf in this production (or a sexy Santa suit for that matter) but you will hear every note of Jonathan Larson's passionate score performed by one of the most dynamic and talented casts and orchestras Gallery has assembled.'

The region's premiere theatrical training organization, the WPPAC Conservatory Theatre, presents RENT School Edition on stage at the White Plains Performing Arts Center, this weekend, April 25- 27. Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, RENT School Edition follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and createin New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

Twentysomething Productions, in association with Drew Gasparini, present The Platform LDM, featuring some of London's finest performers, on 27th April 2014 at Backstage Bar, The Spice of Life, Soho. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7:00pm.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21) is one of 886 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. CAP21 is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support CAP21's New Artist and New Works Development Program.

Charity Hope Valentine is a dancehall girl who dreams of love and believes the man of her dreams is just around the corner. A great score, including the songs 'Hey Big Spender!' and 'If My Friends Could See Me Now,' incredible dancing - originally choreographed by Broadway legend Bob Fosse - and one of the most memorable heroines of the past sixty years combine to make Sweet Charity a must-see show. Never before produced at PTC, Sweet Charity is a razzle-dazzle closer for the 2013-14 season.