The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 18 categories and one special award for the 2014 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 4, 2014 at NYU Skirball Center beginning at 7:00pm EST, and hosted by acclaimed husband and wife actors and comedians, Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman. This year's event will once again benefit The Actors Fund.
In honor of Les Miserables' opening tonight, BroadwayWord brings you the actors who've taken on the many complex and vocally challenging roles of Victor Hugo's world, from the unscrupulous Thenardiers to innocent Cosette, or principled Javert against the compassionate and strong-willed Jean Valjean. From Fantine and Eponine, unfortunate in life and romance, to Enjolras and Marius, the fiery young leaders of the French Revolution.
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.
Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre announces its 25th Anniversary season, illustrating its commitment to provide theater artists a home to create, explore and reinvent new works.
Barnes & Noble at 86th and Lexington in New York City will welcome the cast and creators of FUN HOME, The Public Theater production based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel, for a musical performance and CD signing tonight, March 13, 2014 at 6 p.m.
Today in 1987, Les Miserables opened at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 6680 performances. Written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables is set in early 19th-century France. The plot follows the stories of many characters as they struggle for redemption and revolution. An ensemble that includes prostitutes, student revolutionaries, factory workers, and others joins the lead characters. In January 2010, it played its ten-thousandth performance in London, at Queen's Theatre in London's West End. On 3 October 2010, the show celebrated its 25th anniversary with three productions running in the same city: the original show at London's West End; the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary touring production at the original home of the show, the Barbican Centre; and the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary concert at London's O2 Arena. The original Broadway cast included Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean, David Bryant as Marius, Judy Kuhn as Cosette, Michael Maguire as Enjolras, Frances Ruffelle as Eponine, Braden Danner as Gavroche, Donna Vivino as Young Cosette, Jennifer Butt as Madame Thenardier, Leo Burmester as Thenardier, Randy Graff as Fantine, and Terrence Mann as Javert.
Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, today announced plans for its 2014/2015 Season. The upcoming season for the esteemed off-Broadway company begins in October with Rodgers & Hammerstein's ALLEGRO, directed by Tony Award-winner and CSC Associate Director John Doyle. ALLEGRO marks the second installment of CSC's Musical Theater Initiative, which launched last year with the company's hugely-successful production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, directed by Doyle. Considered one of Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein II's most personal and groundbreaking works, ALLEGRO was their third collaboration and first premiered on Broadway in 1947.
Virginia's Signature Theatre presents the world premiere musical Beaches, opening tonight, March 4, 2014, and playing through March 30. Adapted from the beloved 1985 novel by Iris Rainer Dart, Beaches is directed by Signature Theatre's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer (Broadway's Follies, Million Dollar Quartet). This heartfelt chronicle of a decades-long friendship between two unforgettable women stars Mara Davi (Broadway's A Chorus Line and The Drowsy Chaperone) as Bertie and Alysha Umphress (Broadway's American Idiot and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) as Cee Cee Bloom.
On Monday, April 21, 2014 at 7 p.m., stage and screen stars Chuck Cooper, Charlotte d'Amboise, Kate Flannery, Judy Kuhn, Terrence Mann, John Tartaglia and many more will join together at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre for a one-night-only benefit concert production of the new musical THE LIGHTNING THIEF.
Barnes & Noble at 86th and Lexington in New York City will welcome the cast and creators of FUN HOME, The Public Theater production based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel, for a musical performance and CD signing on Thursday March 13, 2014 at 6 p.m.
Due to popular demand Virginia's Signature Theatre announces that the world premiere musical Beaches is now extended through March 30, 2014. Adapted from the beloved 1985 novel by Iris Rainer Dart, Beaches is directed by Signature Theatre's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer (Broadway's Follies, Million Dollar Quartet). This heartfelt chronicle of a decades-long friendship between two unforgettable women stars Mara Davi (Broadway's A Chorus Line and The Drowsy Chaperone) as Bertie and Alysha Umphress (Broadway's American Idiot and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) as Cee Cee Bloom.
Today we are talking to a terrifically talented triple-threat diva known for her legendary Broadway performance as the title character in the iconic original production of ANNIE as well as notable appearances on Broadway since in STARLIGHT EXPRESS, LES MISERABLES, STATE FAIR and more - the engaging and passionate Andrea McArdle. Opening up about her life after 'Tomorrow' as well as sharing memories of her time in ANNIE, McArdle sheds some light on her idiosyncratic showbiz career and shares sensational stories from her past and present while also looking ahead to the future. Additionally, McArdle looks back on many of her most famous roles to date, including her roller skating days in STARLIGHT EXPRESS and her recent stint as MAME herself, as well as her various Judy Garland-related properties, too - the TV biopic RAINBOW and the stage adaptation of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS among them, not to mention her sensational star turn as the opener of the recent sold-out series of 10th anniversary concerts at Joe's Pub, BROADWAYWORLD.COM VISITS OZ, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander and MaryBeth Abel, where she exquisitely performed 'I'm Always Chasing Rainbows'. Plus, McArdle comments on her recent Broadway Records live album 70'S & SUNNY and the material and decade that inspired it. Most importantly, McArdle looks ahead to her new series of solo shows kicking off at 54 Below this week titled DREAM ROLES and previews some of the stupendous song selections she has chosen for the show - with material by Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse and more included! All of that and much, much more awaits in this career-spanning chat with one of Broadway's best and best-loved leading ladies.
The Wallis has announced that Tony nominee Judy Kuhn (She Loves Me, Chess and Les Miserables) and Tony winner and five-time Emmy nominee John Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion!, 'Smallville') will star in Love, Noel: The Letters and Songs of Noel Coward, devised and written by Coward authority Barry Day, and directed by Jeanie Hackett, who over saw The Antaeus Theatre production of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 and the three-year development of the Antaeus production of Coward's Peace in Our Time. The musical direction and piano accompaniment is by David O. Due to popular demand, additional performances have been added and Love, Noel will now be performed February 14 through 23 in the Lovelace Studio Theater.
Broadway's hottest young stars will join legendary performers of the Great White Way for the ninth annual edition of Broadway Backwards, a one-night-only performance produced byBroadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefiting BC/EFA and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York.
Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present BRECHT FEST, a special series exploring the songs, poetry and stories of Bertolt Brecht, to be presented on Monday, February 3 and Monday, February 10 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). CSC is currently presenting Brecht's A MAN'S A MAN, directed by Brian Kulick and with a new score and new songs by Tony Award-winning composer Duncan Sheik, continuing the company's exploration of the works of Brecht, which began in 2011 with the sold-out production of Galileo and was followed by last season's The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
The Vineyard Theatre will celebrate the songs of Dory Previn - the late pop/folk singer-songwriter whose numerous hits include "Come SaturdayMorning" and the theme from "Valley of the Dolls" - at its annual Gala Fundraiser on Monday, February 24th beginning at 6:30pm at the Edison Ballroom (240 W. 47 St in Manhattan), it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, Vineyard Theatre's Artistic Director and Sarah Stern, Co-Artistic Director. The Vineyard Gala will not only celebrate Ms. Previn's witty, heartbreaking and provocative songs, but will feature selections from her poems, plays and memoirs, as well.
Today, check out BWW's 20 most popular videos from 2013, including favorites from our editors and readers, and catch up on anything that you might have missed within the last 12 months!