Julie Andrews News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Broadway gets a new HEDWIG, Audra lights up Carnegie Hall and more!

On June 6th, designer and director Tony Walton will receive The Goodspeed Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre at Goodspeed Musicals' Gala event RAZZLE DAZZLE. Just announced, Julie Andrews will present Walton with the award at the event.

Producers Robyn Goodman, Jill Furman and Stephen Kocis announce that the national tour of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella has recouped its entire $4.8 million investment in just six months after having launched on October 10, 2014 in Providence, RI.

An all singing, all dancing extravaganza featuring stars of the West End and Broadway!

In last week's Olivier Awards- translation, the British version of the Tony Awards, or for film fans, it's the British stage version of the Oscars- an acting legend won the first Olivier of her career, but she's certainly no awards novice. So in celebration of her newest award, take a look back at this acting legend's Tony Award-winning roles!

Dixie Longate, America's favorite fast-talking Tupperware lady, is riding back into Fort Worth this November for a limited engagement of her brand-new show, 'DIXIE'S NEVER WEAR A TUBE TOP WHILE RIDING A MECHANICAL BULL (AND 16 OTHER THINGS I LEARNED WHILE I WAS DRINKING LAST THURSDAY).'

She's back where she belongs! 'Hello Dolly' starring Andrea McArdle is at The Media Theatre tonight, April 22 to May 24. Andrea McArdle returns to the award-winning professional music theatre venue after winning accolades as 'Mame' two years ago.

Mary Poppins/book by Julian Fellowes/music by The Sherman Brothers/new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe/directed by Lewis Wilkenfeld/choreographed by Cheryl Baxter/Cabrillo Music Theatre at the Fred Kavli Theatre of the Thousand Oakes Civic Arts Plaza/through April 26 only

If writer P.L. Travers, the notoriously protective creator of Mary Poppins, was even half so prickly as we have been led to believe she was - thanks in large part to the screenplay for Saving Mr. Banks, the film retelling of her experiences with Walt Disney, et al, over the film adaptation of her beloved work - it's very easy to imagine how she might cringe at the thought of high school students taking on the musical theater version of her timeless story. However, if she knew in advance that it was being produced by Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy, under the direction of an artist as exacting as Paula Flautt, we rather think Miss Travers would be pleased -and without reservation.

Geva Theatre Center presents Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - Christopher Durang's laugh-out-loud, Tony Award-winning comedy, directed by Bruce Jordan. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike begins performances May 5, opens May 9, and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through May 31.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Lyric's 'Carousel' and the 'Sound Of Music' movie keep R&H front and center, plus 'Show Boat' from San Francisco and 'The Wiz,' 'Rocky Horror' and 'Grease' coming on television. COT has Ricky Ian Gordon, the Royal George has Louis Prima, more 'First Date' and 'Ordinary Days,' 'On Your Feet' and Broadway In Chicago's summer concert get set, and more!

The Public Theater announced a one-week extension today for George Brant's Grounded, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Julie Taymor and featuring Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway. Grounded began previews on Tuesday, April 7 and will now run an additional week through Sunday, May 24 in the Anspacher Theater, with an official press opening on Sunday, April 26.

The cinemas are alive with The Sound of Music! Join Maria, the Captain and his seven unruly children as their lives are transformed by the power of song and Julie Andrews' magical voice. Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Twentieth Century Fox invite you to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the biggest movie musical of all time when The Sound of Music returns to select cinemas nationwide for a special two-day only event on Sunday, April 19 and Wednesday, April 22 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time.

Theater royalty Julie Andrews visited the Wednesday matinee performance of The King and I, now running at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA has established two new scholarships with a $100,000 gift from The Frederick Loewe Foundation: the Frederick Loewe Musical Theatre Scholarship, which will be awarded to a playwriting student who demonstrates particular interest in musical theatre composition; and the Frederick Loewe Directing Scholarship in honor of Floria V. Lasky.

When the latest Rodgers and Hammerstein revival, THE KING AND I, opens in just over a week, starring Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara, it will be the show's fifth Broadway production. Over the past six decades since the production originally opened on Broadway, basically only Yul Brynner has played the King of Siam, earning him the unofficial title of “The King of THE KING AND I.” However, many different women have donned the gorgeous gown to sing “Shall We Dance?” on the Great White Way since the original 1951 Broadway version. In honor of the upcoming revival, BroadwayWorld brings you a look back at the Top 5 women who have portrayed Anna in THE KING AND I on Broadway.

Anne Hathaway kills it with her lip sync of Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' on the next epiosde of Spike TV's LIP SYNC BATTLE, airing Thursday at 10/9c. Get a first look below!

Known to two generations of M*A*S*H fans as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt, Mike Farrell will move from operating theater to live theater when he takes the starring role in the Alhambra Theatre & Dining's production of On Golden Pond. Opening tonight, April 1 for just four weeks, Farrell will join other M*A*S*H legends Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr and Loretta Switt among Alhambra's prominent list of guest stars.

The Professional Dancers Society's (PDS) Gypsy Awards Luncheon honoring actress/singer/dancer Carol Lawrence, along with famed choreographers Alan Johnson, Miriam Nelson and Walter Painter, was held on March 29, 2015 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Scroll down for photos from the event!