Kasper News

Louise Jameson is to star with recent graduate Thomas Mahy making his London stage debut in Philip Ridley's Vincent River. 

AstonRep Theatre Company has announced casting for THE LARAMIE PROJECT, a community's deeply-moving response to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, written by Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project anddirected by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen.

The Irish/Czech musical ONCE won eight Tonys. That's reason enough to produce it, but when you add twelve terrific actor/musicians, superb choreography and musical staging on a working Dublin bar, and direction by a master of musicals, you've got the positive delight of ONCE at Actors' Playhouse.

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm. The organization will honor renowned opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe with the NYCHORAL Music Excellence Award for her contributions to the musical profession, as well as Sylvia R. Hoisington who is celebrating her 50th season with the chorus. Produced in partnership with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the evening's showcase performance will feature soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Ben Bliss, both of whom will be participating in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Cosi fan tutte from March 15 to April 9, 2018. Members of the NYCHORAL Chamber Ensemble will also perform. The evening will feature a silent auction of unique items and experiences. The program is as follows:

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will hold its annual Spring Gala at New York's Metropolitan Club (1 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022) on Thursday evening, April 5, 2018, starting at 6:00 pm.

'My goal at the moment is to sound like a dead Italian,' says British baritone Christopher Maltman, who stars as Don Alfonso with Broadway's Kelli O'Hara as Despina, co-conspirators against young lovers in the Met's new production of Mozart's comedy COSI FAN TUTTE. 'Or, at least, to sound like a 'live' dead Italian.'

In May, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the musical extravaganza Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly. Told in high school he'd be big in show biz only 'when pigs fly,' Howard follows his heart anyway and creates the musical revue of his dreams. What they didn't know was he has a special talent to transform the most mundane objects - from shower curtains to garden hoses - into a showstopping costume spectacle. You can't help but pig out on this gleefully subversive over-the-top musical.

Malmo Opera's production of Verdi's opera masterpiece, RIGLETTO is premiering Saturday next week in Malmo (March 24th). The show is known for being one of the most popular operas and is based upon an earlier play by the famous French author Victor Hugo called 'Le roi s'amuse' (The King Amuses Himself). Hugo has a history of writing plays and novels that take on the establishment. Another obvious, similarly-themed, tale is Hugo's classic 'Les Miserables.'

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day the authentic way with a performance of the Irish musical ONCE playing now through March 25, 2018 at Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre. Set in Dublin, ONCE is the smash-hit musical that has captured hearts around the world with its touching love story, glorious music and irresistible humor. 

The age-old struggle of romance has become even more challenging in the modern era. Whether one uses dating apps, blind dates, or sheer luck, finding love has also proven to be a task for the brave and the patient. The search for romance can often be a stressful one, and it can be easy to view relationships through a filter of bitterness and frustration. However, Theatre Harrisburg and their humorous, charming production of I LOVE YOU BECAUSE serves as a much-needed reminder that love, though not always easy, has a way of finding those who dare to seek it out.

Audiences are raving about Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre's South Florida regional premiere production of ONCE. Performances began on Wednesday, February 28 and will run through Sunday, March 25. Get a first look at the show in photos below!

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre continues its milestone 30th Anniversary Season with Once, winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards including Best Musical, playing February 28 - March 25, 2018. Featuring an impressive ensemble of actor/musicians who play their own instruments onstage, the company's production will include members from the original Broadway cast as well as several actors who have performed the show regionally.

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to present FOUR BY TEN - A Tennessee Williams One-Act Festival, featuring four one-act plays by one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century. FOUR BY TENN will play March 26 - April 4, 2018 at the new Strawdog Theatre Company, 1802 W. Berenice in Chicago. Tickets are currently available www.astonrep.com. 

A modern take on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I Love You Because first opened in 2006. What started as a grad project at NYU became a hit off-Broadway, and it is now about to open on the Krevsky Center stage at Theatre Harrisburg. With music by Joshua Salzman and lyrics by Ryan Cunningham, this musical explores relationships from breakups to rebounds, from friends to lovers and the many foibles that we often experience in the modern dating world. Broadway World had the opportunity to sit down with Caitlin Graci, director of I Love You Because at Theatre Harrisburg, and to take a sneak peek at their upcoming production.

Antonia Kasper had quite a time finding a mate ... enough for a play and a book (movie's next). Under the guise of her literary alter ego, (her own Carrie Bradshaw, if you will) Antonia becomes thirty-eight year old New Yorker, Rachel Yardley, and began notating her crusade along the dusty trails of online dating.

Louise Jameson is to star with recent graduate Thomas Mahy making his London stage debut in Philip Ridley's Vincent River.

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre continues its milestone 30th Anniversary Season with Once, winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards including Best Musical, playing February 28 - March 25, 2018. Featuring an impressive ensemble of actor/musicians who play their own instruments onstage, the company's production will include members from the original Broadway cast as well as several actors who have performed the show regionally.

The third floor windows are steaming up at the Players Theatre on MacDougal Street as they prepare to present the seventh annual Short Play Festival - Sex! There is nothing like a spicy play to chase away those winter blues and these 15 playwrights have created the forbidden cure.

In January, New Conservatory Theatre Center is proud to offer audiences the world premiere of Tim Pinckney's Still at Risk directed by Dennis Lickteig. This takes a new look at the personal and political effects of HIV/AIDS on the LGBT community decades after the crisis through the play's main character Kevin, a surviving activist from the front lines of the AIDS crisis who is struggling to find purpose in a modern age of greater gay rights. When an unexpected event threatens to erase the history he was part of creating, his anger and passion are renewed. Deeply moving and possessing sharp humor, Still at Risk is a powerful look at the hazards of rewriting the past, and one man's attempt to move forward.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2018-19 season in its creative home at Houston's Wortham Theater Center after a year of displacement due to damage to the building from Hurricane Harvey. The 64th season will open October 19, 2018, with HGO's first performances in 20 years of Wagner's romantic ghost story The Flying Dutchman, in a new production featuring baritoneAndrzej Dobber as the Dutchman and the role debut of award-winning American soprano and HGO Studio alumna Rachel Willis-S rensen as Senta. To close the season, the new Kasper Holten production of Mozart's Don Giovanni featuring the HGO debut of baritone Philippe Sly in the title role and the role debut of soprano Ailyn P rez as Donna Anna will be presented in repertory with The Phoenix, a world premiere about the colorful life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for the masterful Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cos fan tutte. The new work, written by composer Tarik O'Regan and librettist John Caird, will star renowned baritone Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo da Ponte in a belated HGO debut and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Da Ponte's son, Lorenzo. HGO will also present a revival of Daniel Cat n's ethereal Florencia en el Amazonas with internationally acclaimed soprano and HGO Studio alumna Ana Mar a Mart nez in the title role; the first HGO presentation of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers with the stellar tenor and baritone pairing of Lawrence Brownlee and Mariusz Kwiecien in the title roles along with soprano Andrea Carroll; and the return of HGO's 2012 production of Puccini's perennial classic La boh me, featuring the role debut of soprano and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Mim .