Kathleen Marshall News

REPRISE 2.0 in association with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television's Department of Theater presents its inaugural production of Sweet Charity. Get a look at the all-star cast below!

The Old Globe will once again share some of its favorite Shakespearean cinema as a complement to its stage productions with the return of Free Monday Night Film Screenings, presented in conjunction with the 2018 Summer Shakespeare Festival. Curated by the Globe's Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and introduced by KPBS's "Cinema Junkie" Beth Accomando, the films include Fred Wilcox's Forbidden Planet on July 9, Ralph Fiennes's Coriolanus on July 16, Orson Welles's Othello on July 30, and Ian McKellen's Richard III on August 27. Admission is free. Seating for each film is first-come, first-served and by general admission. The line begins one hour before each screening.

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) announces Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Ethan Slater as the 2018 NYMF Honorary Chair.

Registration is now open for Broadway Dance: Fosse Adult Master Class at Playhouse on Park. All performers (ages 16 and up!) who have a vested interest in the performing arts are encouraged to attend these classes to learn from the 'pros'. Stephanie Pope, who stars as Camilla in Playhouse on Park's current production of In The Heights, and seasoned Broadway Actor, will instruct this class onMonday, July 9 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

TDF, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the power of the performing arts to everyone, has been serving the performing arts community in New York City and beyond for 50 years. TDF opened its doors in June of 1968 and has since accomplished its mission of sustaining live theatre and dance by engaging and cultivating a broad and diverse audience and eliminating barriers to attendance. Through a variety of program and initiatives TDF expands audiences, cultivates communities and supports the theatre makers. TDF will launch its 50th Anniversary year at its June 18 gala at Gotham Hall honoring Tony Kushner and presenting its first Founders Award to James Lapine.

Actress Laura Bell Bundy is about to reopen Reprise. She will be playing the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, set to open at the Freud Playhouse, UCLA on June 20. In our chat, Bundy talks about the joy that Charity exudes, the reason she cannot wait to play her. Laura, how exciting to be playing Charity and …being a part of the first show to open the new Reprise! What do you love most about the character of Charity? I love her childlike quality.  Children are open, excitable, playful, optimistic, hopeful, delicate, resilient … they haven't become jaded by life's trials yet… and despite the trials Charity goes through, she still keeps going back for more with her head up, and her heart open.  

Playwrights Foundation announces the plays and playwrights of the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) running July 20-29, 2018 at Potrero Stage, 1895 18th St in San Francisco. The Artistic Teams for #BAPF2018 features Directors Erik Pearson, Christine Young, Margo Hall, Daniel Banks, Lauren English, and Ken Savage. Dramaturgs joining the teams include Alex Mallory, Maddie Gaw, Lisa Evans, Vidhu Singh, Roweena Mackay, and the Legendary Nakissa Etemad.

If you didn't find a performance to attend in the first part of this series--or you simply can't get enough operas, symphonic concerts and musical theatre pieces thrown in for good measure--here's more to choose from. It covers the gamut from the Mozart REQUIEM to Bernstein, Bernstein and more Bernstein.

On Monday, June 25 at their annual Broadway Beacon Awards Gala at The JW Marriot Essex House (160 Central Park South), leading NYC arts education nonprofit Inside Broadway (Executive Director, Michael Presser) will honor Tony Award Nominee Ethan Slater (currently starring in the title role of the Tony-Nominated SpongeBob Square Pants the Musical). The evening will also honor Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Orin Wolf (The Band's Visit; President, NETworks Theatrical Presentations), Kenneth G. Alberstadt (Partner, Akerman LLP) and Alexandra Kambouris Alberstadt (Partner, Perkins Coie LLP). The gala will feature a special performance from the Broadway cast of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical and will be hosted by FOX5 reporter Baruch Shemtov.

We've all had it happen--we're sitting in the theater, we're enjoying a scene and half a row in front of us gets up because of the arrival of a latecomer. You think: 'Can no one stop these people?'

What made the Hot List? Check out these productions for a look at the vast creativity of theatre makers in action in Los Angeles: FOREVER BOUND at Atwater Village Theatre, PLUNGE: Part 1 of The Ballad of Bimini Baths Trilogy at Son of Semele, SOFT POWER downtown at the Ahmanson, VIOLET at Actors Co-op, THE GIANT VOID IN MY SOUL from Ammunition Theatre Company,  WOOD BOY DOG FISH at Garry Marshall Theatre, and Antaeus Theatre Company's NATIVE SON in Glendale. Reviews by BWW Sr. Editor Ellen Dostal, LADCC.

Deborah Grace Winer continues her 3-part Feinstein's/54 Below series of jewel box revues celebrating the Classic American Songbook with its season finale on Sunday, June 17th, TILL THERE WAS YOU: A CELEBRATION OF Barbara Cook with Musical Direction by Mark Hummel and direction by Mark Waldrop. Ms. Winer will host a glittering parade of Broadway divas including Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba; Tony nominees Christine Andreas, Rebecca Luker and Christiane Noll; Linda Purl, Aisha de Haas, Natalie Douglas and K.T. Sullivan, who will raise their voices in celebration of Barbara Cook, one of the greatest interpreters of the American Songbook.

Playwrights Foundation announces the plays and playwrights of the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) running July 20-29, 2018 at Potrero Stage, 1895 18th St in San Francisco. The 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) features SUSPENSION by Kristiana Rae Colon, HOUSE OF JOY by Madhuri Shekar, VRTU-L by T.D. Mitchell, WHEN LIGHTING THE VOIDS by Jon Bernson, COLONIALISM IS TERRIBLE, BUT PHO IS DELICIOUS by  Dustin Chinn and THE DAUGHTERS by Patricia Cotter. A nationally recognised launchpad for exceptional plays and playwrights the Festival features twelve staged readings, offers a Theater Professionals weekend 7/27-29, with special events and a kick-off fundraiser on 7/15.  Tickets on sale June 1st at www.playwrightsfoundation.org

As a major highlight of its summer-long celebration, June 15-September 2, of the centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth, Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Lenox, MA, has programmed several fully staged and semi-staged productions of Leonard Bernstein's work written for the stage, featuring several Tony Award-winning Broadway performers, choreographers, and directors.

Over 400 guests including current and past New York City high school students, and the performing arts professional mentors who have participated in TDF Open Doors, the theatre arts mentoring program that TDF founded in 1998 with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, will attend this year's graduation at 5:30pm on Monday, June 4 at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street, NYC).  

Casting is now complete for the inaugural REPRISE 2.0 production of Sweet Charity. Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, the classic Broadway hit plays from June 20 to July 1 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. 

It has just been announced that stars Ana Gasteyer as ("Miss Hannigan') and Megan Hilty ("Lily St. Regis.") have joined the cast of the upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of ANNIE, which will take place Friday, July 27, at 8 pm, Saturday, July 28, at 8 pm, and Sunday, July 29, at 7:30 pm. 

The Old Globe today announced its next cast and creative team-including numerous Globe favorites and new faces-as the 2018 Summer Shakespeare Festival once again presents the finest of the Bard's work outdoors under the stars in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Summer will officially arrive with The Tempest, directed by Joe Dowling (formerly the Artistic Director for Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and Abbey Theatre in Ireland), with star of stage and screen Kate Burton as Prospera, running June 17 - July 22, 2018. Tickets start at $30.00, on sale to the general public now. Previews run June 17 - 22. Opening night is Saturday, June 23 at 8:00 p.m.

Broadway goes to Boston this summer! The Boston Pops has just announced its spring season, May 9-June 16, under the direction of Keith Lockhart, celebrating the centennial of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest international musical figures of the last century.

A season of Broadway, Bernstein and the Boston Pops